Hagiography, Historiography, and Identity in Sixth-Century Gaul: Rethinking Gregory of Tours 9789048551996

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Hagiography, Historiography, and Identity in Sixth Century Gaul

Social Worlds of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages The Late Antiquity experienced profound cultural and social change: the political disintegration of the Roman Empire in the West, contrasted by its continuation and transformation in the East; the arrival of ‘barbarian’ newcomers and the establishment of new polities; a renewed militarization and Christianization of society; as well as crucial changes in Judaism and Christianity, together with the emergence of Islam and the end of classical paganism. This series focuses on the resulting diversity within Late Antique society, emphasizing cultural connections and exchanges; questions of unity and inclusion, alienation and conflict; and the processes of syncretism and change. By drawing upon a number of disciplines and approaches, this series sheds light on the cultural and social history of Late Antiquity and the greater Mediterranean world. Series Editor Carlos Machado, University of St. Andrews Editorial Board Lisa Bailey, University of Auckland Maijastina Kahlos, University of Helsinki Volker Menze, Central European University Ellen Swift, University of Kent Enrico Zanini, University of Siena

Hagiography, Historiography, and Identity in Sixth Century Gaul Rethinking Gregory of Tours

Tamar Rotman

Amsterdam University Press

Cover illustration: The Martyrdom of Saint Julian of Brioude, stained glass from Saint-Gatien Cathedral, Tours. Cover design: Coördesign, Leiden Lay-out: Crius Group, Hulshout isbn 978 94 6372 773 0 e-isbn 978 90 4855 199 6 doi 10.5117/9789463727730 nur 684 © T. Rotman / Amsterdam University Press B.V., Amsterdam 2022 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Every effort has been made to obtain permission to use all copyrighted illustrations reproduced in this book. Nonetheless, whosoever believes to have rights to this material is advised to contact the publisher.



Table of contents

List of Abbreviations

7

Acknowledgments 9 Introduction 13 The Cults of Saints 15 Gregory of Tours and his Work 19 East and West 24 The Aims of this Study 25 1. Gregory of Tours 29 The Life of Gregory of Tours 29 Gregory of Tours and his Saints 33 Martin of Tours 33 Julian of Brioude 37 Vita Patrum 38 The Glory of the Confessors 39 The Glory of the Martyrs 40 Autohagiography 41 Conclusion 45 2. ‘When the Saints Go Marching In’: Eastern Saints in Merovingian Gaul The Italian Evidence The Eastern Evidence: Glory of the Martyrs Polycarp The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus The Forty Martyrs of Sebaste Sergius Cosmas and Damian Phocas Domitius George Isidore Polyeuctus The Eastern Evidence: Glory of the Confessors Conclusion: The Dissemination of the Cults of Saints

47 48 53 53 57 62 65 70 72 75 78 81 82 87 91

3. The Miraculous History of Gregory of Tours Libri Miraculorum Revisited Gregory of Tours’s Literary Approach Gregory of Tours’s Historiographical Perception From Hagiography to Ecclesiasticcal History A Brief History of ‘Ecclesiastical History’ Historiographical and Literary Context

101 104 108 111 117 117 124

4. ‘By Romans They Refer To…’ (Romanos Enim Vocitant): History, Hagiography, and Identity Whose History Is It Anyway? Gallo-Christian Identity Gaul vs. Spain Gaul vs. the East Hagiography and Identity The Martyrologium Hieronymianum

129 130 137 137 150 158 159

Conclusion

167

Bibliography 173 Index 191

AASS BHG BHL CCSL CSEL EH

GC GM LH MGH AA SRM MH SD VP VSJ VSM

List of Abbreviations Acta Sanctorum Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca (Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, 1909) Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina (Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, 1898–1899) Corpus Christianorum Series Latina Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum Eusebius of Caesarea, The Ecclesiastical History, vol. 1 (Books I–V), ed. G. P. Goold, trans. Kirsopp Lake (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1926, reprint 1975) Gregorius Turonensis, Liber in Gloria Confessorum, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH SRM 1.2 (Hannover, 1885), pp. 284–370 Gregorius Turonensis, Liber in Gloria Martyrum, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH SRM 1.2 (Hannover, 1885), pp. 34–111 Gregorius Turonensis, Decem Libri Historiarum, eds. Bruno Krusch and Wilhelm Levison, MGH SRM. 1.1 (Hannover, 1937) Monumenta Germanae Historica Auctores antiquissimi Scriptores Rerum Merovingicarum Martyrologium Hieronymianum, ed. Hippolyte Delehaye, AASS, Novembris II (Brussels, 1894) Gregorius Turonensis, Passio sanctorum Septem dormientium apud Ephesum, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH SRM 1.2 (Hannover, 1885), pp. 396–403 Gregorius Turonensis, Liber Vitae Patrum, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH SRM. 1.2 (Hannover, 1885), pp. 211–283 Gregorius Turonensis, Liber de Passione et Virtutibus Sancti Iluiani martyris, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH SRM 1.2 (Hannover, 1885), pp. 112–133 Gregorius Turonensis, Libri I–IV de Virtutibus Sancti Martini Episcopi, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH SRM 1.2 (Hannover, 1885), pp. 134–211

Acknowledgments This book is the outcome of almost a decade of studying, reading, writing, and practically living with the spirit of Gregory of Tours. Working on the writings of Gregory of Tours taught me a lot about the Merovingian period, hagiography, and the transformation of the Roman world, as well as the notion of identity and the importance of community – not just to Gregory and his contemporaries, but also to myself. I owe much gratitude to many people in my life who supported me during the time I spent working on this study, and I wish to thank some of them. My first encounter with the history of the late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, and with the works of Gregory of Tours, was during my undergraduate studies in a class I took with Yitzhak Hen. Subsequently, I was fortunate enough to have him as my Master’s and Doctoral advisor, and I wish to thank him for setting such an excellent example. His tremendous knowledge and willingness to give me plenty of the freedom to find my own scholarly way, combined with a great sense of humor and kindness, make him the great supervisor he is. I am grateful for having had the opportunity to learn from him, and I thank him for teaching me how to be a medievalist. The Department of General History at Ben Gurion University of the Negev has been my academic home since 2007, when I started my BA studies, until 2019, when I finished my doctoral studies. It will always have a special place in my heart. I wish to thank its academic and administrative staff for teaching me the mysteries of history and for guiding me on my path to becoming a historian. Special thanks should be given to my doctoral committee members, Chaim Harvey Hames, Ephraim Shoham-Steiner, and Iris Shagrir, for their insights. I also wish to thank the reviewers of my dissertation, Helmut Reimitz, Carine van Rhijn, and Felice Lifshitz. Their notes and suggestions helped me in the process of turning my doctoral study into this book. I am also grateful for the comments I received from Yaniv Fox and Jamie Kreiner when I was starting to work on this book. The notes and observations of Rosamond McKitterick and the anonymous reviewer of this book helped me fine-tune this study and opened my mind to new ways of understanding Gregory of Tours, and I wish to thank them for that. Finally, I want to thank Erin Dailey for his encouragement and guidance throughout the process of turning a manuscript into a book. I conducted this research thanks to the financial support I received from several funds. The German-Israeli Foundation (GIF) supported the project East and West in the Early Middle Ages: The Merovingian Kingdoms in

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Mediterranean Perspective, led by Yitzhak Hen and Stefan Esders. This project enabled me to exchange ideas with peers and formulate the Mediterranean perspective on Merovingian history. I wish to thank the GIF for this support, Yitzhak Hen and Stefan Esders for creating this project, and its members for their lively discussions. A special thank you should go to my colleague Pia Lucas, who shares my enthusiasm for Gregory of Tours. I also wish to thank the Department of General History at Ben Gurion University of the Negev for their doctoral scholarship. Furthermore, I wish to thank Yaniv Fox for inviting me to participate as a post-doctoral fellow in his ISF (Israeli Science Foundation) project Through Distant Eyes: The Birth of a Merovingian Story, 575–1575, thus allowing me to work on this book. Finally, I completed the book during my fellowship at the Center for the Study of Conversion and Inter-Religious Encounters at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, and I wish to thank the members of the Center for their support. I could not have conducted this project without the help and support of my family. Since I was a small child, my parents, Nomi and Avram, have given me every opportunity to expand my knowledge. They taught me about history, arts, science, literature, nature, and everything in between related to human existence and experience. I wish to thank them for their endless encouragement. I am also very grateful for the love and support of my older brothers, Roee and Assaf, and their families, as well as for what I have received from the entire Bernat clan. A special thank you should go to the good friends I was lucky enough to gather around me over the years – to those who helped me to calm my anxiety, to those who listened when I spoke time and again about my research, to those who read and offered reflections on the many drafts I have written over the years, and to those who made sure I was also having some fun. I especially wish to express my gratitude to (in order of their appearance in my life): Hella Shpierer, Lior Yaary-Dolev, Nili Goltz, Lior Tibet, Reut Zarochinsky, Sivan Yonai-Mamman, Moran Greenwald, Anna Gutgarts, Orly Amit, Chen Antler, Mor Hajbi, Tzvia Bloch, and Meital Shay. I also wish to thank my online communities on Twitter and Facebook, who helped me procrastinate and fight procrastination at the same time. I would also like to use this opportunity to thank all those who offered mental support at times of great anxiety – related not only to global circumstances but also to the often-unspoken struggles of a graduate student and an early career scholar, which should receive more institutional attention. To those of you who may relate, please know that you are not alone, and you don’t have to face such hardships by yourselves. Last but certainly not least, I wish to express my gratitude to my partner, Amir Bernat. I could not have completed this study without his love and

Acknowledgments

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unlimited support. Through his holding my hand, making sure I ate and slept, hearing every paper I have ever given and discussing any idea that entered my mind, I was able to get through the past few years and finish this book. It is with great love that I dedicate this book to him.

A great many things keep happening – some are good, some are bad. Gregory of Tours, Ten Books of Histories It is shameful for a foolish, fraudulent, ignorant, and unskilled man to undertake what he cannot accomplish, but what can I do? Gregory of Tours, The Glory of the Confessors

Introduction So you, too, if you manfully, not tepidly, place the sign of salvation on your forehead or in your heart and resist sins, you will be made a martyr, for the martyrs themselves are deemed worthy not because of their strength but because of God’s assistance through the sign of the Cross. As I have often said, the Lord himself struggles and triumphs in them. Therefore, it is necessary that we seek their patronage, so that we may be worthy to be helped by their approbation. What we cannot be worthy to obtain by our own merits we can receive by their intercessions. Hence, by using the help of the Holy Trinity, we are worthy of being [considered] martyrs and we renounce fleshly desires, as was said by he who crowns in heaven with precious stones those who faithfully struggle for him. He deigns to protect in this world the foster-children who venerate his friends, and he maintains that the martyrs, whom he receives as immortals in the beauty of Paradise, will help when they are called upon by his people. In the Day of Judgment, when eternal glory surrounds them, the grace of their mediation will either excuse us or a mild punishment will pass over us. He will not condemn to eternity for their sins the defendants whom he redeemed deserving of the precious blood [of the martyrs].1

1 GM 106, p. 111: ‘Ergo et tu, si viriliter et non tepide signum vel fronti vel pectori salutare superponas, tunc resistendo vitiis martyr habeberis, quia et ipsi martyres ea quae vicerunt non suis viribus, sed Dei haec auxiliis per signaculum crucis gloriosissime peregerunt, in quibus, ut saepe diximus, ipse Dominus et dimicat et triumphat. Unde oportet nobis eorum patrocinia expetere, ut eorum mereamur suffragiis adiuvari, vel, quod nostris digni non sumus meritis obtenere eorum possimus intercessionibus adipisci, ut adiutorio sacratae Trinitatis usi, effici mereamur martyres, carnalibus desideriis abdicatis, ut ipse dicit, qui pro se fideliter dimicantes lapidibus pretiosis coronat in caelo; alumnos cultoresque amicorum suorum protegere dignetur in saeculo ac praestet, ut adsistant martyres invocati a suis, quos post victoriam paradisus beatitudinis retenet inmortales; ut in illo examinationis tempore, cum illos gloria aeterna circumdat, nos aut excuset mediatrix venia aut levis poena pertranseat; nec damnet reos pro criminis actione in prepetuo, quos pretiosi sanguinis commertio reparavit’. This and all subsequent translations are mine, unless stated otherwise.

Rotman, T., Hagiography, Historiography, and Identity in Sixth Century Gaul: Rethinking Gregory of Tours. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2022 doi 10.5117/9789463727730_intro

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Hagiogr aphy, Historiogr aphy, and Identit y in Six th Century Gaul

With these words, Gregory of Tours (d. 594) concludes his short treatise, the Glory of the Martyrs, in which he glorifies the deeds of the martyrs by describing miracles that were performed by or are related to martyrs from the entire Mediterranean world. These stories, alongside others that appear in the rest of Gregory’s hagiographical collections, stand at the center of this study.2 As accounts that depict all kinds of miracles that took place in various places and involve people from all walks of life, these stories offer a rare glimpse into the social, political, cultural, and religious history of sixthcentury Merovingian Gaul. Gregory of Tours, a bishop and a Gallo-Roman, composed these works during the twenty years he served at the bishop of Tours and he used them in order to teach his audience about their past, their community, and the meaning of being Christians. By doing so, as this book aims to unfold, Gregory composed an ecclesiastical history, shared his vision of community, and constructed a Gallo-Christian identity that was simultaneously based on a shared belief, mutual history, and geography. Saints, their cults, and their popularity were used by Gregory in order to tell the story of the Merovingian Church and its people, to connect the past to the present, and form what Benedict Anderson defines as ‘imagined community’.3 It is likely that some or most of the individuals in Gregory’s audience did not know each other personally, but they still had certain connections and obligations to each other which brought them together and made them feel part of the same community. Gregory’s works responded to this notion, and by using the cults of saints he defined and explained the elements that formed this community. Gregory’s statement at the end of the Glory of the Martyrs gives us a glimpse into his perception of the meaning of the cult of saints and martyrs, and this notion is crucial for any attempt to analyze Gregory’s hagiographies and understand their purpose. ‘It is necessary that we seek their patronage’, he explains, because this may assist their followers at the End of Times, at the Last Judgment, ‘when eternal glory surrounds them, the grace of their mediation will either excuse us or a mild punishment will pass over us’. 2 These collections include the aforementioned Glory of the Martyrs as well as the Glory of the Confessors and the Vita Patrum. 3 In his famous study of nationalism, Benedict Anderson defines the concept of imagined communities. According to him, a nation is ‘an imagined political community. […] [I]t is imagined because the members of the even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion’. This notion is true for many societies, from various geographical origins and periods, and thus it is also true for early medieval societies. See Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, p. 6. See also Rosenwein, Emotional Communities.

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Thus, the saints and martyrs were crucial to one’s salvation, and as such they had a central role in the lives of Christian believers, the followers whom Gregory mentions in his sermon. As mediators, saints created a bridge between Heaven and earth, past and present, and for this they were venerated. Gregory used the popularity and importance of the saints as well as their dual role as mediators to propagate their cults, but also in order to describe the history of his audience and formulate an identity based on that history. The stories he told, I shall argue, were relatable, and thus they created a sense of belonging to a community whose members had a mutual past and hopes for a similar future.

The Cults of Saints The ‘cults of saints’ is a general term for various types of rituals and practices that celebrate the saints, that is, those extraordinary Christians, men and women, who were appreciated for their piety and religious zeal. The first saints to be venerated were the Apostles, who accompanied Jesus before and after his death. Then came the martyrs, the faithful Christians who refused to renounce their Christian faith as the authorities of the Roman Empire persecuted them, put them on trial, tortured them, and executed them in various horrible ways. With the Christianization of the Roman Empire, other exceptional figures joined this ‘holy family’ of saints, among them priests and bishops, hermits, nuns, and abbots, as well as others, who proved their pure devotion to God through their actions. 4 The cults of saints is already in evidence in the famous Ecclesiastical History, written in the first half of the fourth century by the Palestinian bishop Eusebius of Caesarea (d. 339). There, Eusebius records many stories of martyrdom, including that of the forty-eight martyrs of Lyons (177); he reports that: [T]he bodies of the martyrs, after having been exposed and insulted in every way for six days, and afterwards burned and turned to ashes, were swept by the wicked into the river Rhone which flows nearby, that not even a relic of them might still appear upon the earth.5 4 Barnes, Early Christian Hagiography, p. 154; Thacker, ‘Loca Sanctorum’, p. 2; Rapp, ‘Saints and the Holy Men’, pp. 550–551. 5 EH V.1.62, p. 436: ‘τὰ οὖν σώματα τῶν μαρτύρων παντοίως παραδειγματισθέντα καὶ αἰθριασθέντα ἐπὶ ἡμέρας ἕξ, μετέπειτα καέντα καὶ αἰθαλωθέντα ὑπὸ τῶν ἀνόμων κατεσαρώθη εἰς τὸν Ῥοδανὸν ποταμὸν πλησίον παραρρέοντα, ὅπως μηδὲ λείψανον αὐτῶν φαίνηται ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ἔτι’; trans. EH, p. 437.

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Eusebius’s report indicates that, even at that very early stage, martyrs and their body parts were already important to Christians and were venerated as holy remains.6 Relics indeed formed an important component of the Christian cult of saints, but it was not the only one. No less crucial were the stories told about the saints, their lives and deaths, the great deeds they did and the miracles they performed in their lifetimes and after their deaths. During the persecution period, texts about the martyrs were already being written down. In the late 1970s, Herbert Musurillo collected a few of the earliest passiones of the Christian martyrs, including the martyrdom accounts of Polycarp, Perpetua, Agathonice, and others.7 The early textual records of the acts of the martyrs – the hagiographical or martyrological evidence – were brief, and their structure and content recalls that of juridical protocols. One generally reads a short description of the life and character of the martyr(s), their dialogue with the judge (usually an emperor or a proconsul), a verdict, and then punishment and execution. There were some exceptional texts, such as the one describing the martyrdom of Perpetua and her companions, which provides a long narrative in diary form.8 But most early martyrdom acts have a similar, legalistic structure.9 The Christianization of the Roman world brought some changes to the Christian cults of saints. Alongside expanding the categories of sainthood, the Christian triumph also impacted on the hagiographical literature. Instead of short martyrological accounts, we now encounter longer treatises that describe at length the life of the saint, their deeds, and their eventual death, sometimes including some post-mortem miracle accounts. In the East we find, for instance, hagiographical records about hermits and monks such as the Egyptian monk, Pachomius the Great.10 In the West, we see works

6 See also the Gregory of Tours’s version of the legend of the forty-eight martyrs of Lyons and their relics in GM 48, pp. 71–72. On the role of relics in the cults of saints see Geary, Furta Sacra; Brown, The Cult of the Saints; Brown, ‘Relics and Social Status’; Wortley, ‘The Origin’; Smith, ‘Relics’; see also the various papers in Räsänen, Hartmann and Richards (eds.), Relics, Identity, and Memory in Medieval Europe; Freeman, Holy Bones Holy Dust; Wiśniewski, The Beginnings of the Cult of Relics. 7 Musurillo, The Acts of the Christian Martyrs. New editions of these texts can be found in Rebillard, Greek and Latin Narratives. 8 Heffernan, The Passion of Perpetua; Kitzler, From Passio Perpetuae to Acta Perpetuae. 9 On the structure of early martyrdom acts see Barnes, Early Christian Hagiography. 10 Sancti Pachomi Vitae Graecae.

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such as the Vita Martini written by Sulpicius Severus about the life of the bishop Martin of Tours.11 Written accounts of saints were a means of commemorating their deeds and passing them to future generations. They were also used in celebrations of the saints. Thus, for instance, during feast days, accounts of the lives and deeds of the saints were read aloud, and stories of the saints were passed to the community, explaining to its members why the saints should be venerated. Some of those stories and written accounts were transmitted to other Christian communities. This phenomenon began at a very early stage of Christian history. During the persecution period, stories of martyrs were already being sent to foreign communities, as exemplified by the account of the forty-eight martyrs of Lyons. This story appears in the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius as a quotation from a letter that was sent from the Christian communities of Vienne and Lyons to those in Phrygia and the province of Asia.12 Stories were also translated and disseminated, as the Latin and Greek accounts of the martyrdom of Carpus, Papylus, and Agathonice prove.13 In sixth-century Gaul, in the city of Tours, Bishop Gregory continued this longstanding tradition, writing an entire corpus of hagiographical works, among them the Virtutibus Sancti Martini,14 the Virtutibus Sancti Juliani,15 the Vita Patrum,16 the Glory of the Confessors,17 and the Glory of the Martyrs.18 Besides vitae, passiones, and miracula, which documented the history of the saint or martyr, there are other types of texts about saints that could be considered hagiography. Sermons, homilies, calendars, and martyrologies, for instance, were also composed in order to commemorate the saints, propagate their cults, and celebrate their feast days. Moreover, historiographical records such as histories and chronicles also include hagiographic content: an account about a certain miracle by a saint, a relic, or even a full-length vita of a saint. Yet, when it comes to such sources, scholars tend to differentiate them from hagiography. The reverse is also true, and usually hagiographical 11 Sulpicius Severus, Vita Sancti Martini, pp. 248–316; see also the new edition of Philip Burton, published in 2017. 12 EH V.1.3, p. 406. 13 Μαρτύριον τῶν Ἁγίων Κάρπου, Παπύλου, καὶ Ἀγαθονίκης, pp. 22–29; Passio SS. Carpi, Pamfili et Agathonicae, pp. 28–37; See also Rotman, ‘Voluntary Martyrdom’. 14 VSM. 15 VSJ. 16 VP. 17 GC. 18 GM.

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records are rarely considered historiography. This study aims to challenge this dichotomic notion of history and hagiography, offering a more flexible approach to texts while bearing in mind the limitations of traditional definitions of literary genres.19 For many years, there was a tendency to examine hagiographical texts within the context of the cults of saints and the role these texts played in the cults. Hagiographical texts helped historians to recreate biographies of saints, to discuss the development of their cult, or to survey liturgical processes. In the 1970s, Peter Brown changed that perception with his seminal study on the holy man in late antique Syria.20 Brown’s insights on how hagiographical texts and cults of saints can teach modern historians about the social and political history of the community that venerates these saints gave scholars new ways to examine cults of saints and hagiographical records.21 Hagiography became a crucial source for the study of human history, as numerous studies prove. Scholars use hagiography to examine politics, social dynamics, gender, identity, and many other subjects. The wide range of hagiography – the many types of texts that are included under this literary definition and the diversity of its audience and protagonists – make hagiographical literature a rich source that reveals many aspects of human history that are not always apparent in traditional historiographical sources. A recent example is the study of medieval queer history that is made possible thanks to the unique information offered by hagiography, which helps us reach a better understanding of both the past and the present.22 However, this scholarly trend is still not entirely apparent with regard to the hagiographical works of Gregory of Tours, mainly because they were not studied as a coherent whole. Indeed, Gregory’s vitae and the books of miracles have long been overshadowed by his famous historiographical work, the Ten Books of Histories, and it is the aim of this book to fill this gap and offer a fresh perspective on and analysis of Gregory’s hagiographies. These works, I shall argue, are more than a mere depiction of lives of saints 19 Recently, Felice Lifshitz discussed the problems with the concept of hagiography. See Lifshitz, ‘Still Useless’. This article responds and broadens the discussion offered in to her 1994 paper, ‘Beyond Positivism’. For further reading on early medieval hagiography see Heinzelmann, ‘L’hagiographie mérovingienne’; Palmer, Early Medieval Hagiography; Diem, ‘Vita Vel Regula; Mériaux, ‘Bishops, Monks and Priests’. 20 Brown, ‘Rise and Function’. 21 On Brown’s impact on modern scholarship see, for instance, the papers collected in HowardJohnston and. Hayward (eds.), The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages. 22 See, for instance, the papers in Spencer-Hall and Gutt, Trans and Genderqueer Subjects in Medieval Hagiography; Betancourt, Byzantine Intersectionality.

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and the propagation of their cults. They also reveal aspects of the history of Merovingian Gaul, Gregory’s attitude towards history, and the manner in which Gregory and his contemporaries responded to the changes that followed the disintegration of the Roman Empire and redefined their place in the world.

Gregory of Tours and his Work Gregory of Tours hardly needs any introduction. From the second half of the twentieth century onwards, studies about Gregory and his Ten Books of Histories have proliferated.23 Since the turn of the millennium, three vast volumes on Gregory of Tours and his time have been published: two focus on Gregory of Tours and his world, and the third one focuses on Merovingian history more broadly.24 Gregory is one of the most popular late antique and early medieval historians, and there are good reasons for that. His Histories is among the few historiographical records that have survived from the early Merovingian period. Whether or not his opening remark in the Histories that ‘it is impossible to find any scholar who is skilled in the art of writing who could depict these matters in prose or verse’,25 is wholly accurate, he did nevertheless author a source that became essential for modern historians of late antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. There is no other historiographical narrative of the history of Merovingian Gaul that comes close to Gregory’s in scope and depth. Scholars use this source to study almost every aspect of Merovingian history, including its politics and diplomacy, as well as its religious, social, and cultural histories; many of these studies are cited in this book. Yet the popularity of the Histories and its centrality to modern attempts to explain different aspects of Merovingian history has led to a certain neglect of Gregory’s hagiographical corpus.26 Moreover, when it comes to Gregory’s 23 To list only a few books: Goffart, Narrators, pp. 112–234; Breukelaar, Historiography and Episcopal Authority; Heinzelmann, Gregory of Tours, originally published in German in 1994 as Gregor von Tours; Wood, The Merovingian Kingdoms, 450–751; Dailey, Queens, Consorts, Concubines. Many more article and book chapters about Gregory of Tours and his time were written, some of which are cited along this study. 24 Mitchell and Wood (eds.), The World of Gregory of Tours; Murray (ed.), A Companion to Gregory of Tours; Effros and Moreira (eds.), The Oxford Handbook to the Merovingian World. 25 LH, preaf., p. 1: ‘nec repperire possit quisquam peritus dialectica in arte Grammaticus qui haec aut stilo prosaico aut metrico depingeret versu’. 26 There are, of course, some exceptions. See for instance Van Dam, Saints and their Miracles; Kreiner, Social Life of Hagiography; Lucas, ‘Heilige in Ost und West bei Gregor von Tours’. It is

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career as hagiographer, he is best known for his longer hagiographical works – the Virtutibus Sancti Martini, the Virtutibus Sancti Juliani and the Vita Patrum. His other hagiographical works, namely, the Glory of the Martyrs and the Glory of the Confessors, have received comparatively little scholarly attention. These lesser-known hagiographical collections contain accounts of miracles that were performed by martyrs and saints. They mostly feature stories of Gallic saints, but there are also several accounts about foreign saints and martyrs. Most of these appear in the Glory of the Martyrs, in which Gregory includes twelve accounts about Italian martyrs, four more about Spanish ones, one about a North African martyr and ten about martyrs from the eastern parts of the Roman Empire. To this group of foreign saints, one may add about thirty-five accounts about New Testament protagonists. The Glory of the Confessors includes only one account about an eastern saint, another one about an Italian saint and two more accounts about events that took place in Spain and do not discuss any saint in particular. Like the Histories, the hagiographical corpus contains crucial evidence that may assist anyone who is interested in the cultural, social, political and, of course, religious history of Merovingian Gaul. Reading this corpus alongside the Histories can help us reach a more nuanced understanding of that period. For this reason, this study focuses on Gregory of Tours’s hagiographical corpus. Although all Gregory’s hagiographical works have been published as modern critical editions in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica (MGH) and have been translated into modern languages, thus becoming accessible to scholars, the Virtutibus Sancti Martini and the Virtutibus Sancti Juliani have received the bulk of scholarly attention.27 The translators of Gregory’s hagiographical works have offered little analysis of the sources, providing only short introductions about the author and his corpus. There has been no attempt to contextualize the works within their broaden social, cultural, political, literary and religious contexts. Hence, these other works still await their scholarly due. also worth mentioning Paul Fouracre’s study on later Merovingian hagiography. See Fouracre, ‘Merovingian History and Merovingian Hagiography’, and Fouracre and Gerberding, Late Merovingian France. 27 For an English translation of Gregory’s hagiographical writings, see Gregory of Tours, The Glory of the Martyrs, trans. Raymond Van Dam; Gregory of Tours, The Glory of the Confessors, trans. Raymond Van-Dam; Gregory of Tours, The Lives of the Fathers, trans. Edward James; Gregory of Tours, The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, trans. William C. McDermott; Gregory of Tours, The Suffering and Miracle of the Martyr St. Julian, trans. Raymond Van Dam; Gregory of Tours, The Miracles of the Bishop St. Martin, trans. Raymond Van Dam. See also Giselle de Nie, Gregory of Tours, Lives and Miracles for new translations of the VP, VSM and VSJ. For French translations, see Grégoire de Tours, Les livres des miracles et autres opuscules, trans. Henri L. Bordier.

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Raymond Van Dam’s book, Saints and their Miracles in Late Antique Gaul, is probably the best example of this scholarly trend.28 Van Dam focused almost exclusively on the Virtutibus Sancti Martini and the Virtutibus Sancti Juliani. He used these works to define the characteristics of the Merovingian cults of saints and explain how Gregory used them for his own political benefit. Yet he hardly mentioned the rest of Gregory’s hagiographical writings, thus limiting his perspective on the history of the Merovingian cults of saints. Similarly, John Corbett, following Peter Brown’s approach to hagiography and the social role of saints, also concentrated on the Virtutibus Sancti Martini when he wrote in the mid-1980s about the cult of saints in the world of Gregory of Tours.29 Van Dam and Corbett are not alone. Yitzhak Hen, for instance, made similar use of the Virtutibus Sancti Juliani when he discussed the relations between the saint and the individual.30 When Hen mentions the miracle collections of Gregory of Tours or his Vita Patrum, he does so briefly, only to exemplify which texts were probably read during liturgical celebrations.31 Recently, Jamie Kreiner has reconstructed the social history of Merovingian Gaul through an examination of Merovingian hagiography.32 Kreiner looks at the entire Merovingian period, and she emphasizes the important role of sixth-century Merovingian authors, such as Gregory of Tours and Venantius Fortunatus, demonstrating their impact on later Merovingian hagiographers. Kreiner’s choice to take the vitae as representative of Merovingian hagiography led her to focus more on the Virtutibus Sancti Martini and Virtutibus Sancti Juliani, like her predecessors, and she hardly speaks of the miracle collections of Gregory of Tours, their role in this history of Merovingian hagiography, and what may be gained from such an inquiry. František Graus’s monograph on Merovingian hagiography, written in 1965, marks a different approach in the scholarship on Gregory of Tours’s hagiographical corpus. In contrast to most other historians, Graus did not limit himself to the Virtutibus Sancti Martini and the Virtutibus Sancti Juliani, and in his survey, he made occasional use of the Vita Patrum and the two miracle collections of Gregory of Tours.33 In the 1980s, Peter Brown discussed Gregory’s hagiographical works. His paper on relics in Merovingian society, for instance, includes many references to the Vita Patrum, the Glory of the 28 Van Dam, Saints and their Miracles. 29 Corbett, ‘Praesentium Signorum Munera’; idem, ‘Hagiography and the Experience’. 30 Hen, Culture and Religion, pp. 111–120. 31 Hen, Culture and Religion, p. 86. 32 Kreiner, Social Life of Hagiography. 33 Graus, Volk, Herrscher und Heiliger.

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Martyrs and the Glory of the Confessors.34 Brown used accounts from these works to piece together a social and religious history of Merovingian Gaul, yet he extracted the accounts from their literary context and did not treat each work as a coherent whole. As such, he provided only a partial picture of the social history of Merovingian Gaul. In 1998, John Kitchen published his book Saints’ Lives and the Rhetoric of Gender, in which he examined Merovingian hagiography, and particularly the works of Venantius Fortunatus and Gregory of Tours.35 Kitchen begins the section on Gregory of Tours by criticizing previous scholarship for focusing more on Gregory’s historiographical work than on his hagiography. He continues with a thorough analysis of one of Gregory’s less popular hagiographical works, the Vita Patrum, which eventually leads him to discuss Gregory’s depiction of female saints. Kitchen’s study is noteworthy, not least because of his innovative treatment of gender issues in Merovingian hagiographical sources. His choice to focus on the Vita Patrum is also quite significant, as it marks a turning point in the attention given by scholars to Gregory’s lesser hagiographical works. Not long after Kitchen’s book came out, Danuta Shanzer published her paper ‘So Many Saints – So Little Time… the Libri Miraculorum of Gregory of Tours’, in which she also mentions the lack of scholarship on a large part of Gregory’s hagiographical work.36 Shanzer points to a handful of exceptions, such as Raymond Van Dam’s translations of the Glory of the Martyrs and the Glory of the Confessors, Edward James’ translation of the Vita Patrum, and two papers written by Peter Brown at the beginning of the 1980s.37 She thus focuses on the lesser-known hagiographical works by Gregory of Tours – the Glory of the Martyrs and the Glory of the Confessors – leaving aside the Vita Patrum on ‘generic grounds, since, as Gregory himself knew, it did not constitute a “Liber miraculorum”’.38 Such a statement is at odds with Gregory’s own words at the end of the preface to the Glory of the Confessors, which clearly indicates that although he did not list the Vita Patrum among the miracle books at the end of the Histories, he certainly viewed it as part of his hagiographical corpus.39 Moreover, despite her ‘declaration of intent’, 34 Brown, ‘Relics and Social Status’. 35 Kitchen, Saints’ Lives, pp. 58–100, 101–114. 36 Shanzer, ‘So Many Saints’. 37 For the translations of Van Dam and James see above, n. 27; Brown, ‘Relics and Social Status’; idem, The Cult of the Saints. Shanzer does not mention the book by Kitchen and the criticism he offers. 38 Shanzer, ‘So Many Saints’, p. 22 n. 18. 39 GC, praef. p. 298: ‘Igitur in primo libello inseruimus aliqua de miraculis Domini ac sanctorum apostolorum reliquorumque martyrum, quae actenus latuerunt, quae Deus ad corroborandam

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Shanzer follows her predecessors in basing her argument on the analysis of the Virtutibus Sancti Martini and the Virtutibus Sancti Juliani. She does have some new insights to offer on the Glory of the Martyrs and the Glory of the Confessors, and she certainly situates these works, correctly, in the context of Gregory’s hagiographical corpus. Nonetheless, she does not treat the Glory of the Martyrs and the Glory of the Confessors as two separate books, and she does not give them the attention she herself admits they deserve. To these studies, we can add the work of Giselle de Nie. De Nie is interested in the spiritual world of Gregory of Tours, and she uses his miracle stories to penetrate that world. Because of her interest in miracle stories, De Nie pays much more attention than other scholars to Gregory’s hagiographical corpus as a whole. Nevertheless, the Virtutibus Sancti Martini and the Virtutibus Sancti Juliani still loom large in her studies, much more so than accounts taken from Gregory’s other miracle collections. 40 Moreover, her research centers on the literary aspect of Gregory’s works and hardly engages with their historical side. There are good reasons for scholars to focus almost entirely on the books on Martin of Tours and Julian of Brioude. These are the longest and most detailed hagiographical works composed by Gregory, each considering a single saint. The length of the books and the rich narratives Gregory supplies have helped scholars to reconstruct the development of the cult of each saint and reach broad conclusions regarding the characteristics of the Merovingian cults of saint. Thus, for instance, they have argued that the Merovingian cults focused on local, Gallic saints. 41 However, singling out two works as representative of the cult of saints in sixth-century Gaul and of Gregory’s hagiographical writing does not do justice to the complexity of either the cults or Gregory’s corpus, nor to his role as an author. f idelium f idem cotidie dignatur augere; quia valde molestum erat, ut traderentur oblivion. In secondo posuimus de virtutibus sancti Iuliani. Quattuor vero libellos de virtutibus sancti Martini. Septimum de quorundam feliciosorum vita. Octavum hunc scribimus de miraculis confessorum’ [‘In a first book [GM] I therefore included some of the miracles of the Lord, the holy apostles, and the other martyrs. These miracles had been unknown until now, [but] God deigned to increase them daily to strengthen the faith of believers. For it was surely improper that they disappear from memory. In a second book [VJ] I wrote about the miracles of saint Julian. [I wrote] four books [VM 1–4] about the miracles of saint Martin, and a seventh [VP] about the life of some blessed [saints]. I am writing this eighth book about the miracles of the confessors’]. 40 See for example: De Nie, ‘History and Miracle’; idem, ‘The Language in Miracle; idem, Views from a Many-Windowed Tower. 41 Van Dam, Saints and their Miracles; Thacker, ‘The Making of Local Saint’, p. 67; Thacker, ‘Loca Sanctorum’, pp. 1–44; Wood, ‘Constructing Cults in Early Medieval France’, p. 161.

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East and West Gregory’s inclusion of accounts of non-Gallic saints and martyrs in his Glory of the Confessors and Glory of the Martyrs points to another subject that has not received much attention in modern scholarship: the relationship between the Merovingian kingdoms and their Mediterranean counterparts, especially Byzantium, and particularly their cultural and religious exchange. In 1957, Walter Goffart examined the relations of the Byzantine emperors with the West, focusing on their need for allegiance in order to gain military support.42 Twenty years later, Averil Cameron discussed these relations in two papers: one which traced the eastern sources Gregory of Tours used in his accounts about the Byzantine Empire, 43 and a second which addressed the religious policy of Justin II (d. 578). In the latter, she mentions the transmission of the relics of the Holy Cross from the Byzantine capital to Queen Radegund (d. 587), explaining this from a Byzantine political point of view. 44 In the early 1990s, Isabel Moreira explored the transmission of the relics of the Holy Cross from a western perspective, looking into the accounts of Gregory of Tours, Venantius Fortunatus and Baudonivia. Moreira, however, did not even consider the context of the eastern–western relations in this episode.45 The past few years have seen a burgeoning interest in the various perspectives through which the relationships between the East and the West can be examined. A volume edited by Ian Wood and Andreas Fischer, for instance, brings together six papers that look into the relations between the East and West during late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, focusing on the entire Merovingian period.46 Another example of this scholarly change of direction is the research project led by Yitzhak Hen and Stefan Esders, East and West in the Early Middle Ages: The Merovingian Kingdoms in Mediterranean Perspective, in which I was fortunate enough to take part. The meetings of the project in Be’er Sheva and Berlin discussed the Merovingian political, cultural, social, and religious history in a Mediterranean context, examining various developments from the viewpoint of relations between the Merovingians and their eastern and western counterparts. The project yielded two volumes, 47 and some of the studies published in them, including my own, begin to tackle 42 Goffart, ‘Byzantine Policy in the West’. 43 Cameron, ‘The Byzantine Sources of Gregory of Tours’. 44 Cameron, ‘The Early Byzantine Policies of Justin II’. 45 Moreira, ‘Provisatrix optima’. 46 Fischer and Wood (eds.), Western Perspectives on the Mediterranean. 47 Esders, Fox, Hen and Sarti (eds.), East and West in the Early Middle Ages; Esders, Hen, Lucas and Rotman (eds.), The Merovingian Kingdoms and the Mediterranean World.

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the questions of the cults of non-Gallic saints in Merovingian Gaul. 48 But there is still more work to be done on this matter, and none of these studies goes into the question of Gregory of Tours’s inclusion of eastern martyrs in the Glory of the Martyrs and the meaning of it. Their inclusion in this work clearly signals some kind of cultural and religious relations between Merovingian Gaul and other Mediterranean politico-cultural entities. The lack of research on Gregory’s hagiographical corpus and the few studies on the relations between East and West during the Merovingian period call for a thorough examination of Gregory’s hagiographical corpus. Such an examination can give us a better understanding of the Merovingian cults of saints, Frankish foreign policies, and the cultural and religious dynamics in the early medieval Mediterranean. 49 Furthermore, it can also help us better grasp the aims of Gregory’s hagiography, his authorial originality and, as will be demonstrated in what follows, his vision of community, identity, and history.

The Aims of this Study The focus of this study is on Gregory’s small miracle collections: the Glory of the Martyrs, the Glory of the Confessors, and the Vita Patrum. These three works, I shall argue, should be read together as a historiographical record of the Frankish Church with the intent of constructing a Gallo-Christian identity among its audience. The transformation of the Roman world and the political and cultural change that followed it forced people to find new ways to define themselves and their communities. Gregory’s hagiographical collections reflect that need and give modern scholars a new perspective on those developments. Two themes in these books stand out in particular: Gregory’s choice to include accounts of non-Gallic saints and his unique literary style. More than a third of the Glory of the Martyrs is dedicated to non-Gallic protagonists, among them ten accounts of eastern martyrs.50 The Glory of the Confessors, for its part, features one account of a Syrian saint.51 Gregory’s choice to include these accounts is puzzling. As noted above, scholars tend to agree 48 See Rotman, ‘Imitation and Rejection’; Wynn, ‘Cultural Transmission Caught in the Act’. 49 In her doctoral project, Pia Lucas is also looking at these issues, but with a completely different focus. See Lucas, ‘Heilige in Ost und West bei Gregor von Tours’. 50 GM 85, p. 96; GM 94–102, pp. 100–107. 51 GC 26, p. 314.

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that the Merovingian cults of saints focused on local, Gallic saints. The inclusion of non-Gallic saints and martyrs in treatises that are traditionally associated with the cults of saints challenges the foundations of this scholarly view. It is necessary, then, to further examine these accounts and trace the cults of their protagonists in sixth-century Gaul. Whether or not the eastern saints were venerated in Gaul, their inclusion in Gregory’s narrative surely points to the transmission of relics, oral traditions, written accounts, and even cults of saints from the East to the West. This study begins with a short introduction on Gregory, his hagiographical works and his role as an author and hagiographer. Such an introduction is essential since Gregory’s authorial choices in his hagiographical collections must be contextualized in his wider approach to hagiography. Thus, Chapter 1 examines how Gregory uses the Virtutibus Sancti Martini, the Virtutibus Sancti Juliani, and the Vita Patrum to fortify his role as the bishop of Tours and enforce his episcopal authority. No naïve recorder of saints and their cults, Gregory was a creative and sophisticated author who composed multilayered texts for various purposes. Understanding Gregory’s approach to hagiography lays the groundwork for the second part of the book, in which I broaden the discussion on Gregory’s hagiographical corpus and his ingenuity as an author. This part contains three chapters. In Chapter 2, I discuss the non-Gallic saints and martyrs whom Gregory included in his miracle collections, giving special attention to the eastern saints. The chapter follows the cults of these saints and offers several possible channels via which stories, relics, and cults of saints could have reached Merovingian Gaul. Tracing the cults of the eastern saints, I will show, reveals that while some saints were venerated to some extent in the Merovingian realm, others were not as lucky, and there is no evidence of their cult in sixth-century Gaul. Thus, the purpose of their inclusion in Gregory’s works remains an open question. Chapter 3, then, attempts to suggest other reasons for the inclusion of the accounts of foreign saints and martyrs in the Glory of the Martyrs and the Glory of the Confessors. Hagiography was tightly tied up with the cults of saints. Making sense of the hagiographical records of saints who were not venerated is difficult, and sometimes impossible. Therefore, Chapter 3 offers a different approach to such texts in Gregory’s hagiographical corpus. Instead of being restricted to one specific literary genre, I shall argue that the miracle collections, these peculiar hagiographical records, may have other literary purposes – more precisely, a historiographical purpose. Examining the structure of Gregory’s hagiographical collections and comparing them to his Ten Books of Histories, as well as discerning other literary similarities between

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the two corpora, suggest that Gregory intended them to be read together as an ‘Ecclesiastical History’. A comparison of Gregory’s ‘Ecclesiastical History’ with that of Eusebius of Caesarea may strengthen this observation. Finally, Chapter 4 expands this discussion and investigates the type of ecclesiastical history Gregory sought to craft. Examining this history in the context of the end of the Roman world and within the scholarly discussion of the identity crisis of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages suggests that Gregory aimed to write a very specific history and construct a very specific identity – a Gallo-Christian one. Moreover, as the last part of Chapter 4 will show, Gregory was not the only author of his time who harnessed hagiography to construct local religious identities. Pope Gregory the Great and the anonymous compilers of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum may have had similar motivations for composing their hagiographical works. Thus, following the path paved by Peter Brown and later scholars almost half a century ago, this study seeks to lift Gregory’s hagiographical works from the plane of mere anecdotal data about the cults of certain saints to a higher register of complex historical documents. By approaching Gregory’s hagiographical works as part of a broader historiographical context, this study aims to unveil new insights into the culture and religion of ­Merovingian Gaul.

1.

Gregory of Tours

The Life of Gregory of Tours Gregory of Tours was born circa 538 to Florentius and Armentaria, both of whom were descended from Gallo-Roman noble families, as Gregory attests throughout his works. Among his kin were senators, priests, bishops, and even one martyr – Vettius Epagatus – one of the forty-eight martyrs of Lyons, who were killed in 177.1 Florentius died when Gregory was a young boy. Consequently, his mother and several other relatives took on the responsibility of raising young Gregory and educating him. Among these relatives were the bishops Nicetius of Lyons (d. 573) and Gallus of Clermont (d. 553). The ecclesiastical education Gregory received, as well as his relations with the secular and religious elites of Merovingian Gaul, paved the way for him to gain positions in the Gallic ecclesiastical administration.2 Indeed, in 573, after serving as a deacon in Lyons for several years, Gregory was appointed to the episcopal see of Tours. Upon his appointment, the welcome from the people and the clergy of Tours was cool, to say the least, and for his entire tenure there, Gregory faced opposition and felt the need to justify his episcopal election. Gregory was appointed to the bishopric of Tours by King Sigibert I, who did not consult the people of Tours beforehand.3 Sigibert did not care for 1 Gregory does not write explicitly that he was related to Vettius Epagatus. Rather, he alludes to this fact by mentioning that other relatives of his were descendants of Vettius Epagatus. In the vita of his uncle Gallus, for instance, Gregory writes that his uncle Gallus of Clermont was descended from the family of Vettius Epagatus. See VP VI.1, p. 230. 2 On the senatorial aristocracy’s choice of ecclesiastical career instead of the traditional administrative one, see Geary, Before France and Germany, pp. 123–135; Hen, Culture and Religion, p. 16; Jones, Social Mobility in Late Antique Gaul; Heinzelmann, ‘L’aristocratie et les évêchés’; idem, Bischofsherrschaft in Gallien. On Gregory’s biography and early career, see Wood, Gregory of Tours, pp. 5–8; idem, The Merovingian Kingdoms, pp. 28–29; Goffart, Narrators, p. 112; idem, ‘Foreigners’; Van Dam, Saints and their Miracles, pp. 52–68; Heinzelmann, Gregory of Tours, pp. 7–35. 3 During the sixth century, the Merovingian kings were gradually more involved in the election process for new bishops, mostly due to political and financial reasons and in contravention of canon law. See Loftus, ‘Episcopal Elections in Gaul’, pp. 433–436, which also contains further

Rotman, T., Hagiography, Historiography, and Identity in Sixth Century Gaul: Rethinking Gregory of Tours. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2022 doi 10.5117/9789463727730_ch01

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their opinion and preferences, and his choice of a bishop must be seen in the contemporary context of the delicate geopolitical circumstances of Tours. Since 511, the Merovingian kingdom had been divided into three, and sometimes four, sub-kingdoms: the Burgundian kingdom of Guntram, the kingdom of Reims/Metz (Austrasia) of Sigibert, and the kingdom of Soisson (Neustria), which was ruled by Chilperic. Even though Tours was ruled by King Sigibert, it was actually an enclave within the territories of a different Merovingian kingdom – the Neustrian kingdom of Chilperic. The bishoprics around Tours were loyal to Chilperic, as was the majority of the local religious and secular elite of Tours itself. Naturally, they would have preferred a bishop who shared their political interests and loyalties. Sigibert, however, knowing that Tours was an enclave and that he needed an ally there to fortify his rule, sought to appoint someone whom he could trust and who had fewer obligations to the local elites. Thus, Gregory was chosen. 4 Gregory had very little political influence in Tours. Even though he claimed that he was related to all but five of Tours’s previous bishops,5 in reality, he and his family had more influence in the territories of the Auvergne and Lyons than in the Touraine.6 Only two years after Gregory’s appointment, his royal patron Sigibert was murdered.7 Soon after, Chilperic, the Neustrian king, seized the city and made it part of his kingdom. This development only increased the local opposition to Gregory. Nonetheless, although he had been appointed by Sigibert and his loyalties to him were clear to all, Gregory was able to keep his episcopal position in Tours and was not deposed. Yet he still had to struggle in order to fortify and enforce his authority and seek support from the local community.8 The process of Gregory’s ordination may have also prompted some opposition and portrayed him as an illegitimate bishop. Instead of being ordained in the cathedral of Tours, his ceremony took place in Reims, the capital of Sigibert’s kingdom. We know where Gregory’s ceremony took place from a poem written by his good friend, Venantius Fortunatus. discussion on the processes for the election and ordination of new bishops in fifth- and sixthcentury Gaul. See other contributions in that volume for a broader picture of episcopal elections. 4 Wood, Gregory of Tours, pp. 10–13; Reimitz, History, Frankish Identity, pp. 32–34; For further reading about the delicate geopolitical circumstances of Tours see Esders, ‘Gallic Politics’. 5 LH V.49, p. 262. 6 This also apparent in Gregory’s writings, in which he tends to write more about the history of the Auvergne and Lyons than of Tours and its area. Van Dam, Saints and their Miracles, pp. 50–62. 7 LH IV.51, pp. 187–188. 8 Wood, Gregory of Tours, pp. 10–13; Reimitz, History, Frankish Identity, pp. 32–33.

