The storiesIII / IX
Saint Martin and Julian: the soldier who would not fight
Before a battle near Worms, Martin refused the emperor’s bonus and offered to walk unarmed in front of the line. The enemy asked for peace at dawn.
Worms, 356
The night before a battle, Caesar Julian pays out a bonus, man by man.
Martin’s name is called. He will not take the gold.
Julian calls him a coward.
Then send me out first tomorrow, he says. No shield, no helmet. I will walk ahead of the line.
They lock him up to hold him to it. At dawn the enemy sends envoys and asks for peace.
“I am a soldier of Christ. I cannot fight.”
Margin noteNobody died that morning. I think that was the point.
From the book
Chapter IV · Face to face with Julian at Worms: “I am a soldier of Christ; I cannot fight”
Meanwhile, the barbarian peoples invaded Gaul. The Caesar Julian then gathered his army near the city of the Vangiones and began to distribute a special cash bounty to the…
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