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History of the Franks

St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927

Book 7, 22. Of This Man’s Wickedness

While these things befell, the possessions of Eberulf were handed over to various persons; the gold, the silver, or other more precious effects which were his private property were publicly sold. The lands granted him by the king were confiscated by the State; his horses, swine, and beasts of burden were plundered. A house within the city walls which he had taken from the church, now filled with corn, wine, and hides, was so thoroughly pillaged that there was left nothing but the bare walls. The blame for this he chiefly threw on me, whereas I had always bestirred myself right loyally in his affairs; he threatened that if ever he regained the royal favour he would be revenged on me for all that he now underwent. But God, to whom the secrets of all hearts are open, knoweth that I gave him aid in singleness of heart and to the utmost of my power. And though he had often in time previous dealt treacherously with me in the matter of things belonging to the holy Martin, yet, as I had received his son from the sacred water at his baptism, I had ever a reason to overlook his misdeeds. I think that the chief cause which undid the life of this unhappy man was this, that he refused to show any reverence for the holy bishop.¹ He often committed manslaughter even in his atrium, as it were at his very feet, and was for ever guilty of wanton and drunken acts. A priest, for refusing to give him wine when he was already drunken, was flung upon a bench, beaten with blows of the fist, and belaboured until he almost ceased to breathe; he would have died if the doctors had not come to his aid and bled him.

In fear of the king, Eberulf had taken up his abode in the sacristy of the holy church. But when the priest who had the keys of the door had shut all the rest, girls and other servants of Eberulf would come in by this sacristy door, admire the paintings on the walls, and pry into the ornaments of the blessed tomb, which was a crime against religious feeling. When this came to the knowledge of the priest he nailed up the door and put on bolts. Eberulf discovered the change after supper, when he was sodden with wine, and came up to me in a frenzy while I was singing psalms in the church at the service held at the beginning of the night. He began to attack me with curses and abuse, reproaching me amid his railings with having sought to keep him from the covering places on the holy bishop’s tomb. Amazed at this madness, I tried to appease him with soothing words, but when I found myself unable to overcome his fury by gentle speech I determined to keep silence. Seeing that I meant to say no more, he turned on the priest, and poured forth a flood of abuse, assailing him with wanton insults and reviling me in every possible way. But as we perceived that he was, so to speak, driven of devils, we left the holy church, making an end of the scandal by stopping the service. The most shameful thing of all we felt to be his lack of reverence for the holy bishop shown in brawling thus before his very tomb. In these days I saw a vision in a dream, which I set forth to him in the holy church, as follows: ‘I seemed to myself to be celebrating the sacred rite of the Mass in this very building; and when the altar, with the sacrifice upon it, was already covered with a silken cloth, suddenly I saw King Guntram enter, and heard him cry with a loud voice: “Drag forth the enemy of our race! tear the manslayer from God’s sacred altar!” When I heard that, I turned to thee and said: “Lay hold, unhappy wretch, of the cloth upon the altar which covers the sacred offering, lest thou be cast out hence.” But when thou didst lay hold, it was loosely and not with a firm grasp. Then did I spread forth my hands and set my breast against the king’s breast, saying: “Cast not this man forth from this holy church on peril of thy life, lest the holy bishop by his power strike thee to death. Slay not thyself with thine own weapon; for if thou dost, thou shalt lose this present life and the life to come.” But the king resisted me, while thou didst let fall the cloth and camest behind me. And I was exceeding wrath with thee. Then didst thou return to the altar and again grasp the cloth, but once again didst let it go. And while thou heldest it thus feebly, and I manfully opposed the king, I awoke in fear and trembling, not knowing what the dream should mean.’ When, therefore, I had related all to him, he said: ‘The vision which thou hast seen is true, for it agreeth wholly with my own thought.’ Then said I: ‘What then is thy thought and thine intent?’ And he: ‘I have determined, if the king command that I be dragged forth from this place, with one hand to hold the cloth upon the altar, and with the other to unsheath my sword and slay thee first, and afterwards to lay dead as many clerics as I may come at. Nor were it then grievous to me to perish, were I but once revenged upon the clergy of the holy Martin.’ When I heard that, I stood amazed, marvelling that such a thing could be, for the Devil spake by his mouth. Never, indeed, was there any fear of God in him. For when he lived in freedom he let loose his horses and herds among the crops and vines of the poor; and if any, the fruit of whose toil was thus ruined, drove them out, they were forthwith cut down by his retainers. Even in the straits in which he now was, he would often recall how he had wrongfully taken that which belonged to the holy bishop. In the previous year he had stirred up a certain light fellow among the citizens to molest the bailiffs of the church estates. Then, setting justice at naught, he got possession by a false purchase of property which the church had long owned, rewarding with part of the gold ornamenting his baldric. To the last day of his life, which I will later recount,² he went on committing many such deeds of wicked perversity.

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