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History of the Franks

St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927

Book 5, 5. Of the Bishops of Langres

At this time Felix, bishop of Nantes, wrote me letters full of abuse, alleging that my brother¹ lost his life for having slain his bishop, whose office he coveted himself. The reason for writing in this sort was that he coveted a domain belonging to the Church; because I would not agree that he should have it, he was filled with rage and poured forth a thousand invectives against me. In the end I made answer to him in these words: ‘Remember the saying of the prophet: “Woe unto them that join house to house and lay field to field! Shall they be alone to inhabit the earth?”² O that Marseilles had received thee for her bishop! For the ships would never have brought thee oil or other wares, but only paper, that thou mightst have more scope to write calumnies against good men. Now scarcity of paper cutteth short thy wordiness.’ For his greed and arrogance knew no bounds. But lest I seem as one like to him, I leave all this on one side, and will explain after what manner my brother passed from the light of day, and how swift was the Lord’s vengeance upon his murderer.

The blessed Tetricus, bishop of Langres, growing old, dismissed the deacon Lampadius, who had served him in a position of trust; my brother, in his desire to succour the poor, whom this man had shamefully robbed, had been party to his degradation and thereby incurred his hatred. In the meantime the blessed Tetricus had an apoplectic stroke. The remedies of the doctors were of no avail, and the clergy in great trouble, and as it were deprived of their shepherd, asked for Monderic. He was granted to them by the king, and after receiving the tonsure, was consecrated bishop, on condition that as long as the blessed Tetricus lived he should direct as archpriest the town of Tonnerre, residing there, and succeeding Tetricus upon his decease. While he was living in this town, he incurred the king’s anger. He was accused of having brought provisions and gifts to King Sigibert when on his expedition against his brother Guntram.³ He was therefore dragged from the town and detained in banishment in a narrow roofless tower on the banks of the Rhône. There he remained for about two years in great hardship, when, by intercession of the blessed bishop Nicetius, he returned to Lyons, and sojourned there with him two months. But when the king refused to restore him to the place from which he had been expelled he escaped by night to King Sigibert, who appointed him bishop in the township of Alais, with about fifteen parishes under his charge which had formerly been held by the Goths, and were now under the jurisdiction of Dalmatius, bishop of Rodez. After his departure, the people of Langres for a second time asked for a bishop, naming now Silvester, a connexion alike of Tetricus and of myself; it was at the instigation of my brother that they asked for him. The blessed Tetricus now passing away, Silvester received the tonsure, and was ordained priest, receiving full control of the property of the church; he then prepared to set out for Lyons, there to be consecrated bishop. But in the meanwhile he was attacked by epilepsy, a disease to which he had long been subject; he was beside himself, and groaning continually for two whole days; on the third day he gave up the ghost. After this, as I have above related, Lampadius, who had been deprived of his dignity and his possessions, joined Silvester’s son in his hatred of the deacon Peter, trumping up and asseverating the charge that his father died through Peter’s evil arts. The son, who was young and impulsive, was excited against my brother, and publicly accused him of killing his father. On hearing this, my brother went to Lyons, where a court of justice was held in the presence of the holy bishop Nicetius, uncle of my mother; there, before Bishop Siagrius⁴ and many other bishops, and the principal laymen, he purged himself by oath, swearing that he had never been implicated in the death of Silvester. But two years afterwards⁵ the son of Silvester, instigated yet again by Lampadius, met the deacon Peter on the road, and mortally wounded him with a lance. The body was thereupon taken from the place where it lay and carried to Dijon, where it was buried near the holy Gregory our ancestor. The murderer took to flight, and went over to King Chilperic, abandoning his property to King Guntram’s treasury. In consequence of the crime which he had committed, he became a wanderer in various places, finding no fixed abode; and at length, the innocent blood, as I hold, crying to the Divine Power against him,⁶ upon a journey in a certain place he drew his sword against an innocent man. The relatives of this man, in grief for the death of their kinsman, made a riot, and cutting the murderer to pieces with their drawn swords, scattered his limbs abroad. Such was the end that by the just judgement of God befell this miserable man; he who had put to death his innocent neighbour might not long survive his guilt, for this happened to him in the third year after his crime.

Now after the death of Silvester the people of Langres once more asked for a bishop, and Pappolus was given them, who had formerly been archdeacon of Autun. By common report he did much evil which I here pass over, that I may not seem a detractor of my brethren; yet I will not leave unrelated the manner of his death. In the eighth year of his bishopric,⁷ as he was upon a tour of the parishes and domains belonging to the Church, the blessed Tetricus appeared to him as he slept, and thus spoke to him with a threatening countenance: ‘What dost thou here, O Pappolus? Wherefore pollutest thou my see? Why plunderest thou the Church? Why scatterest thou the flock which was entrusted to my care? Withdraw, yield up the see, depart far from this country.’ As he uttered these words, he smote him sharply on the breast with a rod which he held in his hand. Thereupon he awoke, but while he pondered what this might mean, he felt as if he were being pierced in that spot, and was tortured with exceeding great pain. He could not bear the sight of food or drink, and already awaited the death which he felt close upon him. What need to say more? On the third day he vomited blood, and gave up the ghost. His body was taken thence to Langres, and there buried.

The abbot Mummolus, surnamed the Good, was made bishop in his place. This Mummolus is highly praised by many, who pronounce him chaste, sober, moderate, ever ready in all goodness, a follower of justice, a lover of charity with all his heart. When he took over the bishopric, he discovered that Lampadius had defrauded the Church of many things, and out of the spoils taken from the poor, accumulated lands, vineyards, and slaves. Whereupon he ordered him to be stripped of all, and driven from his presence. Who now, living in the utmost poverty, seeks to maintain himself by the labour of his hands. But enough of these matters.

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