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Fortunatus penned the poem to celebrate Gregory’s adventus to Tours after his consecration. There he states that ‘the blessed hand of father Aegidius consecrated him to the Lord’.9 Aegidius (also known as Giles) whom Venantius mentions was at that time the bishop of Reims. Having the ceremony outside Tours – that is, his new bishopric – contradicted the fifth canon of the Fourth Synod of Orléans (541), according to which a newly elected bishop must be ordained in his new church or, at least, in the same province he was meant to serve.10 Fortunatus’s poem is the only clear evidence of Gregory’s ordination. Interestingly, as an author who wrote plenty about himself and his family, Gregory says nothing about his ordination in his works. The closest thing he wrote about it appears in Chapter 34 of his Virtutibus Sancti Juliani, where he recalls that ‘after my ordination, I passed by Clermont’.11 While in Clermont, Gregory visited the shrine of saint Julian and collected some relics, which he later brought back to Tours. He does not say from where he came to Clermont, and it seems that he is trying to conceal more than he reveals in this account. Perhaps Gregory returned to Tours after his consecration and then left the city to pay a visit to the shrine of his patron saint. However, it is more likely that he made a detour on his way back from Reims, and instead of going directly to Tours, he prolonged his trip and went to Clermont. The opaqueness with which this episode is portrayed seems intentional. It is highly plausible that Gregory did not want to say anything explicit because he knew that the circumstances were problematic, but he nevertheless wanted to record the translation of the relics of saint Julian from the Auvergne to Tours. Gregory’s choice to conceal the circumstances of his ordination, a central part of his biography, is odd and intriguing, especially since he writes so much about his life before and after that event. Martin Heinzelmann has argued that Gregory omitted this episode because he wrote the Histories when Tours was already under the rule of Chilperic. In this view, the unpopular bishop was well aware of the political implications of underscoring his appointment by a major political opponent of Chilperic and therefore 9 Venantius Fortunatus, ‘Ad cives Turonicos’, pp. 294–295: ‘Quem patris Egidii Domino manus alma sacravit’. 10 Conc. Aurelianense A. 541, c. 5, in Concilia Galliae A. 511 – A. 695, p. 133: ‘ut episcopus in civitate, in que per decretum elegitur ordinandus, in sua ecclesia, cui praefuturus est, consecretur. Sane si subito necessitas temporis hoc implere non patitur, licit melius esset in sua ecclesia fieri, tamen aut sub praesentia metropolitani aut certe cum eius auctoritate intra prouinciam omnino a comprouincialibus ordinetur’. 11 VSJ 34, p. 128: ‘ut post ordinationem meam Arvernus accederem’.

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chose not to do so.12 Raymond Van Dam, for his part, has suggested that the faults in Gregory’s ordination, that is, his consecration outside Tours, contradicting the aforementioned f ifth canon of the Fourth Synod of Orléans, may account for his elision of the event.13 In any case, such a glaring omission from the narrative signals Gregory’s acute awareness of his unstable position in Tours. Gregory also wrote very little about his opposition. Yet one can still find clues about his fragile position in Tours. The most prominent example appears in the fifth book of the Histories. There, Gregory recounts how Tours’s former count, Leudast, conspired against him.14 Leudast was deposed by King Chilperic due to crimes he had committed. In an attempt to regain his position, he took advantage of Gregory’s lack of popularity in Tours. Together with several other local clerics, he appealed to Chilperic, claiming that Gregory intended to help Childebert II (d. 596), son of the late King Sigibert, seize Tours. Chilperic, however, did not take the bait, leaving Leudast to concoct further conspiratorial schemes. He blamed Gregory for slandering Queen Fredegund, saying that Gregory accused her of adultery with Bishop Bertram.15 Upon hearing these accusations, Chilperic ordered Leudast to be beaten and then arrested. But as soon as he named several people from Tours who supposedly witnessed Gregory slandering Fredegund, Leudast was released. With such evidence at hand, Chilperic had no choice but to summon Gregory to court. There, he was placed on trial and eventually acquitted. After Gregory’s exoneration, Leudast fled and was later punished for his lies.16 On his absence from Tours, Gregory’s see was seized by Riculf, who was among the group of priests that had conspired with Leudast against Gregory. When Gregory returned to Tours, he deposed Riculf and sent him to a monastery.17 The inclusion of the conspiracy story in the Histories is perhaps the bluntest example of Gregory using his writings as propaganda, but it was not the only incident. The Histories and his hagiographical collections are packed with similar tactics through which Gregory tried to secure his episcopal position. One prominent example was the promotion of cults of saints, particularly those of Martin of Tours and Julian of Brioude, who held a special importance for Gregory. 12 Heinzelmann, Gregory of Tours, pp. 38–40. 13 Van Dam, Saints and their Miracles, p. 64. 14 LH V.47–49, pp. 257–263. 15 LH V.47, p. 257. 16 LH V.49, p. 261. 17 LH V.49, p. 262.

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Gregory of Tours and his Saints Martin of Tours Martin of Tours was born at the beginning of the fourth century to a pagan family from Pannonia and was raised in Pavia, Italy. He followed his father into the military, but his interest in Christianity, which emerged early in his life, changed his path.18 Not long after Martin joined the Roman army, he was baptized as a Christian. Two years later, he arrived in Gaul with a military expedition, at which point he was released from military duties. He then joined Hilary, the bishop of Poitiers, and subsequently embarked on an ecclesiastical career.19 Martin’s acquaintance with Hilary of Poitiers exposed him to the ideas and practices of monasticism and the missionary calling. Becoming a hermit, Martin returned to his homeland in the hope of converting his parents and other pagans. He travelled throughout Italy for several years, while his Gallic patron was exiled from Gaul. Martin lived for a while in the outskirts of Milan and on the island of Gallinara. With the return of Hilary to Gaul, Martin followed him to Poitiers, where he founded a monastic cell for himself. This cell attracted many ascetics who wished to follow Martin.20 Soon after, the people of Tours offered him the position of the bishop of Tours, which he unwillingly accepted.21 As bishop, Martin kept his ascetic way of life. He built himself a cell close to the Cathedral of Tours, but the heavy flow of visitors who came to adore him forced him to build another cell two miles away. There, he lived among a handful of followers and managed to maintain his solitude. At the same time, he continued to serve as the bishop of Tours.22 Martin achieved phenomenal popularity already during his lifetime. After his death, his flourishing cult was established in Tours and was spread throughout Christendom.23 Martin was not only the most beloved saint of Tours and one of its most important former bishops; he was also a famous Gallic saint. His shrine in Tours attracted pilgrims from the whole of Gaul, as well as from foreign lands. 18 Sulpicius Severus, Vita Sancti Martini 2.3, vol. 1, p. 254. 19 On the life and early career of Martin of Tours, see Sulpicius Severus, Vita Sancti Martini 2–5, vol. 1, pp. 254–264; VSM I.3, pp. 139–140. See also Stancliffe, St. Martin and His Hagiographer, esp. pp. 111–202. 20 Sulpicius Severus, Vita Martini 6.4–7.1, vol. 1, pp. 264–266. 21 Sulpicius Severus, Vita Martini 9, pp. 270–272. Sulpicius’s depiction of Martin’s response is a literary topos, that goes back to the Roman recusatio imperii. 22 Sulpicius Severus, Vita Martini 10, pp. 272–274. 23 Van Dam, Saints and their Miracles, p. 13.

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The first vita of Martin was written by Sulpicius Severus, who began this project while Martin was still alive.24 In this vita, Sulpicius discussed Martin’s conversion to Christianity, his mission to the pagans, his time as the bishop of Tours, as well as several miracles he performed. Sulpicius also composed the Dialogues, in which he included additional biographical information about Martin.25 As the first written accounts of Martin, Sulpicius’s Vita Martini and Dialogues lay the grounds for future hagiographies of Martin of Tours, such as the six-book hexameter written by Paulinus of Périgueux in the second half of the fifth century,26 Venantius Fortunatus’s Vita Sancti Martini,27 and, of course, the four books written by Gregory of Tours.28 Indeed, in the Histories and in his hagiographical corpus, Gregory offers numerous accounts of the life of Martin, his cult in Tours and beyond it, and the many miracles he performed, mostly after his death.29 Gregory was well aware of the works written by Sulpicius Severus and Paulinus of Périgueux and he acknowledges and cites them at the beginning of his Virtutibus Sancti Martini.30 Yet, whereas Sulpicius composed his vita in order to establish a cult of a living saint, Gregory demonstrates a different approach. As the bishop of Tours, living decades after Martin’s death, Gregory was responsible for the cult of the city’s most prominent bishop, which may explain why he collected stories and composed four books about the deeds of the saint. However, Gregory had another reason to promote Martin’s cult: doing so indicated that he was a protégé of the saint and having Martin on his side meant more support from the Tours community, support Gregory very much needed. Moreover, Gregory interlaced within his narratives on Martin incidents that involved himself or one of his relatives. In the Virtutibus Sancti Martini, for instance, he tells of healing miracles experienced by his brother-in-law 24 Sulpicius Severus, Vita Martini; For further reading see Stancliffe, St. Martin and His Hagiographer; Burton, Sulpicius Severus’ Vita Martini. 25 Sulpicius Severus, Dialogi. 26 Paulinus Petricordiae, De Vita Sancti Martini. See also Van Dam, ‘Paulinus of Périgueux’; Corbett, ‘Changing Perceptions’. 27 Venantius Fortunatus, Vita Sancti Martini. 28 VSM; On the effect of Sulpicius Severus’ vita on sixth-century Merovingian hagiography, see Brennan, ‘“Being Martin”’, pp. 121–123; Corbett, ‘Hagiography’, p. 40. See also: Stancliffe, St. Martin and his Hagiographer; Berschin, Biographie und Epochenstil; Hewish, ‘Sulpicius Severus’. 29 Besides the four books of the Virtutibus Sancti Martini, Gregory had mentioned Martin many times throughout his entire corpus. See for instance: GM 46, pp. 69–70; GC 4–10, pp. 301–304; GC 20, pp. 309–310; GC 79, pp. 346–348; VP VIII.11, pp. 250–251; VP IX.2, pp. 253–254; VP XV.1, pp. 271–272; LH I.39, p. 27; LH I. 48, pp. 32–34; LH II.1, pp. 37–38; LH II.37, pp. 85–88; LH IV.18, pp. 150–151; LH V.23, p. 230; LH VI.10, pp. 279–280; LH VIII.14, p. 380; LH X.31, pp. 527–528. 30 VSM 1.1–2, pp. 136–139.

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and his mother through Martin’s intervention.31 More interestingly, Gregory opens the second, third and fourth books of the Virtutibus Sancti Martini with accounts of miracles that Gregory himself had experienced. In Book II, Gregory describes how dust from Martin’s tomb cured him from dysentery;32 Book III begins with a healing miracle, in which Gregory’s sore throat was cured;33 and in Book IV, Gregory tells of a time in which Martin once again cured his aching stomach.34 By including miracles that involved himself, Gregory emphasized that he was a protégé of Saint Martin, and this helped him to portray himself as a pious man. Most importantly, with such stories Gregory was able to prove to his audience that the most prestigious saint of Tours protected him and accepted his appointment as the new bishop of the city – that is, Martin’s own successor. Thus, by emphasizing in the Virtutibus Sancti Martini the patronage offered to him by Martin, Gregory aimed to garner support from the inhabitants of Tours and its vicinity. Gregory did more than simply record instances in which he appealed to Martin for assistance. He also compared himself to Martin. The most prominent example of this appears in the second book of the Virtutibus Sancti Martini, where, in the first chapter, Gregory writes the following: In the one hundred and seventy-second year after the passing of the blessed bishop Martin, while the glorious king Sigibert was in the twelfth year of his reign, after the departure of the holy bishop Eufronius, I – not because of my merit, for I have a darkened conscience and am enveloped in sins, but by the act of faithful God who calls upon qualities that are not there as though they were – received, although unworthy, the burden of the episcopate.35

The manner in which Gregory describes himself as unworthy of his new appointment accords with other instances in his writings in which he undermines himself and his capabilities. He remarks several times that he is not a good enough author and begs the readers’ forgiveness. For example, in the preface 31 VSM II.2, pp. 159–160 and VSM III.60, p. 197. 32 VSM II.1, pp. 158–159. 33 VSM III.1, p. 182. 34 VSM IV.1, pp. 199–200. 35 VSM II.1, pp. 158–159: ‘Anno cenesimo septuagesimo secundo post transitum beati Martini antestitis, Sigiberto gloriosissmo rege duodecimo anno regnante, post excessum sancti Eufrani episcopi non meo merito, cum sim conscientia teterrimus et peccatis obvulus, sed tribuente fideli Deo, qui vocat ea quae non sunt tamquam quae sunt, onus episcopate indignus accepi’. Translation taken from The Miracles of Bishop Martin, pp. 531–533.

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to the Histories, Gregory writes that his ‘speech is not polished’ for a task such as writing history, alluding to his supposedly poor level of Latin.36 He offers a longer apology in the preface of the Glory of the Confessors, stating that ‘it is shameful for a foolish, fraudulent, ignorant, and unskilled man to undertake what he cannot accomplish, but what can I do?’37 Later, he adds the following: I fear that because I do not possess the grammatical skills and the rhetoric of the art of writing, when I shall begin writing this is what will be said about my writings: ‘Oh, simple and ignorant man! Why do you think that you can place your name among [those of other] authors? Do you think this work can be accepted by experienced [writers]? […] Can a raven conceal his blackness with the wings of a white dove? Can the darkness of tar change into the color of milk? Indeed, just like this cannot be possible, you, too, cannot be [considered] among other authors’.38

Yet, while this topos of the humble author or protagonist is a common one in Gregory’s and many other works of his age,39 his remark at the beginning of Book II of the Virtutibus Sancti Martini ought not to be seen in a literary context alone. Here, Gregory is echoing Martin’s response when the position of bishop was offered to him. According to Gregory, Martin, ‘against his will, accepted the honor of the episcopate in the city of Tours after its people compelled him [to do so]’. 40 Martin’s response is another popular literary pattern. But when Gregory uses it to describe his own response to his episcopal appointment, it is more than a simple literary device. He is comparing himself to Martin. Aware of the fact that Martin was appreciated, among other things, for his humility and modesty, Gregory imitated Martin, hoping to be accepted by the people of Tours. 36 LH, praef., p. 1: ‘etsi incultu effatu’. 37 GC, preaf., p. 297: ‘Pudet insipienti, reprobo inperitoque, atque inerti illud adgredi, quod non potest adimplere; sed quid faciam’. 38 GC, preaf., pp. 297–298: ‘Sed timeo, ne, cum scriber coepero, quia sum sine litteris rethoricis et arte grammatica, dicaturque mihi a litteratis: “O rustice et idiote, ut quid nomen tuum inter scriptores indi aestimas? Ut opus hoc a peritis accipi putas […] poterit corvus nigredinem suam albentium columbarum pinnis obtegere aut obscuritas picis liquoris lactei colore mutari? Nempe, ut ista fieri possible non est, ita nec tu poteris inter scriptores alios haberi”’. 39 This topos is not unique to the writing of Gregory of Tours, and many classical and medieval authors used it. See Kazhdan and Ševčenko, ‘Modesty, Topos of’, in The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, vol. 2, p. 1387; Curtius, European Literature, pp. 407–413; Alexakis, ‘The Modesty Topos’, pp. 521–530. 40 VSM I.3, p. 139: ‘in urbem Turonicam episcopatus honorem invitus, populo cogente, suscepit’. See also Sulpicius Severus, Vita Martini 9.1–2, vol. 1, p. 270.

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Julian of Brioude Gregory used Martin’s reputation to promote other cults of saints, which, in turn, helped him to reinforce his own episcopal authority. We find a good example of this in the case of the martyr Julian of Brioude, Gregory’s patron saint. Gregory dedicated a whole book to Julian. Whereas the volume was not as long as his Virtutibus Sancti Martini, it was certainly one of Gregory’s longest hagiographical works. Gregory relates the martyrdom of Julian and describes the miracles that he performed, including some that Gregory and his relatives had personally experienced and witnessed. 41 Just as his books about Martin of Tours enabled Gregory to display the special connection he had with that saint, so too did this work enable him to exhibit his ties to Julian. Yet, in contrast to Martin’s popularity, Julian was not known in Tours and there was no cult in his honor there. Therefore, Gregory was unable to use Julian for his own needs in a similar manner to that in which he used Martin. First, he had to establish the cult of Julian in Tours, and he did so by creating a connection between Martin and Julian through relics. As mentioned above, Gregory had visited the shrine of Julian in Clermont after he was ordained to the episcopacy of Tours. He took from there relics of Julian and later installed them in the church of saint Martin in Tours.42 Gregory records this event in the Virtutibus Sancti Juliani and goes on to recount a striking incident. According to Gregory, after the deposition of the saint’s relics, a possessed man began shouting: Why, oh Martin, did you join yourself to Julian? Why did you summon him to this place? Your presence was enough of a torment for us; [now] you invited someone similar to you to increase the torments! Why do you do this? Why do you and Julian torture us?43

In using the figure of a possessed person to highlight the holiness of the saints, Gregory is employing a conventional hagiographical topos. 44 Here, 41 For the martyrdom of Julian see VSJ 1, pp. 113–114; for miracles that Gregory and his relatives had experienced see VSJ 23–25, pp. 124–125. 42 VSJ 34, p. 128. 43 VSJ 35, p. 129: ‘Ut quid te, Martine, Iuliano iunxisti? Quid eum in his provocas locis? Sat nobis erat praesentia tua supplicium; similem tui ad augenda tormenta vocasti. Cur haec agis? Quare nos cum Iuliano sic crucias?’. 44 Brown, ‘Relics and Social Status’, pp. 237–238. e.g. GM 14, p. 48; GM 68, p. 84; GM 76–77, pp. 89–90; GM 89, pp. 97–98; GM 101, p.105; GM 103–104, pp. 107–110; GC 3, p. 300; GC 9, p. 304; GC 21, p. 310–311; GC 32, p. 318; GC 48, pp. 327; GC 58, pp. 331–332; GC 102, p. 363; VP II.1, p. 219;

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the possessed not only emphasizes Julian’s holy powers: he also emphasizes the connection between the two saints and compares Julian to Martin. This figure serves Gregory on two levels: first, it portrays Gregory as a good and zealous bishop who has enhanced divine protection over Tours by bringing over Julian’s relics and establishing a cult in his honor in the city. Second, Martin’s acceptance of Julian is also an acceptance of the person who brought Julian into Tours, that is, Gregory. The message to the people of Tours is thus clear: if their most important and most beloved saint is willing to accept Gregory as the bishop of Tours, then, by all means, they must accept him as well. Vita Patrum The Vita Patrum is a collection of twenty vitae written about distinguished Gallic bishops, abbots, and holy men, among them some relatives of Gregory of Tours. It is noteworthy that only one vita is dedicated to a woman – the vita of the nun Monegundis. 45 The structure of each vita is similar to that of the Virtutibus Sancti Martini and the Virtutibus Sancti Juliani, as well as other hagiographical compositions known to us from late antiquity and the early Middle Ages. The first chapters of each vita recount the life and death of the saint, and the later chapters describe miracles that were performed by or are associated with the saint. On the whole, the Vita Patrum was meant to praise the most important Church Fathers of Gaul, just as the Virtutibus Sancti Martini and the Virtutibus Sancti Juliani were meant to praise Martin of Tours and Julian of Brioude. 46 The Vita Patrum should also be seen in a broader literary context. In approximately the same period, Pope Gregory VP VII.2, p. 237–238; VP VIII.4, p. 244; VP VIII.8, pp. 248–249; VP IX.2–3, pp. 253–255; VP XIV.2, pp. 268–269; VP XVI.3, p. 276; VP XVI.4, pp. 279–280; VP XVII.2, pp. 281–282; VP XVII.4, p. 284; VP XVIII.1, p. 283; VP XVIII.3, p. 285; VP XIX.3–4, pp. 288–291. 45 Gregory rarely writes about female saints. Most of the women he mentions in his hagiographical writings are recipients of miracles and usually he does not even give their names. There are a few exceptions, such as the account of Queen Radegund in GM 5 and the account of the nun Monegundis in VP XIX. The issue of women in Gregory’s hagiographical writing has seldom been addressed. In his book Saints’ Lives and the Rhetoric of Gender: Male and Female in Merovingian Hagiography, John Kitchen tried to fill this lacuna. Kitchen focused on the vita of Monegundis, concluding that there is little difference between vitae written by Gregory on men and the one vita of a female saint. Yet the question of why Gregory chose to write so little about female martyrs and saints remains to be explored. See also the recent book by Erin T. Dailey, Queens, Consorts, Concubines. 46 A further discussion of the Vita Patrum, its structure, and some of its aims can be found in Kitchen, Saints’ Lives, pp. 58–98.

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the Great (d. 604) wrote his Dialogues, in which he collected the lives of important Italian saints (among them saint Benedict of Nursia). There is also the anonymous Lives of the Jura Fathers (Vita Patrum Iurensium), the mid sixth-century Lives of the Fathers of Merida (Vita Sanctorum Patrum Emeretensivm) written by Paul, a deacon from Merida, 47 and, of course, the Liber Pontificalis.48 Gregory’s decision to gather together lives of prominent Church Fathers was thus part of a broader late antique and early medieval literary trend. The Glory of the Confessors The Glory of the Confessors is one of two miracle collections composed by Gregory. It contains 110 miracle stories, most of which were performed by local Gallic saints and took place in Gaul. Some of the saints mentioned in this work were more popular than others, such as Martin of Tours, Hilary of Poitiers, or Queen Radegund. 49 Others were rather local, with a limited popularity, such as Saint Papula, Saints Florida and Paschasia and the blessed Lusor.50 Unlike the Virtutibus Sancti Martini, the Virtutibus Sancti Juliani and the Vita Patrum, in which each biography begins with a long and informative section on the saint and his earthly life, the accounts in the Glory of Confessors are rather short, normally not more than two or three brief paragraphs, in which Gregory relates a single miracle story. Moreover, Gregory pays little attention to the lives of the saints mentioned in the Glory of the Confessors. Whereas the Virtutibus Sancti Juliani, the Virtutibus Sancti Martini, and the various vitae of the Vita Patrum include a description of the life and death of their protagonists before moving on to the miracles associated with them, in the Glory of the Confessors, Gregory hardly gives any biographical information about the saints included there. His only interest, it seems, is in the miraculous deeds that took place next to the tombs of the saints, through their relics, or in other places associated with them and their cults. Two further major peculiarities mark the Glory of the Confessors. First, there are several anonymous miracle stories in which Gregory does not mention the name of the saint who performed the miracle or provide any 47 Vita Patrum Iurensium; Paulus Diaconus of Merida, Liber Vitas Sanctorum Patrum Emeretensivm. 48 Liber Pontificalis. On the Liber Pontificalis see McKitterick, Rome and the Invention; Vircillo Franklin, ‘Frankish Redaction’. 49 GC 2, pp. 299–300; GC 4–6, pp. 301–303; GC 104, pp. 364–366. 50 GC 16, p. 306–307; GC 42, p. 324; GC 90, pp. 355–356.

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detail that can identify the saint, such as his or her feast day.51 This makes one wonder about the reasons behind the inclusion of those stories in that book. Second, several accounts in this miracle collection feature miracles that were performed outside Gaul, in Visigothic Spain, for instance, or by non-Gallic saints, as we see in the account of the Syrian holy man Simeon the Stylite.52 Whereas some miracle accounts in the Virtutibus Sancti Juliani and the Virtutibus Sancti Martini took place outside Gaul, the fact that they were attributed to one of these two saints made them relevant to Gregory’s narrative and to the people of Gaul. The Glory of the Confessors is different in this respect, since there is no connection with Gaul in these accounts. This is not the only book of Gregory’s in which we encounter such peculiarities; the book of the Glory of the Martyrs presents similar problems. The Glory of the Martyrs The Glory of the Martyrs is the second miracle collection composed by Gregory of Tours. The book contains 106 short miracle accounts, similar in length to those of the Glory of the Confessors. The title of the work – Glory of the Martyrs – is misleading, since its first part, from Chapter 1 to 34, is actually dedicated to stories concerning Jesus, the Virgin Mary, some of the Apostles, and other protagonists from the New Testament. Only the second part of the book (from Chapter 35 to the end) relates stories about martyrs and the miracles they performed. The structure of the Glory of the Martyrs recalls that of the Glory of the Confessors, not only in the length of each account but also in Gregory’s choice to omit any biographical information about the life and death of most martyrs in this work. This is a bit odd, since the death of a martyr, as well as his or her sufferings, was a crucial prerequisite that defined them as a martyr. Moreover, the horrible death of the martyrs was the foundation stone for their veneration: this is what gave legitimacy to their cults. Thus, Gregory’s decision to exclude this part from his narratives makes them stand out, raising questions about his literary approach and aims in writing hagiography. Another intriguing feature of the Glory of the Martyrs (like the Glory of the Confessors) is that Gregory includes accounts of non-Gallic martyrs and of incidents that took place outside Gaul. The Glory of the Martyrs has accounts of martyrs 51 GC 18, pp. 307–308; GC 30–31, pp. 316–317; GC 34, pp. 318–319; GC 37, pp. 321; GC 47, pp. 326–327; GC 51, p. 328; GC 59, p. 332; GC 62–64, pp. 334–336; GC 72, pp. 340–341; GC 77, p. 344; GC 109, pp. 368–369. 52 GC 12–14, pp. 305–306; GC 26, p. 314; GC 62, pp. 334–335; GC 108, pp. 367–368.

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from various places around the Mediterranean: Italy, Spain, Asia Minor, Armenia, North Africa, Syria, and Palestine. It is difficult to gauge why these accounts were included in this work, and the main goal of this study is to answer this question. Gregory’s hagiographical works were all written at approximately the same time. In his short survey of Gregory of Tours and his works, Ian Wood listed the works in order of composition, showing that Gregory wrote his Histories and the various hagiographical books simultaneously.53 Recently, Richard Shaw demonstrated how Gregory kept editing and rewriting his miracula collections, arguing that Gregory never really finished writing these compositions.54 Shaw uses the chronology of the works and the fact that Gregory continuously edited them to argue that Gregory did not have a coherent vision of the miracula. Shaw’s argument, however, relies mostly on Gregory’s statements in the prefaces to the different works and he does not give enough space to the actual content of the works, their audience, use, or literary context. Yet it is exactly these that can help us reach deeper understanding of Gregory’s hagiographies, as well as his unusual choice of protagonists and his reasons for composing his hagiographical corpus. Therefore, it is necessary to read the works as part of a greater whole, seek connections between them, and examine them in broader literary and historical context.

Autohagiography Gregory also uses his hagiographical works to depict himself in a good, even sacred light and fortify his episcopal position. One sees this in some of the vitae in his Vita Patrum, where Gregory links himself to various saints and the divine several times, and shares information that casts him as a potential saint. This information is scattered all across his hagiographical and historiographical works, and Gregory interlaces it with other accounts, leaving it up to his readers to pick up all these pieces, place them in order, and recreate his vita. Gregory depicts events from his childhood, youth, and adulthood, thus sharing a biographical sequence of his whole life, just as he did in the vitae of the saints as a hagiographer. Gregory had in mind a specific literary model of a vita, as attested in the vitae he composed, which is based on earlier and contemporary literary conventions of biographical writing. Late antique and early medieval vitae 53 Wood, Gregory of Tours, p. 3. 54 Shaw, ‘Chronology, Composition’.

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of saints, including those written by Gregory of Tours, usually comprise four themes: a preface and early biography of the saint, in which the author mentions the saint’s origin and social rank; a description of his or her career; a recounting of some miracles associated with the saint and some of his or her extraordinary deeds; and, finally, description of the saint’s death, burial, and, sometimes, some post-mortem miracles.55 Gregory shares such information about himself across his writings. He discusses the origins of his family, his Gallo-Roman senatorial descendance, his career and relations with the divine, and some of the miracles he experienced from his childhood onwards. Among the twenty vitae of Gallic holy men (and one woman) that Gregory collected in his Vita Patrum, he included accounts of several of his relatives, from which one can also learn about Gregory himself – crucial information for anyone wishing to write Gregory’s biography. The sixth vita, for instance, concerns the bishop Gallus of Clermont, who was the brother of Gregory’s father, and thus Gregory’s uncle. Gregory opens the vita with a description of the greatness of Gallus and his dynasty. He recalls that Gallus was ‘an inhabitant of Clermont, who could not be distracted from the work of God by the splendor of his noble-birth, the distinction of his senatorial rank, or his opulent richness’.56 Gregory also adds that Gallus was ‘descended from the family of Vettius Epagatus, whose martyrdom (passio) in Lyons is attested in the History of Eusebius’.57 Nowhere in the vita does Gregory mention that Gallus was his uncle or that he himself was educated by him. Even in the following chapter, in which Gregory relates that Gallus’s parents were called Georgius and Leucadia, he refrains from mentioning Florentius, who was Gallus’s brother and Gregory’s own father.58 Furthermore, Gregory’s full name – Gregorius Georgius Florentius – derived from his father’s and grandfather’s names. Yet, for some unknown reason, Gregory does not mention it in the vita itself. This information is found elsewhere in his writings, for instance in the second chapter of the vita of Illidius, in which Gregory 55 Hippolyte Delehaye offered a threefold model for any biography of a saint: it must include biography ‘before his birth: his nationality, his parents, his future greatness miraculously prophesied; his life: childhood, youth, the most important events in his career, his virtues, his miracles; lastly his cultus and miracles after death’. Gregory’s model resembles this exemplar. See Delehaye, Legends, p. 98. See also Rotman, ‘For Future Reference’. 56 VP VI. preaf., p. 230: ‘sicut sanctus Gallus incola Arvernae Urbis, quem a Dei cultu abstrahere non potuit nec splendor generis nec celsitudo senatorii ordinis nec opolentia facultatis’. 57 VP VI.1, p. 230: ‘ab stirpe Vetti Epagati discendens quem Lugduno passum Eusebi testatur historia’. 58 VP VI.1, p. 230: ‘Pater eius Georgius nomine, mater vero Leucadia’.

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recalls a miracle he had experienced, where he notes at the beginning that Gallus was his uncle and that he loved him very much.59 Gregory also dedicates a vita to the memory of the bishop Gregory of Langres, another relative of Gregory of Tours. According to the first chapter of the vita, Gregory of Langres was a senator and a very educated man.60 He was married to a woman named Armentaria, who was descended from a senatorial family and who bore him three children.61 Gregory of Tours does not mention in the vita that one of the three sons was his grandfather and that his own mother was named after her grandmother. In other words, Gregory neglects to note that Gregory of Langres was none other than his great-grandfather, and probably his namesake. Yet this was a common knowledge, and the information given about Gregory of Langres allows Gregory to hint at his own senatorial descent. Another relative to whom Gregory dedicates a vita is Nicetius of Lyons, his great uncle. Once again, this vita reveals biographical information about Gregory as well. Here, too, the first chapter starts with a statement about the noble family into which Nicetius was born. His father, Gregory comments, was a senator.62 Nicetius was the youngest of three brothers, and he was destined to become a bishop before he was even born. According to Gregory, when Artemia, Nicetius’s mother, told her husband that she was pregnant with Nicetius, she said that ‘I carry in my womb a bishop whom I have conceived with you’.63 In contrast to the other two vitae, we find here, for the first time, one of Gregory’s personal memories. In Chapter 2, Gregory relates an incident from his youth: I remember that in my youth, when I first began to learn the elements of reading and was eight years old, he ordered my unworthy self to sit by his bed. He took [me in his] arms with the sweetness of paternal love. He took the edges of his garment in his fingers and fixed his tunic in such a way so that by no means my body will touch his blessed limbs. I beg you, look and see the caution of this man of God!64 59 VP II.2. p. 220: ‘Tempore, quo Gallus episcopus Arvernam regebat eclesiam, horum scriptor in adolescentia degens graviter aegrotabat, et ab eo plerumque dilectione unica visitabatur, eo quod patruus eius esset; see also VSJ 23, where Gregory relates that Gallus was his uncle (‘patruus meum Gallus episcopus’, p. 124). 60 VP VII.1, p. 237: ‘ex senatoribus primis, bene litteris institutus’. 61 VP VII.1, p. 237. 62 VP VIII.1, p. 241: ‘quidam ex senatoribus’. 63 VP VIII.1, p. 241: ‘ego ex concepto a te sumpto episcopum gero in utero’. 64 VP VIII.2, p. 242: ‘Nam [et] recolo in adolescentia mea, cum primum litterarum elementa coepissem agnoscere et essem quasi octavi anni aevo, et ille indignum me lectulo locari iuberet ac paternae dilectionis dulcedine ulna susciperet, ora indumenta sui articulis arripiens, ita

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Nicetius was one of the relatives who helped to raise Gregory after the death of his father. Although Gregory does not allude to this anywhere in the text, he does mention in the Histories that Nicetius was his mother’s uncle.65 Such biographical information fits to the first part in Gregory’s hagiographical model, the one that discusses the saint’s early life. Gregory also gives information that fits the other parts of his model. He discusses his early career. In the vita of Illidius, for instance, he mentions that Avitus of Clermont introduced him to ecclesiastical literature,66 and in the vita of Nicetius he demonstrates how Nicetius guided him when Gregory was still a deacon.67 Elsewhere, Gregory mentions miracles he experienced, describes his episcopal career, and associates himself with the divine and the holy; the examples are numerous and appear both in his hagiographical and historiographical works.68 These autobiographical anecdotes are more than just biographical tales: they are Gregory’s claim to divine and sacred influence. He goes to great lengths to illustrate how he and his relatives received or witnessed the miraculous deeds of the saints. In doing so, he positions himself as a pious Christian, deserving of such sacred patronage. But by referring to his own relatives as saints, by showing the people who brought him up as holy men, Gregory presented himself as not only a descendant of Gallo-Roman aristocracy, but also an heir to their sanctity. With pious ancestors who were pillars of the Gallic ecclesiastical establishment and who stood at the forefront of Merovingian history, Gregory portrayed himself in a distinctly positive light. Moreover, in describing his experience with Nicetius, Gregory situates himself not only in relation to holy men but also in close proximity to their protection and love. This approach echoes that which we find in the Virtutibus Sancti Martini and the Virtutibus Sancti Juliani. There, Gregory justifies his episcopal position by presenting himself not only as a protegé of the saints, but also as their heir. A more radical reading of Gregory’s autobiographical anecdotes would suggest that he was laying the grounds for his own hagiography.69 A comparison between se colobio concludebat, ut numquam artus mei beata eius membra contingerent. Intuemini, quaeso, et advertite cautelam viri Dei!’. 65 LH V.5, p. 201. 66 VP II. praef., pp. 218–219. 67 VP VIII.3, p. 244. 68 For more examples and further discussion on Gregory’s autobiography and autohagiography see Rotman, ‘For Future Reference’. 69 The concept of autohagiography in medieval hagiography usually appear in discussions about later medieval literature, but as the accounts in Gregory’s works demonstrate, this notion existed

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him and Martin of Tours, the showcasing of his relations with the saints and his regular recourse to the fact that holy blood flowed in his veins, would all be of great interest to any future hagiographer, and indeed, it seems that Gregory’s hagiographer used his anecdotes and wrote a vita that was very much influenced by Gregory’s stories.70

Conclusion Reading Gregory’s hagiographical works in the context of his personal life and bearing in mind that these treatises were written for various purposes, the promotion of cults of saints being only one among them, reveals the complexity of Gregory as an author. Gregory interweaved throughout his narratives all sorts of agendas, worldviews, and messages to his contemporary and future audience. As we have just seen, Gregory used the popularity of the saints as a means of propaganda and self-promotion. He brought a new saint to Tours and linked him with Martin of Tours, with the goal of garnering support for himself. He compared himself to Martin in order to portray himself as his legitimate successor. He wrote vitae about his close relatives to emphasize his own legacy and thus display his piety, supporting his claim to be the legitimate bishop of Tours. Gregory had an excellent grasp of the importance of the saints and their cults in the everyday lives of the people living in Gaul, and he was well aware of the impact hagiography had in this context. He skillfully used this knowledge for his own ends. And what is true for the Virtutibus Sancti Martini, the Virtutibus Sancti Juliani, and the Vita Patrum is also true for Gregory’s other hagiographical works – the Glory of the Confessors and the Glory of the Martyrs. Thus, in order to better understand Gregory’s hagiographical works and his authorial qualities, we need to read his works in their broader literary, cultural, political and social contexts, and inquire into the diverse aims of his hagiographical works.

already in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages. I discuss this in length in Rotman, ‘For Future Reference’. For further reading on autohagiography see Greenspan, ‘The Autohagiographical tradition’; idem, ‘Autohagiography’; Pandiri, ‘Autobiography’; Sikorska, ‘Between Autohagiography and Confession’; Nightingale, ‘Auto-Hagiography’. 70 Odonem Abbatem, Vita Sancti Gregorii episcopi Turonensis; Rotman, ‘For Future Reference’. On the dating of the text and the question of authorship see Rosé, ‘La Vita Gregorii Turonensis’. A new edition of Odo’s Vita Gregorii is being prepared by Yitzhak Hen.

2.

‘When the Saints Go Marching In’: Eastern Saints in Merovingian Gaul

The miracle collections by Gregory of Tours, the Glory of the Confessors and the Glory of the Martyrs, differ from the rest of his hagiographical corpus in shape and content. Whereas the Virtutibus Sancti Martini, Virtutibus Sancti Juliani, and Vita Patrum offer a short description of a saint’s life and death and then relate some miracles the saint performed, the Glory of the Confessors and the Glory of the Martyrs provide short miracle accounts, each ascribed to a different saint or martyr, and nothing else. Moreover, in contrast to Gregory’s other hagiographical works, which focus entirely on Gallic saints, here we are dealing with hagiographical collections that include accounts of Gallic saints and martyrs but also accounts of Spanish, Italian, North African, and eastern martyrs and saints. The inclusion of so many stories about non-Gallic saints counters the traditional scholarly perspective on the Merovingian cult of saints. In this view, the people of Merovingian Gaul preferred to venerate local Gallic saints. Indeed, most of the shrines and written records from the Merovingian period are dedicated to Gallic saints, including Gregory of Tours’s hagiographical corpus. Gregory’s choice, then, strikes one as peculiar, meriting further discussion. The inclusion of foreign martyrs in the Glory of the Martyrs has not yet received the scholarly attention it deserves. In his English translation of the Glory of the Martyrs, Raymond van Dam devoted only a few sentences to these saints, identifying their origins and major cult sites. He neither discussed their cults in the broader context of Merovingian religious culture nor considered Gregory’s decision to refer to them in his writings.1 Later, Danuta Shanzer, following Van Dam’s footsteps, overlooked the question of why Gregory had included foreign accounts and whether they were venerated 1 See Glory of the Martyrs 94, p. 119, n. 107; Glory of the Martyrs 95, p. 119, n. 108; Glory of the Martyrs 96, p. 121, n. 109; Glory of the Martyrs 97, p. 122, n. 110; Glory of the Martyrs 98, p. 122, n. 111; Glory of the Martyrs 99, p. 123, n. 112; Glory of the Martyrs 100, p. 124, n. 113; Glory of the Martyrs 101, p. 124, n. 114; Glory of the Martyrs 102, p. 126, n. 115.

Rotman, T., Hagiography, Historiography, and Identity in Sixth Century Gaul: Rethinking Gregory of Tours. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2022 doi 10.5117/9789463727730_ch02

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in Merovingian Gaul.2 Similarly, when Yitzhak Hen suggested that Gregory’s hagiographic collections were used in a liturgical context, as their stories were ‘the ideal reading portions, for they are short, concise and clear’,3 he did not distinguish between the accounts of Gallic and foreign saints. Hen’s suggestion makes sense as far as the Gallic saints are concerned, and the fact that most of these accounts contain didactic and moralistic material strengthens his argument. But that notion does not necessary apply to the non-Gallic saints and martyrs. As we do not know whether or not they were venerated in Merovingian Gaul and Hen did not explore the cults of these saints, his suggestion remains questionable in this respect. This brings us to another problem with the scholarship on the Glory of the Martyrs and the Glory of the Confessors. The tendency to sideline Gregory’s accounts of foreign saints in his hagiographical collections led to a sidelining of research on the cults of these saints in Gaul. Stefan Esders’s recent study on the role of Saint Polyeuctus of Constantinople in Merovingian Gaul, in which he draws on Gregory’s account of the saint in the Glory of the Martyrs, represents a turning point in this trend. 4 But Gregory wrote about more than one foreign saint, and in order to understand his choice, we need to determine whether or not these saints were venerated in Merovingian Gaul. Whereas the Glory of the Confessors includes only two accounts of foreign saints (GC 26 and GC 108), and three more accounts about incidents that took place outside Gaul (GC 12–14), the Glory of the Martyrs offers a larger collection of accounts of non-Gallic martyrs. Out of the 106 chapters in the texts, ten are dedicated to eastern martyrs, thirteen to Italian martyrs, one to a North African martyr (Cyprian of Carthage, GM 93) and another three to Spanish martyrs, alongside three more accounts of incidents that took place in Spain but mention no martyr. Thus, the lion’s share of the accounts of foreign martyrs discusses eastern and Italian martyrs.

The Italian Evidence When the Italian martyrs are considered, it seems that most of them had cults in Gaul before and during Gregory’s lifetime. Gregory writes about martyrs from Rome, Bologna, Milan, Imola, and Nola. Some, like Clement 2 Shanzer, ‘So Many Saints’. 3 Hen, Culture and Religion, p. 86. 4 Esders, ‘Avenger of all perjury’.

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of Rome and John I, were popes;5 others were important enough to be considered the patron saints of Milan, such as Gervasius and Protasius,6 and some were martyrs who were popular across the Christian world, such as the Roman martyr Laurentius.7 Indeed, Rome, the papacy, and the Italian episcopacy exert a strong influence on Gregory’s selection of Italian saints and martyrs. Three accounts in the Glory of the Martyrs, for instance, are devoted to popes: the first-century pope and apostolic father Clement I (d. 96) is the protagonist of two chapters. In Chapter 35, Gregory recounts Clement’s martyrdom and the festivals that were celebrated near his tomb in Rome.8 Chapter 36 relates to the installation of his relics in Limoges and the miracles that happened there.9 The other pope to whom Gregory dedicates an account is the sixth-century martyr Pope John I (d. 526). In Chapter 39, Gregory discusses the persecutions against Catholics in Italy that were inflicted by the Ostrogothic king, Theodoric, and he describes John’s attempt to defend the Catholic faith.10 Even though a couple of centuries separates John I from Clement I, both were associated with the history of the persecutions against Christians and the Catholic fight against heretics. As will be discussed in Chapter 4, the tension between heretics and Catholics played an important part in Gregory’s narratives and in his attempt to construct an identity for his audience. Gregory also writes about martyrs whose cults were associated with the papacy. One prominent example is his account of the fourth-century martyr Saint Pancras, whose tomb is found near the walls of Rome. By the sixth century, the name and cult of Pancras in Rome were strongly associated with the papacy and, more precisely, with the late fifth-century Laurentian Schism.11 According to Conrad Leyser, one expression of the rivalry between Pope Symmachus (d. 514) and the antipope Laurentius was the promotion of certain cults of saints and the construction of certain churches in Rome, among them the Church of Saint Pancras in via Aurelia that was commissioned 5 See GM 35, pp. 60–61 and GM 36, p. 61 for Clement of Rome, and GM 39, p. 63 for Pope John I. John I is the only sixth-century martyr that Gregory mentions in this section. 6 GM 46 and GM 82, pp. 69–70 and 93–94. 7 GM 41, GM 45, and GM 82, pp. 65–66, 68–69, and 93–94. 8 GM 35, pp. 60–61. 9 GM 36, p. 61. 10 GM 39, p. 63. 11 The Laurentian Schism was a rift between the supporters of Pope Symmachus and those of the antipope Laurentius, which occurred in the early fifth century. For further reading see Moorhead, ‘Laurentian Schism’. On the role of the cult of Saint Pancras in this rivalry, see Leyser, ‘The Temptations’; Thacker, ‘Martyr Cult’, p. 47.

