Library › St Gregory of Tours › History of the Franks
History of the Franks
St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927
Book 5, 28. Of the Taxes Imposed by Chilperic
Now King Chilperic ordered heavy new tax-assessments to be made in all his kingdom. For which cause many left their cities and their own possessions, and sought other kingdoms, deeming it better to migrate than to remain exposed to such risk of oppression. For it was enacted that each proprietor should pay one amphora1 of wine for every half-acre of land. Further taxes were imposed on other lands and on serfs, which it was impossible to meet. The people of Limoges, perceiving with what a burden they were to be laden, assembled on the first of March,2 and would have slain Mark the referendary,3 who had been ordered to carry out the plan; nor could they have been prevented, had not Bishop Ferreolus4 delivered him from his imminent peril. The mob seized the tax collector’s lists and burned them all to ashes. Whereat the king was exceeding wroth, and dispatched thither men from about his person; through these he inflicted immense losses upon the people, crushed them with punishments, and freely inflicted the penalty of death. It is said that these envoys of the king falsely accused even priests and abbots of having incited the people to burn the lists during the riot, stretched them on posts, and subjected them to divers tortures. Afterwards yet severer tributes were imposed.
Notes
- An amphora was 5 gallons.
- in Kal. Martiis.
- Cf. VI. 28.
- Cf. VII. 10.