HL 4.16

English

In the following year duke Ariulf who had succeeded Faruald at Spoletium (Spoleto) died. This Ariulf, when he had waged war against the Romans at Carnerinurn (Camerino) and had gotten the victory, began to inquire of his men who that man was whom he had seen fighting so vigorously in the war he had waged. And when his men answered that they had not seen anyone there acting more bravely than the duke himself, he said: " Surely I saw another man there much and in every way better than I, and as often as any one of the opposite side attempted to strike me, that active man always protected me with his shield." And when the duke himself had come near Spoletium (Spoleto) where stands the church of the blessed martyr, the bishop Savinus, ' in which his venerable body reposes, Ariulf asked to whom belonged this spacious abode. It was answered him by devout men that the martyr Savinus reposed there whom Christians were wont to invoke in their aid as often as they went to war against their enemies. And Ariulf, since up to this time he was a heathen, thus answered: "And can it be that a dead man can give any aid to one living? " And when he had said this, he leaped down from his horse and went into the church to look at it. And then while the others were praying he began to admire the pictures of that church. And when he had beheld the painted figure of the blessed martyr Savinus he straightway said and declared with an oath that that man who had protected him in battle had in every way such a form and bearing. Then it was understood that the blessed martyr Savinus had brought him help in battle. Upon the death of Ariulf, after two sons of Faroald the former duke had contended between themselves for the dukedom, one of them, Teudelapius by name, was crowned with victory and received the dukedom.

Latin