Baudelius the Martyr
Acta Sanctorum, May 20
Source text: Public Domain. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://actasanctorum.org/may/day-20/baudelius-the-martyr.html
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ON ST. BAUDELIUS THE MARTYR,

AT NÎMES IN NARBONESE GAUL.

PREVIOUS COMMENTARY.

On the Cult, the Translation, the Acts: of which some are given, others are rejected as apocryphal.

Baudelius, Martyr at Nîmes, in Narbonese Gaul (St.)

BY THE AUTHOR G. H.

Nîmes is an ancient city of Narbonese Gaul
in the Eastern part of present Occitania,
toward Provence and the city of Arles,
but under the Archbishop of Narbonne.
In this city the Martyr St. Baudelius died, [Memory in the ancient Calendars.]
slain by idolaters; whose sacred memory is inserted
in four old transcripts of the Hieronymian Martyrology,
and indeed in the Epternach one, written about a thousand
years ago; and that not toward the end, which happens to those
who afterwards were added in transcribing, but plainly in
the middle, immediately after the holy Roman women aforementioned, in this
form: At Nîmes of Baudelius the Martyr, then is subjoined.
Likewise elsewhere the Birthday of the holy ones Gervasius and Protasius,
and the Deposition of Vellesius and Faustinus the Bishop, which
cannot be so confidently said to be Jerome's: as
those of Baudelius, whose name however in the said transcripts
is written in divers ways; namely Baudilis, and also
Saudili; as also Nemavus for Nemausus. He is commemorated
likewise in the older MSS. the Barberini, the Reichenau,
the Arras, the Tournai, and many others, under the name
of Baudolus, Blandius, Bautilius, Bauddus, Bautius: in some
he is indicated with his Companions, of whom indeed in the earlier Acts
mention is made at number 7, but without any appearance
of martyrdom endured by them. Usuard adorns him with this elogium:
In the Gauls, in the city of Nîmes, of St. Baudelius the Martyr,
who apprehended when he would not sacrifice, and in the faith
of Christ persisting immovable amid stripes and torments,
received the palm of martyrdom by a precious death.
Which words of Usuard are retained in the present Roman Martyrology.
Ado adds, that he was apprehended by the pagans,
celebrating the sacrifices of their gods. To these subjoins
Notker, that he shone illustrious with most frequent signs. In
the Jumièges MS. he is related on the day before, that is May XIX.

[2] [The Acts are given from MSS.] We have double Acts; of which the former we judge to be more authentic, and from the tradition of the elders written for
the people of Nîmes, at least in the sixth century, when there his sacred
body shone with miracles: and these
Usuard, Ado, Notker seem to have used. We have them in our illustrious Legendary
in MS., likewise from the MS. of Arrouaise of the Canons
Regular in Artois. The same things Peter Francis Chifflet sent us at Dijon,
taken from the MSS.
of Mont-Sainte-Marie and of Acey. [with an Appendix from Gregory of Tours.] The time of the Martyrdom endured
is nowhere definitely expressed, nor the name of any
Roman Emperor, under whom it was permitted to idolaters thus to
rage against the Saint: yet the antiquity of the Hieronymian Martyrology
easily persuades that it could have happened, as at number 4
it is said, when still the greatest part of men was held
by the error of gentile superstition, even before the tyranny of Diocletian
and Maximian. Certainly by no verisimilitude does it seem
that it can be presumed, by a more recent memory and the Goths
occupying Occitania, in the fifth century only, that he suffered,
who was held celebrated in the time of Theodoric the Italian
King, when his General Aram resided at Arles, as
is established from Gregory of Tours, whose words we add to the Acts themselves,
under the title of an Appendix: although otherwise worthy to be placed in the front of this
Commentary, because affording a more certain notice of the Saint,
than the Legend, however that be believed (which
I would scarcely believe) to be composed earlier.

