They baptized many at Wurtzburg, among them Gospert,
the duke of that country. This leader was married to Geilana, the
widow of his brother; and Kilian urging upon him that such a marriage
was contrary to the laws of the Christian church, the duke promised
to separate from her. Geilana had not, like her lord, accepted
Christianity, and, furious at this interference of Kilian, she
seized the opportunity when the latter had gone with his followers
on an expedition against the pagan Saxons to have Kilian and his
two companions murdered.
The cathedral was naturally an object of interest to the Scotch
soldiers in the time of Gustavus, and there was an animated argument
in the quarters of the officers of Munro's regiment on the night of
their arrival as to whether St. Kilian had done well or otherwise
in insisting upon his new convert repudiating his wife. The general
opinion, however, was against the saint, the colonel summing up
the question.
"In my opinion," he said, "Kilian was a fool. Here was no less a
matter at stake than the conversion of a whole nation, or at least
of a great tribe of heathens, and Kilian imperilled it all on a
question of minor importance; for in the first place, the Church
of Rome has always held that the pope could grant permission for
marriage within interdicted degrees; in the second place, the marriage
had taken place before the conversion of the duke to Christianity,
and they were therefore innocently and without thought of harm
bona fide man and wife.
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