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by Pope Symmachus.12 Gregory’s report of the miracles that took place at the tomb of Saint Pancras is among the early accounts of the cult of Pancras and his reputation as ‘a powerful avenger against perjurers’.13 Gregory’s contemporary, Pope Gregory the Great, also alluded to the cult of Pancras in a homily he gave in 591.14 Saints Gervasius and Protasius of Milan, to whom Gregory of Tours dedicates Chapter 46 of the Glory of the Martyrs, were also celebrated in Rome.15 They were considered among the patron saints of Milan, and in the fifth century a woman in Rome called Vestina had dedicated a church to the two martyrs, with the support of Pope Innocent I (d. 417).16 One explanation for the strong papal influence on the selection of Italian saints may lie in the aftereffects of the Three Chapters controversy, which resulted in an alliance between the Gallic episcopacy and the papal see in Rome.17 This controversy was itself an outcome of an earlier controversy that arose in the wake of the Council of Chalcedon, and it revolved around the question of adherence to the writings of Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret of Cyrrhus, and Ibas of Edessa.18 The dispute involved ecclesiastical and secular leaders, including the popes and the Byzantine emperors. In 543/4 Justinian issued an edict condemning these ‘Three Chapters’ and thus ignited a new phase in this long-standing theological debate over orthodox doctrine. Whereas eastern churches adhered to the edict, after expressing a mild objection, in the Latin West things were more complicated. At first, the pope dismissed the condemnation, but by 553 Pope Vigilius I (d. 555) yielded and endorsed the condemnation of the Three Chapters.19 Soon after, Vigilius passed away and his successor, Pelagius (d. 561), who was appointed by Justinian, had to face this decision and the opposition it raised in the West, especially in Italy, where the conflict resulted in a schism.20 As for the Frankish Kingdom, as Ian Wood noted, Gregory of Tours says nothing explicit on the controversy or the Frankish reaction to it.21 But correspondence between Merovingian 12 Leyser, ‘The Temptations’, pp. 299–305; see also Liber Pontificalis LIII.8, p. 124. 13 GM 38, p. 62: ‘valde in periuribus ultor’. See also Verranndo, ‘Le numerose’, pp. 105–107. 14 Gregorius Magnus, Homilia XXVII. 15 GM 46, pp. 69–70. 16 Liber Pontificalis XLII.3, p. 88; Thacker, ‘Martyr Cult’, pp. 46–47. 17 On the part of the Frankish Church in this controversy see: Wood, ‘The Franks’; Stüber, ‘The Fifth Council of Orléans’; Scholz, ‘The Papacy’; Esders, ‘The Merovingians’, pp. 351–353 (see here, too, for further bibliography). 18 For a brief introduction on the Three Chapters Controversy see the Robert Markus and Claire Sotinel’s introduction to The Crisis of the Oikoumene, and Price, ‘The Three Chapters Controversy’. 19 Markus and Sotinel, ‘Introduction’, pp. 4–5. 20 Sotinel, ‘The Three Chapters’. 21 Wood, ‘The Franks’, p. 223.

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bishops and the papacy proves that they were familiar with the theological debate. Both Vigilius and Pelagius were in touch with Merovingian bishops and attempted to persuade them to support the condemnation of the Three Chapters.22 Pelagius went so far as to send some relics to the Merovingian kingdom with monks from Lérins.23 According to his own account, he sent relics of apostles and martyrs (‘beatorum apostolorum Petri et Pauli et aliorum sanctorum martyrum reliquias poposcerunt’).24 Even though Gregory of Tours is silent about the Three Chapters controversy, he does acknowledge some of the relics Pelagius had sent to Gaul: in Chapter 82 of the Glory of the Martyrs, he mentions that a certain deacon received relics from Pope Pelagius of Rome.25 At the end of the account, he lists the relics, and mentions there Paul, John, and several other Italian martyrs, among them Laurentius, Chrysanthus, Daria, and the aforementioned Pancras,26 all of whom are also mentioned by Gregory elsewhere in the Glory of the Martyrs. Thus, the papacy had a certain amount of influence on the flow of relics, and perhaps the dissemination of stories about Italian saints, and it seems that by Gregory’s time, many of the Italian saints that he included in his works were already venerated in Gaul. Such papal influence continued during the papacy of Gregory the Great, as demonstrated by his frequent correspondence with Frankish monarchs, and most notably with the Frankish queen Brunhild (d. 613). Some of these letters, which are collected in Gregory the Great’s Registrum Epistularum, also document gift exchanges in the form of relics that were sent from Rome to the Frankish Kingdom. Two subsequent epistles, one addressed to Brunhild and the other to her son, Childebert II, allude to relics of Petrus that Gregory the Great sent them with an envoy.27 Another epistle addressed to Brunhild records the translation of relics of Peter and Paul.28 The role of queens – and thus of gender – in the transmission of relics is noteworthy. Gregory the Great also wrote several epistles to the Lombard queen, Theodolinda (d. 628), some of which relate to the exchange of relics.29 And, as will be discussed at the 22 Stüber, ‘The Fifth Council of Orléans’; Wood, ‘The Franks’. 23 Pelagius I, Epistle 48, p. 72. 24 Pelagius I, Epistle 49, p. 73. 25 GM 82, p. 94: ‘Hic autem diaconus, a papa Urbis Romanae Pelagio quorundam martyrum congessorumque adsumpta pignora’. 26 GM 82, p. 94. 27 Gregorius Magnus, Registrum VI.4 and VI.5, pp. 372–374. 28 Gregorius Magnus, Registrum VI.58, p. 431. 29 Gregorius Magnus, Registrum XIV.12, pp. 1082–1083. The epistle was sent on the occasion of the baptism of Adaloald (d. 628), Theodolinda’s son. In it, Pope Gregory mentions that he has sent relics, among them a piece of the Holy Cross, to the queen and her son.

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end of this chapter, the Frankish queen and nun Radegund also played a crucial role in the transmission of some relics, among them those of the Holy Cross, from the East to the Merovingian Kingdom. Other than the aforementioned relics that were sent by Pope Pelagius to the Merovingian Kingdom, Gregory of Tours reports on other relics of Italian saints which, for their part, may indicate that these saints had active cults. For instance, he mentions that the relics of Clement of Rome were installed in Limoges,30 and that those of Agricola and Vitalis of Bologna were sought out and brought to Gaul by Bishop Namatius of Clermont.31 The relics of Gervasius, Protasius, and Nazarius were installed in Tours during the episcopacy of Saint Martin in the fourth century,32 and, according to an account in the Histories, Bishop Eustochious of Tours dedicated a church in their honor.33 The Histories also reveals that a church was dedicated to Victor of Milan in the city of Marseilles.34 Thus, by the late sixth century, the cults of these saints were already established in the Frankish Kingdom, and when Gregory wrote about them he was participating in their commemoration and not introducing them into the Merovingian sphere.35 The case of the accounts of the eastern martyrs in the Glory of the Martyrs and the Glory of the Confessors is different and more complex, and therefore deserves further investigation, which the following chapter offers. An analysis of these stories may shed light not only on Gregory’s vision as a hagiographer but also on the relations between the Merovingian kingdoms and the Byzantine East. The past half-century has seen several studies about such relations between the East and the West, but they give short shrift to Gregory’s hagiographical corpus.36 Consequently, the cultural and religious relationship between the two post-Roman Christian polities has hardly been dealt with in modern scholarship. In what follows, I seek to scrutinize Gregory’s accounts of eastern martyrs and trace the manner in which stories, relics, and cults were disseminated from one part of the post-Roman world to another. Tracing the cults of the eastern saints and the migration of stories and ideas holds the key 30 GM 36, p. 61. 31 GM 43, p. 67. 32 GM 46, p. 69. 33 LH X.31, p. 529. 34 LH IX.22, p. 442. 35 For further discussion on the Gallo-Italian relationship as reflected in Gregory of Tours’ accounts of Italian martyrs see my forthcoming paper, ‘The Merovingians and Italy’. 36 See above, pp. 10–11.

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to understanding whether these saints were venerated in Gaul and why they were included in Gregory’s miracle collection.

The Eastern Evidence: Glory of the Martyrs Let us begin with the Glory of the Martyrs, a collection of 106 miracle accounts, ten of which are dedicated to eastern martyrs: Polycarp, the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, Sergius, Cosmas and Damian, Phocas, Domitius, George, Isidore, and Polyeuctus. In what follows, I shall offer an examination of the origins of their cults and track the dissemination of their stories from the eastern parts of the post-Roman world to Merovingian Gaul. Polycarp We find Gregory’s first discussion of an eastern martyr in the account of Polycarp of Smyrna.37 The story relates the celebrations that took place in the city of Riom during the feast day of Polycarp. Gregory describes in detail the liturgical ceremony, during which ‘[an account of] Polycarp’s passio was read out loud along with the other readings that the canon brought’.38 Later on, as the ­celebrations of the mass proceeded, a certain deacon tried to bring the vessel of the hostia to the altar. But, alas, he was not able to hold the sacred vessel. According to Gregory, the vessel ‘slipped from the deacon’s hand and was carried by the air, and thus it approached the altar while under no circumstances was the deacon’s hand able to reach it’.39 He then explains that he believes this happened because of the sins of the deacon, who, according to Gregory, was known to have committed adultery.40 Gregory finishes his account by stating that only one priest and three women, among them my mother, were allowed to see this; the rest did not see it. I admit that I was present then during the feast, but I was not worthy to observe this. 41 37 GM 85, pp. 95–96. 38 GM 85, pp. 95–96: ‘Lecta igitur passione cum reliquis lectionibus, quas canon sacerdotalis invexit’. 39 GM 85, p. 96: ‘elapsa de manu eius ferebatus in aera, et sic ad ipsam aram accedens, numquam eam manus diaconi potuit adsequi’. 40 GM 85, p. 96. 41 GM 85, p. 96: ‘Uni tantum presbitero et tribus mulieribus, ex quibus una mater mea erat, quibus haec videre licitum fuit, ceteri non viderunt. Aderam, fateor, et ego tunc temporis huic festivitati, sed heac videre non merui’.

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Thus, while at that time Gregory depicts himself as ‘not worthy’ enough to behold such a miracle, his own mother was indeed worthy – a fact that nevertheless shows him in a positive light. Polycarp was one of the earliest Christian martyrs and, before his death in 155/6, he served as the bishop of Smyrna. According to Eusebius of Caesarea’s Ecclesiastical History, Polycarp accompanied some of the Apostles, who in return appointed him to the episcopal see of Smyrna. 42 Gregory also refers to this background in his Histories, arguing that Polycarp was a disciple of the Apostle John.43 A passio describing Polycarp’s life and suffering, penned about half a century after his death, was quickly copied and disseminated, as is evidenced by the two early surviving versions: one written by a certain Socrates and Pionius and another by Eusebius, based on Pionius’s account.44 The ending of Socrates and Pionius’s recension alludes to an earlier passio, which is no longer extant. Their account ends with this statement: ‘I, Socrates, transcribed it at Corinth from Gaius’s copy […] and I, Pionius, transcribed it once again from an earlier copy’. 45 One recension of this version, which only appears in a single manuscript, explains the transmission of Polycarp’s passio. 46 According to this manuscript, ‘Gaius transcribed this account 42 EH III.36.1, p. 280: ‘Διέπρέν γε μὴν κατὰ τούτους ἐπὶ τῆς Ἀσίας τῶν ἀποστόλων ὁμιλητὴς Πολύκαρπος, τύς κατὰ Σμύρναν πρὸς τῶν αὐτοπτῶν καὶ ὑπηρετῶν τοῦ κυρίου τὴν ἐπισκοπὴν ἐγκεχειρισμένος’ [‘At this time there flourished in Asia Polycarp, the companion of the Apostles, who had been appointed to the bishopric of the church of Smyrna by the eyewitnesses and ministers of the Lord’; trans. EH, p. 281]. 43 LH Ι.28, p. 21: ‘In Asia autem, orta persecutione, beatissimus Policarpus, Iohannis apostoli et euangelistae discipulus, octoginsimo aetatis suae anno velut holocaustum purissimum per ignem Domino consecratur’ [‘Persecutions sprung up in Asia, (where) the most blessed Polycarp, the disciple of John the Apostle and Evangelist, when he was in his eightieth year, was consecrated by fire to the Lord, thus becoming a pure burnt offering’]. One can find certain similarities between Gregory’s description to that of Eusebius which may indicate the influence of Eusebius over Gregory. Moreover, reading Rufinus’s version in his Latin translation of Eusebius indicates that Gregory had used this work for his own historiographical needs. Cf. with Rufinus’s Ecclesiastical History III.36.1, in Eusebius Werke, vol. 2.1, p. 275. For further discussion of Rufinus’s translation, see Chapter 3 below, pp. 123–124. 44 For Pionius’s martyrdom account see Μαρτύριον τοῦ Ἁγίου Πολυκάρπου. For Eusebius’s version see EH IV.15, pp. 340–358. Eusebius begins his account with a direct citation from Pinious (cf. EH IV.15.3, p. 340 and the preface of Μαρτύριον τοῦ Ἁγίου Πολυκάρπου, p. 2), which may serve as a good indication of the influence of the latter on the former. On the dating of the passio and for further bibliography, see Moss, ‘On the Dating of Polycarp’. 45 Μαρτύριον τοῦ Ἁγίου Πολυκάρπου, pp. 18–19: ‘ἐγὼ δὲ Σωκράτης ἐν Κορίνθῳ ἐκ τῶν Γαΐοω ἀντιγράφων ἔγραψα… Ἐγω δὲ πάλιν Πιόνιος ἐκ τοῦ προγεγραμμένου ἔγραψα ἀναζητήσας αὐτά’. 46 Moscow, Synodal Library, Codex Mosquensis 150 (s. xiii). See also Μαρτύριον τοῦ Ἁγίου Πολυκάρπου, p. 19, n. 30. For a list of all manuscripts, see Musurillo’s introduction to the Acts of the Christian Martyrs, pp. xiv–xv.

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from the documents of Irenaeus, seeing that he had been a companion of Irenaeus, who had also been a disciple of the blessed Polycarp’. 47 Then the author explains that from Irenaeus’s remains, then, as was stated above, Gaius made his copy and Isocrates made another copy at Corinth from Gaius’s transcription. Finally, I, Pionius, made my transcription from Isocrates’s copy. 48

Irenaeus, to whom Pionius ascribes the earlier version of Polycarp’s passio, is a crucial actor in the circulation of Polycarp’s passio and cult. A disciple of Polycarp, Irenaeus (d. c. 200) was sent by him to Lyons. There, he served as the bishop of the city after the martyrdom of the former incumbent. 49 Not long after his appointment, Irenaeus faced a similar death at the hands of Septimius Severus.50 His body was buried in the local church of Saint John, and, according to Gregory of Tours, ill people used to visit his tomb in order to be cured.51 Irenaeus was an important early Christian theologian, and he composed several treatises against the heresies of his time. He mentioned Polycarp several times in his writings, stressing his pivotal role in shaping Irenaeus’s theological views.52 Hence, it is not too far-fetched to assume that Irenaeus was the one who introduced the cult of Polycarp into Gaul, and that his role as a bishop and theologian helped him to establish it.53 From Gregory’s account of Polycarp in the Glory of the Martyrs, it appears that Irenaeus enjoyed much success in this endeavour. Not only did Polycarp enjoy a certain amount of veneration in Gaul, his cult was important enough for Gregory and his mother to observe his feast day and to travel from Clermont to Riom in order to participate in the celebrations. This familiarity with 47 Μαρτύριον τοῦ Ἁγίου Πολυκάρπου, pp. 18–20: ‘Ταῦτα μετεγράψατο μὲν Γάϊος ἐκ τῶν Εἰρηναίου αυγγραμμάτων, ὃς καὶ συνεπολιτεύσατο τῷ Εἰρηναίῳ, μαθητῇ γεγονότι τοῦ ἁγίου Πολυκάρπου’. 48 Μαρτύριον τοῦ Ἁγίου Πολυκάρπου, pp. 20–21: ‘Ἐκ τούτων οὖν, ὡς προλέλεκται, τῶν τοῦ Εἰρηναίου συγγραμμάτων Γάϊος μετεγράψατο, ἐκ δὲ τῶν Γαΐου ἀντιγράφων Ἰσοκρατης ἐν Κορίνθω. Ἐγὼ δὲ πάλιν Πιόνιος ἐκ τῶν Ἰσοκράτους ἀντιγράφων’. 49 LH I.29, pp. 21–22. For further reading on the life of Irenaeus, see Grant, Irenaeus of Lyons, and Osborn, Irenaeus of Lyons. 50 Osborn, Irenaeus of Lyons, p. 2; van der Straeten, ‘Saint-Irénée fut-il martyre?’, p. 145. 51 GM 49, p. 72. 52 See for example: Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies IV.32.1 and V.33.4, in The Writings of Irenaeus, vol. 2, pp. 4, 146–147. 53 Irenaeus’s writings facilitated the spread of Polycarp’s cult. Eusebius of Caesarea, for instance, used some of Irenaeus works for writing the parts about Polycarp in his Ecclesiastical History. See EH III.28.6, p. 264; EH III.36.12–13, p. 284; EH IV.14.1–8, pp. 334–338. The manner in which Irenaeus used his writings in order to promote the cult of his sainted teacher recalls how Gregory of Tours used his own writings to advance specific cults, such as that of Julian of Brioude.

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Polycarp and his cult in Riom may explain Gregory’s decision to include an account in the Glory of the Martyrs. Still, Gregory’s report features a few oddities that deserve further discussion. The Glory of the Martyrs has a certain geographical structure, and most of the accounts in the book are set in geographical order; that is, almost all the Gallic, Italian or eastern martyrs are grouped together. Gregory, however, separates the account of Polycarp from those of the other eastern martyrs and places him in a distinctly Gallic context. For instance, when Gregory wrote about Saint George, another eastern martyr who was venerated in Merovingian Gaul, he placed his account in the eastern section of the work. Looking closely at two other accounts – the one preceding the account of Polycarp and the one right after it – may provide an explanation for this deviation from Gregory’s scheme. Chapter 84, which precedes Polycarp’s account, describes an incident in which the count of Brittany, who suffered from pain in his legs, was advised by his servants to wash his feet in one of the liturgical vessels from an altar of a certain church. According to Gregory, these servants were ‘silly and idle men’ (stulti et inertes),54 and their advice did not work. Quite the contrary, in fact: instead of being healed, the count became completely crippled.55 In Chapter 86, we encounter Epachius, a member of the senatorial aristocracy and a priest in the city of Riom, where the feast of Polycarp was held. As a member of the local elite, Epachius was in charge of the Christmas celebrations. But he imbibed so much during the night vigils of Christmas Eve that he arrived at the church extremely drunk. Epachius recited the prayers and distributed the Eucharist, after which he began ‘whinnying like a horse’ (equini hinniti) and fell down.56 Soon after, he began suffering from epileptic seizures, which Gregory understands as a divine punishment for his bad behavior. Immediately after that, Gregory includes a similar story about a clergyman who did not fulfill his pastoral duties properly. This time, it was Gregory himself. During the celebration of the vigils one Christmas Eve, Gregory fell asleep. Twice he was awakened by a man, upon whose departure Gregory fell back asleep. The third time this happened, the man slapped Gregory across the face and said: ‘“Behold, you must remind others to [attend] vigils! But you are still overcome by sleep?”’.57 Gregory realized what he had done and immediately ran to church to fulfill his episcopal duty.58 54 55 56 57 58

GM 84, p. 95. GM 84, p. 95. GM 86, p. 96. GM 86, p. 96: ‘En tu reliquos ad vigilias admonere debes, et adhuc sopore obpraemeris?’ GM 86, p. 96.

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These three accounts are bound together by a single thread – the importance of the liturgical procedure of the mass, be it the order of the celebration itself (GM 86) or the instruments that were used for that purpose (GM 84). The account of Polycarp combines these two issues, as it describes a liturgical ceremony and the proper use of liturgical vessels. One might speculate that the combination of Polycarp’s popularity in Gaul and Gregory’s desire to express some of his thoughts on liturgical ‘behavior’ led to the separation of Polycarp’s account from the other accounts of eastern martyrs. It is also possible that Polycarp was considered somewhat Gallic, and perhaps his relations with Irenaeus of Lyons helped to establish such a notion. In any case, the account of Polycarp in the Glory of the Martyrs reveals that he was venerated in Gaul and that there is nothing out of the ordinary about his inclusion in the work. As we shall see next, however, this is not the case with most of the other eastern martyrs. The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus Gregory begins the main section of eastern martyrs in the Glory of the Martyrs with the wonderful story of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, perhaps the earliest Christian tale of time travel. The story included in the Glory of the Martyrs is an abridgement: Gregory notes at the end of the account in the GM that it was based on a longer, translated version.59 The latter is actually a Latin translation of a Syriac text, as Gregory admits at the end of both accounts, adding that he translated the text with the assistance of a certain Syrian called Johannes. As will be discussed later in this chapter, by the mid-sixth century, Syrians were scattered across the western Mediterranean coasts, and some of them founded communities in the territories of Gaul and the Merovingian kingdoms. The Johannes who helped Gregory to translate the story of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus into Latin may have been one of those Syrians. The original text concludes, ‘Here ends the passion of the holy seven martyrs sleeping near Ephesus, translated into Latin by Gregory the bishop, with the interpretation of Johannes the Syrian’,60 and in the GM Gregory writes that ‘[the record] of their passion, which I translated into Latin

59 SD. On the two versions of the story and a comparison between them see Heinzelmann, ‘La réécriture hagiographique’, pp. 59–68. 60 SD, p. 403: ‘Explicit passio sanctorum martyrum septem dormientium apud ephysum, translata in Latinum per Gregorium episcopum, interpretante Iohanne Syro’.

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with the interpretation of a certain Syrian, reveals the complete [story]’.61 Moreover, the Semitic syntax of the longer account leaves no doubt that it was translated from Syriac. Both accounts tell the story of seven Christian Roman citizens, their trial by Emperor Decius (d. 251) and their escape to a cave outside Ephesus, where they fall asleep and wake up a century and a half later, at the time of Emperor Theodosius I (d. 395). Post-awakening, or perhaps better, post-resurrection – Gregory uses the words surrexerunt (GM) and resurrectionis (SD), which have the double meaning of ‘wakened’ and ‘resurrected’ – the seven men meet Theodosius, caution him about current heresies and fall asleep for the last time.62 Their final falling asleep may be understood as their death. But Gregory, probably following the original Syrian author, chose to retain the mystical aspect of their story and describe it as if they were falling asleep (an eternal sleep, perhaps). This form of death also resembles that of the Virgin Mary. The inclusion of the story of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus in the Glory of the Martyrs is not self-evident; their martyrdom does not quite align with what we today think of as early Christian martyrdom. They were certainly persecuted and tried by the emperor, like many other Christians of the day. But they were not tortured, nor were they executed by one of the many methods inflicted by the Romans on Christian martyrs. In fact, their deaths (if their final falling asleep can be considered a death) are calm, pleasant and completely different from the horrible deaths of other martyrs. This is not the only incident in the Glory of the Martyrs in which Gregory refers to martyrs whose fates do not tally with our modern impression of early Christian martyrs. See, for example, Chapter 81, where Gregory describes a dispute that took place in Spain between an Arian king and a Catholic priest. The priest’s refusal to renounce his Catholic faith led to torture and finally exile. But he was never executed.63 Furthermore, unlike most of the other accounts in Gregory’s miracle collections, in which a saint performs a miracle that somehow involves another human being (a sick person, a sinner, a possessed man, or a woman looking for assistance), in this story the saints themselves were the miracle. More precisely, the long sleep that rescued them from the Decian persecutions and deferred their martyrdom was the miracle.

61 GM 94, p. 102: ‘Quod passio eorum, quam Siro quodam interpretante in Latino transtulimus, plenius pandit’. 62 GM 94, pp. 100–102; SD 11, p. 402. 63 GM 81, p. 93.

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Gregory is considered one of the first western authors to relate the story of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus. This may well be taken to imply that he helped to introduce their legend to the Latin West. Moreover, Gregory’s accounts of the Seven Sleepers are thought to be among the earliest surviving accounts of the passio of the saints,64 together with a Syriac poem that was written at the beginning of the sixth century by Jacob of Serugh (d. 521).65 Jacob of Serugh’s tale is nearly identical to Gregory’s, except that the Syriac poem lists an eighth sleeper named Iamlikha. There is another sixth-century Latin report about the Sleepers of Ephesus, but it offers no indication of their passio. The account is found in the topographical description of the Holy Land (De Situ Terrae Sanctae) that was ascribed to Theodosius, a Gallic archdeacon. Theodosius’s account of the Holy Land was composed sometimes between 518 and 530; it is based on various pilgrim itineraries, and it is not certain whether Theodosius even visited the Holy Land. Moreover, the name ascribed to the author is based on later medieval copies of the treatise, the earliest of them is dated to the eighth century.66 In his account, Theodosius describes the holy sites in Jerusalem and then continues on to places in Asia Minor. Among other things, he notes that in the province of Asia there is the city of Ephesus, there were the seven Sleeping Brothers, and the young dog Viricanus at their feet.67

Then he gives their names – Achilides, Diomedes, Eugenius, Stephen, Probatius, Sabbatius and Quiriacus – which differ from the ones Gregory gives in his accounts (Maximianus, Malchus, Martinianus, Constantinus, Dionysius, Johannes and Serapion). By the end of the sixth century, then, competing narratives of the story of the Seven Sleepers were already circulating. Notably, the Seven Sleepers were not venerated in Gaul. Nothing in Gregory’s accounts indicates that any celebrations in honor of the saints were held anywhere in Tours or in the rest of Gaul. Furthermore, not a single shrine, relic, or even a hint in a contemporary record relating to an existing cult in Gaul seems to have survived, implying that the Seven Sleepers were not publicly venerated in Merovingian Gaul. Why, then, did Gregory include the story of the Seven Sleepers in the Glory of the Martyrs? It certainly was 64 Bosner, ‘The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus’, p. 256; van der Horst, ‘Pious Long-Sleepers’, pp. 106–107; Collaço, ‘With Sleep Comes a Fusion of Worlds’, p. 29. 65 A translation of the poem can be found in Brock, ‘Jacob of Serugh’s Poem on the Sleepers of Ephesus’. I wish to thank Professor Sebastian Brock for sending me a copy of this translation. 66 Tsafrir, ‘The Maps Used by Theodosius’, pp. 129–130, and see there for further bibliography. 67 Theodosius, De Situ Terrae Sanctae 26, p. 123: ‘In prouincia Asia ciuita Epheso, ubi sunt septem fratres dormientes et catulus Viricanus, ad pedem eorum’.

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not meant to be used during any sort of celebration of the saints in Gaul. The answer may be found in the conversation between the Seven Sleepers and the Emperor after their resurrection. Gregory states that the Seven Sleepers woke up at a time during which ‘the impure heresy of the Sadducees, who denied that the resurrection would happen in the future, was spreading’.68 Then, he continues, the seven men spoke with Theodosius, saying: Oh, glorious Augustus, a heresy has risen which attempts to divert the Christian people from God’s promises by saying that the resurrection of the dead will not happen. But, as you know, just as the Apostle Paul depicted, every one of us will be present before tribunal of Christ. For this reason, the Lord ordered us to be resurrected and tell you this. See, then, lest you be led astray and excluded from the Kingdom of God.69

A similar idea also appears in the translated passio, which may suggest that Gregory’s interest in their story stemmed from their use in this theological discussion. According to the passio version, the Seven Sleepers tell the Emperor: Please understand, emperor, that our Lord resurrected us in order to strengthen your faith. Therefore, by always trusting in him, know that the resurrection of the dead will come. Today you see us after we were resurrected, speaking with you and describing the mighty work of God.70

Here, again, the main issue is the resurrection. It is not surprising that the Seven Sleepers were the saints chosen by both the eastern author and Gregory to participate in the discussion about the resurrection. After all, they exemplify resurrection as they themselves were resurrected. Gregory deals with resurrection in other places as well. In the last book of the Histories, for instance, he relates how ‘once, one of my priests, who was infected by the toxic [doctrine] of the evil Sadducees, stated that the 68 GM 94, p. 101: ‘surrexit hereses inmunda Sadduceorum, qui negant resurrectionem futuram’. 69 GM 94, p. 102: ‘Surrexit, gloriosae auguste, hereses, quae populum christianum a Dei promissionibus conatur evertere, ut dicant, non fieri resurrectionem mortuorum. Ergo ut scias, quia omnes iuxta apostolum Paulum repraesentandi erimus ante tribunal Christi, idcirco iussit nos Dominus suscitari et tibi ista loqui. Vide ergo, ne seducaris et excludaris a regno Dei’. 70 SD 12, pp. 402–403: ‘“Scito”, inquit, “imperator, quia ad conf irmandam f idem tuam nos Dominus resurgere iussit. Ergo iugiter et fidens in eum cognosce, quia fiet resurrectio mortuorum, cum nos hodie videas post resurrectionem tecum loqui atque enarrare magnalia Dei”’.

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resurrection will not happen’.71 When Gregory confronts him, the priest replies, ‘“it is evident that this [doctrine] is celebrated by many, but we cannot be certain whether it is true or not”’.72 This sparks a long argument between Gregory and the priest about the resurrection of the dead. ‘“Is it possible that bones that rendered into ashes will give life once more to make a living human being?”’ the priest asks Gregory.73 In return, Gregory explains his theology regarding God’s ability to restore bodies from dust. Notably, Gregory and the priest continue to discuss the resurrection in one of the longest chapters in the Histories. Their argument was part of a wider debate in Christendom at that time. As Mathew Dal Santo has shown in his study of Pope Gregory the Great and the miracle accounts in his Dialogues, at the end of the sixth century, Christian theologians in the East and the West were extensively preoccupied with the resurrection of the body and the soul.74 Dal Santo also connects this discussion to the cults of saints and examines the role of both the cults and hagiography in this respect. Gregory’s argument in the Histories and his account of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus were part of this ongoing theological debate. The story of the Seven Sleepers and the incident in the Histories intersects on two main points: Gregory’s use of the term ‘Sadducees’ to describe the heretics, and the discussion about the resurrection and the heresy that denies it. Even though the Seven Sleepers were not venerated in Gaul, Gregory may have included their story in his book in order to convey his views on the resurrection to his audience. It should be noted that Gregory wrote for different audiences. The Histories were meant to be read by an educated audience capable of understanding intellectual arguments, such as those given by Gregory in his exchange with the priest. The hagiographical collections, however, were aimed at a more diverse audience that included both educated and common men and women.75 Therefore, the content of the accounts in the hagiographical collections had to be simpler. Instead of giving an intellectual justification for the resurrection, Gregory adduces evidence that proves that resurrection is possible. The Seven Sleepers died during the Decian persecutions and were resurrected after the Christianization of the Roman Empire, a historical moment that symbolized the triumph of Christianity. 71 LH X.13, p. 496: ‘His autem diebus extitit quidam de presbiteris nostris Sadduceae malignitatis infectus veneno, dicens, non esse futuram resurrectionem’. 72 LH X.13, p. 496: ‘“Manifestum est hoc celebre ferri, sed certi non sumus, utrum sit an non”’. 73 LH X.13, p. 497: ‘“Numquid possunt ossa in favilla redacta iterum animari et hominem viventem proferre?”’ 74 Dal Santo, Debating the Saints. 75 For further discussion on Gregory’s audience see below in Chapter 4, pp. 156–158.

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The seven men returned from the dead to demonstrate the actuality of resurrection and to ensure that the Christian emperor would fight heresies that deny it. The moment that they proved their point, they could return to their eternal afterlife. Finally, the account of the Seven Sleepers shows that, while not all the saints that were included in the collection were necessarily venerated in Gaul, their accounts still served an important function in the book. The Forty Martyrs of Sebaste During the persecutions initiated by Emperor Licinius in 320, forty Roman soldiers were martyred in the territories of the Armenian city of Sebaste. In his account of their martyrdom, Gregory refers to ‘the forty-eight martyrs of Sebaste’, and Van Dam suggests that he sought to compare these martyrs with the famous forty-eight martyrs of Lyons.76 Gregory gives a long account of the martyrdom of the Forty Martyrs, which is quite exceptional since most of the accounts in the Glory of the Martyrs consist of a simple miracle story with hardly any information about the martyrdom in question. According to Gregory, the martyrs were gathered near a lake in the Armenian mountains, where they were stripped of their clothes and left exposed to the freezing weather. The emperor presented them with the following choice: confess their Christian belief and freeze to death or denounce Christianity and receive a warm bath. ‘When all the men refused to sacrifice to demons’, Gregory continues his story, ‘their guard saw forty-eight precious crowns falling from the sky and descending over the men’s heads’.77 One of the crowns, the same guard notices, was recalled, and shortly thereafter, one of the Forty Martyrs escaped, denounced his faith, and ran to the hot bath. Having witnessed the scene, the guard confessed to being a Christian and asked to die with the other Christians, thus volunteering himself as a martyr.78 Even though the martyrs stood naked and were exposed to the cold weather, they did not freeze to death. Therefore, the judge ordered them to be dipped in a boiling bath, hoping that the unbearable heat of the water would kill them. And, indeed, as Gregory relates, after the soldiers were plunged 76 Glory of the Martyrs, p. 119, n. 108. 77 GM 95, p. 102: ‘videt custos eorum quadraginta octo coronas pretiosissimas e caelo dilapsas discendere super capita virorum’. 78 GM 95, p. 102. On voluntary martyrdom see De Ste. Croix, ‘Voluntary Martyrdom’; Droge and Tabor, A Noble Death; Moss, ‘The Discourse of Voluntary Martyrdom’; Buck, ‘Voluntary Martyrdom Revisited’; Middleton, ‘Early Christian Voluntary Martyrdom’; idem, Radical Martyrdom; Rotman, ‘Voluntary Martyrdom’.

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into the bath, they finally died. Their bodies were burnt and thrown into the river. Miraculously, however, they floated on the water and Christians were able to collect the burned bodies and give them a proper burial.79 The burial story of the forty Armenian martyrs resembles Gregory’s account of the burial of the forty-eight martyrs of Lyons. According to that story, the bodies of the forty-eight martyrs were also burnt and thrown into a river, leaving the Christian crowd devastated by the loss of holy relics.80 But their despair did not last for long. The martyrs, who appeared in the dreams of the faithful that very night, instructed them to collect their holy remains. And so they did. The relics, Gregory reports, were buried in the ground and an altar was built on top of them.81 The overlap between the stories of the forty-eight martyrs of Lyons and the forty martyrs of Sebaste supports Van Dam’s suggestion that Gregory changed the number of the Armenian martyrs to craft an eastern equivalent to the martyrs of Lyons. Van Dam, however, is silent as to why Gregory would want to make such a parallel between eastern and western martyrs in the first place. According to Gregory, the cult of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste emerged almost immediately after their death. This important piece of information is corroborated by the fact that by 373, several versions of their passio were already circulating in the East. For instance, the Cappadocian Church Father Basil of Caesarea (d. 379) wrote a homily commemorating the Forty Martyrs,82 and another Cappadocian Father, Gregory of Nyssa (d. 395), also wrote a homily in their honor.83 These homilies were delivered on the martyrs’ feast day (March 9), thus suggesting that they were already venerated as saints and martyrs. The fifth-century Church historian Sozomen (d. 450) writes in his Ecclesiastical History that relics of the martyrs were found near Constantinople,84 and Gerontius (d. 439), the hagiographer of Melania the Younger, reports that Melania installed some relics of the Forty Martyrs in the monastery she had founded on the Mount of Olives.85 Not long after, John Rufus, who lived in Antioch during the second half of the fifth century, 79 GM 95, p. 103. 80 GM 48, p. 72: ‘cum christiani maerorem maximus haberent, quasi deperissent beatae reliquiae’. 81 GM 48, p. 72. 82 For the different versions of the passio see BHG 1201–1203. For a short introduction and translation of Basil’s homily, see Basil of Caesarea, A Homily on the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, pp. 67–77. 83 Gregory of Nyssa, First Homily on the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, pp. 93–97. 84 Sozomen, Ecclesiastical History 9.2, pp. 407–410. 85 Gerontius, The Life of Melania the Younger 48, p. 61.

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mentions that same event in his treatise on the life of Peter the Iberian.86 Thus, by the end of the fifth century, the cult of the Forty Martyrs had spread in the eastern parts of the post-Roman world. In the West, however, things were different. The earliest evidence we possess on the passage of the cult of the Forty Martyrs to the West is a short tract written by the bishop Gaudentius of Brescia (d. 410) that celebrates the dedication of a church with housing relics of several saints, among them the ashes of the Forty Martyrs. Gaudentius explains how he acquired their relics and gives a short account of their martyrdom.87 As far as Gaul is considered, in addition to the account in Gregory of Tours’s Glory of the Martyrs, we also have a record of the martyrs in Gregory’s Histories. There, Gregory relates that he had heard from a certain bishop how the Armenian church of the Forty Martyrs was burnt down by a Persian king, and he notes that he had written an account of these martyrs in his ‘liber miraculorum’.88 Neither story, however, reveals the nature of the cult of the Martyrs of Sebaste in Gaul. Furthermore, there is no other reference to the martyrs of Sebaste before the sixth century, making Gregory’s account the earliest attestation of their martyrdom in Gaul. Moreover, we have no evidence of a shrine that was dedicated to the martyrs or even relics that might have been circulated in Gaul at that time. Whereas the accounts in the Glory of the Martyrs and the Histories teach us nothing about the cult of the Forty Martyrs in Gaul, it still serves as interesting evidence for the process of dissemination. Gregory opens his account in the Histories by saying that ‘a bishop called Simon travelled to Tours from regions overseas’, and that ‘he gave us news about the overthrow of Antioch’.89 Among these updates was the report about the church of the forty martyrs and the circumstances that led to it being burnt. We know from other accounts in Gregory’s Histories that he sometimes asks his interlocutors about saints and their deeds.90 Quite plausibly, then, the encounter with this presumably eastern bishop triggered Gregory’s interest in the saints to whom the burnt church was dedicated. The resemblance between the story of the Forty Martyrs and the famous martyrs of Lyons (to one of whom, lest it be forgotten, Gregory was related) probably influenced Gregory’s decision to include them in his miracle collection. 86 John Rufus, The Life of Peter the Iberian 49, pp. 65–67. 87 Gaudentius of Brescia, Sermo XVII: De diversis capitulis septimus, cols. 959–971. 88 LH X.24, p. 515. 89 LH X.24, p. 515: ‘episcopus de transmarinis partibus ad Toronicam urben advenit nomine Symon’. 90 See, for instance, Gregory’s encounter with Vulf ilaic (LH VIII.16, pp. 383–384), in which Gregory explicitly asked Vulfilaic to tell him about miraculous deeds of certain saints.

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Sergius The account of the Syrian martyr Sergius opens a series of four accounts in which Gregory discusses a number of Syrian martyrs. This group of martyrs is the largest group treating foreign saints who originated from the same geographical area and, as will be shown later in this chapter, these accounts are the key to our understanding of the process of the dissemination of saints’ cults and stories about saints from the East to the West. Gregory opens his account of Sergius with an introduction to the miraculous powers of the saint. ‘The martyr Sergius’, he says, ‘also performed many miracles for people by healing illnesses and curing the weaknesses of those who prayed faithfully’.91 Gregory continues to describe how people used to dedicate their possessions to the saint, knowing that it is forbidden to take anything from the church. ‘If anyone does so’, Gregory comments, ‘soon afterwards he pays the penalty of disgrace or death’.92 After this exposition of the saint’s abilities, Gregory turns to relate a particular story that took place during the feast day of the saint. While people gathered in the church of saint Sergius, Gregory reports, two men stole a chicken that an old woman had given to the church as an offering to the saint. They tried to cook the chicken, hoping to serve it to their dinner guests. But no matter what they did, the chicken simply would not cook. Meanwhile, the guests began to arrive, and the thieves had nothing to offer them. ‘And thus, because of this unusual miracle’, Gregory explains, ‘the food turned into stone, the hosts were embarrassed, the guests were ashamed and left the dinner in shame’.93 Since Sergius used to punish sinners by disgrace or death, as Gregory commented at the beginning of his account, it seems that these men got off fairly lightly. Gregory’s account does not specify the location of the miracle. We are told only that it occurred in the saint’s ‘large church’. Elizabeth Key Fowden and Raymond Van Dam, following Richard Krautheimer and May VieillardTroiekouroff, suggest that the location was the church of Sergius in the Syrian city of Rusafa.94 Indeed, at the beginning of the fourth century, Sergius was 91 GM 96, p. 103: ‘Sergius quoque martyr multa signa in populis facit, curans inf irmitates sanasque languores fideliter deprecantium’. 92 GM 96, p. 103: ‘ex quibus nihil omnino licet subtrahi aut auferri. Quod si quis fecerit, mox iudicium aut nothae aut mortis incurrit’. 93 GM 96, p. 103: ‘sicque novo miraculo aepulis redactis in saxo, confusis invitatoribus, verecundantibus invitatis, a caena cum pudore discessum est’. 94 Fowden, The Barbarian Plain, p. 86; Van Dam, Glory of the Martyrs, p. 91 n. 109; VieillardTroiekouroff, Les monuments religieux, p. 431; Krautheimer, Early Christian and Byzantine

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martyred in Rusafa, only a few days after his companion, Bacchus, was also martyred there. Sergius and Bacchus had served together as high-ranking officers in the Roman army. When the Emperor discovered that they were Christian, he demanded that they renounce their faith. They refused. Eventually, they were tortured and executed – first Bacchus, then, a few days later, Sergius, whose body was thrown outside the walls of Rusafa; soon after that, a church was erected over his remains.95 This is the church to which Gregory might have referred to in his account of Sergius in the Glory of the Martyrs. Although Sergius and Bacchus were martyred together, from a fairly early stage, their cult focused almost entirely on Sergius. In the fifth century – almost a century after their deaths – a Greek passio was composed to tell their story, and it dealt almost exclusively with Sergius, which may well indicate that, even then, he was more popular than his companion.96 This may explain why Gregory wrote only about Sergius and did not even mention Bacchus.97 The geographical location of Rusafa on the border between the Byzantine and Persian empires meant that there was a continuous flow of people travelling to and from the city. Soldiers stationed on the limes of the empire, as well as merchants carrying goods back and forth, could have transmitted stories of saints and their relics as well. The fact that Sergius was a soldier himself must have heightened his appeal to mercenaries passing through the city, and indeed, the cult of Sergius spread far and wide in the eastern Christian world. By the early sixth century, several churches dedicated to him were already attested in Syria (in Hawran, Edessa, and Salaminias), as well as in other places throughout Mesopotamia and the Middle East.98 For example, churches dedicated to the saint were built in the Nabataean city of Nitzana/ Nessana (located in the southwest of the Negev desert), as indicated by the papyri that were found during excavations in the 1930s. The rich corpus of the Nessana papyri, dated to the sixth and seven centuries, contains texts in Greek and Arabic that include fragments of literary sources (such as Virgil’s Aeneid and various Christian literature) and archival documents. Among Architecture, pp. 113–115. 95 Μαρτύριον τῶν Ἁγίων Σεργίου καì Βάκχου, pp. 373–395. 96 Elizabeth Key Fowden gives full references to all the versions of the passio, including ancient translations to Syriac and Latin. See Fowden, The Barbarian Plain, p. 8 n. 1. An English translation of the passio can be found in Boswell, Same-Sex Unions, pp. 375–390. For additional information on the authenticity and the date of the Greek passio, see Woods, ‘The Emperor Julian’. 97 On the cult of the saints Sergius and Bacchus, see Fowden, The Barbarian Plain; Boswell, Same-Sex Unions; Woods, ‘The Emperor Julian’; Walter, The Warrior Saints, pp. 146–162; Croke, ‘Justinian, Theodora’; Van de Zande, ‘The Cult of Saint Sergius’. 98 Fowden, The Barbarian Plain, pp. 103–129.

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these documents are papyri that reveal that an annual celebration in honor of Sergius was held in Nessana, and that even people from Sobota (Shivta), Elusa (Haluza) and Birosaba (Be’er Sheva) paid visits to the church and offered donations. For instance, papyrus 79 lists donors and offerings that were brought to the church and papyri 51 and 53 that mention the festival of Sergius that was held at Nessana.99 It is worth mentioning that a church dedicated to a certain Bacchus was found in an excavation in central Israel, in a forest not far from the city of Shoham. The Byzantine church has an inscription reading ‘ΑΓΙΟΥ ΒΑΚΧΟΥ’, which lead the archeologist Uzi Dahari to assume the church was dedicated to a certain local saint named Bacchus, who might have been the same Bacchus who accompanied Sergius.100 There is no evidence that indicates the name of Sergius in the church, but it may still serve as evidence for the dissemination of the cult of the two martyrs. The central position of the cult of Sergius is also attested by the decision to change the name of Rusafa to Sergiopolis, as a commemoration.101 A few decades later, another Byzantine emperor, Justinian, together with his wife Theodora, commissioned the construction of a church in honor of Sergius in Constantinople.102 The imperial patronage that the saint’s cult had gained may be the most eloquent witness to Sergius’s popularity and importance in the sixth century. Yet these were all developments that took place in the East. Any attempt to trace the origins of the cult of Sergius in the West throughout late antiquity and the early Middle Ages leads to Gregory of Tours and his account of Sergius in the Glory of the Martyrs. This account, however, reveals nothing about the cult of Sergius in Gaul. It only shows that Sergius’s fame somehow reached Gaul. A different account about Sergius by Gregory, this time in his Histories, provides more information and indications of a cult of Sergius in Merovingian Gaul.103 In the Histories, Gregory describes an incident that took place in Bordeaux during the so-called Gundovald Affair, in which the pretender Gundovald made a claim to the Frankish throne.104 While in Bordeaux, Gundovald heard a story concerning a certain eastern king (his name is not mentioned) and 99 Kraemer, Excavations at Nessana, Vol. 3. For further discussion on the papyri of Nessana see Stroumsa, ‘People and Identities in Nessana’. 100 Dahari, ‘H. Tinshemet’; Dahari, ‘The Church of St. Bacchus’. 101 Procopius of Caesarea, Buildings II.9.3, p. 157; Fowden, Barbarian Plain, p. 92. 102 Croke, ‘Justinian, Theodora’; Bardill, ‘The Church of Sts. Sergius and Bacchus’. 103 LH VII.31, pp. 350–352. 104 The entire affair of the pretender Gundovald appears in the seventh book of Gregory’s Histories. For further reading concerning this affair, see Goffart, ‘Byzantine Policy in the West’, pp. 73–118; Goffart, ‘The Frankish Pretender Gundovald’; Zuckerman, ‘Qui a reppelé en Gaule’.