[3] The later Acts, patched together at Orléans, after
the Relics of the body were translated thither, we found in the MS. codex of the Queen
of Sweden marked n. 721: [Other Acts composed at Orléans,] and from these compendia extracted
in the MS. of Utrecht of St. Salvator, and in an old Breviary
in the aforementioned Chifflet, and also in the Catalogue
of Peter de Natalibus book 5 chapter 24, finally in the Gallican of Saussay and
the Spanish Martyrology of Tamayo Salazar: but this last says
he gives them from an old Breviary of Burgos. There exists with us a Breviary of the said
Church of Burgos printed in the year MDIII,
in which nine Lessons on St. Baudelius are recited but from
the earlier Acts taken with the preface changed: like to which
the aforesaid Tamayo found in the Breviary of Seville
printed about the year MDXXV. But the later
Acts, those which I said were patched together at Orléans, are of far less
merit than the former (although these themselves are not of the greatest) and with them
many apocrypha from elsewhere are mixed; and especially
to this Baudelius is applied what is said of another in the Life of St. Evurtius
Bishop of Orléans; that Baudelius the Subdeacon,
he elevating the Host, saw a hand from a cloud, which
covered his head, [as apocryphal they are rejected.] and extended blessed three times
the offering made to God: who afterwards, that the connection may be made, is feigned to have set out to Nîmes
and undergone martyrdom. St. Evurtius is venerated
on September VII, and Charles Saussay in the Annals of Orléans judges that he held that See from the year CCCLVIII even to CCCLXXXX:
wherefore those who believed this our Baudelius
to have been a Subdeacon of St. Evurtius,
held by an older tradition of the people of Nîmes a man
military and married, seem to have looked to
the times of Julian the Apostate, under whom idolatry, wholly prostrate
in the Gauls and reduced to the villages, could sprout again even in
the cities. There is added the blood of the Martyr, flowing from the wound,
turned into milk; which in the earlier Acts is not
found. The miracle of this conversion further is much
dwelt upon in the Hymns, composed for St. Baudelius's proper Office for
the use of the Church of Nîmes, [the body translated to Orléans] which transcribed thence to us
P. Charles Faber sent from Avignon, with the Lessons,
likewise received on the faith of the Orléans Acts,
where it is said that St. Evurtius's successor St. Anianus, moved by the fame
of miracles, came to Nîmes; and leave being obtained
from the Prefect of the Gauls, then dwelling at Arles,
carried off the sacred remains to Orléans, the country of Baudelius,
with the greatest mourning of the people of Nîmes.

[4] That Anianus set out to Aëtius the Patrician at Arles
is read in his Life, to be given on November XVII: by which journey indeed
the Saint could pass by Nîmes, the city of Arles being on the way and near:
but of St. Baudelius carried off thence there is no
mention there, and the man of Tours so speaks of him, that, he himself writing,
you ought to believe the body was still at Nîmes, unless
by a more certain authority from elsewhere you be moved. Wherefore the second Acts, in whatever
esteem afterwards held, we judge to be cut away from this work,
and so the whole Office which the people of Nîmes now use to be reformed,
and a new one to be made from other Acts.
But as to the time of the Translation, if
the matter is to be defined by conjectures, I would prefer to look to the incursions of the Saracens into
Provence, on account of which to the interior parts
of Gaul many other Relics of Saints were translated.
Beyond doubt meanwhile remains the tradition of the people of Orléans,
since it is established that in the year MXXIX under King Robert was made
the elevation of the body of St. Anianus, with the bodies of SS. Euspicius,
Monitor, and Flosculus the Confessors, [it is elevated in the year 1029.] of Baudelius
and Scubilius the Martyrs, and of Agia the mother of St. Lupus the Confessor:
as from the Life of King Robert by the author Helgaud,
Charles Saussay writes book 8 of the Annals of the Church of Orléans
number 32, and we have it in various MSS. The Acts
of St. Scubilius the Martyr lie hidden: his birthday is October V.
But in the Old Calendar of the Church of St. Anianus, on this
XX of May is prescribed an Office of IX Lessons on
St. Baudelius the Martyr. Anthony Vincent Domenech in the general
History [a cult in Catalonia.] of the Saints of Catalonia, has some Life of St. Baudelius,
because in various Churches of those domains he is venerated as
Patron, and not far from the city of Barcelona is the parish
of St. Baudelius, commonly called San-Boy. Hence occasion seized
of inserting in the lately-devised Adversaria of Liutprand
number 63 these words: The Relics of St. Baudelius, Deacon and
Martyr of Nîmes, suffered under Julian for the faith,
were brought to Roda, a maritime city near the Indigetes,
and to Toledo: which were brought in the holy Ark
to Oviedo. These things, that they may find faith, ought from more certain monuments
to be confirmed, before from the authority of the Spanish
Martyrology, a special cult of this Saint be assumed by the Church
of Toledo. In the Proper of the Saints of the Church
of Lodève, published by the authority and labor of John Plantavit the Bishop
in the year MDCXXX, the feast of St. Baudelius the Martyr is celebrated with a double rite,
Patron of the Church of Somonte,
distant only one league from the city: but Lodève
itself or Lureva is distant a two-days' journey from Nîmes, by about
eighteen leagues. [likewise at Lodève] Some cult of St. Baudelius also in the diocese of Auxerre
is proved to have been, from the Deeds of the Bishops of Auxerre,
in the new Library of Labbe; where of the
XLIV Bishop of that city, Gualdric, about the year
DCCCCXXX it is said, that in the monastery of Sanxiacum,
the hall of St. Baudelius, [and at Auxerre.] burned by the furious rage of the Normans
and afterwards fallen, glowing with the sacred fire of divine love,
strove at his own expense to reform to the integrity
of its former state, and ennobled the place with no small
oblation of gifts.

