Gregorius Turonensis Episcopus, Libri Miraculorum

Inter reliqua vero insignia suscipiendorum miraculorum, ponimus et istud, quod insipientes corrigat et roboret sapientes. Igitur Cautini episcopi tempore, quo, ingruentibus peccatis populi, Arverna regio ab excidio luis quam inguinariam vocant devastabatur (Vid. Hist. /. iv, c. 31), ego Brivatensem vicum expetii, scilicet ut qui meritis tutari nequibam, beati martyris Juliani salvarer praesidio. In quo dum commorarer vico, unus puer ex nostris ab hoc morbo corripitur, reclinatoque ad lectulum capite, graviter aegrotare coepit. Erat autem febris assidua cum sto- machi pituita, ita ut si aliquid acciperet, confestim rejiceret; nec erat ei cibus confortatio, sed magis exitus putabatur. Denique mei cum viderent eum in extrema vexari, ariolum quemdam 882 invocant. Ille vero venire non differens accessit ad ægrotum, et artem suam exercere conatur. Incantationes immurmurat, sortes jactat, ligaturas collo suspendit, promiuit vivere quem ipse mancipaverat morti. Haec autem me nescio agebantur; quae cum mihi delata fuissent, amarissimus reddor, et cum gravi suspirio illud commemoro, quod Dominus per Eliam prophetam Oziae regi pronuntiat, dicens : Quia dereliquisti Dominum Deum Israel, et consuluisti deum Acharon ; ideo de lectulo in quo ascendisti non consurges, aed morte morieris (7 V Reg. i, 16). Nam iste post adventum arioli validius febre succensus, spiritum exhalavit, cujus post obitum interpositis paucis diebus, puer alius simili laborare coepit incommodo. Tunc ego eis inquio : Accedite ad Martyris tumulum; et aliquid exinde ad ægrotum deportate, et videbitis magnalia Dei, atque cognoscetis quid sit inter justum et injustum, et infer timentem Deum et non servientem illi. Accedentes autem, parumper pulveris circa sepulcrum jacentis sustulerunt. De quo ut hausit infirmus cum aqua, protinus assecutus est medicinam, recupera- tisque viribus ac restincta febre convaluit. Intelligite ergo nunc, o omnes qui insipientes estis in populo, et postquam ista discusseritis, scitote quia nihil sunt quae ad seducendum humanum genus diabolus operatur. Ideo moneo ut si quis vexillo crucis signatus, si quis baptismi ablutione mundatus, si quis vetustate deposita in novo nunc homine viget, talia postponat ac negligat; quaerat autem patrocinia martyrum, per quos sanitatum miracula celebrantur : postulet adjutoria confessorum, qui merito amici sunt dominici nuncupati; et quae voluerit, obtinebit.

Among the other remarkable miracles to be received, we set down this one too, so that it may correct the foolish and strengthen the wise. In the time of Bishop Cautinus, then, when, as the sins of the people pressed upon it, the region of the Auvergne was being laid waste by the plague which they call the groin plague (see History, book 4, ch. 31), I made for the village of Brioude, so that I, who could not protect myself by my merits, might be saved by the protection of the blessed martyr Julian. While I was staying in that village, one boy of our household was seized by this disease, and, laying his head down on his bed, began to be gravely ill. He had a continuous fever with phlegm of the stomach, so that if he took anything he immediately threw it up; nor was food any strengthening to him, but rather it was thought to be his end. At last my people, seeing him tormented at the point of death, call in a certain soothsayer. He, without delaying to come, went to the sick boy and tries to practise his art. He mutters incantations, casts lots, hangs ligatures on his neck, promises that the one he himself had consigned to death would live. These things were done without my knowledge; and when they were reported to me, I am made most bitter, and with a heavy sigh I recall what the Lord pronounced through the prophet Elijah to King Uzziah, saying: Because you have forsaken the Lord God of Israel and consulted the god of Ekron, therefore you shall not rise from the bed onto which you have gone up, but you shall surely die (4 Kings 1:16). For that boy, after the soothsayer's coming, burned more violently with fever and breathed out his spirit; and a few days after his death another boy began to suffer from a similar affliction. Then I say to them: Go to the martyr's tomb, and bring something from there to the sick boy, and you will see the great works of God, and you will know what [difference] there is between the righteous and the unrighteous, and between one who fears God and one who does not serve him. They went and took up a little of the dust lying around the tomb. As soon as the sick boy drank some of it with water, he at once obtained healing, and, his strength recovered and the fever quenched, he grew well. Understand now, then, all you who are foolish among the people, and when you have examined these things, know that the things the devil works to seduce the human race are nothing. Therefore I warn that if anyone has been signed with the banner of the cross, if anyone has been cleansed by the washing of baptism, if anyone, having laid aside the old, now thrives in the new man, he should put aside and disregard such things; let him rather seek the patronage of the martyrs, through whom miracles of healing are performed; let him ask the help of the confessors, who are deservedly called friends of the Lord; and whatever he wishes, he will obtain.