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relics of Sergius. The king, as Gregory relates what Gundovald had heard, made totemic use of the saint’s thumb. Attaching it to his right arm, he would raise his hand with the relic while in battle and his enemies would flee.105 Desirous of such assistance in his own struggles, Gundovald began looking for relics of that saint. Luckily, the quest did not last long. Bertram, the bishop of Bordeaux, told Gundovald that ‘there is a certain Syrian named Eufronius who turned his house into a shrine and placed there relics of that saint’.106 Gundovald sent the bishop and one of his men, Mummolus, to Eufronius to take some of the relics. At first, Eufronius refused to even let them into his house, let alone to show or give them a piece of the relic. ‘“Do not harass an old man, and do not insult the saint”’, he told them, ‘“take a hundred gold [coins] and go away!”’107 Yet Mummolus and Bertram insisted that Eufronius let them in, refusing to leave until the relics had been shown to them. Finally, Eufronius was persuaded, and he led the envoys to a casket that contained the relics of Sergius. Opening the casket, Mummolus discovered there a bone from one of the saint’s fingers, which was exactly what Gundovald sought. Gregory reports that Mummolus stroked the relic with a knife, and after a few blows he broke it into three pieces that scattered throughout the room.108 Gregory comments that this was not acceptable to the martyr.109 Only after everyone who had been present in the room prayed for the saint’s forgiveness and assistance were the missing pieces of the relic found. Mummolus took with him one of these pieces and brought it back to Gundovald, ‘without the martyr’s grace’, Gregory comments, ‘as what follows demonstrates’. In this way, Gregory alludes to Gundovald’s eventual downfall.110 The Bordeaux incident tells us that Sergius was venerated in Gaul. A different account in the Histories provides further evidence of this notion. In the tenth book of the Histories, Gregory lists some of the relics he owned and placed in various shrines around Tours. Among these relics was one from Saint Sergius. According to Gregory, he renovated the church of Saint Martin in Tours after its walls were damaged by fire. He also built a 105 LH VII.31, p. 350; see also Wynn, ‘Cultural Transmission Caught in the Act’. 106 LH VII.31, p. 350: ‘Est hic quidam Syrus Eufron nominee, qui de domo sua ecclesiam faciens, huius sancti reliquias collocavit’. 107 LH VII.31, p. 351: ‘“Noli fategare senem nec sancto inferre iniuriam; sed, acceptis a me centum aureis, abscide”’. 108 LH VII.31, p. 351. 109 LH VII.31, p. 351: ‘non erat acceptum martyri’. 110 LH VII.31, p. 351: ‘Mummolus adsumpta abscessit, sed non, ut credo, cum gratia martyris, sicut in sequenti declaratum est’.

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baptistery near the church and installed relics of Saint John and Sergius the martyr there.111 Gregory’s decision to install the relics of the eastern saint in such close proximity to the church of Saint Martin, Tours’s most important saint, may speak to Gregory’s and his contemporaries’ appreciation of Sergius as a saint and martyr. The three accounts reveal two different methods of saint veneration. The record of the relic installation in the baptistery in the Histories and the account in the Glory of the Martyrs point to a formal and institutional cult. In other words, they seem to indicate a religious process that took place in a church and was therefore subject to the control of the clergy. The Bordeaux incident, however, exhibits an alternative method of veneration. The relics of Sergius were installed in a private house, whose owner, a Syrian merchant, had turned it into a private shrine. Here, too, however, the Church had some authority over the cult. After all, the bishop of Bordeaux knew just where to look for the relics Gundovald desired. Reading the three accounts points at a certain shift in the veneration of saints in Merovingian Gaul and the institutionalization of the cults by the Frankish Church. Perhaps one of the reasons for the inclusion of the account of Sergius in the Glory of the Martyrs was to emphasize the episcopal and ecclesiastical authority over the cults. As mentioned above, relics of Sergius were installed in a shrine in Tours by Gregory himself, and it seems reasonable that an account of Sergius’s life was read during this process and in later celebrations. As Yitzhak Hen has noted, the length of the accounts in the Glory of the Martyrs fits for such purposes.112 Having a story that emphasizes the saint’s miraculous power was fundamental for any attempt to establish his cult, and perhaps Gregory uses an account of a feast in the church of Sergius for this particular reason. Moreover, one may speculate that at least two of the three accounts were closely linked to each other. It may be possible that the person who reported the Bordeaux incident to Gregory may also have been the one who informed him about Sergius and the incident that took place in his church (supposedly in the East), which Gregory later recorded in the Glory of the Martyrs. Furthermore, the Bordeaux incident also reveals that there were relics of Sergius in Gaul, and it is possible that these relics were the source of the relics that Gregory installed in the baptistery in Tours. Thus, the account in the Glory of the Martyrs may have been intended to emphasize the holiness of a foreign martyr by telling of his miraculous abilities, to justify his 111 LH X.31, p. 535. 112 Hen, Culture and Religion, p. 86.

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presence in Gaul and Tours, in particular, and, finally, to enforce episcopal authority over the religious activities associated with the saint in Gaul.113 The Bordeaux incident is fascinating not only because it records the cult of Sergius in Gaul but also because it contains several eastern elements that loom large over its Gallic context. Gundovald is the first to mention Sergius, and the only story he associates with him has to do with an eastern king. Considering Gundovald’s background, it is not surprising that he is associated with an eastern saint. Gundovald spent several years in Constantinople, during which he was probably exposed to stories about eastern saints. Since Sergius was popular in the East and sufficiently revered in Constantinople to have a church dedicated to him, it is plausible that Gundovald heard of Sergius during the time he spent in the East.114 One should also note that the relics in Bordeaux were in the possession of a Syrian man, which indicates the presence of easterners in Gaul. These elements expose some of the ways in which relics, stories, and cults of saints were diffused in the late antique and early medieval world. I shall elaborate further on this matter at the end of this chapter. Cosmas and Damian The second account in the Syrian section of the Glory of the Martyrs deals with the twin saints, Cosmas and Damian. These Syrian saints were physicians who had converted to Christianity sometime in the third century. According to some traditions, after their conversion, they travelled throughout the eastern Roman world, using their medical knowledge and their prayers to God to heal the sick. It was then that they caught the attention of the Proconsul Lycias, who was worried about their medical practices and especially what appeared to him to be a Christian missionary effort. When they refused Lycias’s request that they participate in some pagan rituals and sacrifice to the Roman gods, he had them executed.115 Cosmas and Damian were buried in the Syrian city of Cyrrhus and, shortly thereafter, their cult emerged. By the first half of the fifth century, there were already several churches dedicated to Cosmas and Damian in Constantinople, Edessa, Cappadocia, Ravenna, and Thessaloniki. At about the same time, the Gallic Bishop 113 For further discussion of episcopal authority, see below pp. 89–91; see also Rotman, ‘Imitation and Rejection’. 114 On Gundovald’s Byzantine experience see, LH VII.35, pp. 355–357. 115 Acta de SS. Cosma, Damiano, Anthimo etc. For a comprehensive discussion about the different hagiographical traditions of the saints, see Harrold, ‘Saintly Doctors’, pp. 36–59.

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Germanus of Auxerre (d. 448) built a church in their honor in Auxerre. During the sixth century, a church in Jerusalem was dedicated to them, while in Rome their cult gained the patronage of Pope Symmachus (d. 514) and Pope Felix IV (d. 530).116 Alongside the dedication of numerous churches and shrines to the saints, several written accounts of their martyrdom were composed in Greek and Latin, among them the account in Gregory’s Glory of the Martyrs. Gregory’s account is short but packed with information. He begins with a brief description of their lives and death that recalls what we know from other vitae of the saints. The two twins, namely Cosmas and Damian, were skilled doctors. Soon after they became Christians, they cured the illnesses of the sick by the virtue of their merit and the interventions of their prayers. They accomplished [their martyrdom] through various torments and were united in heaven.117

He then moves on to describe their miraculous abilities: If any sick person, who is filled with faith, prays at their tomb he soon receives medicine. Many report that they appear in visions to ill people and reveal what they should do. Once they do so, they leave [the place] healthy.118

Gregory finishes the account by saying that he had heard many more stories about the saints, but he thinks he has said enough.119 Nothing in this story indicates that Cosmas and Damian cured people in Gaul or that they were venerated there. Nonetheless, Gregory’s conclusion of the account, in which he writes that ‘all who pray earnestly and faithfully have left healthy’,120 may indicate that people in Gaul did so, or at least were recommended to do so when needed. 116 Harrold, ‘Saintly Doctors’, pp. 26–33; Matthews, ‘SS. Cosmas and Damian’, pp. 281–282. 117 GM 97, pp. 103–104: ‘Duo vero gemini, Cosmas scilicet et Damianus, arte medici, postquam christiani effecti sunt, solo virtutum merito et orationum interventu infirmitates languentium depellebant; qui diversis cruciatibus consummate, in caelestibus sunt coniuncti’. 118 GM 97, p. 104: ‘Nam si quis inf irmus ad eorum sepulchrum f ide plenus oraverit, statim adipiscitur medicinam. Referunt etiam plerique, apparere eos per visum languentibus et quid faciant indicare; quod cum fecerint, sani discedunt’. 119 GM 97, p. 104: ‘hoc aestimans posse sufficere quod dixi’. 120 GM 97, p. 104: ‘Cuncti fideliter deprecantes sani discesserunt’.

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Although the account in the Glory of the Martyrs does not explicitly discuss the cult of the twin saints in Gaul, the Histories, once again, provide a broader picture. In the same place where Gregory mentions owning and installing relics of Saint Sergius, he also lists relics of Cosmas and Damian. He reports that he received a reliquary filled with relics of many saints, martyrs, and holy men, among them relics of Cosmas and Damian which he placed in a chapel near Saint Martin’s Cathedral.121 Gregory treated the relics of the two Syrian saints as he treated the relics of Sergius – he placed them close to Martin of Tours. In doing so, he conferred credibility on the relics and, consequently, to the veneration of the saints. Thus, in light of the anecdote in the Histories, Gregory’s account of Cosmas and Damian in the Glory of the Martyrs can be seen as part of a broader attempt to promote or better establish the cult of Cosmas and Damian in Gaul. Phocas Phocas is the third Syrian martyr to whom Gregory dedicates an account in the Glory of the Martyrs. He says that Phocas died at the same place where ‘these martyrs’ had died, referring to Cosmas and Damian, and adds that he was buried in Syria.122 Hardly discussing Phocas’s martyrdom, Gregory says only that ‘after he suffered many insults on behalf of the name of the Redeemer, he triumphed over that ancient serpent’.123 The serpent returns in the description of the miracles Phocas performed. Gregory reports, for instance, that when people who have been bitten by snakes arrive in the courtyard of the martyr’s grave they are immediately cured of their injuries.124 He then describes a few similar incidents, finishing with the statement that ‘it is not possible for a faithful man to die from this venom when he reaches the sacred threshold’.125 Gregory’s emphasis on faith echoes the conclusion to his story of Cosmas and Damian and exposes the stories’ didactic character. Not content merely with recording the miraculous deeds of the martyrs, Gregory sought to teach his congregation how to be better Christians and encouraged them to remain faithful to God and the saints. 121 LH X.31, p. 535. 122 GM 98, p. 104: ‘Focas quoque martyr et ipse his martyribus regione coniunctus apud Syrian requiescat’. 123 GM 98, p. 104: ‘post multas quas pro nominee Redemptoris est passus iniurias, qualiter de antiquo illo serpent triumphaverit’. 124 GM 98, p. 104. 125 GM 98, p. 104: ‘nec umquam ab hoc virus obire hominem fas est, si sacrum limen fide plenus attigerit’.

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Scholars’ attempts to identify Phocas have met with mixed results. Bruno Krusch identified him with Saint Phocas of Sinope, and May VieillardTroiekouroff followed Krusch on this point.126 Raymond Van Dam, for his part, suggested that this Phocas was a fourth-century martyr.127 These identif ications, however, ignore the main problem with Phocas: there were three Syrian martyrs named Phocas – Phocas of Antioch, Phocas the Gardener, and Phocas of Sinope – whose three distinct traditions were eventually combined into one.128 A careful reading of Gregory’s account reveals that he did not intend to write about Phocas of Sinope. As mentioned above, Gregory opens his account with the following statement: ‘The martyr Phocas came from the same region as these martyrs [i.e. Cosmas and Damian]. Phocas is buried in Syria’.129 Cosmas and Damian were buried in the city of Cyrrhus, and if Phocas was from the same region, as Gregory claims, then it is more likely that Gregory was referring to Phocas of Antioch than to Phocas of Sinope, since Antioch is much closer to Cyrrhus than Sinope. Moreover, whereas Antioch is located in Syrian territory, and Gregory clearly says that Phocas was buried in Syria, Sinope is in the northern part of Asia Minor, in the region of Pontus. Thus, Gregory was probably referring in his account to the martyr Phocas of Antioch. The conflation of the three martyrs named Phocas makes it hard to trace the formation and dissemination of the cult of Phocas of Antioch. The early homilies about a martyr named Phocas, written by John Chrysostom (d. 407) and Asterius of Amasea (d. 410), were dedicated to Phocas of Sinope.130 These treatises indicate that by the beginning of the fifth century, the cults of the three Phocases had already been merged into one that was focused on the martyr of Sinope. Consequently, the memory of the Syrian Phocas was almost completely forgotten in the East. However, we learn from Gregory’s account in the Glory of the Martyrs that the situation in the West was different. There is no other Latin account of Phocas from Gregory’s times, which makes his short account the earliest Latin narrative on the Syrian Phocas. But Gregory’s account is even more important than that. With so little evidence at our 126 Vieillard-Troiekouroff, Les monuments religieux, p. 397; GM 98, p. 104 n. 1 127 Glory of the Martyrs, p. 122, n. 111. 128 ‘Phocas of Sinope’, in Oxford Dictionary of Saints, ed. Farmer, pp. 432–433; ‘Phocas, martyr’ in The Penguin Dictionary of Saints, ed. Attwater, p. 286; Mayer and Neil (eds.), The Cult of the Saints, pp. 75–76. 129 See above p. 72, n. 122. 130 John Chrysostom, On Saint Phocas, pp. 75–87; Asterius of Amasea, A Homily on Phocas, pp. 167–172.

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disposal concerning the cult of the Syrian Phocas, Gregory’s account is a rare attestation of the existence of the cult of Phocas of Antioch before it was merged with the cult of Phocas of Sinope. We possess one other piece of contemporary Latin evidence that distinguishes the Syrian Phocas from Phocas of Sinope. It appears in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, a late sixth- or early seventh-century calendar of saints. The martyrology mentions March 5 as a feast day for Phocas, whose passio took place in Antioch (Antiochia passio sancti Focatis).131 Another record in the martyrology mentions a different Phocas, whose celebration is marked on February 1 and whose passio took place in Pontus, the region in which the city of Sinope was located.132 Since the Martyrologium Hieronymianum is a collection of many local calendars whose date is uncertain, it is impossible to say whether the record of Phocas of Antioch in this work is a reference to a sixth-century cult of the saint or an earlier one that had died out by the time the Martyrologium Hieronymianum was composed.133 Gregory’s account of Phocas does not indicate in the least that the martyr was venerated in Gaul. He mentions neither a celebration of the saint nor the presence of his relics in Gaul, and he does not refer to the saint in his other writings. Moreover, unlike many other accounts in which Gregory reveals his sources – someone who had experienced a certain miracle and then told Gregory about it, or a pilgrim who had shared an experience with Gregory – in the case of Phocas, Gregory says that he is simply telling ‘a commonly known’ story (ut celebre vulgatum est), without any hint as to its source.134 Whereas the references adduced above indicate nothing about the local veneration of Saint(s) Phocas in Gaul, they are still very useful for our understanding of the dynamics of the cults of saints and especially of the dissemination process of eastern saints’ cults in Gaul. We cannot tell when the information about Phocas reached the author of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum and Gregory of Tours. We do not know whether Gregory based his story on something he had recently heard from someone, or whether it was a story that had been known in Gaul for several decades and Gregory was the first to write it down. In any case, these accounts indicate that, by the sixth century, eastern trends had reached Gaul. They were not necessarily contemporary or current trends, however. It took time 131 MH, III NON. MART., p. 128. 132 MH, KAL. FEB., p. 71. 133 I shall discuss the Martyrologium Hieronymianum more fully in Chapter 4 below, pp. 159–166. 134 GM 98, p. 104.

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for information from one part of the post-Roman world to reach another, and it must have taken more time before it became common knowledge (‘commonly known’ as Gregory says) that merited being written down. The diffusion of the Phocas figures beyond Syria and Asia Minor did not stop the local developments of their cults, and while one tradition spread to the West, a different one developed in the East. Domitius Domitius is the last Syrian martyr to whom Gregory refers in the Glory of the Martyrs. Gregory relates a healing miracle that was experienced by a Jew who acknowledged the healing powers of the martyr. According to Gregory, the Jew approached the saint’s church and said: Oh, glorious martyr, I know that you refuse to give mercy to me, who is blinded by the veil of the law. But now I seek refuge at your place and as a suppliant I beg for your compassion so that before removing the illness of [my] body you would take away the weakness of [my] disbelief.135

The Jew was cured and converted to Christianity. The other Christians who were present and sought similar assistance from the saint were not as thrilled as might have been expected from Christians who witnessed a miracle and a conversion. Gregory reports: They complained to the saint and said: ‘Behold! We who rightly believe in God are not worthy of [such] liberation, but this man who does not believe in Christ the king, who was circumcised in the flesh but no in [his] heart, he leaves [this place] healthy.’ As they said this, they began shattering with rage the lamps of the basilica that were hanging from the roof.136

Strangely enough, instead of the grumblers being punished for their impudence, Gregory reports that they were cured and sent back to their homes.

135 GM 99, p. 104: ‘“Scio, me quidem, gloriose martyr, legis velamine obcaecatum, cui tu inpertire misericordiam dedigneris; sed nunc ad te confugio et supplex tuam misericordiam posco, ut, aversa prius infirmitate corporea, languorem incredulitatis avella”’. 136 GM 99, p. 104: ‘Quod videntes christiani, qui in ipsa tenebantur infirmitate, quaerimonias sancto inferunt, dicentes: “Ecce, nos bene Deum confessi necdum meruimus liberari, et hic incredulus in Christum regem, circumcisus carne, non corde, sanus abscedit.” Et haec dicentes, cum ira lychnos basilicae, qui ex camera dependebant, comminuere coeperunt’.

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We know very little about the martyr Domitius. According to the sixthcentury Byzantine historian John Malalas (d. 578), Domitius lived in a cave near the city of Cyrrhus, the same city where the aforementioned Saints Cosmas and Damian were buried.137 Domitius performed healing miracles when he was still alive, attracting many people to his cave. When the Emperor Julian (d. 363) reached Cyrrhus during his expedition against the Persians, he noted the deeds of Domitius and sought to stop him from performing miracles. The letter he wrote to this effect stated: ‘It was to please your God that you entered this cave. Do not desire to please men but lead a solitary life’. To this, Domitius replied: ‘It is because I have devoted my soul and body to God that I shut myself up long ago in this cave. But the crowd, who come to me in faith, I cannot drive away’.138 Infuriated by this answer, Julian ordered that the cave be blocked up while Domitius was still inside it, thus leaving him there to die (a death that recalls the story of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus).139 Another sixth-century Byzantine author, Severus of Antioch (d. 538), wrote about the martyr Domitius and dedicated a homily to his memory.140 The Syriac account describes healing miracles that took place at a church in Antioch which was dedicated to the saint.141 These few accounts make up the bulk of evidence for the cult of Domitius. Even the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, which contains hundreds of names and feasts of martyrs from across the Christian world, does not mention him. Thus, Gregory’s account provides invaluable evidence of Domiutius’s cult. He opens the account by saying that Domitius is another martyr from this region [that of Phocas] who, although gives many blessings to the residents [of this place], still his virtue swiftly heals those who suffer from hip pains.142

This account, however, reveals nothing about the cult of Domitius in Gaul. Moreover, there is no other reference to Domitius in Gregory’s writing or in any other contemporary treatise, and there is no evidence of a church, shrine, or relic of the saint anywhere in Gaul. Therefore, it seems that while Gregory 137 John Malalas, The Chronicle, 13.20, p. 178. 138 John Malalas, The Chronicle, 13.20, p. 178. 139 John Malalas, The Chronicle, 13.20, p. 178. 140 Severus of Antioch, Homélie LI: sur le Martyr Saint Doméce, pp. 368–379. 141 Allen, ‘Welcoming Foreign Saints’, p. 15. 142 GM 99, p. 104: ‘Domitius equidem alius martyr in hac habetur regione, qui cum multa beneficia incolis praestet, sciaticis tamen veloci virtute medetur’.

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admired the miraculous abilities of Domitius, the saint was not actually venerated in Gaul. This situation recalls that of the martyr Phocas, to whom Gregory referred in the preceding account. And it is this resemblance that may be the key for understanding how Gregory had heard about these saints. Neither Phocas nor Domitius enjoyed a prosperous cult, and their veneration remained rather local and confined to the Syriac orbit. There are very few written records of their activity before and after their death, and all these accounts – apart from Gregory’s – were written in Greek or Syriac. It should also be noted that their cult centers were located in the same area in which the cult of the two popular martyrs Cosmas and Damian originated and from which it spread into the entire late antique Christian world. Therefore, whoever brought the cult of Cosmas and Damian to Gaul could have also been the broker of stories of other Syrian martyrs, such as Domitius and Phocas. The account of Domitius, it should be said, is quite extraordinary even before we get to the issue of an account of an eastern martyr in a Latin text and try to figure whether or not he was venerated in Merovingian Gaul. In addition to rewarding rather than condemning sacrilege such as the one committed by the men who visited the church of Domitius, there is another peculiarity in the text which may explain its inclusion in the Glory of the Martyrs. This is one of the rare occasions in which Gregory refers to Jews. His hagiographical treatises and Histories contain only a handful of references to them and, and when they do appear, they are used to reaffirm the Christian order of life. This is also the case with the account of Domitius. Jews were not foreigners in Gaul. They settled there during the Roman era, as attested by various written and material sources.143 Legal documents and canon law indicate that not only were there Jews in Gaul, but that there was a necessity to maintain clear distinctions between Jewish and Christian communities. These distinctions were based on theological and social grounds. Fifth- and sixth-century Gallican Church councils, such as the Council of Vannes, Orléans II, and Orléans III, dealt with matters such as inter-religious marriage,144 participation in banquets,145 and slave ownership.146 This range of canon law indicates how Jews integrated into Gallic society in the fifth and sixth centuries. Historiographical and hagiographical accounts such as those written by Gregory of Tours broaden the 143 Drews, ‘Migrants and Minorities’, pp. 123–126; see here also for further bibliography. 144 Linder, The Jews, no. 814, p. 469. 145 Linder, The Jews, no. 810, p. 466. 146 Linder, The Jews, no. 817, p. 470.

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perspective on Jewish life and Christian–Jewish relations during the early Merovingian period. Whereas the accounts in Gregory’s Histories mostly discuss Gallic Jewry as they depict conversion of Jews across the Frankish Kingdom or as part of theological disputations,147 the accounts in the Glory of the Martyrs discuss Jews in broader context. First, there is the account in Chapter 21 in which Gregory gives an early example of what will become quite a common a blood libel against Jews in late centuries: a wounding of the image of Christ. It is not certain where exactly this episode took place, as Gregory does not specify any location, which may emphasize the polemic and rhetoric nature of this account.148 In the case of Domitius and the converted Jew, things are clearer, as Gregory mentions that the story took place in Syria in the church of the saint. The story gave Gregory an opportunity to discuss the conversion of Jews to Christianity, and perhaps it was that story about the Jew that sparked Gregory’s interest in Domitius and inspired him to include it in his miracle collection. Gregory had some disputes with Jews and heretics, most of which appear in the Histories. A story about a Jew who converted to Christianity could have served Gregory in such disputes or sermons, proving the triumph of Catholic Christianity over other beliefs.149 Thus, even though the account does not relate to a saint that was venerated in Gaul, its content could have served other religious purposes Gregory might have had. George Saint George is a highly celebrated eastern saint whose cult remains popular throughout the Christian world. Gregory refers to him in the eastern part of his Glory of the Martyrs, where he gives a short account about the relics of George. He is silent, however, about the martyrdom of the saint and does not even mention his eastern origins. Instead, he describes a miracle that was associated with George, which, in contrast to most other eastern accounts, took place in Gaul. 147 In LH V.2 Gregory describes the conversion of the Jews of Clermont-Ferrand that was initiated by its bishop, Avitus. In LH, VI.5 Gregory writes about an argument between King Chilperic and a Jew called Priscus. In a later chapter of the same book (LH VI.17), Gregory describes Chiperic’s role in the conversion of ‘a great number of Jews’. 148 GM 21, p. 51. 149 For further discussion of Gregory of Tours and the Jews, see James, The Origin of France, pp. 101–105; Goffart, ‘The Conversion of Avitus of Clermont’; Keely, ‘Arians and Jews’; Rose, ‘Gregory of Tours’; Drews, ‘Migrants and Minorities’; see also Fox, ‘Ego, Bar-Iona’; Meens, ‘Jews in Early Medieval Penitential Literature’; Esders, ‘The Prophesied Rule’.

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According to Gregory, George’s relics (and he does not specify what type of relics) were carried along with relics of other saints.150 We do not know who brought the relics or from where, or even to whom the other relics among these possessions belonged. But we know that certain people brought the relics to a place in the territories of Limoges where they spent the night, joining several local clerics praying and chanting psalms to celebrate the completion of a new oratory. As morning came, the relics’ bearers wished to continue their journey, but they were unable to lift the reliquary. They refused to leave the place without the holy remains of George, and, according to Gregory, they soon had a revelation: With God’s inspiration, they understood that they ought to leave some of their relics of him in this place. Then they scrutinized in the fastened [relics], cut off some pieces, and gave them to the elder one who presided the chapel. By leaving a part of their patron they gained the ability to depart [to where] they wished [to go].151

Gregory ends his account by mentioning that there were other relics of George in the village of Saint-Martin-des-Bois, and that many miracles, mostly healing miracles, occurred there.152 Saint George was martyred in Palestine sometime between the end of the third century and the beginning of the fourth, and his cult emerged immediately thereafter. According to David Woods, the earliest evidence for the passio of George is recorded in some Greek fragments from the fifth century, but the passio may have been written before that.153 Scholars nowadays agree that the story of George’s sufferings and death(s) is mostly an invention that had little to do with his actual martyrdom.154 There is nothing new in this scholarly trend. The accuracy of the passio was already questioned by the late fifth- or early sixth- century Decretum Gelasianum, 150 GM 100, p. 105: ‘Huius enim reliquiae cum reliquorum sanctorum a quibusdam ferebantur’. 151 GM 100, p. 105: ‘intellegunt, inspirante Deo, sibi aliquid ex his in loco oportere relinquere. Tunc inquisitis ligaturis divisisque particulis, seniori qui cellulae praeerat largiuntur, relinquentes partem patrocinii, sumentes facultatem quo voluerant abeundi’. 152 GM 100, p. 105. 153 Woods, ‘The Origins’, p. 144. See also Good, The Cult of Saint George, p. 24. 154 Woods, ‘The Origins’, p. 142; Good, The Cult of Saint George, pp. 21, 23–24; Walter, The Warrior Saints, pp. 109–112. It is worth mentioning that whenever martyrdom accounts are considered, historians always face the problem that most of the martyrdom acts were written later than the actual martyrdom, sometimes decades or centuries afterwards. Thus, inevitably, the historical authenticity and accuracy of the stories described in these acts are questionable. For some discussion of this issue, see Moss, The Myth of Persecution.

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which lists the passio with other apocryphal treatises that were defined as unorthodox, and hence forbidden for reading by Christians.155 Although the earliest surviving passio was written only in the fifth century, a century and a half after the saint’s martyrdom, he could have been venerated before that. In fact, David Woods suggests that the passio was written due to an increase in the popularity of George and his cult. We possess more indications of the spread of George’s cult. In the East, for instance, the Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea (d. 565), mentions in his work The Buildings (Περι Κτισματων) that Justinian built and dedicated a church to George in the Armenian city of Bizani.156 Similarly, his contemporary, the historian Hesychius of Miletus, relates in his history of Constantinople that several churches dedicated to George were found in the city.157 Moreover, some inscriptions in Syria point to a certain veneration of George in that area.158 There is also some western evidence for the spread of the cult of George in the East. The Latin pilgrim Theodosius mentions in his Topography of the Holy Land that George was martyred and buried in Diospolis and that many miracles took place there.159 His account does not necessarily indicate a cult in the West, but it does show that people in the West had heard of the saint and brought back stories about him to the West. Several decades later, the poet and bishop Venantius Fortunatus wrote a hymn for the dedication of the church of Saint George in Mainz, which clearly signals a western veneration of George.160 Finally, we have the account written by Gregory of Tours. Thus, the fame of George spread far and wide from his original Palestinian grave, reaching different parts of the post-Roman world. Besides the account of Polycarp in the Glory of the Martyrs, Gregory’s account of George is the only other instance in which he refers to the Gallic veneration of an eastern saint. All other accounts relate to miracles that took place in the East, near the tombs of the dead martyrs. This may imply that the cult of saint George was better established in Gaul than that of the other eastern saints, perhaps because George was venerated there for a 155 Decretum Gelasianum IV.4, col. 161. On the compilation and transmission of the so-called Decretum Gelasianum see McKitterick, The Carolingians, pp. 202–205. 156 Procopius of Caesarea, Buildings III.IV.13, p. 198. 157 Hesychius of Miletus, Πατρια Κωνσταντινουπολεως ΙΙΙ.30 and III.178, pp. 225, 270. 158 For a list of these inscriptions, see Good, The Cult of Saint George, p. 22 n. 5 and Walter, Warrior Saints, p. 114. 159 Theodosius, De Situ Terrae Sanctae 4, p. 116: ‘De emmau usque in diospolim milia xii, ubi sanctus Georgius martyrizatus est; ibi et corpus eius est et multa mirabilia fiunt’. 160 Venantius Fortunatus, ‘De Basilica S. Georgi’, in Venantius Fortunatus, Poems II.12, pp. 100–101.

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longer time, well before Gregory was even born. Indeed, Gregory’s full name tells us that George was appreciated in Gaul for several generations before the author’s birth. Gregory was named Georgius Florentius Gregorius, and his first name, Georgius (or, in English, George), was given to him after his grandfather. With such an established status in Gaul, it is no wonder that Gregory not only included an account of George in the Glory of the Martyrs, but also wrote one that focuses on the Gallic nature of his cult. Isidore Isidore of Chios is the only Greek martyr featured in the Glory of the Martyrs. He was martyred in the mid-third century, during the persecutions of Decius, and, like several of the eastern martyrs included in the Glory of the Martyrs, he was a soldier in the Roman army. According to his vita, on one expedition from the Egyptian city of Alexandria to the island of Chios, Isidore’s military commander found out that he was a Christian. He tried to convince Isidore to renounce his faith but failed to do so. Left with only one course of action, the commander ordered Isidore to be executed. He threw his body into a well, next to which a church was later constructed.161 In his short account of Isidore, Gregory mentions that well and describes the healing power of its water: ‘possessed people, those with fever and other sick people are often cured by drinking water from this well’. 162 Some people, says Gregory, among them a priest he once met, were able to see to the bottom of the well ‘a light similar to a burning candle’ (lumen quasi cereus ardens).163 Uncharacteristically, Gregory ends his account with a geographical description. He notes that ‘people say that on this island a seed is picked from the mastic trees that cannot be found in other regions’.164 Since Gregory described it in relation to other miracles, he may have attributed these geographical and botanical specialties of Chios to the saint.165 161 De S. Isidoro Martyre in Insula Chio, pp. 445–451; see also Hasluck, ‘The Latin Monument of Chios’, p. 162; O’Malley, Saints of Africa, p. 67; Watkins, The Book of Saints, p. 334. 162 GM 101, p. 105: ‘de cuius aqua inergumini febricitantesque vel reliqui infirmi saepius potati salvantur’. 163 GM 101, p. 105. 164 GM 101, p. 105: ‘In hac enim insula et granum collegitur masticis ab arboribus, quae, ut ferunt celebre, aliis non inveniuntur in regionibus’. 165 This episode recalls other botanical depictions of the East that appear in Gregory’s works (such as the mention of the Apple of Sodom in GM 17), which emphasize Gregory’s perception of the East as a source of mysticism. For further discussion see Hen, ‘Gregory of Tours’, pp. 48–52, 58.

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There is no evidence for the presence of the cult of Isidore anywhere in Merovingian Gaul. In fact, there is very little evidence of the cult of Isidore anywhere else during late antiquity and the early Middle Ages. The most prominent evidence is some Byzantine pilgrimage tokens that depict Isidore of Chios.166 Even the Martyrologium Hieronymianum does not mention the feast of Isidore of Chios. It seems, then, that whereas Isidore was lucky enough to be the protagonist of a few written accounts,167 including the account by Gregory of Tours, his cult was marginal and it centered around the well in Chios. Polyeuctus The last eastern martyr whom Gregory includes in the Glory of the Martyrs is Polyeuctus.168 Polyeuctus was a Roman soldier stationed at the ­Armenian city of Melitene who, together with his companion Nearchus, was martyred under Decius. After his death, Polyeuctus’s relics were brought to Constantinople and installed at a church in the city.169 The account given by Gregory in the Glory of the Martyrs does not relate the life and death of the saint. Instead, it centers on his church in Constantinople and on an incident that took place there involving the Byzantine Emperor Justinian and a certain Juliana, who commissioned a golden cover for the walls of the church.170 As the story goes, rumor of Juliana’s commission reached the ears of Justinian, who realized that she must be in possession of great wealth. He decided to approach her for a donation to the imperial treasury. Juliana, however, understood where this was going, and wisely enough ‘she concealed what she had devoted to God’, as Gregory comments.171 Juliana informed the emperor that before she could hand over her fortune, she must collect the dues from her estates. Justinian returned to his palace and Juliana summoned craftsmen, requesting that they cover the ceiling of the church of Saint Polyeuctus with the remainder of her gold, 166 Dal Santo, ‘Text, Image, and the “Visionary Body”’, p. 33. An image of such tokens appears in p. 34. 167 The BHL and BHG list total of seven accounts that were written about Isidore, among them that of Gregory of Tours. See BHL 4478–4481 and BHG 960–961. 168 GM 102, pp. 105–107. 169 ‘Polyeuctus, M.’, in Holweck, A Biographical Dictionary, p. 823; Stokes, ‘Polyeuctus’, in A Dictionary of Christian Biography, ed. Smith and Wace, vol. IV, p. 437. 170 GM 102, p. 105. 171 GM 102, p. 106: ‘At illa intellegens imperatoris ingenium, sapienter obtegit quae Deo devoverat’.

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‘so that the hand of this greedy emperor will touch [the gold]’.172 When the craftsmen completed the decoration of the church, Juliana invited Justinian, saying that ‘the little bit of my money that I could collect is here. Come in to see it and do what pleases you’.173 Arriving at Juliana’s home with the expectation that he would receive a great fortune, Justinian was taken into the church. He and Juliana prayed there and then Juliana said to the Emperor: ‘Oh, most glorious Augustus, please look up at the ceiling of this sanctuary and see that my poverty is kept in this craftmanship. Now then, you should do what you truly wish. I will not object.’174

Justinian understood that he had been tricked by Juliana. Concealing his embarrassment, he gave his thanks and praised the craftsmen. Before the emperor left, Juliana gave him a small golden ring so that he would not leave empty-handed. As for the miraculous aspect of the story, Gregory concludes the account with an acerbic assessment of Justinian’s ability to rule the Roman Empire: Thus, there is no doubt that the virtue of the martyrs had intervened in this incident, so that the wealth entrusted [for the benefit of] the holy places and the poor would not be transferred to the dominion of he who could not bring together what he desired.175

Gregory did not identify this Juliana, although that information is crucial to the understanding of this story. Juliana, who is better known as Anicia Juliana, was a descendent of an imperial family. Her father, Flavius Anicius Olybrius, was the western emperor in 472, and her mother was a descendent of Emperor Theodosius I. Anicia Juliana’s son, Olybrius, who was named after his grandfather, was married to Irene, the niece of the Byzantine Emperor Anastasius I. After the death of Anastasius I in 518, the imperial throne passed to his nephew, Justin I (d. 527) and not to Olybrius as Anicia Juliana 172 GM 102, p. 106: ‘ne haec avari imperatoris manus attingat’. 173 GM 102, p. 106: ‘Parvitate pecuniolae, quam coniungere potui, adest; veni ad contemplandum eam at quod libuerit facito’. 174 GM 102, p. 106: ‘“Suspice, quaeso, cameram huius aedis, gloriosissime auguste, et scito, quia paupertas mea in hoc opere contenetur. Tu vero quod volueris exinde facito, non adversor”’. 175 GM 102, p. 107: ‘Unde non est dubium, etiam in hac re martyris huius intercessisse virtutem, ne opes locis sanctis et pauperibus delegatae in illius transferrentur dominatione, cuius non fuerant studio congregatae’.

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had expected.176 Anicia Juliana suffered another disappointment after the death of Justin I, when, once again, her son was not elected emperor. Instead, it was Justinian who received the throne. Hence, Anicia Juliana’s decision to deny financial assistance to Justinian was not a purely religious matter, as Gregory presented it in his account, but an act driven by political enmity and spite at the emerging imperial dynasty.177 Gregory’s account of Polyeuctus is peculiar. It is much longer than the other accounts of eastern martyrs and the only one in which Gregory relates political matters that were associated somehow with the saint, rather than miraculous deeds. As with most of the other accounts of eastern martyrs, here, too, Gregory’s discussion of Polyeuctus reveals little about the cult of the saint in the East (apart from the fact that a church was dedicated to him in Constantinople) and nothing about his cult in Gaul. Once again, the Histories provides some additional information. In the seventh book of the Histories, Gregory quotes a letter from King Guntram, in which he wrote about an agreement with two other Merovingian kings – Sigibert and Chilperic – concerning their entrance to Paris. In that letter, Guntram mentions Polyeuctus together with two other saints, Hilary of Poitiers and Martin of Tours, as the protectors of that pact.178 Putting Polyeuctus together with such important Gallic saints may signal his status and the presence of a cult in Merovingian Gaul at that time. Gregory, however, does not mention the presence of any relics or shrines of the saint anywhere in Gaul. Recently, Stefan Esders has shown that there might have been a small center of veneration to Polyeuctus in Metz, a city that was ruled by King Sigibert.179 Esders argues that the cult of Polyeuctus was imported to Gaul from Constantinople, and he points to the relations between Sigibert and the Byzantine emperor Justin II, Justinian’s successor, as a possible source of relics and stories about eastern saints, among them Polyeuctus.180 Reading Gregory’s account in the Glory of the Martyrs against this broader context, it seems likely that Gregory had heard the story of Anicia Juliana and Justinian from Sigibert himself or from someone who was involved in conducting the agreement between Sigibert and Justin II. But there is 176 Martindale, Prosopography, pp. 634–635; Harrison, ‘The Church of St. Polyeuktos’, p. 278; Bardill, ‘A New Temple’, pp. 340–341; Koder, ‘Imperial Propaganda’, p. 278; Esders, ‘Avenger of all perjury’, pp. 20–21. 177 For further reading on Anicia Juliana see Nathan, ‘The Vienna Dioscorides’ dedicatio’. 178 LH VII.6, pp. 328–329. 179 Esders, ’Avenger of all perjury’, pp. 27–33. 180 Esders, ‘Avenger of all perjury’, pp. 33–37.

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still the question of the purpose of this account in the Glory of the Martyrs. One possibility is that Gregory understood the importance of Polyeuctus to Sigibert and wished to commemorate the saint, perhaps as an act of gratitude to Sigibert, who was responsible for Gregory’s appointment to the bishopric of Tours. Yet the account in the Glory of the Martyrs does not praise the miraculous powers of the saint, at least not in the same manner that Gregory praises other saints and martyrs in his work. In fact, the focus on historical events in the account of Polyeuctus better fits Gregory’s Histories than the Glory of the Martyrs or any other hagiographical composition that he wrote. Moreover, it seems that Gregory himself was aware of the difference between the account of Polyeuctus and other hagiographical accounts: he explains at the end of the account why the story about Justinian and Anicia Juliana should be considered a miracle story. In other words, Gregory clearly realized that he placed a story that had little to do with religious matters in a religious-hagiographical context. The fact that Gregory said nothing about the cult of Polyeuctus, and that most of the sources on which Esders based his argument about the cult of Polyeuctus in Metz were composed after the sixth century, only make the account of Polyeuctus in the Glory of the Martyrs more puzzling. If the saint was rarely venerated in Gaul at the time of Gregory of Tours, and if the account of him is more historical than hagiographical, why, then, did Gregory include it in his Glory of the Martyrs? One might speculate that this was Gregory’s attempt to establish the cult of a saint who had certain importance to Gregory’s former patron, the man to whom Gregory owed his position as the bishop of Tours, King Sigibert I. After all, as we have already seen, Gregory used his hagiographical compositions not only for spiritual purposes, but for political and personal ones as well.181 Here, instead of merely promoting a certain saint for his own benefit, Gregory promotes a cult that could have strengthened Sigibert’s regal authority and portrayed him in better light for future generations. Of course, such propaganda could have had a positive effect on Gregory as well, since he was appointed to the see of Tours by Sigibert. Understanding that the account of Polyeuctus was intended to do more than just commemorate the saint brings us back to one of the main conclusions of the first chapter: Gregory’s hagiographical works must be approached with great care. As we read his works, we must look for further meanings in his accounts in order to reach a better understanding of the purposes and 181 See the discussion about Gregory’s Virtutibus Sancti Martini and Vita Juliani, above, Chapter 1, pp. 33–38.

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aims that led Gregory to write his hagiographical corpus in first place. To do so, we must consider the eastern accounts in the Glory of the Martyrs not merely as individual stories that commemorate certain saints, but as part of a greater scheme. To conclude this section on eastern martyrs in the Glory of the Martyrs, it seems that only half of them were venerated in Gaul, and Gregory does not explain why he chose to write about other who were not venerated there. But Gregory does not explain any of his choices, regardless of whether or not a saint was venerated in Gaul. Moreover, even when Gregory writes about an eastern martyr whose relics were present in Gaul, he hardly says anything that connects the martyr to Gaul. Consequently, we have here a group of accounts that barely have anything to do with Gaul. All but one account appears in the same section of the book, and most of them describe events that took place outside Gaul. The geographical origin of the martyrs binds them together, and this is something that Gregory emphasizes in the accounts. For instance, he opens the account of Phocas by stating that he ‘came from the same region’ as Cosmas and Damian, the protagonists of the preceding chapter. Gregory does that again at the beginning of the account of Domitius, which follows the one about Phocas, telling us that ‘Domitius is another martyr from this region’.182 Hence, it appears that Gregory had a specific geographical construct for this section. In fact, when examining the entire book of the Glory of the Martyrs it becomes clear that Gregory divides the book geographically: after the first part (Chapters 1–34), in which Gregory discusses miracles associated with Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and the Apostles, he continues to describe miracles of Italian martyrs (Chapters 35–45), Gallic martyrs (Chapters 46–88, with the exception of Chapter 85, which describes a miracle associated with the eastern martyr Polycarp), Spanish martyrs (Chapters 89–92), a North African martyr (Chapter 93), eastern martyrs (Chapters 94–102), then another Italian martyr (Chapter 103), and concluding with accounts of miracles in Gaul (Chapters 104–106). As will be demonstrated in the next chapter, this geographical setting is one of the clues for understanding the purpose behind the composition of the Glory of the Martyrs and the two other hagiographical collections. But before doing that, we should look at other instances in Gregory’s second miracle collection – the Glory of the Confessors – that discuss miracles associated with eastern saints.

182 GM 99, p. 104: ‘Domitius equidem alius martyr in hac habetur regione’.

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The Eastern Evidence: Glory of the Confessors The Glory of the Confessors, in contrast to the Glory of the Martyrs, focuses almost entirely on Gallic saints, all of whom lived after the persecution period. Yet among these accounts, we find several miracle stories that took place in Spain, and one account of the Syrian holy man, Simeon Stylites.183 According to Gregory, Simeon ‘is said to have stood on a column in the region of Antioch’.184 After his conversion to Christianity, Gregory relates, Simeon places himself on top of a pillar, forbidding all women – including his own mother – to see him.185 Even after his death, women were still forbidden from approaching Simeon’s pillar or entering his church. Yet one woman was not dissuaded. She dressed like a man and entered the church that was dedicated to Simeon’s pillar, thinking she could trick the saint. As she entered the church, however, ‘and lifted her foot to walk through the threshold, immediately she fell backwards, collapsed, and died’.186 Simeon is one of the most famous late antique holy men. Peter Brown discussed the crucial political, social, and religious role of the eastern holy men in late antique Syria.187 According to Brown, holy men like Simeon Stylites were zealous Christians who preferred living their lives as ascetics. Most of them did so in isolation, either in the desert or in enclosed compounds, which secured the little food and water they needed to keep themselves alive. Some of these holy men were more eccentric than others, and those in close proximity respected their religious determination and alternative lifestyle. Gradually, these holy men attracted pilgrims and followers. In his survey, Brown points out that holy men were usually outsiders, without social, political, or religious obligations to any nearby individuals or social groups. For this reason, they were well placed to serve as mediators and consultants for their surrounding communities.188 In late antique Syria, as the traditional social and administrative networks of the Roman Empire slowly disintegrated, these holy men took it upon themselves to perform the traditional role of patron. In this way, they gained important and influential positions.189 Their influence affected religious matters but, most importantly, 183 GC 26, p. 314. 184 GC 26, p. 314: ‘qui in colomna pagi Anthiocensis dicitur stetisse’. 185 GC 26, p. 314. 186 GC 26, p. 314: ‘Elicet ubi veniens ad templum erexit pedem, ut sanctum ingrederetur limen, protinus retrorsum ruens, cecidit et mortua est’. 187 Brown, ‘Rise and Function’. Brown later refined his theory, see Brown, ‘Arbiters of the Holy’. 188 Brown, ‘Rise and Function’, 91–93. 189 Brown, ‘Rise and Function’, 97–101.

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they also played a crucial role as political and social mediators. In doing so, they had an impact on the daily life of their communities. Stories about Simeon were already being written during his lifetime, indicating the importance and popularity of his cult. Soon after his death, a church was erected and dedicated to him in Antioch, and here the miracle story that Gregory records took place. Indeed, Simeon’s popularity spread far and wide, his fame reaching as far as Gaul.190 Yet, whereas Gregory’s account of Simeon implies that he was known in Gaul, it says nothing about his cult there. In fact, as far as we know, no church was dedicated to him in Gaul and none of his relics were circulating around the kingdom. Nevertheless, Simeon was well known in Gaul and his important role as a holy man was perfectly understood. An incident reported by Gregory in the Histories illustrates this point. In the eighth book of the Histories, Gregory tells the story of a certain Vulf ilaic, a Lombard deacon whom Gregory met on his travels around Gaul.191 Gregory reports that: While we stayed there, we began asking him to tell us anything about the happy [event] of his conversion and how he, who was a born Lombard, came across a clerical position.192

After some persuasion, including a promise never to reveal his stories (which Gregory did not keep), Vulfilaic agreed to answer Gregory’s questions. Already as a child, Vulf ilaic related, he had adored Saint Martin of Tours, and, after meeting Abbot Aredius of Limoges, he became his disciple. Aredius encouraged Vulf ilaic to visit the shrine of Martin in Tours. After this visit, Vulfilaic decided to stay in Gaul, settling near Trier. There, he noticed the local inhabitants worshiping a statue of the pagan goddess Diana. As a zealous Christian, Vulf ilaic could not ignore this sight. He thus climbed upon a pillar and preached against such practices, attempting to convince the passersby to demolish the pagan idols. Thus, Vulfilaic became a stylite.

190 For further reading about Simeon Stylites and his cult, see Ashbrook Harvey, ‘The Sense of a Stylite’; Ashbrook Harvey, ‘The Stylite’s Liturgy’; Ashbrook Harvey and Doran, The Lives of Simeon Stylites; Eastmond, ‘Body vs. Column’. 191 LH VIII.15, p. 381. 192 LH VIII.15, p. 380: ‘Commorantes autem ibi, petere ab eo coepimus, ut nobis aliqua de conversionis suae bono narraret, vel qualiter ad clericatus officium advenissit, quia erat genere Langobardus’.