THE ACTS OF THE MARTYRDOM

From four old MS. codices.

Baudelius, Martyr at Nîmes, in Narbonese Gaul (St.)

BHL Number: 1043

FROM THE MS.

[1] [Christ in the Martyrs suffers and triumphs.] The victorious contests of the holy Martyrs of Christ
are not to be hidden from all by unfruitful silence,
but openly to be preached for the edification of the hearers.
For it is fitting that they be extolled with all manner
of praise, chiefly for the love and honor of Him,
who asserts that in them He not only is heard and honored,
but also suffers. For in no way could the corruptible bodies
of the sufferers have prevailed to bear so many kinds of torments,
unless He had given them to persevere in the penal contest even
to the end, who deigns in the Gospel to say to His own:
In the world you shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer,
I have overcome the world. [Jo. 16, 33] And truly as the King Himself
of the contenders triumphed over the world with its prince;
so He gave also to those His Saints fortitude,
and by the gift of the Holy Spirit to bear off trophies from the
vanquished enemy. In the number of such warriors we rightly judge
is to be reckoned the Champion of God Baudelius,
whose deeds of passion it has pleased you to describe, that
both the report of the virtues of so great a man may shine forth,
and the devotion of the whole order in the celebration of his solemnity
may increase.

[2] St. Baudelius therefore, born of nobility in all things
according to the dignity of the world, [Noble by birth,] more noble
was he in honesty of morals and the ornaments of holy
virtues. For a Christian from his earliest
age, he delighted not in the games of boyhood, but rather rejoiced
in the assiduous familiarity of the servants of God. But at length
having entered adolescence, he so tamed the wantonness of the flesh,
that he gave his work to no slippery pleasure. [Jo. 15, 5.]
And because he placed all his hope and protection
in the Lord, who said to His disciples: Without me
you can do nothing, he rather opportunely gave himself to prayer
in His temple, than to the vain spectacle of revelling
youths. Meanwhile when he had passed into manly strength,
and by lawful right had been made heir of his paternal substance and the possession of lands; that
he might be to all a form of religious life, by the increases of good
deeds, he began daily to ascend to higher things. [devoted to works of mercy,]
For he was the father of the poor, the consoler of widows
and orphans, the receiver also of pilgrims:
the hungering and thirsting with necessary food and
drink he refreshed, the naked and cold he clothed, the wandering
without roof he hastily received into hospitality, the languishing
with pious solicitude he visited, and with fitting more liberal
food restored.

[3] When therefore he was intent on such things, as much theoretical
as practical virtues, like the beam of a star scattering everywhere
its rays of brightness, [he marries a wife equal to himself.] he showed
to very many examples of the Christian religion. Besides these things
moreover when he both flourished with the flower of youth, and abounded
with a store of infinite wealth, he was compelled by the authority
and command of his parents to obtain a wife, for preserving
the offspring of their posterity. Who although
she was to him both in nobility of birth and means almost
similar, yet, what is more laudable, in nothing
was she degenerate from the excellent morals of her partner. Who
placed in body on earth and bound by the indissoluble bond of wedlock,
so with even moderation took care to dispose
what he possessed in the world, that with his whole effort,
according to his power, in eagerness and in mind he conversed in
heaven. For he was busy to fulfill what to the married
is enjoined by the Apostolic voice; They that have wives let them be
as though they had none. [1 Cor. 5, 29.]

