DLH VI.36

English, pp.

Aetherius, Bishop of Lisieux, about whom I have already told you, was expelled from his diocese and then restored to it again in the following circumstances. There lived in the town of Le Mans a certain priest, who was fond of fine living and who was always having affairs with women, a gluttonous man, much given to fornication and other forms of immorality. There was one particular woman with whom he had intercourse regularly. He persuaded her to have her hair cut short, dressed her up as a man and went off with her to another city, thinking that when he was among strangers he would not be suspected of immorality. She was a woman of free birth and she came from a good family. A long time passed, but eventually her relations came to realize what had happened. They hastened to avenge the dishonour done to their family. They laid hands on the priest, tied him up and had him thrown into prison. The woman they burned alive. The lust for gain, which afflicts us all, is so irresistible that they eventually tried to sell the priest for ransom, thinking that someone would assuredly pay something to bail him out. Had they failed, they would have had him killed. As it was the news reached Aetherius. He was moved to compassion and paid over twenty pieces of gold to save the priest from immediate execution.

Thus restored to life, the priest explained to Aetherius that he was highly skilled in the humanities. He promised his Bishop that, if he would entrust pupils to his care, he would do all in his power to give them a good training in the humane letters. Aetherius was delighted. He collected the boys of Lisieux together and handed them over to this priest, so that he could teach them. The townsfolk thought highly of the tuition which he gave. The Bishop rewarded him with a plot of land and a vineyard, and he was often invited to their homes by the parents of his pupils. He came to forget his earlier misdeeds, and, like some dog which bad returned to its vomit, be made advances to the mother of one-of the boys; but he had chosen a virtuous woman, and she told her husband what he was up to. The other members of the family banded together, they made a serious assault on the priest and they would have killed him if they could. Aetherius was again moved to compassion: he had the priest freed, grumbled at him in a mild way and then restored him to his post. 

By now the priest had become so addicted to his evil ways that there was no hope of his ever learning how to behave. The reverse happened, for he soon began to hate the very man who had twice saved him from destruction. He conspired with an archdeacon of Lisieux and together they plotted their Bishop's death, the priest having the gall to see himself as a possible replacement. They even managed to find a cleric who was prepared to hit Aetherius over the head with an axe. They themselves went about plotting, whispering in comers, entering into secret conspiracies, and promising rewards if their Bishop should die and the priest should take his place. God in His mercy prevented their miserable plan from succeeding, for by His ever-loving kindness He swiftly blocked the cruel designs of these wicked men. One day Aetherius was out in the fields with his farm-workers, who were busy with their ploughs. The cleric about whom I have told you dogged his footsteps, with his axe ready in his hand. Aetherius had no idea what he was up to, and in the end he said to him: 'Why do you keep following me all over the place with that axe of yours?' The cleric lost his nerve and threw his arms round the Bishop's knees. 'Don't be alarmed, good Bishop,' he stammered. 'You must know that I have been deputed by the archdeacon and that schoolmaster of yours to hit you over the head with this axe. I have several times steeled myself to do it, but each time I raised my right arm ready to strike the blow, my eyes went dim, there was a buzzing in my ears, and my whole body shook and trembled. My hands lost their grip and I was powerless to do the deed; but the moment I lowered my arms I felt all right again. I have come to realize that the Lord is with you, and that I am powerless to do you any harm.' Aetherius wept when he heard this. He swore the cleric to secrecy, and then he walked off home to supper. After his meal he went to lie down for a while on his bed. All around his own couch were the beds of his clergy. 