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Gradually, Vulfilaic gathered some followers, who were convinced to demolish the statue. Excited by the success of his sermons, Vulfilaic climbed down from the pillar and went to a nearby church to pray for God’s assistance. He then joined his adherents, and together they destroyed the idol. Returning home, Vulfilaic discovered that his body had been severely injured on the pillar and during the demolition of the statue. He returned to the church, anointed himself with an oil he had brought from the shrine of Saint Martin, and, miraculously, was cured overnight.193 Vulfilaic took that miracle as a sign that he should return to his pillar. This time, however, it was not that easy. As he moved towards the pillar, he was approached by several bishops who sought to stop him. Do not compare the way you follow and your insignificance to Simeon of Antioch, who sat on a column. Such [men] cannot be compared. But also, the climate of this place [makes it] unbearable to keep tormenting yourself here. Get down and dwell with the brothers you have gathered around you.194

Vulfilaic acceded to their request, explaining to Gregory that he did so because ‘disobeying bishops is a sin by law’.195 Some time later, he was taken out of town, at which time his pillar was destroyed by the locals. Vulfilaic admits that he was devastated when he heard what had happened to his pillar, but he relinquished such stylitic behavior because he knew that not to do so ‘would be against the commands of the bishops’.196 The encounter between Gregory and Vulfilaic has not received much attention in modern scholarship, even though it is a unique story that provides a rare glimpse of the ways in which eastern stories and religious practices reached Gaul and were received there.197 The bishops’ response to Vulfilaic’s action reveals the depth of their understanding of some Byzantine matters, and, in this case, their understanding of the social, political, and 193 LH VIII.15, p. 382. 194 LH VIII.15, pp. 382–383: ‘Non est aequa haec via, quam sequeris, nec tu ignobilis Symeoni Anthiochino, qui colomnae insedit, poteris conparare. Sed nec cruciatum hoc te sustenere patitur loci positio. Discende potius et cum fratribus, quos adgregasti tecum, inhabita’. 195 LH VIII.15, p. 383: ‘quia sacerdotes non obaudire adscribitur crimini’. 196 LH VIII.15, p. 383: ‘contrarius iussionibus sacerdotum’. 197 Some of the few studies that examine or mention this incident are Collin, ‘Grégoire de Tours’; Goffart, ‘Foreigners’, pp. 91–92; Hen, Culture and Religion, p. 174; Winstead, ‘Vulfolaic the Stylite’; Jones, Social Mobility in Late Antique Gaul, pp. 145–147; I recently discussed the account of Vulfilaic in detail: see Rotman, ‘Imitation and Rejection’.

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religious role of holy men such as Simeon Stylites. Gregory creates a crucial resemblance between Simeon and Vulfilaic – both were zealous ascetic Christians and foreigners, and both climbed a column and gathered people around them, gaining power and authority. This is precisely what turned the local bishops against Vulfilaic. They were aware that Vulfilaic tried to imitate Simeon Stylites, and thus they explicitly told him that he could never be compared to him. They asked him to climb down and join the small community of followers he gathered around him, and finally, they destroyed his column. Gregory states twice that Vulfilaic knew that he had to listen to the bishops, because disobeying them would be a sinful act.198 By doing so, he stressed the authority of the bishops over their congregation. Gregory’s account of Vulfilaic must be read in a broader, late antique, post-Roman context. Holy men like Simeon Stylites gained power due to the disintegration of the social, political, and religious Roman systems in the eastern parts of the Roman Empire. The collapse of the Roman Empire affected the West as well, but the developments that took place there were different. The Gallo-Roman elite was quick to realize that the Church had much to offer in terms of power and control. Accordingly, descendants of Gallo-Roman senatorial families grabbed ecclesiastical positions, thus gaining a new way to preserve their influence in both the civil and religious spheres. As a result, the Gallic ecclesiastical elite became an exclusive group.199 During the sixth century, as the Merovingian kings established their authority and kingship, the bishops were gradually losing theirs.200 Therefore, they had to secure any remaining control they still had in order to ensure that their episcopal authority would not evaporate. When Vulfilaic ascended the column, however, preaching to the people passing by and encouraging them to leave their old pagan practices and convert to Christianity – in other words, when he imitated Simeon Stylites – he appropriated the prerogative of the clergy. Gregory used Vulfilaic’s story and Simeon’s popularity to underscore his and other bishops’ episcopal authority.201 Hence, the Vulfilaic affair reveals that the Merovingian clergy 198 LH VIII.15, p. 383 ‘sacerdotes non obaudire adscribitur crimini’ and ‘ne dicerer contrarius iussionibus sacerdotum’. 199 Heinzelmann, ‘L’aristocratie et les évêchés’, pp. 75–90; Geary, Before France and Germany, pp. 123–135; Jones, Social Mobility in Late Antique Gaul, pp. 52–54; Hen, Culture and Religion, p. 16; Hen, ‘The Church in Sixth Century’, pp. 238–244; Wood, The Merovingian Kingdoms, pp. 71–73. See also Halfond, Bishops. 200 Hen, ‘The Church in Sixth Century’, pp. 242–244. 201 For further discussion on that matter see Rotman, ‘Imitation and Rejection’.

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was well-informed on matters taking place overseas, so much so that they understood the danger of imitating certain religious, political, and social practices, such as stylitism. Moreover, the account of Vulfilaic also discloses the fragility of the Merovingian episcopal authority and the bishops’ need to protect it. Most importantly, it explains why Simeon was not venerated as a saint in Gaul. The Gallic clergy could not renounce Simeon’s holiness, but it could control the manner in which he was venerated. This may explain why Gregory included Simeon’s account in the Glory of the Confessors despite the fact that he was not venerated in Gaul. Perhaps Gregory, too, was trying to control the cult of Simeon. By writing about him, Gregory responded to the admiration of Simeon and the interest in him while simultaneously emphasizing that this was a saint venerated only in the East. Yet this explanation is somewhat unsatisfactory. As with the eastern accounts in the Glory of the Martyrs, here, too, we are facing a rather complex situation. Understanding the inclusion of Simeon’s account in the Glory of the Confessors as well as the inclusion of the other accounts of foreign saints in the Glory of the Martyrs requires a re-examination of these hagiographical collections. We need to reread these accounts not as individual stories that may or may not indicate the dissemination of a cult from the East to the Latin West, but as parts of a greater narrative inseparable from each other and from the other stories in the Glory of the Martyrs and the Glory of the Confessors.

Conclusion: The Dissemination of the Cults of Saints The accounts of the non-Gallic saints and martyrs in the Glory of the Martyrs and the Glory of the Confessors demonstrate that the dissemination of cults, relics, and oral as well as written traditions was a protracted process. From the times of the Roman persecutions onwards, martyrdom stories had been recorded by local witnesses. Some were translated into different languages, sometimes with minor modifications that made them more acceptable to foreign communities. Such was the case with the martyrdom accounts of Carpus, Papylus, and Agathonice.202 Others were intentionally written in foreign languages in order to be sent to far-flung communities, such as the account of the forty-eight martyrs of Lyons, which was written by Christians from Lyons and Vienne and sent to Christian communities in Phrygia and 202 Μαρτύριον τῶν Ἁγίων Κάρπου, Παπύλου, καὶ Ἀγαθονίκης, pp. 22–29; Passio SS. Carpi, Pamfili et Agathonicae, pp. 28–37. See also Rotman, ‘Voluntary Martyrdom’.

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Asia.203 As the cults of saints spread throughout Christendom, the transmission and dissemination of texts, oral traditions, relics, and cults gradually intensified. The accounts of eastern martyrs in the hagiographical writings of Gregory of Tours give us a rare glimpse of this process during the sixth century. Various kinds of agents were responsible for this transmission, among them merchants, secular and ecclesiastical envoys, pilgrims, and immigrants. Looking at the eastern accounts in Gregory’s hagiographical collections, it becomes clear that there was a strong Syrian connection in the dissemination process. The accounts in both collections include Syrian martyrs and saints. In the Glory of the Martyrs, the Syrian martyrs were Sergius, Cosmas and Damian, Domitius, and Phocas, while in the Glory of the Confessors, the single eastern saint mentioned was Simeon Stylites, who lived in Syria. The Syrian connection also appears in the Histories. There, in the story of the relics of Sergius in Bordeaux, Gregory mentions that the relics were in the possession of a Syrian man. A closer look at the Histories reveals several other references to the Syriac presence in Gaul. In the eighth book, for instance, Gregory describes the entrance of King Guntram to Orléans, saying that among the happy cries that welcomed the king, one could hear people shouting in Syriac as well. According to Gregory: The speech of the Syrians, that of those speaking Latin, and that of the Jews was heard while they were praising in various [languages], saying: ‘Long live the King and may his reign over the people will dilate for many years!’.204

One may argue that this description of the royal adventus can be perceived as some sort of a literary topos, meant to praise the king and show that he was loved by all his people. Indeed, it resembles a certain topos that was popular among hagiographers, according to which they included mourning Jews in their description of a saint’s death or funeral. For instance, the author of the Vita Caesarii, who wrote the vita during Gregory’s lifetime, mentioned that during the saint’s funeral ‘everyone – good and evil, just and unjust, 203 The letter recording the martyrdom of the forty-eight martyrs of Lyons is cited in the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius. See EH V.I.3–35, pp. 406–425. 204 LH VIII.1, p. 370: ‘Et hinc lingua Syrorum, hinc Latinorum, hinc etiam ipsorum Iudaeorum in diversis laudibus variae concrepabat, dicens: ‘“Vivat rex, regnumque eius in populis annis innumeris dilatetur”’. Michel Rouche mentions Syrian merchants in Gaul in his ‘Marches et Marchands en Gaule’, p. 397; Walter Goffart briefly discusses this episode in his article ‘Foreigners’, pp. 91–92.

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Christians and Jews, those following the procession – called out together’.205 In his brief survey of this topos, Blumenkranz noted that Gregory used such topoi in one of his vitae.206 While this may explain Gregory’s mention of Jews in the description of Guntram’s adventus to Orléans, it does not necessarily explain the inclusion of Syrians. Moreover, in order for this topos to be affective, people had to be familiar with Jews, at least as a concept, which they most probably were, considering Jewish–Christian history. But why would they be familiar with Syrians if Syrians were not present in Gaul? Therefore, Gregory’s mention of the Syrian shouting must indicate that there was a certain Syriac community in Gaul at that time that left a certain impression on the people living there, at least to the extent of being noticeable enough to be mentioned by Gregory in his writings. Indeed, during the fifth and sixth centuries there was a certain flow of Syrians into the Mediterranean world. One reasons for that lies within the outcomes of the Chalcedonian schism. In 451 an ecumenical council convened in the city of Chalcedon in Asia Minor to deal with the Eutychian heresy, which adhered to the belief that after the incarnation, Christ had only one, divine nature, thus rejecting the Orthodox view, according to which Christ had both a human and a divine nature. The council concluded with a reaffirmation of the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed of 381 (as formulated in the First Council of Constantinople). Yet, while the Western Church accepted the ruling of the Chalcedonian council, in the East it led to a schism and the foundation of several churches, among them the Syrian Orthodox Church, which adhered to a non-Chalcedonian theology (or Monophysite theology).207 The schism within the Syrian Church led to persecutions against non-Chalcedonians, some of whom were forced to escape and find refuge in other places, such as the imperial capital, Constantinople.208 In fact, a 205 Vita Caesarii Episcopi Arelatensis Libri Duo II.49, p. 501: ‘Sed omnes omnino boni malive iusti et iniusti, christiani vel Iudaei, antecedents vel sequentes voces dabant’. Translation taken from Life of Caesarius, p. 65. 206 Blumenkranz, ‘Die Juden’, pp. 396–397. In the vita of Gallus, Gregory describes the saint’s funeral and says that ‘Mulieres cum lucubribus indumentis, tamquam si viros perdidissent, similiter et viri, obtecto capite, ut in exsequiis uxorum facere mos est, ipsi quoque Iudeai, accensis lampadibus, plangendo prosequebantur’ [‘The women wore mourning garments as if their husbands had died. Likewise, the men covered their heads as was custom in funerals of wives. The Jews also followed the procession while wailing and carrying lighted lamps’]. VP VI.7, pp. 235–236. 207 For a further reading on the Council of Chalcedon see Gwynn, ‘The Council of Chalcedon’. On the Syrian Orthodox Church see Menze, Justinian, and Louth, ‘Why did the Syrians’. 208 Ashbrook Harvey, Asceticism and Society, pp. 29, 33, 81–91; On the role of the Byzantine emperors in the schism see Menze, Justinian, pp. 18–30, 86–89, 247–270.

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small community of non-Chalcedonian monks found refuge in the city under the protection of the empress Theodora. According to Cyril Mango, the church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, which was commissioned by Theodora, was built during that time for the sake of this community, and the choice of Sergius and Bacchus as its patron saints was probably due to their Syriac origins.209 Some Syrians may have fled to the West, perhaps even to Gaul. But as Wolfram Drews points out in his study of migrants and minorities in Merovingian Gaul, it is impossible to know which dogma the Syrians in Gaul adhered,210 or even whether they arrived in Gaul due to the Chalcedonian conflict. One thing remains certain: Syrians were present in Gaul, living there, venerating saints from their homeland, and slowly becoming part of Merovingian society. There is further evidence for the presence of Syrians in Gaul and their integration into Gallic society. In the tenth book of the Histories, Gregory discusses the bishopric of Paris and reports that Ragnemod, the bishop of the city of Paris, passed away. His brother Faramod claimed [the right of] the episcopal see, but a certain Eusebius, a Syrian merchant who paid money for the office, was elected in Ragnemod’s place. Once he accepted the episcopal [appointment], he dismissed all the followers of his predecessor and placed in his ecclesiastical household ministers who, like him, were Syrians.211

It is impossible to gauge whether this Syrian bishop tried to promote cults of Syrian saints and martyrs in his diocese. But his appointment (no matter what Gregory thought of its nature) indicates that Syrians were part of Merovingian society, even if only as a minority, and that this society was probably more heterogeneous than scholars tend to perceive. Thus, it seems fair to assume that by the sixth century there were Syrians in Gaul and that some, like the Parisian bishop and the man from Bordeaux, were permanent residents. On their arrival in Gaul, these Syrians brought with them relics and stories about the saints they had venerated in their homeland. Since some Syrians integrated into the Merovingian clergy, like 209 Mango, ‘The Church of Saints Sergius’. See also Croke, ‘Justinian, Theodora’, p. 25; see here also for further bibliography. 210 Drews, ‘Migrants and Minorities’, p. 120. 211 LH X.26, p. 519: ‘Ragnimodus quoque Parisiacae Urbis episcopus obit. Cumque germanus eius Faramodus presbiter pro episcopate concurreret, Eusebius quidam negotiator genere Syrus, datis multis munerbius, in locum eius subrogatus est; hisque, accepto episcopate, omnem scola decessoris sui abiciens, Syrus de genere suo eclesiasticae domui ministros statuit’.

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Eusebius of Paris, it is quite reasonable to assume that they took advantage of their ecclesiastical positions in order to promote the cults of some of the saints with whom they were familiar, as Gregory himself did with his patron saint, Julian of Brioude.212 Gregory’s translation of the story of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus serves as additional proof of the process of dissemination of traditions from Syria and the East to Gaul. Gregory ends his translation with the remark that he translated the story of the Seven Sleepers with the help of a certain Syrian called Johannes.213 He does not reveal the full identity of that Syrian man, but the note in itself indicates a Syrian presence in Gaul. Furthermore, perhaps some of the Syrian traditions which Gregory included in his works originated from other stories that Johannes or his compatriots translated for Gregory.214 Syrians may have been Gregory’s major source of eastern traditions, but they were not necessarily his only source. Gregory admits that some of his reports were based on hearsay, and even though he does not say so specifically in his accounts of foreign saints, one may suggest that this is the case with most of them. Some were probably related by Syrians, but others may have been retold by priests, pilgrims, and envoys who came to and from Gaul. Gregory toured Gaul throughout his career, using his travels to interview people who told him wondrous stories about saints. The aforementioned episode with Vulfilaic is an excellent case in point. Eastern and western pilgrims could be found in Gaul, and Gregory used their reports in his writings.215 Most of the geographical descriptions of the Holy Land in the Glory of the Martyrs, for instance, were based on descriptions given in Theodosius’s pilgrimage record, Topography of the Holy Land.216 Even though Gregory did not mention Theodosius as his source, a comparison of some of Gregory’s depictions and those of Theodosius indicates that Gregory must have known his work.217 Similar to his use of pilgrims’ reports in his descriptions of the geography of the Holy Land, Gregory could have used their reports about the local cults that were 212 See above, Chapter 1, pp. 37–38. 213 See above, pp. 57–58. 214 For further discussion on Syrians in Merovingian Gaul, see Heidrich, ‘Syrische Kirchengemeinden’. 215 Hen, ‘Holy Land’; Hen, ‘Gregory of Tours’. 216 For further reading on this treaty, see Tsafrir, ‘The Maps Used by Theodosius’. 217 Cf. GM 17 with De Situ Terrae Sanctae 65; GM 16 with De Situ Terrae Sanctae 13; GM 20 with De Situ Terrae Sanctae 14; GM 26 with De Situ Terrae Sanctae 50; GM 35 with De Situ Terrae Sanctae 54. See also Hen, ‘Gregory of Tours’, pp. 50–53.

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practiced outside Gaul. Indeed, he sometimes mentions such reports in his eastern accounts. In the account of Cosmas and Damian, for instance, Gregory writes that ‘I have heard many [stories] from people [who witnessed the miracles]’,218 and in the account of Isidore of Chios, he writes, ‘I met a priest who insisted that he had frequently seen this light from the mouth of the well’.219 Elsewhere in the Glory of the Martyrs, Gregory even names the person who had told him about the miraculous healing powers of the Jordan river. He writes there that ‘a man named Johannes who had departed from Gaul as a leper’ was the one to report about the miracles in the Jordan river.220 Other possible agents of cults, traditions and relics were soldiers and envoys. In the sixth book of the Histories, Gregory describes King Childebert’s invasion of Italy in 584. According to him: King Childebert arrived in Italy. When the Lombards heard this, fearing they might be killed by his army they submitted themselves to his authority. They gave him many gifts and promised on their part to be faithful subjects. After he accomplished all that he intended, the king returned to Gaul.221

Gregory also explains the Byzantine context of this episode by saying that ‘some years before he received fifty thousand gold coins from the Emperor Maurice to release Italy from the Lombards’.222 Childebert’s invasion of Italy appears twice again throughout the Histories, once in the ninth book and again in the tenth book.223 The campaigns in Italy could have exposed the Merovingian soldiers to local religious practices, and those who returned home to Gaul may have brought with them stories of foreign saints. Moreover, many of the eastern saints that Gregory included in his hagiographical collections were soldier-martyrs (Sergius, Isidore, and George, for instance), 218 GM 97, p. 104: ‘Ex quibus multa audivi’. 219 GM 101, p. 105: ‘Sed et ego vidi presbiterum, qui se adrimabat hoc lumen de ore putei crebrius contemplasse’. 220 GM 18, p. 49: ‘hominem Iohannem nomine, qui a Galliis leprosus abierat’. 221 LH VI.42, p. 314: ‘Childeberthus vero rex in Italis abiit. Quod cum audissent Langobardi, timentis, ne ab eius exercitu caederintur, subdedirunt se dicioni eius, multa ei dantes munera ac promittentes se parte eius esse fidelis atque subiectus. Patratisque cum his omnibus quae voluit, rex in Galliis est regressus’. 222 LH VI.42, p. 314: ‘Ab imperatore autem Mauricio ante hos annos quinquaginta milia soledorum acceperat, ut Langobardus de Italia extruderit’. 223 LH IX.25, pp. 444–445, and LH X.3, pp. 483–483; on the relations between Childebert and Maurice, see Goffart, ‘Byzantine Policy in the West’.

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and their military background may have made them more appealing to Merovingian soldiers.224 These episodes also reveal the political relations between the Merovingians and the Byzantines, which leads to the final form of cult transmission – envoys. Secular and political envoys, Byzantine, Italian, and Frankish, toured the Mediterranean sphere, and some brought with them tales of the deeds of saints in far and foreign lands.225 One such example may be the relics sent by Pope Pelagius to the Frankish Kingdom.226 The fact that these envoys revolved around the political and ecclesiastical elites made it easier for their stories to reach Gregory, who was a member of those circles. While most of the miracle stories of eastern saints that Gregory recorded entail no special involvement of the elites, at least in the case of the story of Polyeuctus, it is more than reasonable to assume that the story reached Gaul, and therefore Gregory, through political informers. The entire story is framed by a political Byzantine competition, the miraculous deed of the saint hardly perceptible against the portrayal of the power struggle between Justinian and Juliana. Yet here we are in the realm of speculation, since Gregory nowhere refers to envoys and soldiers as agents of the cults of saints. The envoys sent by Radegund to the East to bring back relics of the Holy Cross are yet another example of the role of embassy in the dissemination of cults of saints. Gregory describes this episode twice, once in the Histories and once in the Glory of the Martyrs. In the Histories, Gregory gives a short account, according to which, In the time of Sigibert, after Maroveus obtained the episcopate of the city, he received an epistle from King Sigibert, [stating that] the blessed Radegund, according to [her] faith and devotion, is determined [to send] clerics to eastern regions [to seek] wooden pieces of the Lord’s Cross and relics of the holy apostles and other martyrs. They went and brought back these remains.227

224 On military saints in Christianity, see Walter, The Warrior Saints. 225 For further reading on the important role of envoys in the late antique West, see Gillett, Envoys and Political Communication. 226 See above, p. 51. 227 LH IX.40, p. 464: ‘Tempore vero Sygiberthi, postquam Marovesus episcopatum urbis adeptus est, acceptis epistulis Sygiberthi regis, pro f ide ac devotione Radegundis beata in partibus oreintis clericos distinat pro dominicae crucis ligno ac sanctorum apostolorum ceterorumque martyrum reliquiis. Qui euntes detulerunt haec pignora’.

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The account in the Glory of the Martyrs is longer since it describes both the arrival of the relics to Gaul as well as several miracles associated with them there. Gregory also uses that story to glorify Radegund and portray her piety. He begins with a comparison between Radegund and the Empress Helena, who discovered the relics of the True Cross. He then describes how Queen Radegund, who is equal to Helena in merit and faith, sought these relics and placed them in the monastery at Poitiers, [a monastery which] she had founded out of her own devotion. She repeatedly sent servants to Jerusalem and the entire region of the East. They travelled to the tombs of the holy martyrs and confessors and brought back bodily remains [of the saints] which were place in a silver chest with the Holy Cross by the saint. Then after, she was worthy of seeing many miracles.228

Radegund exploited her royal position and relations in order to bring holy relics to the Merovingian kingdom. Both her behavior and her biography exemplify the strong connection between the secular and religious world at that time. This may also hint at the role played by non-religious envoys in disseminating holy relics and sacred traditions. In any case, the members of Radegund’s expedition to the East could have brought with them relics and tales about some of the eastern saints that Gregory included in his hagiographical collections. Moreover, Gregory knew Radegund quite well,229 and she was also a patron of his good friend, Venantius Fortunatus, who dedicated a poem to the Byzantine emperor, thanking him for sending relics of the True Cross to Poitiers.230 Her close relations with Fortunatus and Gregory could have made it easier for Gregory to hear stories about the East and record them. Fortunatus also provides a good example of how stories reached Gregory. The Vitutibus Sancti Martini, for instance, includes several miracle stories that took place in Italy. Gregory opens this part by ascribing the stories to Fortunatus, stating that ‘I will not 228 GM 5, pp. 39–40: ‘Huius reliquias et merito et fide Helenae conparanda regina Radegundis expetiit ac devote in monasterium Pictavensim, quod suo studio constituit, collocavit; misitque pueros iterum Hierusolymis ac per totam Orientis plagam. Qui circumeuntes sepulchra sanctorum martyrum confessorumque, cunctorum reliquias detulerunt, quas in arca argentea cum ipsa cruce sancta locatas, multa exinde miracula conspicere meruit’. For further reading on Radegund’s quest after relics from the East, see Conway, ‘St. Radegund’s Reliquary at Poitiers’; Hahn, ‘Collector and saint’; Moreira, ‘Provisatrix optima’. 229 See, for instance, Gregory’s eulogy on Radegund in GC 104, pp. 364–366. 230 Venantius Fortunatus, Ad Iustinum.

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omit what I remember my venerable companion, the priest Fortunatus, told me’.231 Such encounters with people who came from foreign lands were an opportunity to hear stories which were later documented and commemorated in Gregory’s works. In conclusion, it seems that throughout the late antique and the early medieval periods, cults, stories, and relics of saints, as well as other religious practices, were being disseminated in the Christian Mediterranean world. By the sixth century, several traditions had already reached Gaul, and some were documented by Gregory of Tours in his hagiographical collections. Yet, as the survey of the development and dissemination of their cults reveals, many of these saints were not venerated in Gaul before or during the time of Gregory of Tours. While we can trace the process of the diffusion of their stories and suggest the different ways in which these traditions may have reached Gaul and Gregory, we are still left with the question of why Gregory included these accounts in his works. Moreover, the uncertainty regarding the inclusion of these accounts leads to a different question: what were Gregory’s goals in writing his hagiographical collections? This question has been entirely overlooked in the scholarship. Scholars tend to use the accounts in Gregory’s hagiographical collections as anecdotes to help them discuss various aspects of Merovingian history. In doing so, they overlook the historical evidence in these accounts and detach the stories from their broader literary context. I submit that it is important to look at these collections in their entirety. Examining the accounts of non-Gallic saints and martyrs in the Glory of the Martyrs and the Glory of the Confessors as part of a complete work that was written with particular aims and objectives may help us to understand their inclusion in that text. Therefore, in what follows, I attempt to investigate the Glory of the Martyrs as a coherent whole within its literary context.

231 VSM I.13, p. 147: ‘Sed nec hoc praeteribo, quod venerabilem conservum meum Fortunatum presbyterum retulisse commemoro’.

3.

The Miraculous History of Gregory of Tours

Given that most of the eastern martyrs and saints mentioned in Gregory’s Glory of the Martyrs and the Glory of the Confessors were not actually venerated in Merovingian Gaul, one may wonder why such accounts were included in these compositions in the first place. Their presence seems even more puzzling when we recall the traditional scholarly assumption that hagiographical texts were an integral part of the cults of saints, designed for use during celebrations of the saints’ feast days or to serve as a justificatory dossier for the sanctity of certain places and relics.1 This, however, may not be the case with Gregory of Tours’s hagiographical collections. Hagiography is a multifaceted and very useful source for the study of history. As a genre, its definition keeps changing and expanding. In the early twentieth century, Hippolyte Delehaye explained that the term should not be applied to any form of writing about saints. Rather, ‘to be strictly hagiographical the document must be of a religious character and aim at edification. The term then must be confined to writings inspired by religious devotion to the saints and intended to increase that devotion’.2 A century later, Felice Lifshitz questioned the entire necessity and definition of hagiography.3 The line connecting Delehaye’s approach and Lifshitz’s dismissal of hagiography as a distinct genre tells the story of hagiography as a focus of research in the past 150 years. Delehaye’s book Les Légendes hagiographiques marks a turning point in the study of hagiography. In it, Delehaye responds to contemporary scholarly discussions about the historicity of the stories – or rather legends – transmitted by hagiographical texts, which sprung from the differences between modern notions of historical truth and those of medieval authors and audiences. Nevertheless, Delehaye’s contemporaries used hagiographical 1 See Introduction above, pp. 15–19. 2 Delehaye, Legends, p. 3. 3 Lifshitz, ‘Beyond Positivism’; Lifshitz, ‘Still Useless’.

Rotman, T., Hagiography, Historiography, and Identity in Sixth Century Gaul: Rethinking Gregory of Tours. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2022 doi 10.5117/9789463727730_ch03

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texts to study history, mainly by focusing on the information embedded in them on people, places, and events, while omitting anything miraculous, supernatural, or legendary. In the introduction to his book, Delehaye is straightforward about that: Myth, tale, legend and romance all belong to the class of imaginative story, but may be divided into two categories: there are those that are the spontaneous impersonal expression of a people’s genius or native disposition, and those that are the product of deliberate literary artifice.4

Indeed, Delehaye was not as blunt as Bruno Krusch, who defined hagiography as kirchlich Schwindelliteratur, that is, ‘deceptive’ ecclesiastical literature.5 But his definition of and observations on hagiography reflect a similar notion of hagiography as a questionable historical source. And yet, Delehaye was well aware of the need to examine hagiography in a broader context, and this notion defined much of the intellectual discourse on hagiography that took place in the following decades. The social and cultural turn of the mid-twentieth century also affected the ways in which scholars use, read, and analyze hagiographical literature. Peter Brown’s seminal work on the Syrian holy man, already mentioned in the introduction,6 approached hagiographical texts as a source that can reflect on social transformations of past societies, and consequently gave scholars new perspectives on the study of history.7 But it took time to sink in. As Thomas Heffernan noted in his 1988 study on sacred biographies, [o]f all genres that survived from the Middle Ages, only the lives of the saints, arguably the richest in terms of extant records, are still treated by literary historians as documents for source studies and little else. The genre has until recently fallen through the net of scholarly research, avoided by the historians because it lacks ‘documentary’ evidential status[.]8

Nevertheless, Brown and Heffernan, as well as numerous other scholars, laid the methodological groundwork for future scholars. Gradually, hagiography became a goldmine not just for information on a certain saint or 4 Delehaye, Legends, p. 4. 5 Krusch, ‘Zur Florians’, p. 559. 6 See above, p. 17. 7 Brown, ‘Rise and Function’. See also Brown, The Cult of Saints; Brown, Authority and the Sacred; Brown, Society and the Holy. 8 Heffernan, Sacred Biography, p. 17.

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a certain cult, but also for information on the author, his/her audience, the culture and society in which the text was produced, the transmission and dissemination of stories and manuscripts, and the development of literary frameworks.9 This methodological shift left its mark on the study of Merovingian hagiography and history as well. It will suffice to mention here the work of František Graus,10 which in many respects is a precursor to Peter Brown’s views, and the more recent studies by Walter Berschin,11 Marin Heinzelmann,12 Marc Van Uytfanghe,13 Raymond Van Dam,14 Paul Fouracre,15 Ian Wood,16 and Jamie Kreiner,17 as well as others whose works are cited throughout this study. One outcome of this growing interest in hagiography was the flexible and accommodating definition of the genre and the texts associated with it. When Delehaye offered his take on the matter, he was aware that some flexibility was needed and, consequently, alongside vitae and acta, he also listed martyrologies and calendars as potential hagiographical documents.18 Since then, more and more texts have been categorized as hagiography. As Jamie Kreiner noted, ‘[o]n the surface, hagiography is a literature devoted to narrating the life and virtues of exemplary Christians’.19 Accepting this definition allows scholars to broaden their pool of source material, and this, in turn, helps them reach a better understanding of the societies they study. Yet new def initions and new sources raise new problems. One such problem is the overlap between different genres. For instance, Gregory of Tours’ Histories contains many accounts of saints that may be considered hagiography. Does that make the Histories a hagiographical source? Such overlaps point to the fact that genres were rather fluid in late antiquity 9 For further reading on the history of the study of hagiography in the last century, see Geary, ‘Saints’; Smith, ‘Early Medieval Hagiography’; Kreiner, Social Life of Hagiography, pp. 2–7; Palmer, Early Medieval Hagiography, pp. 71–85, 89–108. 10 Graus, Volk, Herrscher und Heiliger. 11 Berschin, Biographie und Epochenstil. 12 Heinzelmann, ‘L’hagiographie mérovingienne’; Heinzelmann, ‘La réécriture hagiographique’; Heinzelmann, ‘Grégoire de Tours et l’hagiographie’; Heinzelmann, ‘Neue Aspekte’; Heinzelmann, ‘Die Rolle der Hagiographie’. 13 Van Uytfanghe, ‘Le Remploi Dans L’hagiographie’; Van Uytfanghe, Stylisation biblique; Van Uytfanghe, ‘L’audience de l’hagiographie’; Van Uytfanghe, ‘L’hagiographie’. 14 Van Dam, Saints and their Miracles. 15 Fouracre, ‘Merovingian History and Merovingian Hagiography’; Fouracre and Gerberding, Late Merovingian France. 16 Wood, Missionary Life; Wood, ‘The Vita Columbani’; Wood, ‘Use and Abuse’; Wood, ‘Forgery’. 17 Kreiner, Social Life of Hagiography. 18 Delehaye, Legends, p. 3. 19 Kreiner, Social Life of Hagiography, p. 2.

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and the early Middle Ages, or at least, that their definitions and ours do not always correlate. I would not question the necessity of using the term ‘hagiographic’, as Felice Lifshitz did, but I do agree with her tenor.20 Indeed, the term and the categorization of hagiography can limit our understanding of such texts, and as a result, our understanding of the past. Therefore, one must break free from traditional definitions of hagiography and accept the idea that hagiographical texts such as Gregory’s collections may have been written for other reasons than merely commemorating the saints and promoting their cults. To sum up, as James Palmer has recently pointed out, ‘[a]ll hagiographers started, in some sense, by wanting to do something with the story of particular saintly hero – to celebrate their achievements, obviously, but maybe also to make particular moral, theological, or political points’.21 In the following chapter, I propose a new approach to the hagiographical corpus of Gregory of Tours based on a close examination of the structure and content of the Glory of the Martyrs, the Glory of the Confessors, and the Vita Patrum, a comparison of these texts with Gregory’s other significant corpus – the Ten Books of Histories – and a discussion of the similarities between these corpora and their meanings.

Libri Miraculorum Revisited The Glory of the Martyrs contains two major sections. The first part includes accounts of miracles that were performed by Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and other New Testament protagonists, such as John the Baptist and the Apostles. Some of these accounts are simple renderings of biblical stories. Chapter 3, for example, recounts the sufferings, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, quoting directly from the New Testament.22 Sometimes, these biblical stories are followed by an additional miraculous anecdote. For example, in the first chapter of the Glory of the Martyrs, Gregory mentions the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, continuing with a description of miracles that took place in Bethlehem, near the well from which the Virgin Mary used to draw 20 Lifshitz, ‘Still Useless’. 21 Palmer, Early Medieval Hagiography, p. 15, and see the entire booklet for a further discussion on early medieval hagiography. See also Van Uytfanghe, ‘Le Remploi Dans L’hagiographie’. 22 In GM 3, p. 39, for instance, Gregory quotes from Acts 1:11; Martin Heinzelmann suggests viewing this section as part of Gregory’s eschatological program of the Glory of the Martyrs. See Heinzelmann, ‘Grégoire de Tours et l’hagiographie’, pp. 182–183.

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water.23 Other accounts report miracles that were performed by biblical figures and took place near their tombs, shrines, or relics. It is the second part of the Glory of the Martyrs that actually deals with martyrs. It begins with early Christian martyrs, like Bishop Clement of Rome, who was martyred at the end of the first century (in either 99 or 101),24 and it continues with later Roman and Italian martyrs, such as Pancras, Cassianus, and Victor of Milan, who suffered martyrdom during the late third and the early fourth centuries.25 From Italy, Gregory proceeds on an imaginary journey through the Christian world, relating miracle stories from Gaul, Spain, North Africa, Armenia, Syria, and Constantinople. The journey ends back in Gaul, after a short stop in Italy. It appears that the accounts in the Glory of the Martyrs were not a random collection of miracle stories, but rather a well-organized and carefully selected collection of stories, with a clear geographical and chronological structure. The book begins with the birth of Christianity in the eastern parts of the Mediterranean,26 continues with the Roman persecutions of Christians during the first three centuries,27 moves to recount the spread of Christianity throughout the Roman world,28 and ends with two concluding accounts that stress the importance of following the martyrs’ way and living a pious life.29 In doing so, Gregory uses miracle stories to recreate Christianity’s phenomenal rise, from its formative years, through the Christianization of the Roman world, up to the end of the persecutions and the establishment of local churches. The second miracle collection Gregory wrote, the Glory of the Confessors, retains this chronological and geographical framework. The book begins with miracles that were performed by the first generation of Gallic saints, including Hilary of Poitiers (d. c. 368),30 Eusebius of Vercelli (d. early 370s),31 and Martin of Tours (d. 397).32 Gregory then proceeds to describe miracles that were performed by fifth-century Gallic saints. Finally, he concludes with stories that concern sixth-century saints, such as Queen Radegund.33 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33

GM 1, p. 38. GM 35–36, pp. 60–61. GM 37–38, pp. 61–63; GM 42, pp. 66–67; GM 44, p. 68. GM 1–34, pp. 38–60. GM 35–45, pp. 60–69. GM 46–104, pp. 69–111. GM 105–106. GC 2, pp. 299–300. GC 3, pp. 300–301. GC 4, p. 301. GC 104, pp. 364–366.

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Gregory collected stories from all corners of the Merovingian kingdoms – Paris, Reims, Limoges, Bordeaux, Tours, and numerous less-known towns and villages. Hence, if the Glory of the Martyrs is molded as a reflection of the rise of Christianity in the Roman Mediterranean, then the Glory of the Confessors reflects the establishment of the Gallican Church from the time of the Roman persecutions to Gregory’s own days. Gregory’s third hagiographical collection – the Vita Patrum – contains twenty short vitae of Gallic bishops, abbots, and distinctive members of the Merovingian Church. Unlike the Glory of the Martyrs and the Glory of the Confessors, in which Gregory hardly speaks about the lives of the saints, in the Vita Patrum Gregory provides traditional hagiographical accounts in which he focuses more on the lives of the saints (as the title of the book suggests), with only a few miracle stories. By doing so, Gregory portrays in a fresh new light the contemporary Christian history of Merovingian Gaul. The chronological and geographical framework of the three hagiographical collections binds them together into a continuous historiographical narrative, and thus makes them inseparable. Gregory, in fact, intended his works to be read as an inseparable narrative. In the final chapter of the last book of the Histories, Gregory writes the following: I have written ten books of histories, seven of miracles and one about the life of the fathers. […] I conjure all of you, the bishops of the Lord who will lead the Church of Tours after the death of my humble self, [I pledge you] that by the Judgment Day, which is feared by all sinners, you will be ruined by this Judgment and condemned with the Devil if you should ever [let] these books to be destroyed or rewritten, or that anything will be plunked out or omitted, so thus you should preserve it all intact and complete.34 […] I beg you, do not tear apart what I have written. But if it pleases any of you to preserve my work, I will not deny you from writing it in verse.35 34 LH, X.31, pp. 535–536: ‘Decem libros Historiarum, septem Miraculorum, unum de Vita Patrum scripsi […] tamen coniuro omnes sacerdotes Domini, qui post me humilem ecclesiam Turonicam sunt recturi, per adventum domini nostri Iesu Christi ac terribilem reis omnibus iudicii diem, sic numquam confusi de ipso iudicio discedentes cum diabolo condempnemini, ut numquam libros hos aboleri faciatis aut rescribi, quasi quaedam eligentes et quaedam praetermittentes, sed ita omnia vobiscum integra inlibataque permaneant, sicut a nobis relicta sunt’. 35 LH X.31, p. 536: ‘nec sic quoque deprecor, ut avellas quae scripsi. Sed si tibi in his quiddam placuerit, salvo opera nostro, te scribere versu non abnuo’.

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Gregory explicitly requests – even pleads – that his works be kept together, and thus read together. Therefore, any critical reading of his works or parts thereof must consider Gregory’s perception of each book as a crucial part of a greater whole. The historical narration of the hagiographical collections, which begins with the universal and more ancient history of the world and progresses to the local and more current history of Gaul and the Merovingian Church, parallels the chronological and geographical focus of Gregory’s most celebrated work, the Ten Books of Histories, which was written at the same time as the hagiographical collections.36 The first book of the Histories begins with the Creation and relates some of the major biblical events,37 continues with the emergence of Christianity and its propagation throughout the Roman world,38 and concludes with the life and death of Saint Martin of Tours.39 The second book relates the geopolitical transformation of the Roman world and the disintegration of the Roman Empire; it is from this point onwards that Gaul and the Franks become the major focus of Gregory’s narrative. Book II ends with the reign of Clovis, after which the rest of the Histories focuses almost exclusively on events that took place in Gaul or in relation to Gaul, whereas from Book V till the very end of the Histories, Gregory concentrates on events that took place during his own lifetime. 40 Juxtaposing the Histories with Gregory’s three hagiographical collections is extremely revealing. The Glory of the Martyrs, the f irst book of Gregory’s hagiographical trilogy which focuses on the early history of Christianity, parallels the first book of the Histories, which contains the early history of the world and the rise of Christianity. Gregory’s second hagiographical collection, the Glory of the Confessors, discusses the early history of the Gallican Church and hence may be read in parallel with the next three books of the Histories, which relate the early history of the Franks and the foundation of the Merovingian kingdoms. The third component, the Vita Patrum, deals with the contemporary history of the Gallican Church, emphasizing the role of the Gallo-Roman elite in its foundation. Similarly, Books V–X of the Histories narrate the contemporary history of Merovingian Gaul while highlighting the crucial role of its 36 On the chronology of Gregory’s works see Wood, Gregory of Tours, p. 3; see also Shaw, ‘Chronology, Composition’. 37 LH I.1–16, pp. 3–15. 38 LH I.16–35, pp. 15–26. 39 LH I.36–48, pp. 26–34. 40 The Histories ends with events that took place in 591, only three years before Gregory’s own death.

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secular and ecclesiastical elites. It seems, therefore, that by composing his hagiographical corpus, Gregory’s aim was to create a historical narrative of the rise of Christianity and the Gallican Church that would run parallel to his Histories. In other words, Gregory’s hagiographical trilogy was an innovative variation on the theme of ‘ecclesiastical history’. The other two works in Gregory’s hagiographical corpus, the Virtutibus Sancti Martini and the Virtutibus Sancti Juliani, can also fit into this historiographical model of ecclesiastical history. The Virtutibus Sancti Juliani, as a text that focuses on the Gallic martyr Julian of Brioude, can be considered as part of the early history that the Glory of the Martyrs covers. The Virtutibus Sancti Martini, meanwhile, can be read together with the Glory of the Confessors, which begins with some miracles performed by Martin of Tours. And yet, these two works are more complex, and there were probably other incentives behind their composition that had to do with Gregory’s personal history and his insecure position as the bishop of Tours. 41 The notion that Gregory’s hagiographical collections form an ecclesiastical history is further strengthened by a closer look into Gregory’s literary and historiographical approaches as an author. Gregory of Tours’s Literary Approach Gregory had a unique literary style, and he is known for his extraordinary narrative structure. The historical events in the Histories are presented in the form of short anecdotes. Each chapter deals with a single historical event, and as Gregory rarely makes any connection between these anecdotes, the reader must fill the narrative gaps on his own. The chronological and geographical settings of the anecdotes help the reader to put things in context. By writing his history in this manner, Gregory deviates from the traditional historiographical narration trends and forges a new path for historiographical narrative. Scholars have long attempted to explain Gregory’s unusual style. Until the beginning of the past century, scholarship perceived Gregory as a naïve author whose naïveté negatively affected the quality of his historiography. 42 In 1946, however, Erich Auerbach suggested a different approach to Gregory’s literary abilities in his discussion of the feud between Sicharius and 41 See above, Chapter 1, pp. 33–38. 42 For further discussion on past scholarly trends regarding Gregory’s quality as an author and historian, see Giselle De Nie’s introduction to her Views from a Many-Windowed Tower, pp. 1–22, and Goffart, Narrators, pp. 113–119 (also see the latter for further bibliography).

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Chramnesindus, which was described by Gregory in the Histories. 43 There, Auerbach noted that Gregory was not a classical historian and thus should not be judged as one. He further explained that Gregory’s use of short anecdotes that include dialogues and conversations was intended to create a ‘sensory apprehension of things and events’. 44 By doing so, Auerbach explained, ‘his work assumes a character much closer to personal memoirs than the work of any Roman historian’.45 Auerbach’s analysis of the incident between Sicharius and Chramnesindus and his conclusion regarding Gregory’s abilities as an author and historian transformed the scholarly discourse about Gregory. Over the years, other scholars responded to Auerbach’s approach and suggested their own theories regarding Gregory’s literary style. All agreed that seeing Gregory as a naïve author did not do justice to his unique style. Among these scholars stand out the works of Giselle de Nie, Joaquin Martinez Pizarro, Walter Goffart, and Martin Heinzelmann. De Nie argues that Gregory was ‘a born story-teller’, 46 and the key to understanding his literary style lies in his spirituality. This, she suggests, can also explain the gaps in his writings. After all, one of the main problems with Gregory’s anecdotal style of writing is that he hardly bridges between his anecdotes, leaving each one to stand as an individual narrative. De Nie suggests a spiritual reading of his Histories and proposes that Gregory uses the supernatural world, divine intervention, biblical imagery, and prefiguration as a means to explain history and current events. She further contends that Gregory’s use of such symbols is the literary instrument with which he creates the connection between what appear to modern scholars as distinct and unrelated episodes. 47 Joaquin Martinez Pizarro, too, discusses Gregory’s anecdotal style and use of imagery in his Histories, and he places these in a broader literary context. According to Pizarro, late antiquity and the early Middle Ages witnessed a shift in Latin literature that altered the stylization and explanatory factors of written narratives. 48 In contrast to classical, canonical narratives, those of the early medieval period included new features such as dialogue, direct speech, and dramatic elements such as bodily gestures. 49 These resulted in a more scenic narrative. This form of narration, Pizarro argues, was derived 43 Auerbach, Mimesis, pp. 77–95. 44 Auerbach, Mimesis, p. 95. 45 Auerbach, Mimesis, p. 85. 46 De Nie, ‘Conclusion’, in De Nie, Views from a Many-Windowed Tower, p. 295. 47 De Nie, ‘Roses in January’; De Nie, ‘Images as ‘Mysteries’. 48 Pizarro, A Rhetoric of the Scene, p. 12. 49 Pizarro, A Rhetoric of the Scene, pp. 13–14.