[4] But because holy men through the grace of the Holy Spirit
strive ever to follow the more perfect things, until they deserve to contemplate God
in the essence of His Majesty;
what to the same worshipper of God the Father of lights and Author
of all good things deigned to inspire, in no way
is it fitting to cover with silence. Seeing worldly felicity
to be prosperous for him, and habitation among
his fellow-citizens noxious to the salvation of his soul; he began anxiously to think,
how, all the things of his country being left, [his goods being distributed,]
departing from his native soil alone, he might be a pilgrim in whatever
place it should please God. Therefore fearing what the Lord
says in the Gospel to His followers; He who does not
renounce all that he possesses, cannot
be my disciple; the movable things being sold
which he could find in his treasures, he took care
wholly to distribute their price to the needy; that thus
he might become a merchant of the heavenly pearl. [Luc. 14, 33.] But possessions
many and territories he left to his own kinsmen, and thus unencumbered and alert, [with her he comes to Nîmes,] together with his spouse and
a few household servants attending him, he seized the journey
of pilgrimage, until he came to the encampment of the city of Nîmes.
At that season indeed the same city
was conspicuous by the very great circuit of its walls and lofty towers,
and the firmness of its structure, by the frequency of citizens
and habitation exceedingly populous, and by merchandise
of riches conveyed from every side beyond measure
opulent. But, although the transitory and
shadowy glory of this world was clear enough; yet
in that time, in which this blessed man deserved to receive the crown
of the martyrdom destined him by God, [the world given to idolatry:] still the greatest
part of men was held by the error of Gentile
superstition. For there was lacking to them the doctrine of venerable Priests
of Ecclesiastical instruction, and therefore
erring like sheep they languished without the watchful care of Pastors.

[5] And when he had come to that place, where his body
of his own free will he had ordered to his own spouse to be kept buried
in a monument (as one about to receive there,
God revealing it to him, the glorious crown of martyrdom
worthy of his merits) he found
in a common wood, very near the city, bands of Gentiles,
celebrating the rites of their sacrifices and adoring
the images of demoniac invention. This wood therefore,
which then was given to the cult of malign spirits, [meeting its inhabitants,] produces acorn-bearing oaks, more apt for the nourishment
of fire than for the buildings of houses. Into this therefore
the man of God entering, said to the builders of the altars, filled with the zeal
of just indignation: O most foolish of men,
who do not acknowledge your Maker! cease
henceforth, cease to adore the statues of demons: since
those worshipping idols, sculpted by the hand of madmen, unless
they come to their senses, will go into the eternal torments of hell.
Wherefore if you desire to escape the damnation of such,
believe in the Founder of all, and receive the regeneration
of holy baptism; that made sons of light,
you may deserve to be made heirs of the heavenly kingdom. But if any
benefits of healings you hope to be bestowed on you by these
for such vain worship; for certain believe, without doubt
your bodies are not freed from any inconvenience of sickness,
until your souls are wholly subjected to the intolerable yoke
of the servitude of demons. But that
from this diabolical damnation you may be redeemed by divine commiseration,
[he urges that the idols be broken:] and obtain the liberty promised you by Christ;
break the idols, deaf and dumb and lacking all reason,
and adore Him whom every creature
serves. But if you will not hear me, you will be made like
those, whom you falsely call Gods, and madly
worship.

[6] [he professes the faith:] From this erring and at the same time savage throng of Pagans,
when many, who seemed more powerful than the rest,
asked who he was or whence he had come, or what
God he worshipped, with anger and threats;
St. Baudelius, fortified with spiritual arms, and
like a soldier undaunted at battle with the Emperor present,
thus answered those questioning him, strengthened by the Holy
Spirit; Who I am, or whence I have come, it is not
necessary to confess: especially since both my military dress
shows me strenuous and apt for the office of soldiery, and
the idiom of my speech evidently discloses me to be an inhabitant of another region.
But of my worship if you desire to know,
know without doubt that I am most firmly
a worshipper of the holy and undivided Trinity, and with Catholic
faith in God the Father, and His Son our Lord
Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit
proceeding from both with my heart I believe, and
with my mouth confess for my salvation; and the same faith,
God working with me, I adorn with worthy operation.
At these words of the holy man, uttered with unshaken mind,
the profane multitude of Gentiles being most grievously
indignant, [he refuses to sacrifice:] did not cease too atrociously to command
the servant of God, that he should acquiesce to their altars and immolate
victims of demons. But St. Baudelius, animated
with the faith of true and Christian belief, and founded upon
a firm rock, not only as he ought, abominating their
admonitions, strongly execrated them; but
also to the norm of a better life, and the saving
sect of the sacred law he began to exhort them, through the doctrine
of Apostolic instruction.