The conspirators realized that their precious cleric had failed them and they made fresh plans to achieve their evil design by their own unaided efforts. They thought up a new plot to destroy Aetherius, or at least to bring against him some new charge which should be so irrefutable that he would have to give up his bishopric. About midnight, when everyone was fast asleep, they burst into the Bishop's bedroom and began shouting at the top of their voices that they had seen a woman come out of the door, but that in their haste to catch him at it they had let her escape. Only the Devil could have put into their heads this idea of bringing such a charge against the Bishop, for he was nearly seventy years old! Without more ado they called in the same cleric who had helped them before. Thereupon the Bishop was bound with chains by the hands of the very priest whose neck he had saved on a number of occasions, and he was placed under strict guard by the very man whom be had rescued from a series of insanitary prison-cells. When Aetherius saw that his enemies had prevailed over him by force and that be was securely chained up, he wept and prayed to our Lord for succour. The prison-guards dropped off to sleep, and immediately with God's help the Bishop's chains came undone. He, the sinless, who had so often set free the sinful, now escaped from his prison: he slipped away unseen, and made his way to King Guntram's kingdom. As soon as he was gone, the conspirators, now free from all constraint, rushed off to King Chilperic to ask for the bishopric. They accused Aetherius of every crime in the calendar and ended with this final charge: 'You can judge the truth of what we say, most glorious King, from the fact that he has now fled to your brother's kingdom in fear of his life because of the crimes which he has committed.' Chilperic did not believe them. He told them to go back home to Lisieux.

Meanwhile the citizens were sad at the loss of their shepherd. They were quite sure that everything which had happened had been the result of jealousy and greed. They laid hands on the archdeacon and the priest, his fellow-conspirator, and gave them both a good beating. Then they petitioned King Chilperic to send their Bishop back to them. The King sent messengers to his brother to say that be had never found anything to complain of in the behaviour of Aetherius. Thereupon King Guntram, kindly as ever, and swift to pity, loaded the Bishop with presents. At the same time be wrote round to all the bishops in his own kingdom, telling them for the love of God to do what they could for this exile. Aetherius stayed in their cities, one after the other, and so much wealth was showered upon him by their bishops, both in clothing and in money, that he had difficulty in carrying home all that he received. Thus the words of the Apostle were fulfilled: 'All things work together for good to them that love God.' His journeying brought him riches and his exile great plenty. He finally reached Lisieux and there be was received with great honour by his flock. They wept with joy and gave thanks to God, who in the end had given back to their church this worthy Bishop. 

Latin, pp.

