Page:History of the Franks.djvu/112

 8o HISTORY OF THE FRANKS the chair of the blessed Martin did not get what he desired, and in this was fulfilled that which David sang, saying : *'He refused the blessing and it shall be kept far from him." He was puffed up with vanity thinking that no one was superior to him in hohness. Once he hired a woman to cry aloud in the church as if possessed and say that he was holy and great and beloved by God, but Cautinus the bishop was guilty of every crime and unworthy to hold the office of bishop. 12. Now Cautinus on taking up the duties of bishop became greatly addicted to wine, and proved to be of such a character that he was loathed by all. He was often so befuddled by drink that four men could hardly take him away after dinner. Because of this habit he became an epileptic later on — a disease which fre- quently showed itself in pubKc. He was also so avaricious that if he could not get some part of the possessions of those whose boun- daries touched him he thought it was ruin for him. He took from the stronger with quarrels and abuse, and violently plundered the weaker. And as our Sollius^ says, he would not pay the price because he despised doing so, and would not accept deeds because he thought them useless. There was at that time a priest Anastasius, of free birth, who held some property secured by deeds of queen Clotilda of glorious memory. Usually when he met him the bishop would entreat him to give him the deeds of the queen mentioned above, and place the property under his charge. And when Anastasius postponed complying with the will of his bishop, the latter would try now to coax him with kind words and now to terrify him with threats. When he continued unwilHng to the end, he ordered him to be brought to the city and there shamelessly detained, and unless he surrendered the deeds, he was to be loaded with insults and starved to death. But the other made a spirited resistance and never surrendered the deeds, saying it was better for him to waste away with hunger for a time than to leave his children in misery. Then by the bishop's command he was given over to the guards with in- structions to starve him to death if he did not surrender these documents. Now there was in the church of St. Cassius the martyr a very old and remote crypt, in which was a great tomb of Parian ^ Sidonius Apollinaris.