[7] Then they all alike, exhorting each other to torments
to be inflicted on him by common vow, [variously tortured:] against
the body of Baudelius the Martyr to be tortured rise up
with an unwonted rage of cruelty. Which that
the diversity of stripes and grievous punishments might in all ways tear,
the bitterness of the whole nefarious band instigated.
For whatever the insane fury supplied to the minds of the sacrilegious,
whatever the rabid wrath of the raging executioners
could devise of penalties, on the frail flesh
of the soldier of God they did not delay to exercise. Whose glorious
confession of the faith of the Trinity disposing all things
since it could in no way be overcome by any
torturing engine, the phalanxes of the impious at length
judged, that death should be inflicted on him by the two-edged sword
dashed against his head. Which they therefore decreed by the unanimous desire
of raging against him, that the more quickly he might end his present life
by the long-desired shedding of his own
blood. Which being learned, [and to be slain with the sword,] he who was kindled with the fire of divine love,
and a follower of Christ, and a bearer of His Cross
by fearing Him; sought of the lictors with humble prayer,
that they would permit him to pray, at least for the little space
of one hour. They willingly granting this,
turning himself to the Eastern region, bending his knees
on the ground, with eyes and hands devoutly intent on heaven,
suffused with tears, to Him to whom he was soon to go by
the laying down of the man, such offered upon the altar of his heart
libations of prayer. To Thee, he says, Lord my God,
I give thanks more earnestly, who hast created me and enlightened me:
who hast redeemed me by the pious death of Thy Son, who
by the adoption of the Holy Spirit and the regeneration of baptism
hast counted me renewed in the number of Thy sons, [after prayers poured forth,]
and consorting me amid prosperous and adverse things,
even unto this day of my passion, hast given even in penalties
endurance. I beseech Thee therefore, Lord Ruler of all,
through the immense benignity of Thy clemency,
that all who, through my name, shall invoke Thee in
the name of Thy Only-begotten, the pious ear of Thy hearing
Thou mayest accommodate to them: and from all
the tribulations of straits, those trusting in Thee Thou mayest deign
to deliver, and grant the things justly asked. I commend
also to the care of Thy protection my companions, whom
here I leave surviving; and also those by whose
most cruel persecution I agonize: that those
Thou mayest keep, and to these be indulgent, and to this erring city the light
of Thy knowledge at some time show. But me
through the contest of martyrial torments make I beseech Thee
a citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem, in which I may deserve
to contemplate with all the Saints Thy desirable
face, and to praise Thee for ages of ages.

[8] The placable prayer completed, when he had signed himself
with the victorious Cross, he admonished the executioner, [he is crowned with martyrdom.] not to delay
to strike one now higher than the world. But he at once with arm
raising the unsheathed sword, with strong effort struck
him through the middle of the back of the head; and dashed out
his brain. By which blow the body falling to the ground,
with a rivalling effusion of gore, his blessed
soul freed from the flesh, with the aid of Angels penetrated
the heavenly kingdom. And so received with triumph into the supernal
court, by the King of Martyrs he deserved to be crowned
with perennial glory and honor, and rewarded with the victorious palm.
Whose sacred body those who had come
with him stealthily carrying off, [and buried within the walls of the city:] and wrapping it in clean linens,
buried in a worthy mausoleum:
namely in that very place which he himself coming had predestined,
set within the walls of the city. Whence it came to pass,
that he who once in the same city of the people of Nîmes
had been received as a guest, after the passing volumes
of times became a native and guardian of its inhabitants
and Patron: for this is declared by the remedies,
by his merits and intercessions, conferred on those asking with faith.
For at his very tomb the blind receive sight,
the deaf hearing, the dumb speech,
the lepers clean skin, the sick are cured, [he shines with miracles.] demons
are cast out, the prayers of suppliants are heard. Which
indeed benefits of healings, hitherto by the divine Majesty
are bestowed on the necessities of believers,
the prayers of Bl. Baudelius helping, who for the confession
of the Catholic faith fell in the glorious contest of Martyrdom,
on the thirteenth Kalends of June. Whose solemn
celebration of the festivity, which is commemorated today by the sons of the Church,
to the praise of God and the veneration of the Saint himself;
may obtain for all keeping it yearly remission
of sins, and the eternal reward of unfailing life:
our Lord Jesus Christ affording it,
King of Kings, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit
lives and reigns God, through all ages of ages.
Amen.

