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History of the Franks

St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927

Book 5, 42. Of Maurilio, Bishop of Cahors

Maurilio, bishop of Cahors, was grievously afflicted by the gout. But to the pains provoked by the evil humours of the disease, he added tortures of his own. Sometimes he would apply a red-hot iron to his shins and feet, the better to increase his anguish. For his bishopric there were many candidates, but his own choice fell on Ursicinus, formerly referendary of Queen Ultrogotha.¹ He prayed that Ursicinus might be consecrated before he himself died; then he passed away from this world. He was of great charity, and very learned in the Holy Scriptures; he could even repeat by heart the series of genealogies set forth in the Old Testament, which few men may hold in their memories. He was likewise just in judgement, and defended the poor of his church from the hand of evil judges, as it is written in the Book of Job: ‘I have preserved the poor man from the hand of the mighty, and have succoured the helpless who had no helper. The mouth of the widow hath blessed me, when I was the eye of the blind, the foot of the lame, and the father of the feeble.’²

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