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from ‘traditional oral storytelling’,50 and it characterizes Gregory’s literary style as well. Thus, like De Nie, Pizarro classifies Gregory as a storyteller. The new early medieval scenic narration enabled authors such as Gregory of Tours to create imaginable episodes that an audience could understand without further commentary.51 Hence, the gaps and omissions in Gregory’s anecdotes did not prevent his audience from engaging with the narrative. De Nie and Pizarro disassemble Gregory’s narrative into small literary components. Martin Heinzelmann, for his part, suggests a holistic approach. According to him, an ‘assessment of the Histories should be based principally on the statements that the author himself makes both about his literary intentions and about the essence of history’.52 Heinzelmann lists four elements of the Histories designed to help the reader reach a better understanding of the narrative: (1) prologues and epilogue;53 (2) chapter headings, which appear at the beginning of each book; (3) a cross-referencing system – that is, the references Gregory makes throughout the books to things he wrote previously or in other places; and (4) the necessity to read the work as a whole. Heinzelmann criticizes the scholarly tendency to focus on single chapters or books, thereby lifting them from the literary context in which they were written.54 He echoes Gregory’s final words in the Histories that were cited above.55 In other words, Heinzelmann suggests that we follow Gregory’s request if we wish to understand his narrative. Thus, towards the close of the twentieth century, scholars started to appreciate Gregory’s creativity as an author and historian.56 His work includes short anecdotal episodes that describe great historical events as well as everyday matters. Gregory used imagery that would have been easily recognized and understood by his contemporaries. A well thought-out crossreferencing system and lists of chapter headings clarify the entire narrative of his history. This literary and historiographical approach is also apparent in his hagiographical collections. Short anecdotes with hardly any connection between them formed the backbone of his miracle stories. From a literary 50 Pizarro, A Rhetoric of the Scene, pp. 15, 53, 58 (quote at p. 15) 51 Pizarro, A Rhetoric of the Scene, p. 42; Pizarro, ‘Images in Texts’, p. 92. 52 Heinzelmann, Gregory of Tours, p. 101. 53 There are, in total, f ive prologues and one epilogue in the Histories: the prologue to the entire work, the prologues to Books I–III, the prologue of Book V, and an epilogue at the end of the tenth book. 54 Heinzelmann, Gregory of Tours, pp. 101, 115–123, 148–152. 55 LH X.31, see above, p. 106. 56 For further discussions about Gregory’s literary and writing style, see also Breukelaar, Historiography and Episcopal Authority; Shanzer, ‘Gregory of Tours and Poetry’.

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point of view, then, Gregory used the very same narrative techniques when writing both the Histories and his hagiographical corpus. Thus, it just may be that Gregory had a historiographical purpose for the miracle collections. Gregory of Tours’s Historiographical Perception Another important aspect of Gregory’s historiographical narration technique is the inclusion of numerous hagiographical anecdotes in the Histories. As part of his attempt to recreate history, Gregory writes about liturgical celebrations; discusses the lives of the saints, their relics, and their miracles; shows how saints could protect their followers; and dedicates a whole section to listing the relics he owned, acquired, and installed in various churches during his episcopacy. In Gregory’s mind, saints had a crucial role in history, not merely as historical figures, but as ‘movers and shakers’ of the evolving Christian world throughout the Mediterranean and particularly in Gaul. Their continual interference in the world through the miracles they performed after their deaths were also considered by Gregory to be historical events that were worthy of mention in his historiographical work.57 This perspective, however, was not always obvious to Gregory’s later readers and scholars. Already in the Middle Ages, there were editions of the Histories that omitted some of the hagiographical and ecclesiastical sections in an attempt to focus exclusively on secular affairs, such as the early six-book version of his Histories. Regardless of Gregory’s plea at the end of the Histories to never disassemble his opus, during the Merovingian period an abridged version of the Histories was already circulating in the Frankish Kingdom. This recension, which is one of the earliest manuscripts of Gregory’s Histories, contained only Books I–VI, and its compiler left out many religious sections from Gregory’s original work. This is also the version which the compilers of the Chronicle of Fredegar and the Liber Historiae Francorum had used for their works. In the ninth century, a different version of the Histories appeared. This was a ten-book composition: the first nine books contained the original ten books of Gregory’s Histories, and the tenth was Book IV of Fredegar’s Chronicle. The various editions of Gregory’s History led to a scholarly debate as to whether this reflected Gregory’s early intentions for his historiographical composition or whether it was a later adaptation of his work.58 57 On the role of saints in Gregory’s historiographical narratives, see Goffart, Narrators, pp. 130–153; Reimitz, History, Frankish Identity, pp. 44–50. 58 Adriaan Breukelaar, for instance, argues that it was certainly not Gregory’s intention to leave out his religious discussions. See Breukelaar, Historiography and Episcopal Authority, pp. 26–28.

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In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as the scholarship on Gregory of Tours and his writings emerged, many scholars preferred to disregard the hagiographical accounts in the Histories.59 Yet both Walter Goffart and John Kitchen have shown that the miracula – whether they be the miracles drawn from Gregory’s entire corpus or from the miracle collections – simply cannot be ignored.60 Nevertheless, both of these scholars continue to distinguish between Gregory’s historiography and his hagiography. Goffart, for instance, acknowledged the similarities between the historiographical accounts and the hagiographical ones. He argued that ‘both multibook works incorporate the same mode of storytelling’, saying that both focus on individual incidents.61 Immediately thereafter, however, he wrote that ‘the main difference is that the Wonders is an account of unrelieved good news’.62 It seems rather judgmental, however, to lessen the historical or historiographical value of a series of episodes only because they document the wonderful things that have happened in the world. To quote Gregory himself: ‘A great many things keep happening – some are good, some are bad’.63 That is, ‘good news’, as Goffart defines it, is part of Gregory’s perception of history (and should be part of any historian’s historical perception). But even Goffart, who clearly understood the importance of miracles in the everyday lives of the people in sixth-century Gaul, was still unable to relate to these accounts as he would to any other historical account from that period. John Kitchen explained why, in his view, historians find it hard to use Gregory’s miracle accounts and regard them as historical documents: Because virtutes are the dominant feature, Gregory’s purely hagiographic works are also the most historically unreliable of his writings. Generally speaking, the methods and aims of historians are usually not conductive to treating texts that primarily record supernatural occurrences (although the hagiographers themselves make no clear distinction between the natural and supernatural). So-called documents, not Vitae or miracle stories, are thought to be the best sources for uncovering the past.64 Helmut Reimitz further discusses the question of the preservation of Gregory’s Histories and the scholarly debate on this matter. See Reimitz, History, Frankish Identity, pp. 127–165. See also Heinzelmann, ‘Grégoire de Tours. “Pére de l’histoire de France”?’, pp. 25–26; Bourgain and Heinzelmann, ‘L’œuvre de Grégoire de Tours’; see here also for further bibliographical references. 59 Walter Goffart surveys these trends, which mostly regard Gregory as a naïve or even childish author. See Goffart, Narrators, pp. 114–119; see also Van Dam, Saints and their Miracles, pp. 150–151. 60 Goffart, Narrators, pp. 127–153; Kitchen, Saints’ Lives, 58–98. 61 Goffart, Narrators, p. 152. 62 Goffart, Narrators, p. 152. 63 LH, praef., p. 1: ‘cum nonnullae res gererentur vel rectae vel inprobae’. 64 Kitchen, Saints’ Lives, p. 60.

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Yet there is no real reason for historians to ignore the historical and historiographical qualities of miracle accounts. As Godefroid Kurth had already explained: Wonders, to Gregory’s way of thinking, are not extraordinary and exceptional acts of Providence momentarily suspending the course of natural laws. […] [T] hey are, on the contrary, regular and daily manifestations of divine power.65

Raymond Van Dam further explained that Beliefs about saints and the miraculous healings associated with their cults provided late antique people with one means to think about themselves and their communities, to articulate some of their deepest emotions and concerns, and, perhaps, to come to terms both with their inner selves and with their role in their communities.66

In other words, miracles were part and parcel of everyday experience for Gregory and his contemporaries. Moreover, miracles were a means through which people could make sense of and explain to others what was happening to themselves and to their community. For instance, as Kurth points out, not only did miraculous supernatural happenings not raise doubts, sometimes they could even have been adduced as proof during debates.67 Hence, miracle stories were told, re-told and disseminated, just like any other memories of major historical events. It is not surprising, then, that Gregory incorporated such stories into his Histories.68 While it is true that Gregory was a historian, he was first and foremost a bishop, a religious leader who had an interest in showing the superiority of the divine over everything else that had happened and was happening in the world. Thus, secular history was inseparable from sacred, Christian history; more importantly, the former was inferior and subjected to the 65 Kurth, ‘De l’autorité’, p. 122; translation in Goffart, Narrators, p. 132. 66 Van Dam, Saints and their Miracles, p. 150. 67 Kurth, ‘De l’autorite’, p. 122. This is true of other Merovingian hagiographies, as Paul Fouracre has shown in the past. See Fouracre, ‘Merovingian History and Merovingian Hagiography’, pp. 3–8. 68 See also Felice Lifshitz’s criticism of scholars with double standards, reading Gregory’s works and treating his hagiography as a less reliable source. See Lifshitz, ‘Apostolicity Theses in Gaul’, pp. 213–218. For further discussion of the supernatural in historiographical compositions, see Watkins, History and the Supernatural, in which Watkins examines the phenomenon by analyzing chronicles. See also Bartlett, The Natural and the Supernatural; Palmer, Apocalypse.

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latter since everything was conducted by and derived from the divine plan of God. Therefore, miracles were included in the Histories just like any other historical event, but they could also be collected into a separate corpus and still remain historical records. Gregory’s historical perception is best exemplified by the manner in which he begins and ends his Histories. The first book opens with a statement that sets the focus on the Christian faith. Already in the prologue, he says that: I will describe the wars between kings and hostile people, martyrs and pagans, churches and heretics, but first I wish to bring to the fore my own belief, so that whoever reads this will not doubt that I am a Catholic.69

Following a long description of his Catholic belief, Gregory ends his prologue with a literary survey and an explanation of his methodological approach: The chronicles of bishop Eusebius of Caesarea and the priest Jerome clearly express the calculation of the world [i.e. its age] and unfold the calculation of the sequence of the years. Orosius, too, looked into this, and he had put together in one place all the years from the Creation of the world to his own days. Victorius did the same when he sought the date of the feast of Easter. Therefore, following the example of the aforementioned authors, and if the Lord shall grant me his help, I wish to reckon the entire series of years from the creation of the first human being to our time. I will carry it out more easily if we begin with Adam himself.70

Only then does he begin the first chapter of the book, in which he discusses the creation of the world and relates that ‘in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth in His own Christ, that is in His own Son, who is the origin of all things’.71 Gregory thus frames the beginning of the world, and of 69 LH I. preaf.: ‘Scripturus bella regum cum gentibus adversis, martyrum cum paganis, eclesiarum cum hereticis, prius fidem mean proferre cupio, ut qui ligirit me non dubitet esse catholicum’. 70 LH I. preaf., p. 5: ‘De subpotatione vero huius mundi evidenter chronicae Eusebii Caesariensis episcopi ac Hieronimi presbiteri prolocuntur et rationem de omni annorum serie pandunt. Nam et Horosius diligentissime haec inquaerens, omnem numerum annorum ab initio mundi usque ad suum tempus in unum colligit. Hoc etiam et Victurius cum ordine paschalis solemnitates inquirere fecit. Ergo et nos scriptorium supra memoratorum exsemplaria sequentes, cupimus a primi homines conditione, si Dominus dignabitur suum commodare auxilium, usque ad nostrum tempos cunctam annorum congeriem conpotare. Quod facilius adinplemus, si ab ipso Adam sumamus exordium’. 71 LH I.1, p. 5: ‘Principio Dominus caelum terramque in Christo suo, qui est omnium principium, id est in Filio suo, furmavit’.

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history, within theological boundaries. He then dedicates the rest of the book to biblical episodes and early Christian historical events. For instance, he mentions the Flood (Histories I.4), the crossing of the Red Sea (Histories I.10) and the construction of the Temple by King Solomon (Histories I.13). At the center of the book stands a cluster of chapters that describe the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus (Histories I.16, 19–24). This must have been a conscious choice, alluding to the central place of Christ and Christianity in the lives of Gregory’s audience. The rest of the book describes early Christian history, mostly by relating stories of martyrs and saints. The Histories ends with a long chapter, probably the longest one in the entire work, in which Gregory discusses various religious matters. He mentions all the former bishops of Tours and includes a short biography of each one.72 He then lists some of the relics he installed in various shrines in Tours during his episcopacy, such as the relics of Cosmas and Damian which he installed in Saint Martin’s cell and the relics of Saint Benignus which he installed in the old baptistery of Tours.73 Thus, the work that begins with a global history depicting God’s creation of the universe ends with the local religious history of Tours, from its beginning up until Gregory’s day. In between the first book and the last chapter of the tenth book, we find a plethora of political quarrels, civil wars, and tales of bishops, priests, martyrs, saints, and miracles. All were integral to Gregory’s history and all were happening within a Christian framework. The religious anecdotes that Gregory interweaves throughout the Histories, among them numerous hagiographical accounts, he perceived as records of historical events. The understanding that these episodes had historiographical value in Gregory’s narrative can also be applied to the accounts in his hagiographical collections. That is, writing about the miracles of saints and martyrs was a documentation of historical events that formed part of a greater historiographical narrative. The main differences between the Histories and Gregory’s ‘ecclesiastical history’ were its intention and expected audience. However, from historiographical and literary points of view, both corpora were intended to tell history. The Histories were a secular and political history aimed at an educated audience, the Merovingian elite that could have found its own history between the pages of the Histories and relate to the stories that appeared there. The ‘ecclesiastical history’ – that is, Gregory’s hagiographical collections – was aimed at a broader audience that included people from all walks of life: men and women, elite and ordinary people, 72 LH X.31, pp. 526–534. 73 LH X.31, pp. 534–535.

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clergy and laity.74 Thus, the accounts in the hagiographical collections were stories to which almost anyone in Merovingian society could relate. In the same manner in which Gregory interlaces hagiographical (or religious) anecdotes in his secular historiographical corpus, he also interlaces secular events with his ‘ecclesiastical history’. An interesting case in point is the account of Polyeuctus in the Glory of the Martyrs, in which Gregory is rather more interested in recording the political intrigues taking place in the Byzantine capital, including blunt criticism of the ruling emperor, than in describing a miracle. And yet, the entire episode is written in a religious framework.75 Such an account, at least in theory, could have been found in Gregory’s Histories. Other examples are not as detailed as the case of Polyeuctus, but they still point to Gregory’s use of historical anecdotes in his hagiography. For example, in the Glory of the Martyrs, Gregory contextualizes a miracle story by saying that it happened ‘in the time when Chlodomer the king of the Franks was killed’,76 or that ‘when Theuderic the king of the Franks invaded the region’, a certain miracle happened.77 Such references gave a historical context (or perhaps we might better phrase it as a secular context) to the miracles that occurred, but they also gave a religious context to political developments. Thus, the secular and the sacred narratives were interlinked. Considering all of the above, it seems that Gregory used similar literary and historiographical approaches for composing his Histories and his hagiographical collections. The chronological structure of the Histories is similar to that of the hagiographical collections, and likewise the anecdotal writing style. Both works must be read as a whole in order to understand their narratives and purposes. The works even share the perception of religious and supernatural incidents as historical events. Thus it is not farfetched to suggest that Gregory intended his three hagiographical collections, the Glory of the Martyrs, the Glory of the Confessors, and the Vita Patrum, to be read together as a whole and to function as one long historiographical narrative. All of these points come down to one conclusion: during the two decades in which Gregory served as the bishop of Tours, he wrote two types of historical narratives: a ‘secular’ history in the form of the Ten Books of Histories, and a ‘religious’ history, that is, his hagiographical trilogy. 74 For further discussion of Gregory’s audiences, see below, pp. 156–158. 75 GM 102, pp. 105–107. 76 GM 30, p. 56: ‘Tempore, quo, interfecto Chlodomere rege Francorum’. 77 GM 51, p. 74: ‘Tempore autem, quo Theodoricus rex Francorum regionem illam evertit’. See other examples in GM 71, pp. 85–86; GM 74, p. 87; GC 70, pp. 338–339; GC 80, pp. 348–349; GC 86, p. 354; GC 88, pp. 354–355; GC 91, pp. 356–357; and VP V.1–2, pp. 227–229; VP VIII.3, pp. 242–244; VP XVII.2–3, pp. 279–281.

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From Hagiography to Ecclesiasticcal History The term ‘ecclesiastical history’ may seem like a misnomer for Gregory’s ‘religious’ history because scholars reserve this term for a very specific type of historiographical literature. But Gregory did write an ecclesiastical history. In what follows, I should like to demonstrate that by examining Gregory’s hagiographical collections in their broader literary context. Let us, then, begin with discussing what the term ‘ecclesiastical history’ actually means. A Brief History of ‘Ecclesiastical History’ As a literary genre, ecclesiastical history first appeared in the first quarter of the fourth century, when Eusebius of Caesarea began writing the famous work that gave the genre its name – Ecclesiastical History (Ἐκκλησιαστικὴ ἱστορία). At the beginning of the first book of his history, Eusebius states his historiographical intentions, which later defined the genre: I have purposed to record in writing the successions of the sacred apostles, covering the period stretching from our Saviour to ourselves; the number and character of the transactions recorded in the history of the Church; the number of those who were distinguished in her government and leadership in the provinces of greatest fame; the number of those who in each generation were the ambassadors of the word of God either by speech of pen; the names, the number and the age of those who, driven by the desire of innovation to an extremity of error, have heralded themselves as the introducers of Knowledge, falsely so-called, ravaging the flock of Christ unsparingly, like grim wolves. To this I will add the fate which has beset the whole nation of the Jews from the moment of their plot against our Saviour; moreover, the number and nature and times of the wars waged by the heathen against the divine word and the character of those who, for its sake, passed from time to time through the contest of blood and torture; furthermore the martyrdom of our own time, and the gracious and favouring help of our Saviour in them all.78 78 EH I.1.1–2, pp. 6–8: ‘Τὰς τῶν ἱερῶν ἀποστόλων διαδοχὰς σὺν καὶ τοῖς ἀπὸ τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν καὶ εἰς ἡμᾶς διηνυσμένοις χρόνοις, ὅσα τε καὶ πηλίκα πραγματευθῆναι κατὰ τὴν ἐκκλησιαστικὴν ἱστορίαν λέγεται, καὶ ὅσοι ταύτης διαπρεπῶς ἐν ταῖς μάλιστα ἐπισημοτάταις παροικίαις ἡγήσαντό τε καὶ προέστησαν, ὅσοι τε κατὰ γενεὰν ἑκάστην ἀγράφως ἢ καὶ διὰ συγγραμμάτων τὸν θεῖον ἐπρέσβευσαν λόγον, τίνες τε καὶ ὅσοι καὶ ὁπηνίκα νεωτεροποιίας ἱμέρῳ πλάνης εἰς ἔσχατον ἐλάσαντες, ψευδωνύμου γνώσεως εἰσηγητὰς ἑαυτοὺς ἀνακεκηρύχασιν, ἀφειδῶς οἷα λύκοι βαρεῖς τὴν Χριστοῦ ποίμνην ἐπεντρίβοντες, πρὸς ἐπὶ τούτοις καὶ τὰ παραυτίκα τῆς κατὰ τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν ἐπιβουλῆς

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Indeed, the Ecclesiastical History begins with some biblical history, then moves to Christian history, covering the period from the birth of Jesus, through the missionary activity of the Apostles and up to the age of persecutions, to which Eusebius devotes most his attention. Finally, Eusebius ends the history with the reign of Constantine and his pro-Christian policy. In doing so, Eusebius created a global history of Christianity that narrates historical events which took place in different parts of the Roman world. Throughout the ten books, Eusebius refers to the ancient sources he uses and includes direct quotations from numerous documents, among them the books of the New Testament, the writings of Philo, the historiographical works of Josephus, and various other treatises written by early Christian authors, such as Justin Martyr, Clement of Rome, and Irenaeus.79 Thus, Eusebius gives us a glimpse of his work as a historian and reveals the richness of his library. In the introduction to the English translation of Eusebius’s Vita Constantini, Averil Cameron and Stuart Hall alert us to the idea that Eusebius was ‘an innovative writer’ and that his Ecclesiastical History ‘was not like a standard classical history’.80 Certainly, Eusebius was a pathbreaker. Over the years, scholars have tried to characterize him as a historian and his Ecclesiastical History as historiographical and literary genre.81 In the mid-1970s, Robert Markus used Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History to delineate the characteristics of the genre itself. Basing his description on Eusebius’s model, Markus enumerates three essential features of ecclesiastical history.82 First, Markus mentions the required chronological scope for ecclesiastical history. Unlike classical historiography, he argues, ecclesiastical history only rarely discusses current events, focusing instead on past events.83 This, however, does not even apply to Eusebius’s own Ecclesiastical History. The last five books of Eusebius’s history, and especially the tenth, deal explicitly with contemporary history. The second feature Markus discusses is the literary conventions of the Ecclesiastical History. He argues that Eusebius preferred written records over oral traditions and that he avoided the invented speeches that were τὸ πᾶν Ἰουδαίων ἔθνος περιελθόντα, ὅσα τε αὖ καὶ ὁποῖα καθ᾿ οἵους τε χρόνους πρὸς τῶν ἐθνῶν ὁ θεῖος πεπολέμηται λόγος, καὶ πηλίκοι κατὰ καιροὺς τὸν δι᾿ αἵματος καὶ βασάνων ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ διεξῆλθον ἀγῶνα, τά τ᾿ ἐπὶ τούτοις καὶ καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς αὐτοὺς μαρτύρια καὶ τὴν ἐπὶ πάσιν ἵλεω καὶ εὐμενῆ τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν ἀντίληψιν γραφῇ παραδοῦναι προῃρημένος, οὐδ᾿ ἄλλοθεν ἢ ἀπὸ πρώτης ἄρξομαι τῆς κατὰ τὸν σωτῆρα καὶ κύριον ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦν τὸν Χριστὸν τοῦ θεοῦ οἰκονομίας’; trans. EH, pp. 7–9. 79 On Eusebius’s sources, see Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, pp. 130–131, 139–143. 80 Cameron and Hall, ‘Introduction’, pp. 27, 30. 81 For another recent survey of the state of the scholarship on Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History, see the introduction of Corke-Webster, Eusebius and the Empire, pp. 1–9 82 Markus, ‘Church History’, p. 2. 83 Markus, ‘Church History’, pp. 2–3.

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popular in classical historiography.84 Eusebius did indeed use documents that can be easily traced, and he incorporated into his narrative long excerpts that were quoted directly from his sources. Markus understands Eusebius historiographical work and literary settings as if they were ‘more like an archivist’s collection of material than a historical narrative’.85 This, of course, is an exaggeration. Even though Eusebius used many excerpts from various sources, he tied them tightly to his narrative and added his own point of view and analysis. To some extent, his work prefigures the work of modern historians, who use primary sources in their attempt to create a coherent historical narrative. Therefore, reducing Eusebius’s work to the excerpts he used, dismissing the structure of the work and the qualities of his narrative, does not do justice to Eusebius’s sophistication and talent as a historian. The third and final feature of ecclesiastical history, according to Markus’s model, concerns the content of the work. In the first chapter of his Ecclesiastical Histories, Eusebius lists the subjects that he intends to cover. He begins with the Apostles and distinguished bishops;86 then he moves on to those ‘who in each generation were the ambassadors of the word of God either by speech or pen’;87 he continues with heresies and heretics, the fate of the Jews, the Roman persecutions against Christians and their martyrdoms.88 These themes, Markus argues, must appear in each and every ‘ecclesiastical history’.89 Yet Markus admits that not all late antique Church historians followed those lines, although they tried their best to follow Eusebius’s example.90 Even Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History does not fit perfectly into this model. What seems to be called for, then, is a more nuanced and flexible approach towards the definition of ecclesiastical history. In 1981, Timothy Barnes characterized Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History as ‘history which would treat the Christian Church as a nation whose history could be written on the same basis as the history of any city, country, or race’.91 In other words, he suggested defining Eusebius’s work as a national history. By defining Eusebius’s history in this manner, Barnes situated it in a broader literary context by taking into account the various traditions on which Eusebius based his narrative. 84 Markus, ‘Church History’, p. 3. 85 Markus, ‘Church History’, p. 3. 86 EH I.1, p. 6. 87 EH I.1, p. 6: ‘ὅσοι τε κατὰ γενεὰν ἑκάστην ἀγράφως ἢ καὶ διὰ συγγραμμάτων τὸν θεῖον ἐπρέσβευσαν λόγον’; trans. EH, p. 7. 88 EH I.1, p. 6. 89 Markus, ‘Church History’, p. 5. 90 Markus, ‘Church History’, pp. 13–17. 91 Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, p. 128.

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Thirty years later, Andrew Marsham described Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History differently, suggesting that it should be treated as a universal history, that is, ‘a text that begins with Creation, or another primordial date, and encompass subsequent world history in a linear narrative’.92 Recently, David DeVore discussed the matter of generic definition of ‘ecclesiastical history’ in an edited volume that attempts to re-examine Eusebius.93 DeVore surveys different scholarly definitions for ecclesiastical history, beginning with the works of Eduard Schwartz and Franz Overbeck from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and ending with those of Timothy Barnes and Doron Mendels.94 All of these scholars have tried to define the genre of ecclesiastical history by examining it in a very specific and narrow literary context. DeVore, however, proposes to analyze Eusebius’s history and its outcome in a broader literary context, stating that ‘no literary genre is ever fully distinct from all other genres’.95 He compares Eusebius with other literary and historiographical trends that were popular during his lifetime and shows which literary elements Eusebius borrowed from different genres. For instance, he compares Eusebius to national histories, such as those written by Josephus and Cassius Dio. Like these histories, DeVore argues, the Ecclesiastical History deals with the history of a people who form a nation, in this case the Christian nation.96 DeVore also compares Eusebius’s histories to intellectual and philosophical historiographies. According to him, Eusebius includes a list of the succession of bishops and argues that it is similar to succession lists of philosophers that were used by historians of philosophy.97 DeVore compares several other genres with Eusebius’s work, eventually concluding that Eusebius borrowed from them whatever he thought fit his historiographical agenda. In this way, he crafted a new historiographical genre.98 Indeed, Eusebius was a trailblazer. He was the first author to pen an extensive narrative of the Christian Church, and the fact that scholars are still arguing over the character of his work demonstrates his innovative creativity. In late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, authors from all over 92 Marsham, ‘Universal Histories’, p. 431. 93 DeVore, ‘Genre and Eusebius’. 94 Schwartz, ‘Eusebios von Caesarea’; Overbeck, Über die anfänge; Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius; Mendels, The Media Revolution; see also DeVore, ‘Genre and Eusebius’, p. 20. 95 DeVore, ‘Genre and Eusebius’, p. 24 96 DeVore, ‘Genre and Eusebius’, pp. 39–41. 97 DeVore, ‘Genre and Eusebius’, p. 42. 98 Peter van Nuffelen offers similar argumentation in his contribution to the Companion to Late Antique Literature; see van Nuffelen, ‘Ecclesiastical History’. For further discussion on the development of late antique and early medieval historiographies in the Mediterranean sphere, see the recent volume by Burgess and Kulikowski, Mosaics of Time.

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the Christian world composed ecclesiastical histories that were based on Eusebius’s model, sometimes continuing where Eusebius had left off. The most prominent examples are the works of Socrates Scholasticus (d. 450), Sozomen (d. 450), Theodoret (d. 460), and the sixth-century author Evagrius Scholasticus (d. 600). Coming from the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire, these authors wrote their accounts in Greek and Syriac. In the West, however, ecclesiastical histories were less popular.99 By the sixth century, there were two versions of an ecclesiastical history that circulated in the Latin world: the translation and adaptation of Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History made by Rufinus of Aquileia (d. 410),100 and the Historia tripartia of Cassiodorus (d. 576/582), which was written originally in Greek and translated into Latin by Epiphanius, one of the friars in Vivarium Monastery, which was founded by Cassiodorus.101 Rufinus’s translation of Eusebius was the first attempt to compose a Latin ecclesiastical history. His work contained an altered version of Eusebius’s original work. Rufinus included the first eight books of Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History and abbreviated the other two. He complemented these with another two books in which he described events that took place during the regime of Constantine the Great and until the death of Theodosius I in 395 – that is, events that took place during Rufinus’s lifetime.102 This Latin version of Eusebius was also the version on which Gregory of Tours, who did not read Greek, drew in his writings.103 Scholars agree that the first original Latin ecclesiastical history to be composed in the West is Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (The Ecclesiastical History of the English People), which was written in England in the first half of the eighth century. Gregory, however, was never really considered a Church historian. Markus, for instance, describes Gregory’s Histories as part of a national historiography tradition, thus distinguishing it from the ecclesiastical history tradition. He does so in order to emphasize Bede’s novelty in writing a Latin Church history.104 Needless to say, Markus did 99 Van Nuffelen, ‘Ecclesiastical History’, pp. 168–172. 100 For Theodor Mommsen’s critical edition of Rufinus’s translation, see Eusebius Werke. 101 Cassiodorus-Epiphanius, Historia Ecclesiastica Tripartita; on the early medieval transmission of the text, see Scholten, ‘Cassiodorus’ Historia tripartite’. 102 For further reading on Rufinus’s translation, see Oulton, ‘Rufinus’s Translation’; Humphries, ‘Rufinus’s Eusebius’; Brooks, ‘The Translation Techniques’. See also Amidon’s introduction to his translation of Rufinus: Rufinus of Aquileia, History of the Church, pp. 7–15. 103 On Gregory’s use of Rufinus, see Halsall, ‘The Preface to Book V’, p. 316; Van Dam, Glory of the Martyrs, p. 40, n. 24. 104 Markus, ‘Church History’, p. 17.

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not bring Gregory’s hagiographical collections into the equation, nor was he the only scholar to ignore the historiographical aspects of Gregory’s hagiography. There are, however, certain resemblances between Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History and Gregory’s hagiographical collections that may indicate that Gregory’s historiographical intentions for composing these collections were indeed aimed at creating an ecclesiastical history. First and foremost, Gregory follows Eusebius’s chronology. The first two parts of Gregory’s hagiographical trilogy represent ancient Christian history. It begins with the Glory of the Martyrs, in which Gregory gives accounts that describe Jesus, the Apostles, and the martyrs. Next, the Glory of the Confessors focuses on early Gallic saints, most of whom died long before Gregory was even born. The last part of his hagiographical trilogy, the Vita Patrum, resembles the last book of Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History. Just as Eusebius dedicated his final book to contemporary history, Gregory, too, devotes the final part of his work to contemporary Church leaders. Through these accounts, he relates the contemporary Church history of Merovingian Gaul. It is worth mentioning the scholarly consensus that the tenth book of Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History marked a shift from his original historiographical plan. According to this line of thinking, Eusebius’s original plan was to focus on the persecutions of the Christians in the Roman Empire. But the unexpected course of events that took place at the beginning of the fourth century changed Eusebius’s focus and historiographical perspective. The imperial tolerance towards Christians and Christianity, the end of the persecutions and the conversion of Constantine could not be omitted from Eusebius’s narrative of the history of Christianity, and therefore the tenth book focus entirely on contemporary events that were related to that historic change. Gregory of Tours, however, was not aware of Eusebius’s early intentions and the changes he had made in his works. Even though Eusebius may have not planned to write both ancient and contemporary history in his Ecclesiastical History, Gregory only knew the final (translated, altered, and adapted) version of that work. It is this version which inspired him and laid the groundwork for the chronology of his ecclesiastical history.105 Yet Gregory did not fully conform to Eusebius’s literary model. Eusebius and later Church historians wrote history as a continuous narrative which included excerpts from various sources that can be easily traced. Gregory’s history, however, is composed of short, barely connected anecdotes. Moreover, although Gregory sometimes argues that a vita or a passio was written 105 For further reading on Eusebius’s editions, see Markus, ‘Church History’, p. 7; Barnes, ‘The Editions of Eusebius’.

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about a certain saint or martyr, he never gives any clue as to its content, thus making it almost impossible to track his sources.106 As discussed above, however, this literary approach was not unique to Gregory’s hagiography. His Ten Books of Histories were written in a similar manner. Therefore, it may be that Gregory did not write his ecclesiastical history in the same literary style as that espoused by Eusebius, but instead wrote it like he would have written any other kind of history. At this point, it is important to note that when Eusebius authored his Ecclesiastical History, he followed literary styles to which he was exposed and from which he took inspiration. Gregory did the same. He was certainly influenced by other contemporary authors and styles (after all, although he sometimes implies differently, he did not write in a literary vacuum) and, like Eusebius, he chose aspects from them and thus created his unique style. Markus argues that ecclesiastical history must follow the Eusebian model. But this seems like an overly rigid stance. Gregory and Eusebius wrote differently, yet they both followed what they believed to be the proper historiographical writing style. Finally, Gregory also followed the basic themes that Eusebius had set forth for his own Ecclesiastical History. At the beginning of his history, Eusebius lists several subjects he intends to discuss in the ten books.107 For instance, he mentions the succession of the Apostles from their time until his own. Gregory does the same. His narrative begins with Jesus and the Apostles and ends with contemporary Merovingian clergy. Eusebius also declares that he plans to discuss heresies and the fate of the Jews, both subjects to which Gregory dedicates some attention in his hagiographies. Thus, from a conceptual perspective, here, too, Gregory followed Eusebius’s model of ecclesiastical history. The fact that Gregory’s ecclesiastical history does not fit precisely into modern definitions of historiographical writing and into the strictly defined genre of ecclesiastical history must not be taken to imply that Gregory did not make a masterful attempt to write an ecclesiastical history. While the genre indeed received its name from Eusebius’s work, not every ecclesiastical history is obliged to mimic Eusebius in format. Each work should be examined not only from the modern perspective of genre categorization, but also from the multiple contexts in which it was originally written, that 106 On several occasions Gregory uses phrases such as ‘according to the history of his suffering’ (ut historia passionis declarat) or ‘the book of his life has recorded’ (liber vitae eius contenet). See GM 37, p. 61; GM 46, p. 69; GM 56, p. 77; GM 57, p. 77; GM 70, p. 85; and GC 2, p. 299; GC 22, p. 311; GC 26, p. 314; GC 45, pp. 325–336; GC 57, p. 330; GC 70, p. 339; GC 87, p. 354; GC 93, p. 357; GC 94, p. 358. 107 See above, p. 117.

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is, the literary, social, political and cultural contexts. DeVore was right to argue that ‘genres are unstable and overlap with one another’ and that ‘the schemata by which societies order their knowledge are in constant flux’.108 In other words, genre definition must be flexible, reflecting the literary structure of a text but also its aims. Gregory’s ecclesiastical history may differ from Eusebius’s version in appearance and literary form. Yet, examining its content, the broader context of its composition, and its purposes reveals that Gregory sought to craft an ecclesiastical history that followed Eusebius’s theoretical model of ecclesiastical history. Historiographical and Literary Context To truly appreciate Gregory’s historiographical innovation, we need to examine his work against its Gallic and Latin historiographical background. Gregory opens the Histories with a preface that gives a historical and literary context to his historiographical expedition. ‘A great many things keep happening – some are good, some are bad’,109 he begins, and then quickly lists some of these events. ‘However’, he adds, ‘it is impossible to find any scholar who is skilled in the art of writing who could depict these matters in prose or verse’.110 Not only that, but ‘in the towns of Gaul the writing of literature has declined and disappeared’.111 Finally, Gregory concludes that he wrote the Histories in order to ‘to commemorate those who are dead and gone, and to bring them to the notice of future generations’.112 In the preface to the first book of the Histories, Gregory goes further, listing some of the major influential historiographical works he used: The chronicles of bishop Eusebius of Caesarea and the priest Jerome clearly express the calculation of the world [i.e. its age] and unfold the calculation of the sequence of the years. Orosius, too, looked into this, and he had put together in one place all the years from the Creation of the world to his own days. Victorius did the same when he sought the date of the feast of Easter.113 108 DeVore, ‘Genre and Eusebius’, p. 24. 109 LH, praef., p. 1: ‘cum nonnullae res gererentur vel rectae vel inprobae’. 110 LH, praef., p. 1: ‘nec repperire possit quisquam peritus dialectica in arte grammaticus, qui haec aut stilo prosaico aut metric depingeret versu’. 111 LH, praef., p. 1: ‘Decedente atque immo potius pereunte ab urbibus Gallicanis liberalium cultura litterarum’. 112 LH, praef., p. 1: ‘pro commemoratione praeteritorum, ut notitiam adtingerint venientum’. 113 LH, I. preaf., p. 5: ‘De subpotatione vero huius mundi evidenter chronicae Eusebii Caesariensis episcopi ac Hieronimi presbiteri prolocuntur et rationem de omni annorum serie pandunt. Nam

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To that, Gregory adds that he would follow their example. He does not list there any contemporary author or composition, bolstering the notion of his pioneering historiographical mission. Gregory may have exaggerated when describing the state of literature before his own time. His preface points to a conspicuous gap of almost 150 years in which hardly anyone in the West took up the challenge of writing a comprehensive or universal history.114 In fact, we know of several western authors who wrote historiographical accounts during that period, among them the fifth-century Gallic author Salvian of Marseilles (d. 490) and his contemporary Prosper of Aquitaine (d. 455), who was a disciple of Augustine and the first continuator of Jerome’s chronicle. Moreover, during the sixth century, Cassiodorus (d. 585), Marcellinus Comes (d. 534) and Marius of Avenches (d. 596), to name only a few, wrote historiographical treatises. Not all of these works were as extensive as Gregory’s, and it is not certain whether he knew of any of these authors and their works. But he was aware of the fifth-century composition by the Hispanic author Orosius (d. after 418), Historiae Adversus Paganus (The History against the Pagans), as he refers to him several times in his Histories.115 Thus, Gregory did not write in a complete vacuum. There was, however, a certain downturn in historiographical writing during the late fifth and early sixth centuries, and we know, for example, that a century before Gregory, the Gallic scholar and bishop Sidonius Apollinaris (d. 489) was twice asked to write a book of history, and twice he refused.116 In his prefaces and survey of the state of literature and its decline, Gregory does not distinguish between secular and religious history. Indeed, the historiographical gap discussed by Gregory existed in both historiographical genres. As was noted above, there were only two Latin versions of an ecclesiastical history that existed before Gregory – Rufinus’s translation and adaptation of Eusebius’s original work, and Cassiodorus’s Historia Ecclesiastica Tripartita. Gregory was well aware of this situation. One finds excerpts from Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History throughout the Histories, and the influence of the latter on Gregory is apparent. A decade ago, Guy Halsall demonstrated how Eusebius’s work may have influenced the structure of et Horosius diligentissime haec inquaerens, omnem numerum annorum ab initio mundi usque ad suum tempus in unum colligit. Hoc etiam et Victurius cum ordine paschalis solemnitates inquirere fecit’. 114 Goffart, Narrators, pp. 117–118. 115 See for instance LH I. praef., p. 5; LH I.6, p. 8; LH I.41, p. 28; LH II.9, p. 57; LH V. praef., p. 193. 116 Sidonius Apollinaris, Epistola IV.xxii and Epistola VIII.xv.

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Gregory’s Histories.117 In his attempt to understand the role of the preface of Book V of the Histories, Halsall pulls out Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical Histories and compares the two works. Eusebius, too, had written a preface to the fifth book of his Histories, and Halsall notes some resemblances between the two prefaces. Apart from their place in the corpuses, both prefaces discuss wars and the lessons that history taught, that is, the history that each of them had written.118 Halsall goes further and shows that the resemblance between the two histories is apparent already in the prefaces of the first book of each work. They both focus on the unity of the Holy Trinity and they both list similar themes. As already mentioned, Eusebius opens his history by enumerating the themes he intends to cover in his opus (succession of the Apostles and history of the Church, of distinguished leaders, of martyrs, Jews, and heretics).119 Gregory begins his first book with a similar statement: ‘I will describe the wars between kings and hostile people, martyrs and pagans, churches and heretics’.120 Thus, Halsall concludes: ‘Even if Gregory’s history is completely different to Eusebius’s in style and content, his aims in writing it are similar to those expressed by his Palestinian precursor’.121 Helmut Reimitz confirms Halsall’s conclusions, stating that Gregory ‘clearly oriented himself towards the other model of writing Christian history developed by Eusebius in his Church History’, arguing that Gregory wished to be as innovative a historian as Eusebius was.122 Neither Halsall nor Reimitz say anything about Gregory’s hagiographical corpus, but Halsall’s view of Eusebius’s influence on Gregory may also be applied to Gregory’s miracle collections and strengthens my suggestion that Gregory indeed intended to write an ecclesiastical history along the lines of Eusebius’s model. To conclude, it seems reasonable to assume that one of the reasons that led Gregory of Tours to write his miracle collections was to create a Latin ecclesiastical history. A comparison of the Histories and the hagiographical collections has revealed several crucial similarities: the chronological and geographical scope of both works, which begin with a universal history and gradually close in on local Gallic and Merovingian contemporary developments. From a literary perspective, Gregory takes the same approaches in both types of history, and his historiographical narrative in both cases is 117 Halsall, ‘The Preface to Book V’. 118 Halsall, ‘The Preface to Book V’, pp. 316–317. 119 EH I.1, p. 6. 120 LH I, preaf., p. 3: ‘Scripturus bella regum cum gentibus adversis, martyrum cum paganis, eclesiasrum cum hereticis’. 121 Halsall, ‘The Preface to Book V’, p. 317. 122 Reimitz, ‘Cultural Brokers’, pp. 266–267.

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composed of short anecdotes with self-contained stories. Thus, the two corpora were meant to serve a historiographical purpose. The Histories recorded ‘secular’ history, whereas the hagiographical collections – the Glory of the Martyrs, the Glory of the Confessors, and the Vita Patrum – recorded ecclesiastical history. An analysis of the origins and characteristics of the ‘ecclesiastical history’ genre bolsters this argument and shows that Gregory shared many of Eusebius’s historiographical aims and objectives. Gregory’s Ecclesiastical History may not look like Eusebius’s work or share its literary style or structure, but it is still a historiographical narrative of the Church. And, after all, genre is more than just the textual appearance of a narrative. A good understanding of the content of a work and its author’s aims are crucial for any attempt to place it within a genre. Finally, one might ask what kind of ecclesiastical history Gregory wrote. Did it function as more than a vague record of the history of the Gallican or Merovingian Church, whatever ‘Gallican’ or ‘Merovingian’ might have meant to a sixth-century author? Once again, we must return to the Eusebian model. In his famous history, Eusebius aimed to document the rise of the Christian Church, to delineate the principal tenets of the orthodox Christian faith, and to lay the foundations for the formation of a Christian identity. Gregory strove for these very goals in his hagiographical collections. As will be discussed in the following chapter, he documented the rise of the Church and used the accounts of the Glory of the Martyrs, the Glory of the Confessors, and the Vita Patrum to expound religious matters and theological conventions. At the same time, he laid the groundwork for the construction of a new type of identity, namely, a Gallo-Christian one, which he hoped his audience would adopt.

4. ‘By Romans They Refer To…’ (Romanos Enim Vocitant): History, Hagiography, and Identity Writing history has always been much more than a simple recording of the past. Any historiographical document, including this book, reflects the choices and views of its author. It is the historian who selects her or his sources and it is the historian who decides how to analyze and present them. Likewise, the historian can tailor her sources to suit her narrative. In this way, Gregory of Tours was no different from any other historian and getting a sense of his goals might help us to better grasp his work. Every historiographical work ought to be examined against the broader context in which it was written, be it a cultural, political, social, or literary one. The previous chapter, for instance, examined the literary context in which Gregory’s Histories and hagiographical collections were written. Other factors, too, affected Gregory’s writing and, in this chapter, I intend to examine one of them, namely, the identity crisis of the post-Roman period. As noted in Chapter 2 with reference to the Gallic stylite Vulfilaic, the dissolution of the Roman Empire led to many institutional changes, among them the rise of holy men in the East and the establishment of episcopal authority in the West. The radical transformation of the ­Roman world also led to a supposedly crisis of self-perception among the population of this vast area. Were they still Romans? Gauls? Franks? Christians? Gregory’s historiographical and hagiographical works were written during these confusing times, they responded to this crisis, and through them Gregory was able to construct a particular Gallo-Christian identity for his audience. Identity is a multifaceted concept. It does not have a single definition, it has many variations and expressions, and there are plenty of factors that affect its definition. Identity, then, is a fluid term and its definitions depend

Rotman, T., Hagiography, Historiography, and Identity in Sixth Century Gaul: Rethinking Gregory of Tours. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2022 doi 10.5117/9789463727730_ch04

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on historical, cultural, political, and geographical contexts.1 Since it is such a complex concept, identity helps scholars to broaden their understanding of societies and human interactions. In the words of Walter Pohl, identity is ‘the result of serial acts of communication and interaction’.2 Thus, identity emerges as an important prism through which to view history, which is likewise a series of communications and interactions. Indeed, in the last few decades, scholars of late antique and early medieval history have used this perspective to examine and analyze the dynamic history of the post-Roman world. Projects such as Transformation of the Roman World and Texts and Identities in the Early Middle Ages that first emerged in the last decade of the twentieth century prepared the ground for the rich contemporary historiographical discussion on late antique and early medieval identities,3 and are rooted in previous scholarship of scholars such as Herwig Wolfram and Reinhard Wenskus. Some of these studies focused on questions regarding how communities were constructed and envisioned in a period of transformation and major political, religious, and cultural changes; they did so by analyzing historiographical records and exploring how ancient authors used history and shared past to define collective identities for their audience.4 Gregory of Tours and his Histories, as representatives of early medieval historiography, became a subject of such scholarly discussions as well, as the following chapter shall demonstrate.

Whose History Is It Anyway? In the early 1970s, Michel Rouche examined Gregory’s use of the terms ‘Roman’ and ‘Frank’ in his works, an examination which led Rouche to discuss both the facets and the fusion of these two identities.5 But Rouche’s study essentially ended there, without inquiring into Gregory’s reasons for constructing certain identities as he did. It was only a decade later that scholars began scrutinizing the different types of identities that Gregory 1 For further discussion on the problems associated with def ining the term ‘identity’ see Walter Pohl’s ‘Historiography and Identity’, pp. 7–8. 2 Pohl, ‘Historiography and Identity’, p. 17 3 The results of these projects were published; see Corradini (ed.), Texts and Identities in the Early Middle Ages and the Brill series Transformation of the Roman World, especially: Pohl and Reimitz (eds.), Strategies of Identification; Corradini, Diesenberger, and Reimitz (eds.), The Construction of Communities. See also Pohl and Wieser (eds.), Historiography and Identity I; Reimitz and Heydemann (eds.), Historiography and Identity II. 4 See, for instance, the various contributions to Pohl, Gantner, and Pyne (eds.), Visions of Community. 5 Rouche, ‘Francs et Gallo-Romains’.

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tried to construct through his works. They questioned both his methodology and his reasons for promoting certain identities over others. Among the first scholars to do so was Walter Goffart. Goffart discussed Gregory’s intentions for writing his famous Ten Books of Histories and examined the methods he used to define specific identities in the work. One of the questions Goffart raised was whether Gregory’s magnum opus ought to be called Historia Francorum, as it has been referred to since the Middle Ages, or Decem Libri Historiarum.6 The popularity of the former is evidenced by the fact that the two English translations of Gregory’s historiographical work are titled The History of the Franks, and the same is true of the German and French translations of the work (Fränkische Geschichte and Histoire des Francs).7 It was Bruno Krusch, in his MGH edition of Gregory’s opus, who began to use the title Decem Libri Historiarum (Ten Books of Histories), thus paving the way for a different approach to Gregory’s historiographical writings. Furthermore, as Goffart noted in his survey of Gregory of Tours and his Histories, at the end of the final chapter of the tenth book, Gregory states that he wrote ten books of histories (decem libri historiarum), thus alluding to the possible title of the work.8 The confusion concerning the different titles of the work sets the stage for any discussion about Gregory’s authorial intent and his perceptions of communal identity. Did he, indeed, set out to write a history of the Franks, as the popular title of the work suggests? According to Goffart, such an ethnic or national history held no interest for Gregory. He points out that Gregory hardly used ethnic identifiers, neither for the Franks nor for any other nation he mentions in his works.9 Thus, for example, even when Gregory writes about the early Franks, he gives no indication of ethnic characteristics such as language.10 Reading the Histories in this manner easily answers the question raised by Goffart – should the work be called History of the Franks or simply Histories? By eliminating any possibility that Gregory had an ethnic or even a national interest in writing the work, Goffart concludes that it is better to regard it simply as the Ten Books of Histories. 6 Goffart, Narrators, pp. 121–127. 7 For the English translations, see Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks, trans. Dalton; Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks, trans. Brehaut; Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks, trans. Thorpe; for the German translation, see Gregor von Tours, Fränkische Geschichte, trans. von Giesebrecht; for the French translation, see Gregoire de Tours, Histoire des Francs, trans. Guizot. 8 LH X.31, p. 535; Goffart, Narrators, p. 120. 9 Goffart, Narrators, p. 153. 10 Goffart, Narrators, pp. 162–163.

