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 xxii INTRODUCTION the church, and when he blames one we must look in like manner for the opposite. Outside of the interests of the orthodox group Greg- ory is not morally thin-skinned ; he shared in the brutality of his contemporaries, as we can see in many recitals. His portrait of Clovis throws no false Hght back on Gregory. Clovis was a cham- pion and favorite of the right supernatural powers in their fight with the wrong ones, and any occasional atrocities he committed in the struggle were not only pardonable but praiseworthy.^ Secular activities and the state of mind just indicated could not coexist in the same society. We have noticed already how education was desecularized. It is of interest to note also what had happened to the secular professions of medicine and law. The profession of medicine had almost completely disappeared. It is true indeed that we hear of a few physicians. For example when Austrechild, king Gunthram's wife, was dying, she accused her two physicians of having given her "potions" that were prov- ing fatal, and asked the king to take an oath to have them executed. He did so and kept his word and Gregory remarks with what seems excessive moderation, '' Many wise men think that this was not done without sin." ^ Again we hear of Gregory's own illness, when he sent for a physician. He soon decided that "secular means could not help the perishing," and sent for some dust from St. Martin's tomb which he put in water and drank, and was soon cured. ^ Such tales indicate the status of the medical profession. The truth was that the condition of the people's minds made the profession an impossibility. Disease was looked upon as super- natural. The sick man thought he had a better chance if he called the priest rather than the doctor. Gregory tells us of Vulfilaic, who was suddenly covered from head to foot with angry pimples ; he rubbed himself with oil consecrated at St. Martin's tomb, and they speedily disappeared. He reasoned that if they had been driven away by St. Martin, they had plainly been sent by the devil.^ This meant to him that the whole thing was supernatural and that the true mystic power had driven out the false which had caused the trouble. Perhaps this was not the reasoning in every case, but at any rate 1 See pp. 47-50. ' P- 130. ^ De Virtut. S. Martin., II, i. * p. 196.