Book IX. Chapter 30:

Now King Childebert, on the request of Bishop Maroveus, ordered assessors to go to Poitiers; namely, Florentianus, Mayor of the palace, and Romulfus, Count of the palace, so that the people might pay the poll-tax as they had done in the time of his father. For many of the people had died so that the burden of the tribute was indeed great on this account to the widows, orphans, and infirm; but the assessors, taking each person in turn, relieving the poor and the sick, wrote taxes against those, who, by reason of justice, ought to give tribute; and so they came to Tours. But when they wished to place our people under tribute, saying that they had brought with them the tax roll whereby they had paid in the time of previous kings, we replied, saying: "It is clear that the city of Tours was assessed in the time of King Lothar, and that the assessment rolls were taken away to the king's presence; but, since the king feared the wrath of the holy Bishop Martin, they were burned. But after the death of King Lothar, the people (of Tours) took the oath to King Charibert; and he also promised on oath that he would not burden the people with new laws and customs, but he would retain only those under which they had previously lived in the time of his father; and he promised that he would not impose upon them any new ordinance which would result in loss to them. But Gaiso, at that time count, having taken the capitulary, which we recalled previous clerks had made, began to exact tribute; but having been forbidden by Bishop Eufronius, he went into the presence of the king with the money he had wrongfully taken, showing him the capitulary in which the assessment for the tribute was contained. But the king, sighing, and fearing the wrath of St. Martin, destroyed the capitulary; he sent back to the church of St. Martin the gold which had been taken, declaring that none of the people of Tours should pay any tax to the fisc. King Sigebert held the city after the death of Charibert, nor did he place any burden of tribute upon it. Childebert, reigning now m the fourteenth year after the death of his father, has exacted nothing, nor has this city groaned under the burden of any tribute."

Source:

J. P. Migne, ed., Patrologiae Cursus Completus, (Paris, 1849), Vol. LXXI, p. 507; reprinted in Roy C. Cave & Herbert H. Coulson, A Source Book for Medieval Economic History, (Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Co., 1936; reprint ed., New York: Biblo & Tannen, 1965), pp. 355-356.

Scanned by Jerome S. Arkenberg, Cal. State Fullerton. The text has been modernized by Prof. Arkenberg.

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© Paul Halsall, October 1998
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