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12 HISTORY OF THE FRANKS 30. Under the emperor Decius many persecutions arose against the name of Christ, and there was such a slaughter of behevers that they could not be numbered. Babillas, bishop of Antioch, with his three little sons, Urban, Prihdan and Epolon, and Xystus, bishop of Rome, Lauren tius, an archdeacon, and Hyppolitus, were made perfect by martyrdom because they confessed the name of the Lord. Valentinian and Novatian were then the chief heretics and were active against our faith, the enemy urging them on. At this time seven men were ordained as bishops and sent into the Gauls to preach, as the history of the martyrdom of the holy martyr Saturninus relates. For it says : In the consulship of Decius and Gratus, as faithful memory recalls, the city of Toulouse received the holy Saturninus as its first and greatest bishop." These bish- ops were sent : bishop Catianus to Tours ; bishop Trophimus to Aries ; bishop Paul to Narbonne ; bishop Saturninus to Toulouse ; bishop Dionisius to Paris ; bishop Stremonius to Clermont ; bishop Martial to Limoges. And of these the blessed Dionisius, bishop of Paris, after suffer- ing divers pains in Christ's name, ended the present Hfe by the threatening sword. And Saturninus, already certain of martyrdom, said to his two priests: "Behold, I am now to be offered as a victim and the time of my death draws near. I ask you not to leave me at all before I come to the end." But when he was seized and was being dragged to the capitol he was abandoned by them and was dragged alone. And so when he saw that he was abandoned he is said to have made this prayer; *'Lord Jesus Christ, grant my re- quest from holy heaven, that this church may never in all time have the merit to receive a bishop from among its citizens." And we know that to the present it has been so in this city. And he was tied to the feet of a mad bull, and being sent headlong from the capitol he ended his life. Catianus, Trophimus, Stremonius, Paul and Marcial lived in the greatest sanctity, winning people to the church and spreading the faith of Christ among all, and died in peace, confessing the faith. And thus the former by martyrdom, as well as the latter by confession, left the earth and were united in the heavens. 31. One of their disciples went to the city of Bourges and car- ried to the people the news of Christ the lord as the saviour of all.