Page:History of the Franks.djvu/273

 THE TENTH BOOK 241 had merely offered the blest bread to orthodox Christians as had been done under lady Radegunda, and it could not be proved against her that she had ever dined with them. As to the be- trothal, she said that she had received the earnest money ^ in behalf of her niece, an orphan girl, in the presence of the bishop, the clergy and the leading men, and if this was a sin, she would ask for pardon in the presence of all ; however not even on that occasion had she made a feast in the monastery. In answer to the charge about the altar cloth, she brought forward a nun of noble family who had given her as a gift a silk robe she had re- ceived from her relatives, and she had cut off a part of this to do what she wished with it, and from the rest, which was sufffcient, she had made a suitable cloth to adorn the altar, and she used the scraps left over from the altar cloth to trim her niece's tunic with purple ; and she said she gave this to her niece when she was serv- ing in the monastery. All this was confirmed by Didimia who had given the robe. As to the leaves of gold and the fillet adorned with gold, she offered Macco your servant, who is here, as a wit- ness, since it was by his hand that she received twenty pieces of gold from the betrothed of the said girl her niece, from which she had purchased these articles openly, and the property of the monastery was not involved in it at all. Chrodield and Basina were asked whether perchance they im- puted adultery to the abbess, which God forbid, or whether they could say she had committed a murder or a sorcery or a capital crime for which she should be punished. They replied they had nothing to say to this; they only asserted that she had acted contrary to the rule in the matters they had mentioned. Finally they said that nuns whom we believed to be innocent were with child because of these faults, namely, that the doors were broken open and the wretched women were at liberty to do what they would for many months without discipline from their abbess. When we had discussed these charges in order and had found no wrong-doing for which to degrade the abbess, we gave her a fatherly admonition for the pardonable faults she had committed, and urged her not to incur any reproof later. Then we inquired into the case of the opposing party who had committed greater ^ Arrhae, cf. p. 97.