36. De Aetherio episcopo.

Aetherius vero Lixoensis episcopus, cui supra meminimus, hoc ordine a civitate sua vel expulsus est vel receptus. Clericus quidam extitit ex Cinomannica urbe, luxuriosus nimis amatorque mulierum et gulae ac fornicationis omnique immunditiae valde deditus. Hic mulieri cuidam saepius scorto commixtus, comam capitis totondit, mutatoque virili habitu, secum in alia civitate deduxit, ut suspicio auferetur adulterii, cum inter incognitos devenisset. Erat enim mulier ingenua genere et de bonis orta parentibus. Conperto autem post dies multos propinqui eius quae acta fuerant, ad ulciscendam humilitatem generis sui velocius properant, repertumque clericum vinctum custodiae mancipant, mulierem vero ignem consumunt. Et, sicut cogit auri sacra famis, clericum sub pretio venundari procurant, ea videlicet ratione, ut aut esset qui redimeret, aut certe morti addiceretur obnoxius. Cumque haec Aetherio episcopo delata fuissent, misericordia motus, datis XX aureis, eum ab imminenti exemit interitu. Igitur postquam vitae donatus est, profert se litterarum esse doctorem, promittens sacerdoti, quod, si ei pueros delegaret, perfectos hic in litteris redderet. Gavisus auditu sacerdos, pueros civitatis collegit ipsique delegat ad docendum. Denique cum iam honoraretur a civibus et pontifex ei aliquid terrae vinearumque largitus fuisset ac domum parentum eorum quos erudiebat invitaretur, reversus ad vomitum, unius pueruli matrem immemor anterioris iniuriae concupiscit. Quod cum pudica mulier declarasset, coniuncti parentes eius gravissimis clericum tormentis subdentes, interimere voluerunt. Quem sacerdos iterum misericordia motus castigatum verbis lenibus liberavit honorique restituit. Sed mens laeva numquam ad bonitatem potuit inclinari, sed potius factus est eius inimicus, a quo saepius fuerat de morte redemptus. Coniunctus est enim archidiacono civitatis, et se episcopatu dignum proferens, episcopum molitur occidere. Locatumque clericum, qui eum bipenne percuteret, ipsi ubique discurrunt, musitant, amicitias clam inligant, proferunt praemia, ut, si sacerdos obiret, ipse succederet. Sed misericordia Domini anticipavit eorum miseriam crudelitatemque iniquorum hominum veloci pietate repressit. Die vero, quo sacerdos operarios in agro adgregaverat ad sulcandum, clericus antedictus cum secure prosequitur sacerdotem, nihil de his penitus aliquid scientem. Tandem igitur haec advertens: 'Quid tu', inquid, 'me attentius cum hac bipenne prosequeris?' At ille timore perterritus, ad genua viri provolvitur, dicens: 'Fortis esto, sacerdos Dei. Nam scias me emissum ab archidiacono ac praeceptore, ut te secure percuterem. Quod cum saepius facere voluissem et ictum dextera suspensa librarem, tegebantur tenebris oculi mei, et aures obserabantur, totumque corpus tremore quatiebatur, sed et manus absque virtute erant, et quae optabam implere non poteram; cum vero manus deposuissem, nihil mali sentiebam omnino. Cognovi enim, quoniam tecum est Dominus, eo quod non potui aliquid te nocere'. Haec eo dicente, flevit sacerdos, imponens silentium clerico, reversusque domum, caenae discubuit. Qua exacta, in stratum suum quievit, habens circa lectum suum multos lectulos clericorum. Denique diffisi hi de clerico, per se nefas perficere cogitantes, nova argumenta machinantur, per qua aut eum vi extinguerent aut certe crimen, quo a sacerdotio divelleretur, inponerent. Interea, quiescentibus cunctis, media fere nocte, cubiculum sacerdotis inrumpunt, exclamantes voce magna atque dicentes, vidisse se mulierem a cubiculo egredi ipsamque ob hoc dimisisse, dum ad episcopum festinassent. Et insanie pars haec et consilium diaboli fuit, in tali aetate crimen inponere sacerdoti, qui erat fere LXX annorum. Nec mora, coniuncto secum iterum antedicto clerico, alligatur sacerdos catenis ab eius manibus, de cuius collo saepius vincla discusserat, et arduae custodiae mancipatur ab eo, quem de cenosis carceribus plerumque liberavit. At ille cognoscens, inimicos sibi vehementer invaluisse, Domini misericordiam cum lacrimis in vincla compactus exorat. Mox opprimuntur somno custodes, solutisque divinitus vinclis, de custodia procedit innoxius, noxiorum frequentissimus liberator. Deinde dilapsus, ad regnum Gunthramni regis transiit. Quo discedente, liberius iam coniuncti satellites ad regem Chilpericum properant pro episcopatu petendo, multa crimina de episcopo proloquentes, addentes ista: 'In hoc cognosce, rex gloriosissime, vera esse quae dicimus, quia mortem pro sceleribus timens ad fratris tui transiit regnum'. Quod ille non credens, hos ad civitatem redire iubet. Dum haec agerentur, mesti cives de pastoris absentia, cognoscentes omnia quae de eo acta fuerant per invidia et avaritia perpetrata, adpraehensum cum satellite archidiaconum iniuriae subdentes, ad regem petierunt, ut reciperent sacerdotem suum. At rex legatos fratri suo dirigit, adserens, nihil se criminis in episcopo repperisse. Tunc rex Guntchramnus, ut erat benignus et profluus ad miserandum, multa ei munera contulit, dans etiam epistolas per omnes episcopos regni sui, ut peregrinum aliquid pro Dei intuitu consolarentur. Tunc circumiens civitates, tanta ei a sacerdotibus Dei conlata sunt tam in vestibus quam in auro, ut vix civitati quae meruerat possit inferri; impletumque est illud quod ait apostolus: Quia diligentibus Deum omnia concurrunt in bonum. Nam huic peregrinatio divitias attulit, et exilium opes multas invexit. Post haec regrediens, a civibus cum grandi honore susceptus est, ut prae gaudio flerent et benedicerent Deum, qui tandem eclesiae tantum restituit sacerdotem.

Notes: