DLH V.20

English, p.285-7

The people revolted against the Bishops Salonius and Sagittarius. These two bad been brought up by Saint Nicetius, Bishop of Lyons. They were made deacons and, while Saint Nicetius was still alive, they were chosen as bishops, Salonius in Embrun and Sagittarius in Gap. They were no sooner raised to the episcopate than their new power went to their heads: with a sort of insane fury they began to disgrace themselves in peculation, physical assaults, murders, adultery and every crime in the calendar. One day when Victor, Bishop of Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux, was celebrating his birthday, they sent a mob to attack him with swords and arrows. The assailants tore Victor's clothes off bis back, beat up his servants, stole his table silver and all the furnishings of the feast, and left him in a sorry state. This was reported to King Guntram and he ordered a council of inquiry to be convened in Lyons. The bishops met, with the aged Saint Nicetius in their number, and they heard the case. They found Salonius and Sagittarius clearly guilty of the charge laid against them, and they ordered the two to be deposed from their bishoprics as a consequence of their criminal behaviour. The two Bishops knew that the King still bad a soft spot for them. They sought an audience with him, pleaded that they had been wrongly dismissed and asked his permission to take their appeal to the Pope in Rome. The King granted their petition, gave them a letter of introduction and let them leave. They appeared before Pope John III and put forward the plea that they had been dismissed with no reasonable cause given. The Pope sent a letter to King Guntram, ordering them to be restored to their former positions. The King did as the Pope commanded, but not before he had administered a severe reprimand to Salonius and Sagittarius. The worst of the story is that from then onwards they behaved no better. It is true that they asked forgiveness of Victor and handed over the men whom they had sent to attack him. Victor remembered our Lord's exhortation: 'Recompense to no man evil for evil', for he did these men no harm and let them go free. For this he was afterwards suspended from communion, on the grounds that he had privately forgiven the enemies whom be had in public accused, and this without the approval of his brother bishops before whom he had arraigned them. Later on, with the approval of the King, be was received into communion once more. As day followed day Salonius and Sagittarius became involved in one new crime after another. As I have already told you, in the battles between Mummolus and the Longobards they armed themselves like laymen and killed many men with their own bands. They engaged in a quarrel with their own congregations and beat quite a few of them with wooden clubs, until in their rage they made the blood flow. As a result the people once again appealed to the King. He ordered the two to be brought to court. When they came, he refused to see them; for he said that they ought only to be allowed into his royal presence if and when their case had been beard and they had been proved innocent. This annoyed Sagittarius very much. He was a fatuous and empty-headed fellow, much given to garrulous talk, and he bore this decision ill. He began to spread silly tales about the King, saying, for example, that Guntram's sons could never succeed to the throne because when their mother58 married him she had been one of Magnachar's servants. Sagittarius was overlooking the fact that, irrespective of their mother's birth, all children born to a king count as that king's sons. When Guntram heard this he was greatly incensed. He deprived them of their horses, their servants and all their possessions. He shut them up in two monasteries far removed from each other and there they were left to repent of their sins. He permitted them each one religious only as a servant, and he gave stern warning to the local counts that the two should be kept under armed guard and not allowed to receive any visitors.

In those days King Guntram's sons were still alive, but the elder was already beginning to ail. Some of Guntram's close associates went to him. 'Lord King,' they said, 'if you will only deign to listen to what we say, we have something to tell you, ‘you are free to say whatever you wish,' answered Guntram. 'It is possible,' they replied, 'that the Bishops whom you dismissed were innocent. You may well have sinned in what you did, and that is why your son is dying.' 'Go and free them immediately: said Guntram, 'and entreat them to pray for my two young sons.' They did as they were told and the two Bishops were released. They emerged from the two different monasteries to which they had been banished, met and exchanged the kiss of peace, for it was a long time since they had seen each other. They returned to their dioceses and were so filled with remorse that they seemed to pass their whole time in singing psalms, fasting and giving alms to the poor. All day long they recited the Psalms of David, and all night long they sang hymns and meditated on the Holy Scriptures. This unrelieved sanctity did not last long, for they soon slipped back into their old habits. They began to spend all and every night in feasting and carousing, and when their clergy came to celebrate matins in their cathedrals they would still be asking for clean goblets and pouring out yet more wine. God was never mentioned in their conversation and they seemed to have forgotten all about the church services. When dawn stole across the sky, they would rise from their feasting, wrap themselves in garments soft to the skin, sink into an oblivion of sleepiness and liquor, and so slumber on until half-way through the morning, usually in the arms of some woman or other, with whom they bad intercourse. Then they would get up, have a bath, and sit down to another meal. As evening fell they would rise from the table and begin to count the minutes until it was time for supper, which, as I have told you, would see them through to daybreak. Each day they would spend in this way. In the end the wrath of God descended on their heads; but about this I will tell you later on.

Deutsch, S.

Latin, p.

Notes:

*Eli's sons maybe? Or just Israel in general.

**The king = Eli?

***But this king did the right thing and actually punished his sons.

- Eli & sons