E02022: Gregory of Tours, in his Histories (2.7), recounts a story, set in the mid 5th c., of a man seeing a vision in the church in Rome of *Peter (the Apostle, S00036), in which two men, almost certainly Peter and his companion the Apostle *Paul (S00008), promise to protect the general Aetius in response to his wife's prayers. Written in Latin in Tours (north-west Gaul), 575/594.
Creators: name: Kwojtalik
Publisher: name: University of Oxford
Year: 2016
Subjects: History

description: Gregory of Tours, Histories (Historiae) 2.7<br><br>His diebus Romam sonus adiit, Aetium in maximo discrimine inter falangas hostium laborare. Quo auditu uxor eius anxia atque maesta, assiduae basilicas sanctorum apostolorum adibat atque, ut virum suum de hac via reciperet sospitem, praecabatur. Quae cum die noctuque haec agerit, quadam nocte homo pauperculus, crapulatus a vino, in angulo basilicae beati Petri apostoli obdormivit. Clausis autem ex more usteis, a custodibus non est nanctus. De nocte vero consurgens, relucentibus per tota aedis spatia lychinis, pavore territus, aditum, per quem foris evaderit, quaerit. Verum ubi primi atque alterius ustei claustra pulsat et obserata cuncta cognoscit, solo decubuit, trepidus praestolans locum, ut, convenientibus ad matutinis hymnis populis, hic liber abscederit. Interea vidit duas personas se invicem venerabiliter salutantes sollicitusque de suis esse prosperetatibus. Tunc qui erat senior ita exorsus est: 'Uxoris Aeti lacrimas diutius sustenire non patior. Petit enim assiduae, ut virum suum de Galliis reducam incolomem, cum aliud exinde fuisset apud divinum iuditium praefinitum, sed tamen obtenui inmensam pietatem pro vita illius. Et ecce nunc illum propero viventem exinde reducturus! Verumtamen obtestor, ut qui haec audierit sileat arcanumque Dei vulgare non audeat, ne pereat velociter a terra'. Ille autem haec audiens, silire non potuit; sed mox inluciscente caelo omnia quae audierat matrisfamiliae pandit, expletisque sermonibus, lumen caruit oculorum. <br><br>'Soon afterwards the rumour reached Rome that Aetius was in great danger with the troops of the enemy all round him. When she heard this his wife was very anxious and distressed. She went frequently to the churches of the holy Apostles and prayed that she might have her husband back safe from this campaign. This she did by day and by night. One night a poor man, sodden with wine, was asleep in a corner of the church of Saint Peter. When the great doorways were closed according to custom, he was not noticed by the porters. In the middle of the night he got up. He was dazzled by the lamps shining bright in every part of the building and he looked everywhere for the exit, so that he could make his escape. He tugged at the bolts of first one doorway and then another, but, when he found that they were all closed, he lay down on the floor and anxiously awaited an opportunity of escaping from the building at the moment when the people should come together for their morning hymns. Then he noticed two men who saluted each other with great respect and asked how the other was prospering in his affairs. The older of the two began as follows: ‘I cannot bear any longer the tears of the wife of Aetius. She keeps on praying that I should bring her husband back safe from Gaul. God in His wisdom has decreed otherwise, but nevertheless I have obtained this immense concession that Aetius shall not be killed. Now I am hurrying off to bring him back alive. I order the man who has overheard this to keep his counsel and not be so rash as to reveal my secret, for otherwise he will die immediately.’ The poor man, of course, heard this, but he was not able to keep the secret. As soon as day dawned in the sky, he recounted what he had heard to the wife of Aetius. He had no sooner finished speaking when he became blind.'<br><br>Text: Krusch and Levison 1951, 49-50. Translation: Thorpe 1974, 117.