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Goffart did not offer any explicit ideas about the kind of history that Gregory had written. He admits that there are some similarities between Gregory’s Histories and Christian chronicles such as those written by Eusebius and Orosius, but he is not convinced that Gregory sought to write such a chronicle. Gregory’s Histories were not a national history, nor an ethnic history, nor a Christian history. Gregory, Goffart explains, ‘did his best, on his own, to compose a straightforward account of his era’.11 During the decades that followed Goffart’s examination of Gregory’s Histories, other theories regarding the aims of the work have emerged. In recent years, scholars such as Michael E. Moore and Helmut Reimitz have discussed Gregory’s Histories as a treatise that aimed to construct a religious, Christian identity.12 Moore notes that ‘in the course of the late fifth and early sixth centuries, cultural identity took on a distinctive religious dimension’, 13 and Reimitz explains that ‘Gregory lived and wrote […] at a liminal moment: after the collapse of the Roman imperial dispensation, but before the crystallization of the new order’. 14 The disintegration of the Roman world led to competition for authority between the royal aristocracy and the episcopal leadership. According to Moore, the tension between these two authoritative powers led Gregory to present particular political and religious identities in a manner that safeguarded the superiority of the religious leadership, that is, bishops like himself.15 Gregory, Moore shows, drew a distinction between the Merovingian kingdoms and other entities, such as Spain and Italy, which may be understood in terms of ethnicity.16 The terms of Gregory’s distinction, however, are not ethnic but rather religious.17 Moore explains that ‘Gregory wished to present contrasting history of the Franks in light of three poles of religious identity: Paganism – Catholicism – Arianism’.18 The Franks were Catholic, and Clovis’s conversion and baptism mark that important change in Frankish history; thus, according to Moore, 11 Goffart, Narrators, p. 158. 12 Moore, A Sacred Kingdom, pp. 98–121; Reimitz, ‘After Rome’; Reimitz, History, Frankish Identity; Reimitz, ‘Cultural Brokers’; Reimitz, ‘The Providential Past’. 13 Moore, A Sacred Kingdom, p. 99. 14 Reimitz, ‘After Rome’, p. 59; see also Reimitz’s introduction to his book History, Frankish Identity, esp. pp. 17–18. 15 See also Rotman, ‘Imitation and Rejection’. 16 For a discussion of the history of ethnicity in early medieval scholarship see Gillet, ‘Introduction’, and Pohl, ‘Ethnicity, Theory, and Tradition’. See also the other contributions to Gillet (ed.), On Barbarian Identity for other perspectives on ethnicity and historiography. 17 Moore, A Sacred Kingdom, pp. 99, 104. 18 Moore, A Sacred Kingdom, p. 104.

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‘Frankish identity was reshaped and distinguished from its neighbors by the adoption of Catholic Christianity’.19 Differentiating Merovingian Gaul from its neighbors, and thus creating an ethnic identity that relied on religious faith, was only the first phase in Gregory’s plan to construct a political and religious identity that defined the Frankish elite. The next phase involved discussions about power and authority within the Christian Merovingian kingdom, which were interwoven throughout the Histories. Moore explains that ‘Gregory sought to lay out the boundaries and norms of Christian power, and to present saintly monks and bishops as possessing the most righteous types of power and law’.20 In other words, Gregory’s Histories presented a Christian kingdom in which bishops wielded authoritative superiority.21 By doing so, Gregory created a political and religious identity for the Gallic bishops – that is, a Frankish and Catholic-Christian identity. Reimitz’s theory about Gregory’s construction of a communal Christian identity is reminiscent of Moore’s view, but there are some different emphases that are worth mentioning. Whereas Moore links the ethnic Frankish identity to Christian identity, Reimitz tries to separate the two. According to him, ethnicity relies on a shared history and origin that induce a sense of belonging to a certain community, and Christian identity brings together individuals by using the shared expectation of a common future – the Last Judgment and the End of Times.22 According to Reimitz, Gregory was aware of contemporary attempts to construct communal identities based on Roman identity and the Roman past, but he preferred to direct his focus towards a Gallo-Christian vision.23 This may explain why Gregory hardly wrote about the Roman past of Gaul in his Histories, preferring to focus on its Christian past (and present).24 Reimitz does admit that the two identities are interrelated. Even a religious identity that is based on a shared belief and a common future depends on a shared past. Nonetheless, Reimitz still prefers to separate the two identities, and his stance that Gregory perceived the ethnic Frankish identity as inferior to the religious Christian one is woven into his discussions. Like Moore, Reimitz understands Gregory’s Histories as a profound narrative that responds to the tension between secular and religious elites and aims to demonstrate the superiority of the episcopal authority over the secular one.25 19 Moore, A Sacred Kingdom, p. 104. 20 Moore, A Sacred Kingdom, p. 107. 21 Moore, A Sacred Kingdom, pp. 108–122. 22 Reimitz, ‘Cultural Brokers’, pp. 274–277. 23 Reimitz, ‘After Rome’, pp. 75–76; see also Reimitz, History, Frankish Identity, pp. 51–73. 24 Reimitz, ‘Cultural Brokers’, p. 274; see also Brown, The Ransom of the Soul, p. 155. 25 Reimitz, ‘Cultural Brokers’, pp. 267–277.

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According to Reimitz, Gregory had an overall strategy in the Histories to avoid the stabilization of any collective identity independent from the Christian genealogy of Gaul – a move as wary of the Roman past, or of the history of the senatorial class, as it was of Frankish history. […] The emphasis on the discontinuity of the Frankish and Roman history in particular was a deliberate strategy to establish the continuity of Christianity in Gaul as the determining factor in the history and future of the kingdom.26

Here, Reimitz echoes an argument mounted previously by Peter Brown, according to which the clerical aristocracy of Gaul associated themselves with a ‘deep’ past, associated with the tombs of martyrs and saints (many of them in elegant classical marble) which lay in ancient crypts and in family mausolea scattered in Roman cemeteries outside the cities. Many such saints were the ancestors of living bishops. Their history led back into the long past of Christian Gaul. This continuity meant more to a man such as Gregory than did the conventional turning points of Roman history. Gregory, for instance, seemed oblivious to the end of the Roman Empire.27

Both Brown and Reimitz frame Gregory’s historiographical narrative and his identity construction within a Christian framework and distinguish it from other potential definitions. The notion that Gregory tried to craft an identity that was based on ethnic factors as well as religious ones did not occur to them. Goffart and Reimitz present two distinct sides of an identity spectrum. Goffart rejects the assumption that Gregory attempted to construct any collective identity. Reimitz, for his part, subscribes to Goffart’s view regarding ethnicity and ethnic identity but suggests that Gregory established a religious identity. The dichotomous perception of identity presented in these theories is problematic. Both Goffart and Reimitz argue that each identity has highly specific components, leaving little room for fluidity or flexibility. Yet human nature and the mechanisms of self-identification are much more complex and nuanced than the binary suggested by Goffart and Reimitz. Different circumstances lead individuals and groups to define themselves in 26 Reimitz, History, Frankish Identity, p. 87. 27 Brown, ‘Introduction’, p. 7.

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different ways, and there is always more than one way to do this. Moreover, an identity can consist of various factors that together form a single identity, as already suggested by Moore in his observation about Gregory’s Histories. Thus, Goffart and Reimitz were right to argue that Gregory had a Christian vision of identity, but this vision was only one element of a complex identity that Gregory tried to construct. Recently, Erica Buchberger has also challenged Goffart and Reimitz, noting that they assume that the lack of ethnonyms in Gregory’s Histories is directly related to his Christian focus – whether because ethnic identity seemed irrelevant (Goffart) or threatening (Reimitz). Yet this need not be the case, and a simpler explanation is at least equally plausible: that the localism of sixth-century Gaul, noted by Goffart, made city and other local identifiers both more meaningful and more relevant to Gregory’s contemporary audience.28

Buchberger argues that Gregory wrote for an audience within the Frankish kingdoms that did not necessarily need ethnonyms such as ‘Franks’ to define their ethnicity, that is, their ethnic identity. She further notes that whenever Gregory needed to distinguish the inhabitants of Gaul from outsiders he used ethnonyms, such as ‘Goths’, to describe the others.29 Buchberger also points to several identifiers Gregory used, mostly in the Histories, and delineates the different ways in which Gregory constructed local identities based on different social and geographical frameworks.30 Moreover, she discusses the matter of Christian identity and concludes that [i]n the end, Gregory’s Christian focus did not require him to avoid other resources for identif ication. Instead, we should see it as one of many factors he weighed when selecting the most useful or important identity for each passage: perhaps ‘Christian’, ‘holy’, or ‘priest’ when he wanted to emphasize someone’s faith, ‘senatorial’ or ‘noble’ for social respectability, and ‘African’ or ‘Syrian’ when foreignness mattered to him or to his audience.31

28 Buchberger, Shifting Ethnic Identities, p. 109. 29 Buchberger, Shifting Ethnic Identities, p. 109. 30 Buchberger, Shifting Ethnic Identities, pp. 110–129. 31 Buchberger, Shifting Ethnic Identities, p. 131.

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While I accept Buchberger’s argument that there is no need to use explicit ethnic terms such as ‘Franks’ in order to define a local identity and that such an identity can be achieved in various ways, her approach presents a problem. She provides examples of specific types of local identities (e.g. the use of a city name in order to define the local identity of a certain person) but, unlike Goffart and Reimitz, she does not use them to explain Gregory’s reasons for penning the Histories. In other words, while Goffart and Reimitz used the identity discourse to give meaning to Gregory’s historiographical opus, Buchberger leaves aside that part of their theories and provides no alternative. Thus, her attempt to show the complexity of identification in Gregory’s writings applies only to specific cases, missing the bigger picture, that is, Gregory’s greater intent. To a certain extent, Buchberger is thus following the tendency of previous scholars to take a one-sided approach to the subject of identities. Another problem with the aforementioned theories is that, by and large, they fail to take into account Gregory’s hagiographical corpus. There is nothing new in this approach, as already noted. For many years, scholars of early Merovingian history paid very little attention to anything but the Histories in the extensive corpus of Gregory of Tours’s writings. Yet the two corpora should be read together as a composite whole, and such a reading may help us fathom Gregory’s aims more fully, as was demonstrated in the previous chapter. Juxtaposing the hagiographical collections and the Histories led to the discovery of crucial literary and historiographical parallels that demonstrate how the Glory of the Martyrs, the Glory of the Confessors, and the Vita Patrum were meant to be read together as a complete whole and that together they form some sort of ecclesiastical history. In other words, by reading the corpora as a unit, we come closer to grasping the historiographical purpose of the hagiographical collections. Perhaps, in like manner, we shall sharpen our understanding of Gregory’s vision of identity and community by reading his hagiography. In what follows, then, I offer an examination of Gregory’s hagiographical corpus in light of the identity discourse. Bearing in mind the works of Goffart and Reimitz, I would like to suggest a different and arguably more radical way to approach this matter, echoing Moore’s theory. Could it be that Gregory’s vision of identity combines the two types of identity presented by Goffart and Reimitz? Could it be that Gregory sought to construct a complex identity that was both ethnic and religious? A Gallo-Christian identity that uses ‘local identifiers’, as Buchberger suggested? Let us consider the matter below.

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Gallo-Christian Identity Almost every definition of identity consists of the tension between two concepts: the person or group seeking a way to define themselves, and the ‘other’ to which they can compare themselves and against which they distinguish their exclusive characteristics. In the case of Gregory of Tours, a sixth-century Catholic bishop from Gaul, these others were all those who were not Gallic or Catholic Christians. In what follows, we shall see how the accounts of foreign saints and martyrs that appear in his ecclesiastical history served the purpose of defining ‘others’ against which Gregory was able to construct and introduce a Gallo-Christian identity that was based on ethnicity, locality, and the Catholic faith.32 To understand how Gregory did so, it is necessary to compare the accounts of Gallic saints and martyrs in the hagiographical collections with the accounts of foreign saints and martyrs. These accounts can be divided into two groups: accounts of Spanish saints and events that took place in Spain, and accounts of eastern saints and martyrs. As will be shown in the next two parts of this chapter, each group serve different purpose in Gregory’s attempt to construct a Gallo-Christian identity. Gaul vs. Spain There are eleven accounts in the Glory of the Martyrs that refer to Spain, but only four of them actually discuss miracle stories that are attributed to Spanish martyrs. These four accounts contain miracle stories that resemble those mentioned in the accounts of Gallic martyrs. In Chapter 90, for instance, Gregory relates how a tree next to the tomb of the virgin martyr Eulalia in Merida miraculously blossomed every time her feast was celebrated.33 Similar miracles appear in the account of the Gallic martyr Genesius of Tarbes and that of the martyr Baudilius.34 Chapter 91 recounts a miracle associated with the relics of Felix of Gerona, which resembles many accounts that involved relics of Gallic saints.35 Chapter 89 relates the translation of the relics of the martyr Vincentius to Gaul and the miracles that took place there, and thus indicates that stories, relics, and cults reached Gaul from both the East and the West.36 32 On the overlap between religious and political and ethnic identity in late antiquity, see Hen, ‘Compelling and Intense’. 33 GM 90, pp. 98–99. 34 GM 73, p. 87; GM 77, pp. 89–90. 35 GM 91, p. 99. 36 GM 89, pp. 97–98.

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The remaining accounts of events that took place in Spain that were included in the Glory of the Martyrs exhibit not a single miracle performed by a martyr. Instead, Gregory uses these accounts to discuss the Arian heresy. He first mentions Spanish Arianism in Chapters 24 and 25 of the Glory of the Martyrs, where he states that I will not pass over in silence that there was a man among the heretics who did not fear God, did not venerate this holy place, and did not believe in his heart in the miracle that God deigned to perform through him in order to strengthen the faith of his believers.37

Gregory thus alludes to one of the purposes of this account. In Chapter 25, Gregory says that: The people there [in Spain] are heretics: they witness these great deeds [meaning, miracles] but it does not inspire [them] to believe. They never cease to skillfully reject the sacraments of the divine teachings with the foolish chattering of wrong interpretations.38

One of ‘these people’ was the Visigothic king Theudigisel (d. 549), who in Chapter 24, upon hearing about a miracle (Gregory does not mention where the miracle took place), is quoted as saying that ‘it is a trick of the Romans that this happened and it is not the virtue of God’.39 By Romans, Gregory explains, Theudigisel referred to ‘those who belong to our religion’, that is, the Catholic and Orthodox Christianity.40 Gregory does not name a specific heresy in these two accounts, but from other accounts in the Glory of the Martyrs that deal with Spain, it seems obvious that he was speaking about Arianism. Chapter 79 of the Glory of the Martyrs opens another section of the book in which Gregory discusses the heretics of Spain. Gregory begins the chapter by stating that ‘heresy is always hostile to Catholics and it does not pass [the

37 GM 24, p. 53: ‘Quidam vero ex hereticis Deum non metuens neque venerationem praestans huic loco sancto neque credens corde miraculum, quod in eo Dominus ad corroborandam suorum fidem praestare dignatur, non silebo’. 38 GM 25, p. 53: ‘Est enim populus ille hereticus: qui videns haec magnalia, non conpungitur ad credendum, sed semper callide divinorum praeceptionum sacramenta nequissimis interpretationum garrulationibus non desinit inpugnare’. 39 GM 24, p. 52: ‘Ingenium est Romanorum, ut ita accedat, et non est Dei virtus’. 40 GM 24, p. 52: ‘Romanos enim vocitant nostrae homines relegionis’.

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opportunity] to set snares whenever it can’.41 He then moves on to relate a story about a Catholic woman who was married to a heretic. The woman asked her husband’s permission to invite her Catholic priest for dinner. The husband agreed, with one condition: that he would invite his own priest to join them. When the two priests arrived, the husband said to his priest: ‘let us today ridicule this priest of the Romans’.42 That mocking was fatal. The heretic priest took a portion from one of the dishes and, as Gregory describes it: not knowing whether the food was hot, he quickly swallowed the boiling food. Immediately his stomach burned and it started to boil. His belly rumbled and belched a loud burp and exhaled his worthless spirit. 43

This very unpleasant death of the priest, about whose beliefs Gregory says nothing other than that they were heretical, recalls the awful demise of Arius himself. Gregory only insinuates here that the heretic was an Arian, while following literary conventions in describing the death of heretics similarly to Arius’s death. There is no doubt, however, that Gregory thought this man was an Arian. A different account in the Histories supports this point. In the fifth book of the Histories, Gregory recounts an argument he had with an Arian. Among the many pejorative comments he made to the Arian, he remarked that the ‘perversive way of this sect is wicked like the death of your founder, Arius’. 44 This phrase sums up Gregory’s perception of Arians and it indicates that when he describes such a death in the Glory of the Martyrs, he was well aware of the Arian connotation. 45 The two following accounts make it clear that Gregory is referring to Arians whenever he talks about heretics in Spain. In Chapter 80, Gregory refers to a theological argument between an Arian priest and, as Gregory puts it, ‘a deacon of our religion’ (diacono nostrae religionis). 46 The Arian, Gregory notes, ‘made poisonous assertions against the Son of God and 41 GM 79, p. 91: ‘Semper enim catholicorum inimica est heresis, et ubicumque potuerit tendere insidias, non obmittit’. 42 GM 79, p. 91: ‘exercemus hodie cachinnum de hoc Romanorum presbitero’. 43 GM 79, p. 92: ‘non intellegens, an caleret, ferventemque cibum velociter ingluttivit. Protenus accenso pectore, aestuare coepit, emissumque cum suspirio inmenso ventris strepitu, nequam spiritum exalavit’. 44 LH V.43, p. 251: ‘et quam iniqua sit huius sectae perversitas, ipsius auctoris vestri, id est Arrii, expraessit interitus’. 45 For a survey of the development of the death story of Arius, see Muhelberger, ‘The Legend of Arius’ Death’. 46 GM 80, p. 92.

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the Holy Spirit’. 47 But this did not surprise Gregory, who says that this is ‘customary with his people’ (ut mos genti est). 48 When logic did not work, the Catholic deacon suggested a trial by ordeal, in which they would heat a bronze pot, boil water and throw into it a ring; whoever succeeded in pulling out the ring would prove that he followed the right way. 49 They met again the next day, and both feared the trial. The Catholic deacon covered his arm with salve and ointment, whereas the Arian priest refused to go first, telling the deacon: ‘you who proposed the idea ought to take it’.50 At this point, Gregory brings into the story a man named Jacincthus, a deacon from Ravenna, who had inquired about the argument between the deacon and the Arian priest. Upon hearing the reasons for their argument, Jacincthus exposed his right arm and plunged it into the boiling pot. Being a true Catholic, Jacincthus found the ring, pulled out his unharmed hand and insisted that the pot was actually cold.51 Hearing that, the Arian priest put his hand into the boiling bronze pot, saying that ‘my faith will exhibit the same for me’.52 Unsurprisingly, the moment his hand touched the water, his flesh melted down from the heat and the joints of his bones fell off. Thus, the trial ended with a glorious Catholic triumph. The struggle between Arians and Catholics in Spain is also reflected in Chapter 81 of the Glory of the Martyrs, in which Gregory relates a martyrdom story. Gregory opens the chapter with a general statement, according to which ‘the disbelief and the evil sect of the Arians disseminated in the regions of Spain by [means of] wicked assertions of evil’,53 and only then does he relate a specific incident. This time, Gregory tells a story about a Catholic priest who ‘confessed that he was a Christian and claimed that the Son and the Holy Spirit are equal to the Father’,54 an orthodox statement that contradicts the Arian doctrine. The Spanish king, whom Gregory did not name, heard that statement and tried to convince the priest to renounce his belief in the equality of the Trinity 47 GM 80, p. 92: ‘proferens contra Dei Filium ac Spiritum sanctum venenosas adsertiones’. 48 GM 80, p. 92. 49 GM 80, p. 92: ‘Qui vero eum ex ferventi unda sustulerit, ille iustitiam consequi conprobatur’. 50 GM 80, p. 92: ‘Qui hanc sententiam protulisti, debes auferri’. 51 GM 80, p. 93: ‘in imo quidem frigidum esse aeneum, in sumitatem vero calorem teporis modici conenentem’. 52 GM 80, p. 93: ‘Praestabit mihi heac fides mea’. 53 GM 81, p. 93: ‘cum incredulitas ac iniqua Arrianorum secta in locis Hispaniae per malorum pessimas assertions dissemintat fuisset’. 54 GM 81, p. 93: ‘christianum se esse confessus est, adserens aequalem patri Filium et Spiritum sanctum esse’.

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and to admit that the Son and the Holy Spirit were inferior to the Father. As the priest refused, the king ordered that he be tortured. The priest used this opportunity to recite a short version of the Nicene Creed and confess that he believed ‘in God the omnipotent Father and his son Jesus Christ’.55 Finally, after the king had realized that the priest would not renounce his faith, the priest was released and sent into exile in Gaul, where he was warmly welcomed.56 Gregory molds this incident as a ‘classical’ martyrdom story: a Christian confesses his belief, after which he is asked several times to renounce his faith and to participate in rituals that contradict his belief (usually pagan rituals); his refusal to cooperate leads to torture, which also gives the martyr the opportunity to share the ideas of his faith. Usually, at this point, the Christian is executed and declared a martyr. Yet in the case presented here by Gregory, the unlucky cleric was not executed. Instead, he was released and sent away, unable to truly enjoy the fate of a martyr. Gregory, however, chose to include this story in his Glory of the Martyrs and to narrate it in such a manner that gives the entire episode the aura of an actual martyrdom. Raymond Van Dam suggests that this story should be read against a specific political background, referred to by Gregory in Chapter 38 of the fifth book of the Histories:57 In this same year [579],58 a great number of Christians were persecuted in Spain. Many of them were driven into exile, deprived of their possessions, suffered from hunger, thrown into prison, beaten with sticks and tortured and slaughtered.59

This statement is followed by a description of Queen Goiswinth’s failed attempt to convert Ingund to Arianism. Ingund was a Merovingian princess and the wife of Prince Hermanegild, the son of the Visigothic king Leuvigild. Queen Goiswinth, whom Gregory accuses of initiating the persecutions 55 GM 81, p. 93: ‘Credo Deum patrem omnipotentem et filium eius Jesum Christum’. 56 GM 81, p. 93. 57 Van Dam, Glory of the Martyrs, p. 106, n. 94. 58 The dating of the episode is possible thanks to the information given by Gregory in the preceding chapter. There, Gregory mentions the death of Bishop Martin of Galicia, also known as Bishop Martin of Braga, which took place during 579. See LH V.37, p. 243. 59 LH V.38, p. 243: ‘Magna eo anno in Hispaniis christianis persecutio fuit, multique exiliis dati, facultatibus privati, fame decocti, carcere mancipati, verberibus adfecti ac diversis suppliciis trucidati sunt’.

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against Catholics in Spain, did not appreciate Ingund’s refusal to convert to Arianism, and therefore, Gregory relates, [she] seized the girl by the hair and threw her to the ground. She kicked her for a long time until she bled so much and ordered to strip her and to baptize her in the baptismal pool. But, as stated by many, Ingund never turned her soul from our faith.60

Gregory then describes how Ingund manages to convince Hermanegild to convert to Catholicism, and he elaborates on the conflict this conversion sparks with his father, King Leuvigild. This, it should be stressed, is Gregory’s view of the conflict.61 At first, Van Dam’s assumption that the incident in Chapter 81 of the Glory of the Martyrs took place in Spain around 579, during the persecutions of Catholics by the Arian queen Goiswinth, seems plausible. After all, both accounts refer to persecutions incited against Catholics in Spain by Arian leaders. Yet a different reading of this chapter may suggest an alternative date for the martyrdom of the Catholic priest in Spain. Chapter 81, I would argue, should be read against the context of the Vandal invasions and their settlement in the Iberian Peninsula in the late fifth century.62 In the second book of the Histories, Gregory refers to the Vandal persecutions of Catholic Christians in Spain: About this time, Thrasamund [king of the Vandals] persecuted Christians and by inciting torments and executions he forced all the people of Spain to accept the faulty of the Arian sect.63

Gregory also mentions there the martyrdom of a young Catholic girl from a noble family. Unlike the priest from Chapter 81 of the Glory of the Martyrs, this story ends with the death of the girl, that is, true martyrdom. According to Gregory, the girl was brought to the king, who tried to persuade her to 60 LH V.38, p. 244: ‘Heac illa audiens, iracundiae furore succensa, adpraehensam per comam capitis puellam in terram conlidit, et diu calcibus verberatam ac sanguine cruentattam iussit spoliari et piscinae inmergi; sed, ut adserunt multi, numquam animum suum a fide nostra reflexit’. 61 LH V.38, pp. 244–245. 62 On the Vandal presence in Iberia, see Conant, Staying Roman; Miles and Merrills, The Vandals, pp. 41–47. 63 LH II.2, p. 39: ‘Per idem vero tempus persecutionem in christianus Trasamundus exercuit ac totam Hispaniam, ut perfidiam Arrianae sectae consentiret, tormentes ac diversis mortibus impellebat’. For further discussion on this episode see Cain, ‘Miracles, Martyrs and Arians’.

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undergo a second baptism and become an Arian. Upon her refusal, the king had her possessions confiscated. But she remained steadfast, faithful to her Catholic belief. The king ordered her torture, and when his people attempted to re-baptize her, she shouted, ‘I believe that the Father with the Son and the Holy Spirit are of one substance’, thus declaring her Catholic faith.64 She was then interrogated and tortured again, and finally beheaded and consecrated to Christ.65 The martyrdom of the young girl in the Histories and that of the priest in the Glory of the Martyrs accord extremely well with the literary conventions of martyrdom accounts. Both martyrs were brought to a king, both refused to renounce their faith, and both were tortured. Only the outcomes differ. Whereas the king spared the life of the Catholic priest and sent him into exile in Gaul, the girl was executed. The parallels between the two accounts may suggest that they refer to incidents that happened around the same time, that is, during the reign of the Vandal king, Thrasamund (d. 523), who came into power circa 496.66 Let us return for a moment to some of the arguments raised in the previous chapter regarding the structure of the hagiographical corpus and the Histories. We saw a certain resemblance in the structure of the two corpora, according to which the first part of Gregory’s ecclesiastical history, that is, the Glory of the Martyrs, parallels the first books of the Histories, in which Gregory discusses early Christian history. The fifth book, however, in which we find the story of Ingund and the persecutions of Queen Goiswinth, parallels the second and third parts of the hagiographical collections, that is, the Glory of the Confessors and the Vita Patrum, in which Gregory discusses contemporary Merovingian history in a manner similar to Books IV–X of the Histories. As such, the story given in Chapter 81 of the Glory of the Martyrs should be read against its equivalent part in the Histories, that is, Book II. Furthermore, the episode in the Histories about the quarrel between Ingund and the queen also refers to the Visigothic king, Leuvigild. That same king is mentioned in the second part of Gregory’s ecclesiastical history – the book of the Glory of the Confessors.67 In the current context, the fact that Gregory includes an account about this king in a book that records the history of the same period as Book V of the Histories strengthens my 64 LH II.2, p. 40: ‘Patrem cum Filium ac Spiritum sanctum unius credo esse substantiae essentiaeque’. 65 LH II.2, p. 40. 66 On Vandal persecutions against Catholics in North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, see Collins, Early Medieval Spain, pp. 58–59 67 GC 12–13, p. 305.

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suggestion that the martyrdom story told in Chapter 81 of the Glory of the Martyrs should be read against the second book of the Histories and not the fifth one, as was suggested before. The Leuvigild account in the Glory of the Confessors is one of three accounts in this collection that deal with events that took place in Spain. Of these three accounts, two focus on Arians in Spain and their relationship with Catholics. In Chapter 13, Gregory relates how the Arian king Leuvigild urged his Arian priest to be more like the Catholic priests, who perform miracles. ‘Why you do not perform miracles to the people who follow your faith like those who call themselves Christians [do]?’.68 Desiring to prove that he could, indeed, perform miracles, the priest paid someone to pretend that he was blind. When the king and his Arian priest passed by, the priest laid his hands upon the man’s eyes but, alas, the impostor lost his sight and suffered such a great pain that he confessed to being party to the priest’s plot.69 This was a moral lesson, but more importantly, it was Gregory’s way of indicating that Arians were unable to perform miracles, simply because God was not on their side.70 A remarkably similar story appears in the second book of the Histories, where Gregory discusses the failed attempt of a certain Arian bishop named Cyrola to produce a miracle. There, too, the Arians that are mentioned in the story are from Spain, only this time they are Vandals and not Visigoths. The other chapter in the Glory of the Confessors that discusses Arians is Chapter 14, in which Gregory mentions a debate between a Catholic and an Arian that ended, once again, with a glorious victory for the Catholics.71 Taken together, the various accounts in Gregory’s Glory of the Martyrs and Glory of the Confessors which recount events that took place in Spain seem to function as a Gregorian device to foreground the falsehood of the Arian doctrine and to praise the Catholic faith. Gregory used similar tactics in his Histories.72 In both the Histories and the hagiographical collections, Gregory distinguishes the Merovingian from the Spanish people by emphasizing a significant religious difference – that is, the fallacy of the Arian doctrine in contrast to the Catholic truth. Even when Gregory finally refers to an Arian within the Merovingian kingdoms, as he does in the fifth book of 68 GC 13, p. 305: ‘Quam ob rem vos, ut isti, qui se christianos dicunt, non ostenditis signa in populos secundum fidem vestram?’. 69 GC 13, pp. 305–306. 70 LH II.3, pp. 42–43. 71 GC 14, p. 306. 72 Besides LH II.2–3 and LH V.38 that were already discussed, see also LH II.37, where Gregory describes how Clovis dealt with Gothic presence in Gaul and used a religious justification for fighting them.

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the Histories, that Arian was a Spanish envoy with whom Gregory had an argument.73 Once again, we witness Gregory setting up an encounter between an Arian and a Catholic to showcase the veracity of the Catholic dogma and its superior status in the Merovingian world. It seems, then, that Gregory tried to craft separate identities for the people of Gaul and of Spain that were based on their respective religious doctrines. Over the years, some scholars have looked into Gregory’s accounts of Arians (mostly in the Histories) and discussed them in relation to Gregory’s attempts to define Catholicism in contrast to heresies and to construct a certain religious identity.74 I should like to extend this argument and suggest that a further reading in the accounts of the Arians helps to reveal the various methods Gregory marshalled to forge a particular Merovingian identity. In Chapter 24 of the Glory of the Martyrs, for example, Gregory explains that Theudigisel, the Visigothic king, when speaking about Catholics, used the word Romans as a synonym for ‘those who belong to our religion’, that is, Catholic Christians.75 Similarly, in Chapter 80, Gregory notes that an Arian priest had an argument with ‘a deacon of our religion’.76 Such distinctions appear in the Glory of the Confessors as well. In Chapter 13, for instance, Gregory writes that ‘when the aforementioned king [Leuvigild] noticed the miracles [performed] by the servants of God who belonged to our religion, he summoned one of his own bishops’.77 Finally, in Chapter 14 of the Glory of the Confessors, Gregory reports on ‘a Christian struggled with a heretic on behalf of our faith’.78 In all of these examples, Gregory employs a simple literary tool to define Merovingian identity: he repeats the phrases ‘our religion’ or ‘our faith’, alluding to the Catholic doctrine, which he also distinguishes from the Spanish Arian doctrine. By doing so, Gregory leaves no room for his audience to even think of identifying with the Arians. Simply put, they are not like ‘them’. And an ‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality is indeed one of the easiest ways to shape an identity. Another term that Gregory uses to distinguish between Arians and Catholics, which also defines his Gallo-Christian identity, is the word Romans. We find this word in two different places in the Glory of the Martyrs – once 73 LH V.43, pp. 249–252. 74 To list a few of these studies: Wood, Gregory of Tours, pp. 34–35; Heinzemann, ‘Heresy’, p. 73; Goffart, Narrators, p. 214; Goffart, ‘Foreigners’, pp. 86, 90; Keely, ‘Arians and Jews’; James, ‘Gregory of Tours and “Arianism”’; Van Dam, Leadership and Community, pp. 179–180. 75 GM 24, p. 52: ‘Romanos enim vocitant nostrae homines relegionis’. 76 GM 80, p. 92: ‘diacono nostrae religionis’. 77 GC 13, p. 305: ‘Cernens autem praefatus rex tanta miracula per servos Dei, qui nostrae religionis erant, fieri vocavit unum episcoporum suorum’. 78 GC 14, p. 306: ‘christiano cum heretic pro fide nostra certante’.

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in Chapter 24 and again in Chapter 79.79 Gregory was not the first or last author to use the term ‘Roman’ to denote Catholic Christianity. The Spanish author John of Biclaro (d. 621), a contemporary of Gregory of Tours, wrote in his account of the Council of Toledo (580), assembled by the aforementioned Visigothic Arian king, Leuvigild, that King Leuvigild assembled a synod of bishops of the Arian sect in the city of Toledo and amended the ancient heresy with a new error, saying ‘Those coming from the Roman religion to our Catholic faith80 ought not to be baptized, but ought to be cleansed only by means of the imposition of hands and the receiving of communion, and be given the “Glory to the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit”’. By means of this seduction, many of our own inclined toward the Arian doctrine out of self-interest rather than a change of heart.81

Like Gregory of Tours, John of Biclaro attributes to Leuvigild the use of the term Romani in order to define non-Arian Christians. The word Romani had been used to define Catholics in the context of the Arian-Catholic controversy long before Gregory and John of Biclaro. The fifth-century North African bishop, Victor of Vita (died near the end of the fifth century), describes in the first book of the History of the Vandal Persecution the persecution and tortures of Armogas that were inflicted by the Vandal King, Geiseric (d. 477). According to Victor of Vita: The punishments had not been severe enough, and the king’s son Theoderic, who was his lord, ordered that he be beheaded. But he was restrained by his priest Jucundus, who said to him: ‘You have the power to kill him with torments of different kind, but if you slay him with the sword, the Romans will begin to preach that he is a martyr.’82 79 GM 24, p. 52; GM 79, p. 91. 80 By saying ‘our Catholic faith’, Leuvigild means what we def ine today as Arianism. His use of the term ‘Catholic’ is a good indication of the Arians’ self-identity, that is, that they saw themselves as the mainstream universal (that is, Catholic) Christian doctrine. 81 John of Biclaro, Chronicon 57, pp. 71–72: ‘Leouegildus rex in urbem Toltanam sinodum Episcoporum secte arriane congregat et antiquam heresem nouello errore emendat, dicen de Romana religione ad nostrum catholicam fidem uenientes non debere baptizari, sed tantummodo per manus impositionem et communionis preceptione albui, et Gloriam Patri per Filium in Spiritu Sancto dare. Per hanc ergo seductionem plurimi nostrorum cupiditate pocius quam impulsione in arrianum dogma declinant’. Translation taken from John of Biclaro, Chronicle 58, p. 59. 82 Victor of Vita, Historia I.44, p. 11: ‘Quem cum Theodoricus regis f ilius, qui eius dominus erat, poenis non valentibus capite truncari iussisset, a suo prohibetur Iucundo presbytero,

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Victor uses the term Romani elsewhere in his history, and in every instance it is there to distinguish Catholics from Arians.83 Other authors, such as Ambrose of Milan (d. 397) and Salvian of Marseilles (d. 480), also employed this term in order to differentiate themselves from heretics and pagans, to whom they sometimes referred as ‘barbarians’.84 Thus, it seems that, in his use of the term Romani, Gregory was merely following a longstanding tradition of associating Catholicism with Romanness. The adherence to this specific term is strongly connected to the fact that Gregory, his contemporaries, and his predecessors lived in a post-Roman world, that is, in a world in which the cultural and social markers of the Roman Empire were the most prominent ones. Gregory, as we know, was a descendant of a Gallo-Roman family, and he repeatedly mentions the senatorial past of his ancestors.85 Yet, even though the old cultural and social markers remained, their meaning was modified. In other words, ancient terms, such as Romani, were imbued with a new sense. The new conceptualization of old institutions helped those in the post-Roman world to maintain a connection with their ancient, glorious Roman past.86 This is how Gregory’s use of Romani in his hagiographical collections should be understood. He wrote a Christian historiography that was meant to define for his audience a certain new/old identity that drew from the mythic Christian and Roman past. Moreover, by using the term Romani, Gregory strengthened the notion that like the Roman Empire, Catholic Christianity was also universal.87 This notion was also expressed in the accounts of eastern saints and martyrs in Gregory’s hagiographical collections, as will be shown in the following discussion. dicente sibi: poteris eum diversis afflictionibus interficere: nam si glasio peremeris, incipient eum Romani martyrem praedicare’. Translation taken from Victor of Vita, History of the Vandal Persecutions I.44, p. 19. 83 See, for instance, Victor of Vita, Historia, III.62, p. 56. There, Victor creates a clear correlation between Romans and Catholics on the one hand, and barbarians and Arians on the other. 84 See, for instance, Ambrose of Milan, Expositio II.16.140, p. 241; Salvian of Marseilles, De Gubernatione Dei IV.13.61, p. 86. For further discussion of the use of the term Romani in the post-Roman world and in the Arian-Catholic controversy, see the survey by Omer Glickman in his recent Master’s thesis ‘Roman Identity and the Barbarian “Other” in Ostrogothic Italy’, esp. Chapter 3, pp. 44–77; Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom, pp. 105–106; Amory, ‘Names, Ethnic Identity’, pp. 8–10; see also the recent edited volume of Pohl, Gantner, Grifoni, and Pollheimer-Mohaupt, Transformations of Romanness. 85 See, for instance, the prefaces to VP VI, p. 230, in which Gregory mentions that Gallus of Clermont, his uncle, was a member of the senatorial order, as well as his great-grandfather Gregory of Langres (VP VII.1, p. 237) and his great-uncle Nicetius of Lyons (VP VIII.1, p. 241). 86 Hen, ‘Compelling and Intense’. 87 Hen, ‘Compelling and Intense’, pp. 65–66.

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Gregory’s attempt to construct a Gallo-Christian identity by using antiArian propaganda is also apparent in his Histories. This further demonstrates the overlap between the Histories and the ecclesiastical history of Gregory of Tours. Already in the preface to the Histories, Gregory says that ‘churches are attacked by heretics and protected by Catholics’.88 Throughout the ten books, he discusses Catholic theology, and two of the ten books begin with a Catholic declaration of faith, similar to the Nicaean Creed. In the preface to the first book, for instance, Gregory states that: Therefore, I believe in God the omnipotent Father. I believe in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord, who was born from the Father, not made, and was always with the Father, not it the passage of time, but before all time. The Father could not be called that had not he had a son, and the Son he could not be the Son had not he had the Father. I renounce with execration those who say: ‘there was a time he was not,’ and I swear to segregate them from the Church.89

A long explanation of the fundamental elements in the Catholic doctrine that differ from Arianism follows this proclamation, and Gregory concludes with a statement that he believes in ‘everything that was instituted by the 318 bishops of Nicaea’.90 The preface to Book III is shorter, but Gregory’s criticism of Arianism is much more apparent there. He mentions Arius, calls him ‘that evil man who founded this evil sect’,91 and he concludes with another credo: I truly confess that there is one Lord, invisible, infinite, incomprehensible, glorious, eternal and perpetual, and in the number of persons in the Trinity, that is, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; I confess that the three are one, equal in substance, divinity, omnipotence, and virtue. One God, supreme and almighty, the eternal ruler of the world.92 88 LH, preaf., p. 1: ‘ecclesiae inpugnarentur ab hereticis, a catholicis tegerentur’. 89 LH I. praef., pp. 1–2: ‘Credo ergo in Deum patrem omnipotentem. Credo in Iesum Christum, filium eius unicum, dominum nostrum, natum a patre, non factum, non post tempora, sed ante cunctum tempus semper fuisse cum patrem. Nec enim pater dici potuerat, nisi haberit filium; neque filius esset, si patrem utique non haberet. Illos vero, qui dicunt: ‘Erat quoanso non erat’, execrabiliter rennuo et ab ecclesia segregare contestor’. 90 LH I. praef., p. 4: ‘Et omnia quae a 318 episcopis Nicaene instituta sunt credo fideliter’. 91 LH III. praef., p. 96: ‘Arrius enim, qui huius iniquae sectae primus iniquosque inventur fuit’. 92 LH III. praef., p. 97: ‘Nos vero unum atque invisibilem et inmensum, inconpraehensibilem, inclitum, perennem atque perpetuum Dominum conf itemur, unum in Trinitate propter personarum numerum, id est Patris et Filii et Spiritus sancti; confitemur et trinum in unitate

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Yet again, Gregory echoes the Nicaean Creed and directs the readers’ attention to the theological differences between Catholics and Arians. Gregory mentions Arians in several other places in the Histories, and the stories he relates recall those included in his miracle collections. We have already encountered the story of the young girl who was martyred by the Vandal king and whose tale resembles the story of the Catholic priest who was exiled from Spain to Gaul.93 There is also the story of Cyrola, the Arian priest who tried to produce a miracle.94 His story recalls the one found in Chapter 13 of the Glory of the Confessors, where Gregory even remarks that the Arian priest was ‘a new Cyrola’ (novus Cirula).95 This statement also indicates that the story given in the Glory of the Confessors happened after the incident with Cyrola. This may also attest Gregory’s aims of creating a chronological sequence in his ecclesiastical history that is parallel to the Histories. The account of the events in Spain, therefore, serves a specific purpose in Gregory’s ecclesiastical history: to assist Gregory in constructing a GalloChristian identity rooted within geographical boundaries – to wit, Gaul and the Merovingian kingdoms – and shared religious belief, that is, the Catholic doctrine. By othering the Arians and the Spanish people, Gregory highlighted the characteristics of the Merovingians (that is, the people who lived in Merovingian Gaul) which distinguished them from other nations. Even though Gaul had a certain Arian past,96 Gregory ignores it altogether. Arianism, according to Gregory, had nothing to do with Gaul and the Merovingian kingdoms – it belonged to the Goths.97 His attitudes towards Arianism can also be discerned in the ongoing scholarly discussion regarding the identity of the Goths, both the Italian Ostrogoths and the Spanish Visigoths. Thomas S. Brown and Manuel Koch, for instance, have shown that there may be some correlation, even if not a strong one, between Arians and Goths, not just in the simple sense that Goths embraced the Arian doctrine, but also that Arianism was an ethnic marker of the Goths.98 Gregory strongly associates Arianism with the top leaders of the Gothic kingdom of Spain, and every account of Arianism stresses that the events propter aequalitatem substantiae, deitatis, omnipotentiae vel virturis; qui est unus summus atque omnipotens Deus in sempiterna saecula regnans’. 93 See above, p. 142–143. 94 LH II.3, pp. 40–44. 95 GC 13, p. 305. 96 Heil, ‘The Homoians in Gaul’. 97 For further reading on Gregory’s attitude towards the Arians, see Cain, ‘Miracles, Martyrs and Arians’. 98 Brown, ‘The Role of Arianism’; Koch, ‘Arianism and Ethnic Identity’.

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described therein took place outside Gaul, in the Kingdom of Spain. Furthermore, Gregory creates the perfect distinction between Catholic Gaul and Arian Spain in his account of the persecuted priest in Chapter 81 of the Glory of the Martyrs. The account ends with the expulsion of the priest from Spain, and as Gregory puts it: When the king was satisfied with the tortures he decreed, the cleric was dismissed. The king plead with him [requesting] that he should never be found again within the boundaries of Spain. The cleric happily left and returned to Gaul.99

Here, Arianism belongs to the Spanish kingdom, whereas Gaul is presented as a safe haven for Catholics. Gregory thus defines both the people living in Merovingian Gaul and the Spanish people: they, the ‘others’, are not from Gaul, and they are not Merovingians and they are Arians; whereas we, that is the ‘self’, are Merovingians: we live and inhabit Gaul and adhere to the Catholic Christian doctrine. These two identity markers – religious and geographical affiliations – are inseparable. The accounts of the eastern saints and martyrs in the hagiographical collections strengthen this observation. Gaul vs. the East The references to Spain in Gregory’s hagiographical collections were meant to construct a unique Gallo-Christian identity that signals the singularity of the people living in Merovingian Gaul, in contrast to their neighbors, and links their identity with the glorious Roman past. The accounts of the eastern martyrs and saints, however, were Gregory’s way of connecting the Christian present of Merovingian Gaul with its historical Christian past. Every nation needs an origin myth,100 and for the Christian nation of Gaul, the East represented its Christian origin. Reading the accounts of eastern saints and martyrs alongside the accounts of their Gallic counterparts reveals that the miracles which Gregory ascribes to eastern martyrs do not differ from those ascribed to Gallic saints and martyrs. For instance, in Chapter 49, Gregory recounts miracles that took place near the tombs of Irenaeus, Epipodious, and Alexander, all of whom were Gallic martyrs from Lyons. Sick people who visited the tombs of these 99 GM 81, p. 93: ‘Itaque cum regi satisfactum de eius caede fuisset, dimissus est, obtestante eo, ne in terminis Hispaniae umquam inveniretur’. 100 Geary, The Myth of Nation.

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martyrs would touch the dust on the tombs and be immediately cured.101 A similar miracle happened to those who visited the tombs of the Syrian martyrs Cosmas and Damian. According to Gregory, ‘if any sick person, who is filled with faith, prays at their tomb he soon receives medicine’.102 These are not the only examples of healing miracles. After all, such were the most common type of wonders that saints and martyrs performed and, combing through Gregory’s hagiographical works, one notes numerous examples of similar healing incidents that took place in Gaul. Divine punishment is another type of miracle story that involves both Gallic and eastern saints and martyrs. In Chapter 96 of the Glory of the Martyrs, Gregory recounts the humiliating punishment that two thieves received after stealing a chicken that was donated to the church of the Syrian martyr Sergius.103 Elsewhere in the Glory of the Martyrs, Gregory relates how Waroch, the count of Brittany, was punished after visiting the shrine of the martyr Nazarius in the village of Saint-Nazaire, because he had stolen a belt that was donated to the saint.104 Waroch not only stole from the church, he also ignored the abbot’s request to return the purloined goods. If that behavior was not wicked enough, Waroch also disrespectfully saddled his horse in front of the martyr’s shrine. Consequently, he died in a humiliating way. As he mounted his horse and was about to leave the place, ‘he struck the top of the head on the lintel of the gate, fell to the ground and fractured the skull’.105 This incident seems like a scene from a slapstick comedy, although it is impossible to know whether in Gregory’s time people would actually have found it funny. It is safe to assume, however, that they must have considered the moment a rather shameful and humiliating one. Although the punishment inflicted by Sergius on the two thieves was not as deadly and humiliating as the one inflicted on Waroch, the accounts of both cases share a derisive approach towards sinners. Moreover, although the two thieves who stole from the church of Sergius did not die, it is important to note that, early on, Gregory states that it was forbidden to take any of the gifts that were given to the saint and that ‘if anyone does so, soon afterwards he pays the penalty of disgrace or death’.106 Thus, disgrace and humiliation were considered severe punishments. It is worth mentioning that the only account of eastern saint in 101 GM 49, p. 72. 102 GM 97, p. 104: ‘Nam si quis infirmus ad eorum sepulchrum fide pleanus oraverit, statim adipiscitur medicinam’. 103 GM 96, p. 103; for further discussion about Sergius, see above, pp. 43–47. 104 GM 60, pp. 79–80. 105 GM 60, p. 80: ‘percussum ad portae limen superius caput, ad humum, testo disrupto, corruit’. 106 GM 96, p. 103: ‘Quod si quis fecerit, mox iudicium aut nothae aut mortis incurrit’.

