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History of the Franks

St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927

Book 5, 11. Of the Jews Converted by Bishop Avitus

And since our God ever of His grace gives glory to His bishops, I will relate what befell in this year at Clermont with regard to the Jews. The blessed bishop Avitus had often exhorted them to let fall the veil of the Mosaic law, to learn the spiritual meaning of the Scriptures which they read, and with pure hearts discover in Holy Writ Christ, the Son of the living God, promised by the authority of prophets and kings; yet there remained in their breasts, I will not say the veil which covered the face of Moses, but a wall.¹ The bishop offered prayer that they might be converted to the Lord, and that the veil of the Letter might be rent from before them; and at length one of them asked to be baptized at the holy Easter feast, and, born again in God by the baptismal Sacrament, went in procession with the other catechumens, himself robed in white. But as the people were passing through the gate of the city, a Jew, at the instigation of the Evil One, poured rancid oil on the head of the Jewish convert. Though all the people, in abhorrence of the act, were eager to stone him, the bishop forbade them to do it. But on the blessed day on which the Lord ascended in glory to the heavens after the redemption of man, while the bishop was going in procession with chanting of psalms from the cathedral church to the basilica,² the whole multitude following him rushed upon the Jewish synagogue, destroyed it from the very foundations, and levelled it flat with the ground. On another day the bishop sent them this message: ‘I do not drive you by force to confess the Son of God; but I preach Him to you and impart to your hearts the salt of knowledge. For I am set as shepherd over the sheep of the Lord; and of you spake the true Shepherd who suffered for us, when He said that He had other sheep not of His fold, which He must bring, that there might be one flock and one shepherd.³ If therefore ye will believe as I, become ye one flock, with me for your guardian; but if not, go forth from this place.’ For a long while they wavered and were full of doubt; but on the third day, in my belief impelled thereto by the intercession of the bishop, they assembled together and sent him this answer: ‘We believe that Jesus is the Son of the living God, promised us by the voices of the prophets.’ The bishop rejoiced at the news, and after celebrating nocturns on the holy eve of Pentecost went forth to the baptistery beyond the city walls; there the whole multitude of the Jews, prostrate before him, demanded baptism. With tears of joy, he washed them all with the water, anointed them with chrism, and united them in the bosom of our mother Church. Tapers flamed, lamps gleamed, all the city was bright with the white-robed flock; nor had it less joy than of old Jerusalem witnessed when the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles. They who were thus baptized numbered more than five hundred; but the rest, who refused to receive baptism, departed from the city and returned to Marseilles.

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