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 126 HISTORY OF THE FRANKS from the office of bishop. But since Salunius and Sagittarius knew that the king was still favorable to them they went to him com- plaining that they were unjustly removed and asking for permis- sion to go to the pope of the city of Rome. The king listened to their prayers and gave them letters and let them go. They went to John the pope and told that they had been removed without any good reason. And he sent letters to the king in which he directed that they should be restored to their places. This the king did without delay, first rebuking them at length. But, what is worse, no improvement followed. However they did ask pardon of bishop Victor and surrendered the men whom they had sent at the time of the disturbance. But he remembered the Lord's teaching that evil should not be repaid one's enemies for evil and did them no harm but allowed them to go free. For this he was afterward suspended from the communion, because after making a public accusation he had secretly pardoned his enemies without the advice of the brethren to whom he had made the charge. But by the king's favor he was again restored to communion. But these men daily engaged in greater crimes and, as we have stated before, they armed themselves like laymen, and killed many with their own hands in the battles which Mummolus fought with the Lombards. And among their fellow-citizens they were carried away by animosity and beat a number with clubs and let their fury carry them as far as the shedding of blood. Because of this the outcry of the people again reached the king. The king ordered them to be summoned. On their arrival he refused to let them come into his presence, thinking that their hearing should be held first and that if they were found good men they would deserve an audience with the king. But Sagittarius was transported with rage, taking the matter hard, and being light and vain and ready with thoughtless speech, he began to make many loud declarations about the king and to say that his sons cannot inherit the kingdom because their mother had been taken to the king's bed from among the slaves of Magnachar; not knowing that the families of the wives are now disregarded and they are called the sons of a king who have been begotten by a king. On hearing this the king was greatly aroused and took away from them horses, slaves and what- ever they had, and ordered them to be taken and shut up in distant