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History of the Franks
St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927
Book 6, 9. Of Domnolus, Bishop of Le Mans
Domnolus, bishop of Le Mans, fell sick. In the time of King Lothar he had been the head of a monastic community at Paris, by the church of the holy Laurence. And as in the lifetime of Childebert the elder he ever remained loyal to Lothar, and often concealed the envoys whom he sent thither to bring him intelligence, the king waited for a chance of appointing him to a bishopric. On the death of the bishop of Avignon, he had intended to give Domnolus that see. But when the blessed Domnolus heard of this, he went to the church of the holy bishop Martin, whither King Lothar had then come to pray, and making vigil all night long, by intermission of the notables there present, he made known his hope that the king would not suffer him to be banished like a captive from the royal presence, or permit him, in the simplicity of his nature, to be teased by sophisticated senatorials or philosophizing counts; he declared that such a place would be to him one of humiliation rather than of honour. The king consented, and on the death of Innocentius, bishop of Le Mans, appointed him prelate of that see. But from the time of his assumption of his holy office he proved himself of such virtue and greatness that he rose to the very summit of holiness, restoring to those who were lame the use of their limbs, and to the blind their sight. After holding the bishopric for twenty-two years, and finding himself most grievously afflicted by jaundice and by the stone, he signified his choice of the abbot Theodulf as his successor. The king approved the choice; but not long afterwards changed his mind, and caused Badegisil, mayor of the palace, to be elected instead. This man received the tonsure, passed through the grades of ecclesiastical rank, and in forty days, on the bishop’s death, succeeded to his throne.