Euquerio of Orleans

Biography

For seven years he had lived happily in the abbey of Jurniéges. Carlos Martel appointed him bishop (around 716). Euquerio pretended not to know anything and continued as before. But Martel announced in writing that he would bring him under escort to Orleans if he delayed getting on his way. He obeyed, but cried as he left the abbey. Everything went well until the day after the battle of Poitiers (732). Considering that, thanks to his soldiers, the Church had been saved from the battle, and that for that reason they should receive a reward, Carlos Martel decided to despoil it, even appropriating the golden chalices. All the bishops were silent out of fear; only Euquerio protested. That was worth exile to Cologne. The Church of Cologne was rich, but it had borne high taxes and welcomed the defender of ecclesiastical property as a hero. It could not suit Carlos Martel to form, around the martyr he had just involuntarily made, a nucleus of clerical opposition. That is why he hastened to order Duke Robert, governor of Liège, to go find the exile and kidnap him. Roberto and Euquerio became great friends. At the latter's suggestion, the duke persuaded his lord that the old bishop would nowhere be more isolated and harmless than in the abbey of St. Trudon. Euquerio spent his last years there as happy as he once was in Jumiéges.