E02331: Gregory of Tours, in his Histories (9.6), tells of the appearance in Tours in 587 of Desiderius, a false holy man. He pretended to work miracles, attracting many who sought to be cured, and claimed to be greater than *Martin (ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397, S00050) and equal to the Apostles *Peter(S00036) and Paul (S00008). He is accused of necromancy and expelled from the city. Written in Latin in Tours (north-west Gaul), 587/594.

Gregory of Tours, Histories (Historiae) 9.6

Fuit eo anno in urbe Thoronica Desiderius nomine, qui se magnum quendam esse dicebat, adserens se multa posse facere signa. Nam et nuntius inter se atque Petrum Paulumque apostolos discurrere iactitabat. Ad quem, quia praesens non eram, rusticitas populi multa confluxerat, deferentes secum caecos et debiles, quos non sanctitate sanare, sed errore nigromantici ingenii quaerebat inludere. Nam hos, qui erant paralitici aut alia inpediti debilitate, iubebat valide extendi, ut, quos virtutis divinae largitione diregere non poterat, quasi per industriam restauraret. Denique adpraehendebant pueri eius manus hominis, alii vero pedes, tractumque diversis in partibus, ita ut nervi potarentur abrumpi, cum non sanarentur, demittebantur exanimis. Unde factum est, ut in hoc supplicio multi spiritum exalarent. Tantoque miser elatus erat, ut iuniorem sibi beatum Martinum esse diceret, se vero apostolis coaequaret. Nec mirum, si hic similem se dicat apostolis, cum ille auctor nequitiae, a quo ista procedunt, Christum se esse in fine saeculi fateatur. Nam de hoc animadversum est, ut superius diximus, errore nigromantiae artis fuisse inbutum, quia, ut adserunt qui eum viderunt, cum quisque de eo procul et abditae quicquam locutus fuisset mali, coram populo adstante inproperabat, dicens, quia: 'Hoc et illud de me effatus es, quae sanctitate meae erant indigna'. Et quid aliud nisi nuntiantibus daemoniis cognoscebat? Habebat autem cucullam ac tonicam de pilis caprarum, et in praesente quidem abstinens erat a cybis et potu, clam autem, cum in diversurio venisset, ita infercibat in ore, ut minister non occurrerit tantum poscenti porregere. Sed detecta dolositas eius et a nostris depraehensa, eiectus est extra urbis terminum. Nec cognovimus deinceps, quo abisset; dicebat tamen civem se esse Burdegalensem.

'That same year there appeared in Tours a man called Desiderius, who gave it out that he was a very important
person, pretending that he was able to work miracles. He boasted that messengers journeyed to and fro between himself and the Apostles Peter and Paul. I myself was not there, so crowds of the ignorant flocked to him (rusticitas populi multa confluxerat), bringing with them the blind and the infirm. He set out to deceive them by the false art of necromancy (errore nigromantici ingenii), and not through sanctity. Those who were paralysed or disabled by some other infirmity he ordered to be stretched forcibly, as if he could restore by his own brute strength men whom he was unable to cure by the intervention of divine power. Some of his helpers would seize a patient’s hands and some would tug at other parts of his body, until it seemed that his sinews must snap. When they were not cured, his servants sent them away half dead. The result was that many gave up the ghost under his treatment. The wretched man was so above himself that he gave it out that Saint Martin was lesser than he: for he imagined himself to be the equal of the Apostles. It is no wonder that this man Desiderius should say that he was the Apostles’ equal, when the author of all evil, he from whom all wrongs proceed, will, at the Last Trump, pretend that he is Christ. It is quite clear from what I have just told you that Desiderius practised the foul arts of necromancy. Those who actually saw him said that, if anyone had spoken ill of him secretly and in his absence, he would gather the people round him and reprove the man in question. ‘The things which you have said about me ill become the divinity which is mine,' he would say. How else could he know what had been said, unless his familiar demons had reported it to him? He wore a tunic and a hood of goat’s hair, and when anyone was present he was most sparing in his food and drink. When he was in private and had come to his lodging, he would stuff so much into his mouth that his servant could not keep pace with his demands. However, it became obvious that he was an impostor and, once the bogusness of his behaviour was comprehended by my people, he was expelled from the city boundaries. I have never discovered where he went. He used to say that he came from Bordeaux.'

Text: Krusch and Levison 1951, 417-418. Translation: Thorpe 1974, 483-484; lightly modified.