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History of the Franks

St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927

Book 7, 44. Of the Woman Possessed by a Spirit of Prophecy

At this time there was a woman possessed with a spirit of prophecy¹ who brought much gain to her masters by divination; she so won their favour that they set her free, and she now lived as she desired. If any one was robbed or suffered misfortune, she at once proclaimed whither the thief had fled, to whom he had handed over the spoil, or what he had done with it. Every day she was amassing gold and silver, and went abroad bejewelled and bedizened till the people held her a kind of goddess. These things came to the ears of Ageric, bishop of Verdun, who sent to have her arrested. She was seized and brought before him; when, according as we read in the Acts of the Apostles,² he perceived that she had an unclean spirit that prophesied through her. When he had recited over her a formula of exorcism and anointed her brow with holy oil, the demon cried aloud, and revealed to the bishop what he was. But he could not be driven forth from the woman, who was therefore suffered to depart. But when she saw that she could no longer live in that place, she departed to Queen Fredegund, and there remained concealed.

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