APPENDIX

By the Author St. Gregory Bishop of Tours,
Book 1 of the Miracles or On the glory
of the Martyrs chapter 78.

Baudelius, Martyr at Nîmes, in Narbonese Gaul (St.)

BHL Number: 1046

[1] There is at the town of the city of Nîmes the glorious sepulchre
of Baudillius the blessed Martyr, [From the sepulchre a laurel sprung drives away diseases:] of
which often many miracles are manifested. From which
sepulchre a laurel sprung and gone out through the wall, made a tree
outside flourishing with salutary foliage. Which often
the inhabitants of the place have experienced to have a heavenly remedy
in many infirmities. For which benefits of miracles,
when for the most part it was stripped of its leaves, or in some way
of its very bark, it was made dry. Whence because
we have said diseases of many infirmities to be driven away by it,
it would be long to commemorate each one: therefore
I thought these things to suffice, that bestowing medicaments,
I have said it was made dry. It is also reported
that a certain merchant in the East carried off a notable pledge of these leaves,
but before the merchant reached port,
a possessed man in a church, the East
declaiming that the Martyr Baudillius was approaching, the peoples
being amazed.

[2] But the blessed Martyr showed his virtue also in others.
For Aram, the General of Theodoric the Italian King,
while he resided in the city of Arles, there was to him
a certain Archpriest of the parish of Nîmes hateful.
Then boiling with gall, against him he sent servants,
saying: Go as quickly as possible, and the feet and hands being bound,
bring him by force, [John the Archdeacon injuriously carried off to Arles] that he may know that I am
Lord of this region. But they, not understanding
the word Archpriest, thought that he had ordered the Archdeacon
to be brought. And the horses being mounted they came to
the city, and asking about the Archdeacon, with the finger
he was shown to them. This man was John by name, very
religious, and in his Archdeaconate having a zeal of teaching
little ones: and the General's servants having apprehended him,
his hands and feet bound under the belly of a horse, brought
him. But the virtue of the Martyr did not cease to succor its own
nursling. But the servants near the very gate
had a lodging with him: because, the leaves of the gates being already barred
for the night, they could not enter.
But in that very night, the General sleeping, there stood
by him the Archdeacon in a vision, saying: What culpable thing
to thee, O man, have I been, that me reduced to this humiliation
thou hast ordered to be summoned with such injury?
Truly I say to thee, thou shalt not escape the judgment of God. But he
awakened and consternated with fear cries out to his men:
Inquire if the servants, whom we directed to Nîmes, have already
come. And asked from the wall, they answered they were
present with the man. The messengers report what they had heard.
And immediately the General says, Bring to me the man
whom you brought. Which when it had been done, the General beholding him, terrified with fear said: The Archpriest
I had ordered to be brought, not the Archdeacon:
and prostrate at his feet, he said: Pardon,
I pray, the injury of this offense: because it is not in my conscience,
that thou shouldst have suffered these things. And at once
honored with worthy gifts he sent him back to the city: whom with
so great love for the very reverence of the Martyr he loved
afterwards, that, the Priest of that city departing, [he is freed,] he commanded
that very one to be instituted Priest. But neither did he command the Archpriest
any more to be inquired after. O great virtue
of the Martyr, which through the injury of an innocent absolved a guilty man
from punishment: and that of the Apostle was fulfilled, that
to those loving God all things work together unto good:
this injury constructed for this man a step, which he should mount
to the governing of the Church of God.

[3] Thus far Gregory, from whose words we seem to ourselves to elicit
that John, in the time of Theodoric the Goth, [and so Bishop of Nîmes.] that is on the confine
of the IV and V century, was Bishop of the city of Nîmes, not yet
observed by others, by a much more certain indication, than Sirmond in the Notes
to the sixth epistle of Sidonius Apollinaris book 7 believed himself to have
brought out as Bishop of the same city Crocus, under the Arian
King Euaric an exile: who if truly he pertains to the people of Nîmes,
must have been the predecessor of this John at least mediately.
