them: for
which he was accused of high treason by king Chilperic before a council
at Paris, in 577, in the church of St. Peter, since called St.
Genevieve. St. Gregory of Tours there warmly defended his innocence, and
Prix confessed the marriage, but denied that he had been privy to the
prince's revolt; but was afterwards prevailed upon, through the
insidious persuasion of certain emissaries of Chilperic, to plead
guilty, and confess that out of affection he had been drawn in to favor
the young prince, who was his godson. Whereupon he was condemned by the
council, and banished by the king into a small island upon the coast of
Lower Neustria, near Coutances. His sufferings he improved to the
sanctification of his soul by penance and the exercise of all heroic
Christian virtues. The rage and clamor with which his powerful enemies
spread their slanders to beat down his reputation, staggered many of his
friends: but St. Gregory of Tours never forsook him. Meroveus was
assassinated near Terouanne, by an order of his stepmother Fredegonda,
who was also suspected to have contrived the death of her husband
Chilperic, who was murdered at Chelles, in 584. She had three years
before procured Clovis, his younger son by a former wife, to be
assassinated, so that the crown of Soissons devolved upon her own son
Clotaire II.: but for his and her own protection, she had recourse to
Gontran, the religious king of Orleans and Burgundy. By his order Prix,
after a banishment of six years, was restored with honor to his see;
Ragnemond, the bishop of Paris, who had been a principal flatterer of
Chilperic in the persecution of this prelate, having assured this prince
that the council had not deposed him, but only enjoined him penance. St.
Prix assisted at the council of Macon in 585, where he harangued several
times, and exerted his zeal in framing many wise regulations for the
reformation of discipline. He continued his pastoral labors in the care
of his flock, and by just remonstrances often endeavored to reclaim the
wicked queen Fredegonda, who frequently resided at Rouen, and filled the
kingdom with scandals, tyrannical oppressions, and murders. This Jezabel
grew daily more and more hardened in iniquity, and by her secret order
St. Prix was assassinated while he assisted at matins in his church in
the midst of his clergy on Sunday the 25th of February. Happy should we
be if under all afflictions, with this holy penitent, we considered that