A bishop stoned for reproaching a queen her life, and whom a pope reproached for his pagan poets.
Bishop of Vienne at the end of the sixth century, he had two famous quarrels. The first with Gregory the Great, who reproached him for teaching grammar and the pagan poets to his clergy — a reproach to which cultural history owes an often-quoted letter, and Desiderius the credit of not yielding. The second cost him his life: he publicly reproached Brunhilda, queen of Austrasia and Burgundy, and her grandson king Theuderic II, for their conduct. A council convened against him deposed him on charges a second council found false, and he was restored. He began again. In 607 men sent from the court stoned him to death in the Bresse, on the bank of the Chalaronne. The place has borne his name ever since.
A bishop holding stones in the folds of his chasuble, or being stoned by a riverside.