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History of the Franks
St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927
Book 8, 40. Of Pelagius of Tours
In the city of Tours there was a certain Pelagius, one versed in all manner of evil, fearing no judge, inasmuch as he had under him the keepers of the royal horses. In consequence of this, he practised without ceasing thefts, covert and open attacks, violent assaults, and divers other crimes, both on land and on the rivers. Many times I summoned him before me, and tried to make him abandon these evil courses by words of threatening or gentle rebuke, but I got from him rather hatred than any fruit of justice, according to the proverb in the Wisdom of Solomon: ‘Reprove a fool, and he will hate thee.’1 This wretch so hated me that many a time he would beat men of our holy Church and leave them for dead, ever seeking some excuse for causing loss both to the cathedral church and the church of the holy Martin. Once, when our men came along with some sea-urchins in vessels, he beat them, kicked them, and took the vessels from them. As soon as I heard of it, I excluded him from communion, not to revenge my own wrong, but the better to correct him of such madness. He then chose out twelve men, and brought them with him to swear falsely to his innocence. I was unwilling to receive his oath; but, urged by the man himself and by the citizens, I sent the rest away, took his oath alone, and ordered him to be readmitted to communion. This happened in the first month of the year.2 But in the fifth month of the year,3 when the fields are reaped, he unlawfully seized a meadow of the nuns, which adjoined his own. But the moment he put in his sickle, a fever seized him, and on the third day he breathed his last. He had already placed a tomb for himself in the church of the holy Martin in the village of Candes, but his people found this broken into fragments; afterwards he was buried in the porch of this church. The vessels once containing the sea-urchins which had been the cause of his perjury were taken from his storehouse after his death. Thus was made manifest the saving power of the blessed Mary,4 in whose church this wretch had uttered his false oath.
Notes
- Prov. ix. 8: Argue stultum, adiiciet odire te. The Vulgate has: Noli arguere derisorem ne oderit te.
- i.e. in March.
- July.
- Cf. X. 31.