Cautinus (French: Cautin) was a bishop of the Diocese of Clermont in the 6th century.

Gregory of Tours

Most of what is recorded about Cautinus derives from the writings of

Gregory of Tours Gregory of Tours (30 November 538 – 17 November 594 AD) was a Gallo-Roman historian and Bishop of Tours, which made him a leading prelate of the area that had been previously referred to as Gaul by the Romans. He was born Georgius Florenti ...

, who was a contemporary of Cautinus and a fellow bishop. According to Gregory, following the death of the previous bishop

Gall Galls (from the Latin , 'oak-apple') or ''cecidia'' (from the Greek , anything gushing out) are a kind of swelling growth on the external tissues of plants, fungi, or animals. Plant galls are abnormal outgrowths of plant tissues, similar to be ...

in 554, the clergy elected for a priest named Cato to become the next bishop. Cautinus, however, who was an archdeacon in Clermont, went to king Theudebald and reported the death of Bishop Gall. The king then made Cautinus as the new bishop of Clermont. Cato, however, tried to depose Cautinus afterwards and wouldn't submit to him. He also had bad relations with Chram son of King

Chlothar I Chlothar I, sometime called "the Old" ( French: le Vieux), (died December 561) also anglicised as Clotaire, was a king of the Franks of the Merovingian dynasty and one of the four sons of Clovis I. Chlothar's father, Clovis I, divided the kin ...

of the Franks and Cato tried to get Chram to help him to get rid of Cautinus. Cautinus was described by Gregory as being very avaricious and tried to take the property of others. Gregory recounted a story where the bishop attempted to have a priest locked in a tomb and left to die when he refused to give him the deeds to properties he owned. The priest later escaped and accused Cautinus before the king of the matter. Gregory also claimed Cautinus was a drunkard, illiterate and 'subservient to Jews'.Histoire résumée et chronologique des persécutions contre les Juifs de l'Antiquité au Moyen Âge - de la Colonisation romaine de la Gaule aux premiers Capétiens
/ref> Cautinus died in the year 571 on the day before Passion Sunday as a result of plague.

References

{{Reflist 571 deaths 6th-century Frankish bishops Bishops of Clermont