Section 14

Martin burns a pagan shrine by prevents the fire from reaching neighboring buildings. At Levroux he pulverizes a pagan shrine despite local resistance.

sub idem fere tempus: 'at about the same time'.

eodem in opere: 'in the same task', i.e., destroying pagan shrines and converting the peasants.

proximam, immo adhaerentem: 'nearby, in fact adjacent'

agente vento: 'through the action of the wind'.

cerneres: 'you would see', i.e., if you were there, more vivid appeal to the reader.

quidam conflictus videretur: 'there seemed (to be) a kind of collision', impf. subj. in a result clause.

ibi tantum . . . ubi: 'only at that place where'.

Leprosum: village in Gallia, modern Levroux.

absque: 'without'.

opulentissimum superstitione religionis: 'richly ornamented by pagan superstition' (White).

ad proxima loca: 'to a nearby region'.

cilicio tectus et cinere: 'covered in sackcloth and ashes', a traditional sign of mortification and mourning (Isaiah 58.5, Matthew 11.21). A cilicium is a rug or blanket of goat's hair', a rough material suggestive of austerity.

instar militiae caelestis: 'like a heavenly soldiery'.

rediret . . . impleret: 'he should go back and complete', jussive subjunctive in indirect statement, representing the angels' instructions.

devotus: adverbial, 'zealously, piously'.

inspectiantibus . . . et quiescentibus dum . . . dīrueret: 'watching and being quiet until he demolished'. The dum clause is part of the ablative absolute, and its subj. suggests that dum means 'until such time as', as though the pagans were waiting for him to be done. But Sulpicius uses the indicative in a similar context above, section 13: cum īdem illī, dum templum ēvertitur, imperante Dominō quiēvissent.

redegit in pulverem: 'reduced to dust' (> redigo, -ere).

colendum: (sc. esse) 'should be worshipped' (> colo -ere), passive periphrastic in indirect statement after confitentes.

neglegenda: (sc. esse), 'should be abandoned'.

adesse: 'aid' (> adsum + dat.).