Page:History of the Franks.djvu/272

 240 HISTORY OF THE FRANKS the parties and interrogated Chrodield and Basina as to why they had so boldly departed contrary to the rule, breaking the doors of the monastery, and why the united congregation had at this time been broken in two. In answer they asserted that they could not endure any longer the risk of starvation, nakedness, and above all of beating; and they added also that several men had bathed in their bath contrary to decency, and that the abbess played games, and that worldly persons dined with her, and that a betrothal had actually taken place in the monastery; that she had impiously made a dress for her niece out of a silk altar cloth, and that she had frivolously taken the golden leaves which were on the border of the altar cloth and sinfully hung them about her niece's neck; and she had made a fillet with gold ornaments for her niece with- out any need for it, and that she had a masquerade ^ in the monas- tery. We asked the abbess what she had to answer to this, and she said that as to the complaint about starvation, they had never endured too great privation considering the poverty of the time. And as to clothes, she said that if one were to examine their boxes, [he would find] they had more than was necessary. And as to the charge about the bath, she related that the bath had been built in the time of Lent and that on account of the disagreeable smell of the limestone, in order that the newness of the building might not do harm to the bathers, lady Radegunda had given orders for the servants of the monastery to use it as a common thing until all harmful odor had disappeared. It had been in common use by the servants through Lent and until Pentecost. To this Chro- dield answered : "And later on in the same way many men bathed at different times." The abbess replied that she did not approve of what they reported but she did not know whether it was true ; moreover she found fault with them for not informing the abbess if they had seen it. As to the games she played, she answered that she had played when lady Radegunda was alive and it was not regarded as a sin, and she said that neither in the rule nor the canons was there any reference in writing to their prohibition. However at the order of the bishops she promised that she would bow her head and do whatever penance should be demanded. As to the dinners, she said she had introduced no new custom but
 * Barhaturias. Cf. Du Cange, barbatoria.