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the Glory of the Confessors involves a similar approach. When a woman entered the church of saint Simeon Stylites and scorned the saint, she immediately fell down and died, recalling Waroch and his disrespectful behavior.107 By ascribing to the eastern saints in the Glory of the Martyrs similar abilities to the Gallic saints and by presenting similar miracles experienced by those in Gaul and in the East, Gregory further forged a religious correlation between the two regions. The martyrs of Gaul and their eastern counterparts died for the same belief in Christ. Martyrdom, in Christian theology, was a testimony. The death of the martyrs, God’s witnesses, served as a proof of the true nature of the Christian faith.108 In Gregory’s mind, that Christian faith was a very specific one – Catholic and Orthodox Christianity. Therefore, the death of the martyrs reinforced the supremacy of this Christian dogma over other religions and religious doctrines, whether polytheistic, Jewish, or any deviant Christian heresy, such as Arianism. Thus, both the Merovingians and their eastern counterparts believed in the Catholic and Orthodox doctrine, and both enjoyed the same protection of and discipline imposed by the saints. This stands in contrast to the type of miracles described by Gregory in the Spanish context discussed above. The accounts about the events that took place in Spain were meant to define Gallo-Christian identity by differentiating the inhabitants of Merovingian Gaul from other entities. In other words, the goal was to present an ‘other’ that was completely different from them and, by doing so, to emphasize everything that the people of Merovingian Gaul were not. The accounts of the eastern saints and martyrs, for their part, aimed at defining a Gallo-Christian identity by using the ‘other’ to emphasize what the people of Merovingian Gaul actually were. They were not Arians like their Spanish neighbors, but Catholic and Orthodox Christians like the very first Christians, who happened to live in the Roman East. To this one can also add the accounts of Italian martyrs that Gregory included in the Glory of the Martyrs. These martyrs may have played a similar role to that of the eastern martyrs, and their stories may have helped Gregory to construct his narrative and vision of identity and orthodoxy by creating similarities between the Italian and the Gallic martyrs. As demonstrated in Chapter 2, there is a strong connection between the Italian saints in the Glory 107 GC 26. On the role of humiliation in hagiography and in Frankish society in general, see Geary, ‘L’humiliation des saints’; de Jong, ‘Power and Humility’, pp. 43–47. 108 For further reading on the Christian perception of martyrs and martyrdom see: Droge and Tabor, A Noble Death, pp. 130–131, 152–153, 156; Grig, Making Martyrs, p. 16; Frend, Martyrdom and Persecution, pp. 45–46; Weinrich, ‘Death and Martyrdom’, pp. 331–332, 336–337.

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of the Martyrs, Rome, and the papacy that is better understood in light of the post-Chalcedonian theological tension and the Three Chapters controversy.109 Gregory’s decision to include accounts of such saints may allude to an endorsement of papal orthodoxy, the same orthodoxy that Gregory wished to impose on his audience, and which the eastern martyrs represented as well. The fact that most of the Italian martyrs were already venerated in Gaul may indicate that they – and the orthodoxy they represented – were already accepted by the Merovingians. Here, too, the similarities between the miracle stories of the Italians and the Gallic martyrs strengthen the theological alliance between the Merovingians and their counterparts in Italy and the eastern Mediterranean, and they help Gregory to present an ‘other’ to whom his audience can relate. By conjoining the East and Gaul, and presenting Catholic Christianity as a universal phenomenon, Gregory integrated Gaul into the historical narrative of Christianity and portrayed it as an essential part of that history. In this way, Gaul was likened to the East, which played an unquestionable role in the evolution of the Christian faith. After all, the East is the birthplace of Jesus and, consequently, of Christianity. It is also the place in which the Apostles began preaching and from whence they embarked on their missions to the Roman world. Equally important, the first persecutions against Christians took place in the East, and therefore turned it into the land of martyrdoms. Gaul’s role in this history, by contrast, was not nearly as clear. Thus, by composing his hagiographical corpus and juxtaposing the eastern martyrs with the Gallic ones, Gregory made a masterful attempt to integrate Gaul and its Christian communities into a grand narrative of Christian history. By writing about the Gallic martyrs, Gregory ascribes to Gaul a pivotal role in the early history of Christianity. But he did more than that. Striving to give Gaul pride of place in this history, he also ignored Gaul’s non-Christian past and presented a Gallic history that is, from top to bottom, solely Christian. Moreover, in the preface for the Glory of the Martyrs, Gregory states that he follows Jerome and Paul and intentionally ignores pagan history.110 This also the case with Gregory’s omission of Gaul’s Gothic and Arian past, mentioned above. This Christian-oriented perception of Merovingian history is apparent both in Gregory’s hagiographical collections and in his historiographical corpus, which may strengthen the conceptual resemblance between the two types of histories that Gregory wrote – the ‘secular’ one and 109 See above, pp. 50–53. 110 GM, preface, pp. 37–38.

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the ecclesiastical one. In the opening of the Histories, Gregory is already depicting the beginning of the world from a Christian point of view: it was created by God. According to Gregory, ‘in the Beginning God created the heaven and the earth in His own Christ’.111 This phrase echoes both Genesis 1:1 (‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’) and John 1:1 (‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God’). Thus, not only is Gregory’s history was framed to fit a Christian narrative, his very expressions are inspired by the Christian Scriptures. Throughout the Histories, Gregory records historical events that would not necessarily be perceived as religious ones from a Christian perspective. One example, which we encountered before, is Gundovald’s use of the relics of Sergius during his struggle for the Merovingian throne.112 Despite the highly political nature of the affair, Gregory recounts an episode involving holy relics which Gundovald hoped would help him best his rivals.113 But perhaps a better example is Gregory’s treatment of Clovis and, particularly, how he portrays Clovis’s conversion. In the Histories, the conversion is a turning point in the historical narrative of Merovingian Gaul, defining Clovis’s entire reign and the fate of the Merovingian kingdoms.114 Queen Clotild had sought, unsuccessfully, to convince her husband to convert to Christianity.115 But it was his battle with the Alamanni that finally did the trick. There, seeing his troops being slaughtered, [Clovis] raised his eyes to the sky, felt his heart, shed tears and said: ‘Jesus Christ, who Clotild said before that he is the Son of the Living God, you who deign to give help those who suffer and victory to those who trust in you. I ask you to work your glory and I vow that if you will grant me victory over these enemies and prove the existence of your miracles, which the people who are dedicated to your name say they happen, I will believe in you and be baptized in your name.’116 111 LH I.1, p. 5: ‘Principio Dominus caelum terramque in christo suo’. 112 LH VII.31, pp. 350–352. 113 For further discussion, see Chapter 2 above, pp. 67–69. 114 For further reading on Clovis, his baptism and Gregory’s view of Clovis, see Wood, ‘Gregory of Tours and Clovis’; Moorhead, ‘Clovis’ Motives’; Hen, ‘Clovis’; Hen, ‘Conversion and Masculinity’; Spencer, ‘Dating the Baptism of Clovis’; Shanzer, ‘Dating the Baptism of Clovis’; Moore, A Sacred Kingdom, pp. 103–104. 115 LH II.29–30, pp. 74–76. 116 LH II.30, p. 75: ‘Quod ille videns, elevatis ad caelum oculis, conpunctus corde, commotus in lacrimis, ait: “Iesu Christi, quem Chrotchildis praedicat esse filium Dei vivi, qui dare auxilim laborantibus victuriamque in te sperantibus tribuere diceris, tuae opis gloriam devotus efflagito,

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Sure enough, Clovis won the battle and was baptized. The telling of his triumph echoes the famous conversion of Constantine the Great. The similarity was not lost on Gregory and, in the following chapter, he relates that Clovis approached the baptismal pool as if he were a new Constantine (novos Constantinus), and like Constantine, the water cured his (metaphorical) leprosy.117 Several sentences later, Gregory is already likening Remigius, the bishop who baptized Clovis, to Sylvester, the bishop who has supposedly baptized Constantine.118 Gregory leaves no room for doubt: Clovis is to Gaul what Constantine was to the Roman Empire. Just as Constantine was the founder of the Christian Empire, so Clovis is the founder of the Christian kingdom of Merovingian Gaul. The triumph of Clovis over the Alamanni was a major milestone in Merovingian history. Gregory could have described this episode in many different ways, but he chose to do so from a Christian point of view. Although Clovis’s baptism is probably the most famous example of Gregory’s tendency to contextualize historical events within a Christian historical continuum, it is not the only one. The Histories is packed with such events. One finds a similar approach in Gregory’s hagiographical collections. Gregory relates there some non-religious historical incidents and situates them within a Christian context. An outstanding example is the description of King Sigismund’s response to the murder of his own son, which he himself had committed. Here is how Gregory recounts it in the Glory of the Martyrs: For the Lord often weaken the arrogance of a stubborn mind with the rod of correction so that he may revive the same mind to venerate and worship him, as is clearly evident by the deeds of King Sigismund. For his heart grieved after he killed his son, following the evil advice of his wife, and he straightaway [went] to Aguane. There, he fell on his knees in front of the tombs of the most blessed martyrs, the blessed Legion. He made penance and prayed that divine vengeance retribute him for all the wrongdoing he had done in this world, so that he will be considered free [of sin] in the Day of Judgment if his sins, which he carried before his departing the world, will be repaid.119 ut, si, mihi victuriam super hos hostes indulseris et expertus fuero illam virtutem, quam de te populus tuo nominee dicatus probasse se praedicat, credam tibi et in nomine tuo baptizer”’. 117 LH II.31, p. 77. 118 LH II.31, p. 77. 119 GM 74, p. 87: ‘Saepe enim Dominus arrogantiam contumacis mentis virga correctionis enervat, ut eandem cultus sui venerationi restituat, sicut quondam de Sigimundo rege manifesta f ides gestum profert. His etenim post interemptum per iniquae consilium coniugis f ilium

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Gregory refers to this incident in a very similar tenor in the Histories. After relating the murder of Sigeric, Gregory describes how Sigismund wept over the body of his dead son, adding that Sigismund ‘went to the monastery of Agaune where he wept and fast for many days praying for pardon’.120 The dual description of Sigeric’s death and his father’s mourning illustrates extremely well Gregory’s Christianization of history. As with the triumph of Clovis over the Alamanni, here, too, Gregory could have chosen many different ways to describe Sigismund’s filicide. He chose, however, to do so in a Christian mode. Whereas in the Histories Gregory intended to position the political and secular history of Gaul within a Christian framework, in his ecclesiastical history he wished to do more than merely portray the Christian past of Merovingian Gaul. Gregory wanted to demonstrate the impact of the Christian past on the Merovingian present. Thus, through the accounts of eastern martyrs in the Glory of the Martyrs, he conveyed to his audience that, as a Christian nation, they descended from the glorious martyrs who suffered during the Roman persecutions because of their Catholic Christian devotion. The Christian faith of the martyrs and their adherence to the Catholic dogma were the means by which Gregory linked the past to the present. The correlation between the accounts of Gallic martyrs and their eastern counterparts was a literary and rhetorical mechanism by which Gregory constructed an origin myth of the Gallo-Christian nation and thus validated the Gallo-Christian identity of the people living in Merovingian Gaul. The birth of Christianity and that of the Christian ‘ethnos’ was also the birth of the Gallo-Christian nation. The martyrs and those who venerated them in the ancient Christian past were the ancestors of Gregory’s present-day Merovingians. But for whom did Gregory write his ecclesiastical history? Who were the people he had tried to define as Gallo-Christians? Put differently, who was the audience for these hagiographical collections? In this chapter and the previous one, we have seen some crucial parallels between the Ten Books of Histories and the hagiographical collections that form Gregory of Tours’s ‘ecclesiastical history’. Both works provide a conpunctus corde, Agauno dirigit, ibique prostratus coram sepulchris beatissiorum martyrum legionis felicis, paenitentiam egit, deprecans, ut quaecumque deliquerat in hoc ei saeculo ultio divina retribueret, ut scilicet habeatur in iudicio absolutus, si ei mala quae gesserat, priusquam de mundo decedat, repensetur’. 120 LH III.5, p. 101: ‘ille ad sanctus Acaunenses abiens, per multus dies in fletu et ieiuniis durans, veniam praecabatur’.

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historiographical panorama of Merovingian Gaul, emphasizing its Christian past and present. Yet these histories diverge along one main axis: their audience. Whereas the Ten Books of Histories were meant to be read by (or to) the Merovingian secular and religious elite, the ecclesiastical history was directed at people from all walks of life. The Histories is chock-full of stories about the Merovingian elite: bishops, dukes, lords, and, of course, the Merovingian kings, queens, princes, and princesses. All are represented in numerous stories that were told about them, their lives and their culture. Hence, Gregory does not document in the Histories the history of the Merovingian kingdom or even that of the people living in Merovingian Gaul. Instead, he lays the foundations for the history of the social elite of Merovingian Gaul. People who did not belong to this group may have found it difficult to see themselves as part of this narrative. The ecclesiastical history, however, was – quite literally – a different story altogether. Gregory sprinkled tales about people from various social strands throughout his hagiographical collections. He recounts miracles experienced by all – kings and peasants, bishops and simple clerics, parents and children, men and women, young and old. Everyone could find something to which he or she could relate. Apart from hailing protagonists from diverse backgrounds, the stories themselves feature everyday life – a pilgrimage, illness, a mother seeking help for her child, and a father mourning the death of his son. Gregory also describes feasts and other celebrations that brought the entire community together. The varied picture of Merovingian society Gregory paints through his hagiographical accounts makes it is easy for his audience to see themselves as part of it. Whereas the audience of his ecclesiastical history is diverse, Gregory unites its members with a single shared identity – a Gallo-Christian one. The history of the Merovingian Church, that is, the history of the Christianization of Gaul as presented in Gregory’s ecclesiastical history, is the history of all the people living in Merovingian Gaul, regardless of their social origin. Moreover, one must consider the use of this work and the context in which it was read. The fact that the miracle accounts are packed with moral lessons and didactic language makes it reasonable to assume that they were indeed used for preaching before a wide audience. Yitzhak Hen suggested as much when he argued that the accounts in the Glory of the Martyrs and the Glory of the Confessors were the perfect length to be used in a sermon during the liturgical celebrations of saints.121 Gregory uses his 121 Hen, Culture and Religion, p. 86.

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miracle accounts to preach a wide range of topics, not necessarily related to saints. Some accounts portray good and bad moral behavior. Sinners are punished and pious believers are rewarded. Other accounts discuss theological matters and instruct the good Christian on proper dogma, as shown in some of the accounts that discuss Arianism. Thus, we are dealing here with an ecclesiastical history that broadcasts the Gallo-Christian identity to its audience and which seems to have been harnessed by Gregory of Tours for sermons and other forms of teaching. One should constantly bear in mind that Gregory was, first and foremost, a bishop. Despite the fact that he is known today mainly as a historian of the early Merovingian period, Gregory perceived himself as a clergyman in the service of the Christian Church. This is quite apparent in the manner in which he presents himself and his personal history throughout his historiographical and hagiographical compositions.122 As a member of the Gallican Church and as the bishop of Tours, Gregory was tasked with spiritual responsibilities, including the duties of preaching and teaching, reinforcing the faith and conducting the behavior of his flock. Unfortunately, none of Gregory’s own sermons survived. Yet his hagiographical works, with their singular literary structure and myriad moral lessons, may give us a clue what the topics of these sermons were.

Hagiography and Identity Gregory of Tours was not the only author of his time to use hagiographical collections to define and construct a Christian identity. In the fourth century, for instance, Eusebius collected martyrdom stories of the martyrs of Palestine.123 And around Gregory’s own time, two other famous collections were composed – the anonymous Martyrologium Hieronymianum and the Dialogues of Pope Gregory the Great. Although these works differ from each other and from Gregory of Tours’s hagiographical corpus, they all have one aspect in common: that is, authorial intent. These extensive collections of lives of saints (in the case of Gregory the Great) and feast days of saints (in the case of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum) were meant, among other things, to lay the groundwork for identity-building. The Dialogues of Gregory the Great, for instance, include a hagiographical corpus that is very similar to that of Gregory of Tours. The Dialogues 122 On Gregory’s autobiography, see above, pp. 41–45. 123 Eusebius of Caesarea, History of the Martyrs in Palestine.

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consist of four books: Books I, III, and IV contain many miracle accounts of Italian saints and holy men. Book II is dedicated to Saint Benedict of Nursia, and it gives his entire vita. By creating such a collection, Gregory the Great was able to draw the boundaries of the Italian cults of saints and def ine, for instance, which saints were allowed to be venerated. Like Gregory of Tours, Pope Gregory could have used these accounts of local saints in order to def ine an Italo-Christian identity. Moreover, by imitating biblical narratives in his accounts of the saints, as Gregory the Great did, 124 he could have linked the Italian past and present to the ancient mythic past of Christianity, in a similar manner to Gregory of Tours’s use of the East in his miracle accounts. While Gregory the Great’s Dialogues has received much scholarly attention, 125 the Martyrologium Hieronymianum was hardly ever discussed from a cultural and historiographical perspective. Therefore, I wish to end this chapter with a brief discussion of this interesting source, which may facilitate my goal of situating Gregory of Tours’s hagiographical collections in a wider context. The Martyrologium Hieronymianum The Martyrologium Hieronymianum is a late sixth- or early seventh-century Christian calendar brimming with feast days of saints and martyrs. A unique source, it diverges markedly from all other liturgical calendars or martyrologies that were composed before the seventh century. Traditionally, Christian calendars served local churches, and each diocese had its own calendar and its own local celebrations. These calendars included several types of feast days: annual Christian holidays, such as Christmas, which were fixed in the Roman calendar; feast days of local saints; and, sometimes, feasts of ‘universal’ saints such as the Apostles, popes, and Church Fathers. Not every day of the year featured a feast and normally a feast day would be dedicated to one saint or group of saints (such as the Martyrs of Lyons) alone. There is nothing typical, however, about the Martyrologium Hieronymianum. Each day of the year contains multiple entries about martyrs and saints from across the Christian world. Some days commemorate more than ten saints. Each entry mentions the name of the saint and the place 124 Lake, ‘Hagiography’, p. 233 125 For some basic reading regarding the Dialogues see, for instance, Lake, ‘Hagiography’; Dal Santo, Debating the Saints; see here also for further bibliography.

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of his martyrdom or where his grave is located, but nothing else about that saint’s life and death. Let us consider, for instance, the Martyrologium Hieronymianum entry for June 4 (or the 35th of May…):126 PRID. NON. IUN. In Ninive natale Dinoci Zotici Attali Eutici Camasi Quirinae Iuliae Saturnae Galduni Ninittae Furtunionis et aliorum XXV Cyrini episcopi Ebusti Rustici episcopi. In Sabaria civitate Pannoniae Quirini Romaea natale sancti Picti Areci Datiani. In Cilicia sanctorum Expergenti Cristae Itali Philippi Eustici Rustuli Camas Iuliae Saturnini Eiagoni Momnae Furtuni Criscentiae. in Sabaria civitate Rutuli cum aliis duobus.127 June 4th Noviodunum (Nyon) was the birth place of Dinocus, Zoticus, Attalus, Euticus, Camasus, Quirinus, Iulia, Saturnina, Galdunus, Ninitta, Furtunius and 25 more; the Bishop Cyrinus and the Bishop Ebustus Rusticus.128 Quirinus of Rome and saints Pictus, Arecius (Aretius) and Datianus (Dacian) were born in Sabaria, a city in Pannonia.129 Saint Expergentus, Christa, Italius, Philippus, Eusticus Rustulus, Cama, Iulia, Saturninus, Eiagonus, Momna, Fortunus and Crescentia [were born] in Cilicia.130 Rutulus with other two [was born] in the city of Sabaria.

The collection of saints in this entry, and in all other entries of the ­Martyrologium Hieronymianum, is highly eclectic: it presents no apparent chronological, geographical, or hierarchical order. Listing hundreds of saints and martyrs from all over Christendom, in a manner never used before, the Martyrologium Hieronymianum is the largest index of feast days composed during late antiquity. It is also a rather puzzling hagiographical source. Nevertheless, the Martyrologium Hieronymianum is a turning point in the history of liturgical calendars, and it spurred the emergence of a new hagiographical and liturgical genre – the martyrologies and historical

126 If you are not familiar with the concept of ‘the 35th of May’, please see Erich Kästner’s book The 35th of May, or Conrad’s Ride to the South Seas (first published in 1931 and originally written in German: Der 35. Mai oder Konrad reitet in die Südsee). 127 MH, p. 302. 128 These are the forty-one martyrs of Nyon. 129 Both Aretius and Dacian were martyred in Rome. 130 These are the thirteen martyrs of Cilicia.

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martyrologies.131 These martyrologies contain extensive lists of saints and, in the case of the historical ones, the lists also include stories about these saints. The massive collection of saints preserved in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum laid the foundation for later medieval martyrologies.132 It is worth mentioning that the earliest copy of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum was found in a manuscript that also includes a copy of the eighth-century calendar of Willibrord. Willibrord’s calendar contains more than just local feast days, and the fact that it was copied together with the Martyrologium Hieronymianum can demonstrate the influence of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum on later liturgical calendars.133 While scholarship has affirmed the importance of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum for the development of martyrological literature, only a handful of studies have been dedicated to this work, and the compilation of such an extensive calendar has not yet been explained. With so many saints and feast days featured among its entries, it is hard to believe that the Martyrologium Hieronymianum was used as a traditional calendar that was meant to document local feasts. It simply does not make sense that there were celebrations of so many saints on each and every day of the year in a single place. More than a decade ago, Felice Lifshitz examined some of these issues in her book, The Name of the Saint, which is among the few studies devoted to the Martyrologium Hieronymianum.134 Lifshitz suggests that the work was used for the cult of holy names, in which names of saints and martyrs were recited. This hypothesis, however, has some problems. First, Lifshitz argues that the martyrology – a late sixth- or early seventh-century composition – was applied through religious and liturgical practices that became popular only, as she herself admits, at the end of the seventh century. Second, and more germane to the current discussion, her assertion ignores the broader context of the migration of stories, relics, and cults of saints in the late antique and early medieval Christian world. The migration of saints’ cults manifested itself in collections of saints’ lives, miracle stories, and feast days, such as the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, Gregory of Tours’s Glory of the Martyrs, and several other hagiographical collections.

131 Dubois, Le Martyrologes, pp. 13–17; Ó Riain, Feastdays of the Saints, p. xvii; Lifshitz, The Name of the Saint, p. 5; Van Egmond, Conversing with the Saints, p. 72. 132 See, for instance, Sheppard, ‘The Roman Martyrology’, p. 39; Schneiders, ‘The Drummond Martyrology’, pp. 107, 113; Biggs, ‘Bede’s Martyrologium’. 133 For further reading on Willibrord’s calendar, see Hen, Culture and Religion, pp. 102–107; Hen, ‘The Liturgy of St. Willibrord’, esp. p. 54. 134 Lifshitz, The Name of the Saint.

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The Martyrologium Hieronymianum is a compilation of several early Christian calendars that were composed in different places around the Mediterranean. Among its sources, one finds Greek, Syrian, North African, and Italian calendars.135 The version of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum that we have today is a Gallic creation, but it is an adaptation of an earlier Italian martyrology that reached Gaul towards the end of the sixth century.136 Since most of the Gallic saints mentioned in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum appear at the end of the daily entry, it seems reasonable to assume that whoever reworked the Italian Martyrologium Hieronymianum added local Gallic feasts to the whole and did not rewrite the entire text. Thus, we are faced with a two-phase process: first, a collection was made in Italy, after which it was disseminated to Gaul and extended into the version we have today.137 But why was this collection composed in the first place? With this question in mind, we should return to Gregory of Tours and the impetus behind his hagiographical collections: the end of the Roman world and the identity crisis that followed it. Once again, we are dealing with a hagiographical collection that strove to draw boundaries. Unlike Gregory’s approach, the compilers of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum did not seek to construct a collective identity that was both ethnic and religious. They employed geographical markers, they specified the places where saints and martyrs were born or killed, but they did not use ethnic or national markers to construct a local ethnic identity. Instead, they listed what they perceived as the entire Christian sanctoral cycle in an attempt to construct a universal Christian identity. Such an identity could have brought together people from the entire Christian world, similar to the way the concept of Romanness united people from far-flung places around the Roman Empire and gave them a sense of belonging. The compilers of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, who collected the feast days of saints from across the whole Christian 135 Dubois, Le Martyrologes, pp. 29–30. 136 Scholars still debate where in Gaul the Martyrology was copied. Some claim it was compiled in Luxeuil, whereas others argue that it originated in Auxerre. See Krusch, ‘Nochmals die Afralegende’, pp. 20–27; De Gaiffier, ‘De l’usage’; De Gaiffier, ‘Martyrologes d’Auxerre’, pp. 249–250; Dubois, Le Martyrologes, pp. 29–37; Hen, Culture and Religion, p. 97 n. 88; Lifshitz, The Name of the Saint, pp. 13–29; Biggs, ‘Bede’s Martyrologium’, p. 243; van Egmond, Conversing with the Saints, pp. 72–74. 137 This is reminiscent of the phases in the production of the Liber Pontificalis, which was also produced in Italy and then disseminated and interpolated in the Frankish Kingdom. I intend to discuss the similarities between the two works in a different study. For a fuller discussion on the phases in the production of the Liber Pontificalis see McKitterick, Rome and the Invention, pp. 171–223. See also Vircillo Franklin, ‘Frankish Redaction’, for a different perspective.

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world, may have sought to draw the religious and universal boundaries of Catholic Christianity. In other words, the saints and martyrs listed in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum were perhaps the only ones allowed to be venerated. Furthermore, by listing all the permitted feasts, the compilers of the original Martyrologium Hieronymianum and whoever adopted it for Frankish use drew clear-cut boundaries between those who deserved to be venerated and those who deserved to be forgotten. The prefatory letters to and from Pseudo-Jerome, which also gave the martyrology its name, allude to this notion as they contextualize the need to create an extensive list of permitted feast days amidst the so-called Arian controversy.138 According to the letters, the bishops Chromatius and Heliodorus wrote to pseudo-Jerome after the emperor Theodosius I arrived in Milan, perhaps after his victory over Maximus in the Battle of Poetovio in 388. The bishops explained that the Emperor invited all the bishops of Italy, ‘because a certain number of bishops had defiled their souls with Arian dregs’.139 This approach accords with Theodosius I’s previous involvement with the Arians and the Edict of Thessalonica issued on 380 by him and by Gratian and Valentinian. As the letter continues, the bishops explain that it was the Emperor’s idea to commemorate the names of the holy martyrs during mass, and thus they ask Jerome’s assistance in providing lists of feast days, which he gladly agrees to provide, as the second letter states: Since you are eager to commemorate, every day, when offering the sacrifice to God, the names of those who, on that very same day on which the sacrifice is being offered, standing as victors over the devil, strong and rejoicing in the triumph of their martyrdom, reached Christ their king, for that reason we have written down the feasts of each and every month and each and every day, so that you might think it is worthy to commemorate[.]140 138 MH, pp. 1–2. As with the entire martyrology, the prefatory letters have received little attention from scholars, notwithstanding their essential role in understanding to purpose of the text. See also Lifshitz, Name of the Saint, p. 3. 139 MH, p. 1: ‘episcopos Italiae ad se invitasset ob causam aliquantorum episcoporum qui ex arriana fece suas animas inquinassent’. 140 MH, p. 2: ‘Et quoniam omni die sacrif icium Deo offerentes eorum nomina meminisse studetis qui, die ipso quo offertur sacrificium victores diaboli extiterunt, martyrii sui triumpho pollentes atque ovantes ad regem suum pervenerint Christum, hac de causa, singulorum mensium singulorumque dierum festa conscripsimus ut iubere dignati estis, perennem nostrae parvitatis memoriam fore credentes cum diebus omnibus per tota anni spatia sanctorum fuerit nominum festivitas celebrata’. Translation in Lifshitz, Name of the Saint, p. 140.

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Felice Lifshitz contextualizes the martyrology and the prefatory letters within the aftermath of the Three Chapters controversy and the Aquileian schism, and I tend to agree with her.141 Even though the letters do not say anything explicit about this specific controversy, they leave some clues – most notably, the mention of the Arian bishops and the need to summon a church council in order to deal with heretics, thus drawing a clear line between two groups: orthodox and non-orthodox. Similar to the case of Gregory of Tours and his hagiographical collections, here, too, Arianism is brought to the fore for the purpose of presenting an ‘other’ that helps one group to define its identity, explain its boundaries, and justify the exclusion of anyone who does not follow their set of beliefs. The Arians mentioned by the Italian bishops in the prefatory letters may have represented those who refused to condemn the Three Chapters, thus inciting a schism in the Catholic Church. The compilers of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum chose to ascribe the letters and the martyrology to Jerome. Jerome represented authority; therefore, ascribing the Martyrologium Hieronymianum to him gives the text – and the orthodoxy it is supposed to represent – further credibility. This reminds Gregory of Tours’s use of eastern martyrs in his ecclesiastical history and his attempt to link Gaul to its ancient Christian past. The Martyrologium Hieronymianum is not the only text from that period that contains prefatory letters ascribed to Jerome: the Liber Pontificalis, a collection of papal vitae that was composed approximately at the same time as the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, also contains such letters. In her recent study of the Liber Pontificalis, Rosamond McKitterick dates the letters to the sixth century and argues that they functioned as ‘an inspiring claim about the illustrious initiators of a project subsequently carried out by others’, thus enhancing the ancient authority of the Liber Pontificalis.142 This may also be the function of the prefatory letters of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum. Thus, reading the Martyrologium Hieronymianum against the historical context of the disintegration of the Roman world and the identity crisis that followed it, as well as the theological and dogmatic debates in the Christian Church (and bearing in mind how all of this manifested in Latin hagiography) may just offer sufficient grounds to speculate that the authors of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum sought to construct a particular Catholic-Christian identity and define the boundaries of orthodoxy. It is highly possible that after its composition and reception, a list such as the 141 Lifshitz, Name of the Saint, pp. 16–19. 142 McKitterick, Rome and the Invention, pp. 9, 69–70.

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Martyrologium Hieronymianum was used for the cult of holy names, as Lifshitz suggested. Nonetheless, this does not explain the impetus behind its initial composition. Moreover, even if the Martyrologium Hieronymianum was meant to establish the religious boundaries of Christendom, its practical applicability is still an open question. As mentioned above, the Martyrologium Hieronymianum was f irst composed in Italy, where Gregory the Great collected vitae of saints that were later included in his Dialogues. After its composition, the Martyrologium Hieronymianum was transmitted to Gaul, the birthplace of Gregory of Tours and of his hagiographical works. There, the final version of the Martyrologium was assembled, with the inclusion of several Gallic saints and martyrs. This brief review of the compilation and propagation of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum and the broader context in which it was composed points to a growing interest in collecting everything related to saints – be it feast days, as in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, saints’ lives, as in the Dialogues of Gregory the Great, or miracles such as those collected by Gregory of Tours in his Glory of the Martyrs and Glory of the Confessors. These different types of texts were assembled to reflect the important role of saints and martyrs, and their cults, in late antique and early medieval Christian societies. But, as has been suggested throughout this book, the interest in and popularity of saints and their cults were also exploited by the clergy as tools with which to deepen the faith of their audiences and provide them with a sense of belonging. That is, the authors of these hagiographical texts tried to construct a communal identity that was based on the understanding that the relations between men and women and the saints can be used as a starting point to discuss various issues of everyday life. Accordingly, hagiography is a rich source for modern scholars who wish to plumb the depths of the societies they investigate. Far from being mere descriptions of the lives and cults of saints, hagiographical texts can open the door to a deep exploration of social, political, and cultural histories. In the case of the hagiographical collections of Gregory of Tours, interrogating the accounts of foreign saints and martyrs discloses a brand-new way to grasp Gregory and his writings. No doubt, the Glory of the Martyrs and the Glory of the Confessors, alongside the Vita Patrum, were written to glorify the saints and martyrs. It also seems they were written to tell the story of the people living in Merovingian Gaul and to shape its identity in the face of a transforming Mediterranean world. Thus, reading Gregory’s hagiographical collections against broader literary, cultural, and social contexts helps us better understand the spirit of his time. Liturgical sources

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such as the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, as well as other martyrologies, liturgical calendars, and prayer books, can also shed light on past societies. An examination of such sources would seem to be the natural continuation of the inquiry of sixth-century Merovingian society that this study suggests. But, alas, there are no sixth-century liturgical sources that survive from sixth-century Merovingian Gaul. All the manuscripts are later compilations, and all the compositions we possess are from the seventh century onwards. Nevertheless, the model that this study offers for the examination of Gregory of Tours’s hagiographical corpus and for the Martyrologium Hieronymianum can be fruitfully applied to other hagiographical and liturgical sources from late antiquity and the Middle Ages.

Conclusion [I have written this work] to commemorate those who are dead and gone, and to bring them to the notice of future generations.1

Gregory of Tours had a strong historical and historiographical acumen. Equally, he had a clear sense of his role as an author and as a historian, who records the past (‘pro commemoratione praeteritorum’) so that future generations might remember and commemorate it (‘ut notitiam adtingerint venientum’). Indeed, both his historiographical and hagiographical works were written with this notion in mind. Yet most modern historians of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages have ignored the historiographical value of Gregory’s extensive collection of hagiographies. In this study, I have focused on these collections, arguing that they were meant to be read as an ecclesiastical history of the Merovingian Church. Certain peculiarities in the text of the Glory of the Martyrs prompted me to think that this is not a simple hagiographical text, that was meant solely to commemorate saints and propagate their cults. Gregory included in this work several accounts of eastern martyrs, most of whom (as I have shown in Chapter 2) were not venerated in Gaul at that time. Some were hardly venerated anywhere. Yet Gregory chose to include them in this miracle collection without any explanation whatsoever. Luckily, Gregory left many clues along the way. In the years I spent piecing together this intricate puzzle, these clues led me to the conclusion that Gregory had, in fact, written an ecclesiastical history of the people of Merovingian Gaul in the form of three hagiographical collections. Reading the Glory of the Martyrs, the Glory of the Confessors, and the Vita Patrum consecutively reveals a geographical and a chronological scope that binds the works together into one long historical narrative. Each collection discusses a certain period. The Glory of the Martyrs focuses on the birth of Christianity and the persecution period; the Glory of the Confessors centers on the early Christian history of Merovingian Gaul; and finally, the Vita 1

LH, praef., p. 1: ‘pro commemoratione praeteritorum, ut notitam adtingerint venientum’.

Rotman, T., Hagiography, Historiography, and Identity in Sixth Century Gaul: Rethinking Gregory of Tours. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2022 doi 10.5117/9789463727730_concl

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Patrum deals with contemporary history of the Merovingian Church. This structure recalls that of Gregory’s Histories, which also begins with the Creation and the birth of Christianity and ends in Gregory’s own time. Gregory also uses similar literary strategies in his two corpora. He offers short, anecdotal accounts and creates vivid, lively scenes, but without any narrative flow that connects these accounts. Moreover, juxtaposing the Histories with Gregory’s hagiographies reveals that both works share similar historical perceptions and treat miracle accounts as historical events. My observation that Gregory’s hagiographical corpus is some sort of an ecclesiastical history may raise some eyebrows, first and foremost because it does not follow the Eusebian model of Church history. Indeed, as was noted in Chapter 3, there are some outstanding differences between Eusebius’s Church history and that of Gregory. But there are also some striking parallels. Apart from the intention to record the history of the Church, Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History and Gregory’s hagiographical works discuss similar topics that are crucial for defining a history as Church history – the succession of the Apostles, the history of the Church and distinguished ecclesiastical leaders, the deeds of the martyrs, and the debates with Jews and heretics. Although Gregory’s ecclesiastical history does not follow Eusebius’s literary style, unlike other ecclesiastical histories produced after the Eusebian model was established, it does follow the methodology suggested by Eusebius in the preface to his own work. In the past, scholars have questioned the accuracy and historicity of hagiographical texts, mainly because these texts tend to focus on supernatural events such as miracles and visions, which seem to the modern, secular mind to be unreal and consequently untrue and non-historical. For Gregory of Tours and the people of his time, however, miracles were as real as any other incident, and should therefore be approached by modern scholars as actual historical events. Understanding the historical value of these events for Gregory makes it easier to grasp the historiographical intentions of his hagiographical collections. Moreover, the adherence to genre classification and definition has led some scholars to disregard the possibility that Gregory’s hagiographical collections are historiographical records. Traditionally, hagiography has been understood to have a liturgical purpose, that is, the description of saints’ lives and the propagation of their cults.2 Peter Brown’s study on the holy men in late antiquity prompted a new appreciation of the value of hagiography 2 Lifshitz, ‘Beyond Positivism’, pp. 96–97. Hippolyte Delehaye, for instance, argued that ‘to be strictly hagiographical the document must be of a religious character and aim at edification.

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for constructing social, political, and cultural history, but scholars still shy away from treating hagiographies as proper historiographical records. Even if scholars admit to a certain historiographical tone in some accounts of Gregory’s hagiography, they persist in looking at it as hagiographical work, in the traditional sense. But, as Felice Lifshitz noted more than twenty years ago, [it is not] enough to say that, for centuries on end, there was much ‘crossover’ or ‘bleeding’ or ‘blurring’ among genres; at a certain point, constant ‘cross-over’ must be taken as an indication that the categories themselves are hopelessly inadequate.3

One needs, then, to break traditional genre definitions if one seeks to better understand texts and their authors’ intentions. 4 Although modern definitions of genres are based on older literary patterns, they are still modern creations. When Gregory wrote his works in the late sixth century, he was influenced by various literary models, old and new (for his time), and he may have defined his own writings in light of these works. His definitions do not necessarily reflect our modern understandings. What he might have perceived as a historical text may seem to modern scholars to be a different type of literature. Categorization influences the manner in which texts are analyzed and understood, and therefore it leads to some inaccuracies or partial interpretations of the past. I first approached the Glory of the Martyrs as if it was just another hagiographical work that records the deeds of the saints, and which was designed for their cult and celebrations. But it is impossible to explain the presence of foreign martyrs in this work if, indeed, it was meant to be used as part of the liturgical celebrations in Gaul. Breaking free of the scholarly convention that would have me examine these hagiographical collections in the context of the Merovingian cults of saints and the perception of the holy and sacred in Merovingian Gaul, I decided to focus on how Gregory of Tours molded his narrative and what literary strategies he used. In doing so, Gregory’s authorial sophistication soon became apparent, leading me to the conclusion that Gregory’s hagiography, which was written for historiographical reasons, may indeed be classified as ecclesiastical history. The term then must be confined to writings inspired by religious devotion on the saints and intended to increase that devotion’. See Delehaye, Legends, p. 3. 3 Lifshitz, ‘Beyond Positivism’, p. 102 4 This also echoes Michel Foucault’s discussion of the role of the author in literary criticism. See Foucault, ‘What is an Author?’.

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This insight spurred further questions, among them the issue of the type of history Gregory was writing, its aims, and its audience. As I argued in Chapter 4, one of Gregory’s goals in writing an ecclesiastical history was to forge and sustain a Gallo-Christian identity that was relevant to all those living in Merovingian Gaul. Here, too, the accounts of eastern martyrs made their mark. Gregory used these accounts, as well as those involving incidents in Spain, to define two types of ‘other’, against which he defined the ‘self’. For Gregory, the ‘self’ was anyone living in Merovingian Gaul who adhered to the Catholic dogma and was descended from the ancient martyrs, and who was therefore part of Christian history from the Creation of the world to (eventually) the Last Judgment. The similarities between the accounts of eastern saints and martyrs and those of their Gallic counterparts helped Gregory to link Gaul with the ancient Christian past, whereas the accounts involving Spain enabled him to emphasize the religious grounds of the inhabitants of Merovingian Gaul. Gregory’s choice to include eastern saints and martyrs in his hagiographical collections had a significant impact on my own research process. In fact, the initial idea for this work was to explore the relations between the eastern Mediterranean and the West, concentrating on the cultural and religious exchange between the Merovingians and their Byzantine counterparts through the dissemination and exchange of relics, oral and written traditions, and cults of saints. As I showed in Chapter 2, the propagation of cults was very common in the late antique and early medieval Mediterranean world. However, as I began working on the hagiographical corpus of Gregory of Tours, I started to realize that most of it had been neglected in the scholarship. That is how I found myself examining not so much the mutual exchange between the East and the West, but rather the unidirectional transmission of saints and their cults from the East to the West. There is still a need to explore this exchange from a broader perspective and to look at the dissemination of cults of saints, including oral and written traditions and relics, from the West to the East; there is still a need to compare these processes, in order to gain a better understanding of the relationship between different entities that together comprised the Mediterranean world of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages. While the traditional tendency has been to examine the history of the Mediterranean either from a western perspective or an Eastern one,5 this paradigm has started to shift. More and more scholars are questioning the relations between the two parts of the post-Roman world. This study, which offers a new reading 5

See Averil Cameron’s criticism of these trends in her book Byzantine Matters.

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of the hagiographical texts of Gregory of Tours, unveils Gregory’s authorial qualities and offers insights into the intense complexity of constructing self- and communal identity in a changing world. It is my hope that it also contributes to the inter-relational approach in modern research, as it is premised on the idea that the East and the West were parts of the same world and that their multilayered relationships merit comprehensive inquiry.

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Other Works Acta de SS. Cosma, Damiano, Anthimo etc., AASS Sept. VII, pp. 469–470 Ambrose of Milan, Expositio of the Christian Faith, in Ambrose of Milan, Selected Works and Letters, eds. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, second series 10 (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, 1896, reprint 1995), pp. 199–314 Asterius of Amasea, A Homily on Phocas, trans. Boudewijn Dehandschutter, in ‘Let Us Die that We May Live’, eds. Leemans, Mayer, Allen and Dehandschutter, pp. 167–172 Basil of Caesarea, A Homily on the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, trans. Pauline Allen, in ‘Let Us Die That We May Live’, eds. Leemans, Mayer, Allen and Dehandschutter, pp. 67–77 Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca (Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, 1909) Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina (Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, 1898–1899) Brock, Sebastian, ‘Jacob of Serugh’s Poem on the Sleepers of Ephesus’, in ‘I Sowed Fruits into Hearts’ (Odes Sol. 17:13): Festschrift for Professor Michael Lattke, eds. Pauline Allen, Michael Franzmann, and Rick Strelan, Early Christian Studies 12 (Strathfield, N.S.W.: St Pauls Publ, 2007), pp. 13–30 Caesarius of Arles: Life, Testament, Letters, trans. William E. Klingshirn (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1994) Cassiodorus-Epiphanius, Historia Ecclesiastica Tripartita, eds. Waltarius Jacob and Rudolphus Hanslik, CSEL 71 (Vienna: Hoelder-Pichler-Tempsky, 1952) Concilia Galliae A. 511 – A. 695, ed. C. de Clercq, CCSL 148 A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1963) De S. Isidoro Martyre in Insula Chio, AASS Maii III, pp. 445–451 Decretum Gelasianum, PL 59 (Paris, 1847), cols. 157–164 Eusebius of Caesarea, The Ecclesiastical History, vol. 1 (Books I–V), ed. G. P. Goold, trans. Kirsopp Lake (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1926, reprint 1975) Eusebius of Caesarea, History of the Martyrs in Palestine, ed. and trans. William Cureton (London: Williams and Norgate, 1861) Eusebius of Caesarea, Life of Constantine, trans. and intro. Averil Cameron and Stuart G. Hall (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999) Eusebius Werke, trans. Eduard Schwartz and Theodor Mommsen, Die Griechischen Christlichen Schriftsteller 9.1–3 (Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs, 1903–1909), vol. 2.1–3 Gaudentius of Brescia, Sermo XVII: De diversis capitulis septimus, PL 20 (Paris, 1845), cols. 959–971 Gerontius, The Life of Melania the Younger, trans. Elizabeth A. Clark (New York and Toronto: E. Mellen Press, 1984) Gregory of Nyssa, First Homily on the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste (Ia and Ib), trans. Johan Leemans, in ‘Let Us Die That We May Live’, eds. Leemans, Mayer, Allen and Dehandschutter, pp. 91–110 Gregorius Magnus, Homilia XXVII, in idem, Homiliae in Evangelia, ed. Raymond Étaix, CCSL 141 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1999), pp. 229–238 Gregorius Magnus, Registrum Epistularum Libri I–VII, ed. Dag Norberg, CCSL 140 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1982) Gregorius Magnus, Registrum Epistularum Libri VIII–XIV, ed. Dag Norberg, CCSL 140a (Turnhout: Brepols, 1982) Hesychius of Miletus, Πατρια Κωνσταντινουπολεως, in Scriptores originum Constantinopolitarum, ed. Theodor Preger (Leipzig, 1907) Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies, in The Writings of Irenaeus, trans. Alexander Roberts and William H. Rambaut, 2 vols. (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1871) John Chrysostom, On Saint Phocas, in The Cult of the Saints, eds. Mayer and Neil, pp. 75–87

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Vircillo Franklin, Carmela, ‘Frankish Redaction or Roman Exemplar? Revisions and Interpolations in the Text Liber Pontificalis’, in Inclusion and Exclusion in Mediterranean Christianities, 400–800, eds Yaniv Fox and Erica Buchberger (Turnhout: Brepols 2019), pp. 17–46 Walter, Christopher, The Warrior Saints in Byzantine Art and Tradition (Aldershot and Burlington, Vt: Routledge, 2003) Watkins, Basil, The Book of Saints: A Comprehensive Biographical Dictionary, 8th ed. London, Oxford, New York: Bloomsbury, 2016 Watkins, Carl, History and the Supernatural in Medieval England, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007 Weinrich, W., ‘Death and Martyrdom: An Important Aspect of Early Christian Eschatology’, Concordia Theological Quarterly 66:4 (2002), 327–338 Winstead, Karen A., ‘Vulfolaic the Stylite: Orientalism and Performing Holiness in Gregory’s Histories’, in East of West: Cross-Cultural Performance and the Staging of Difference, eds. Claire Sponsler and Xiaomei Chen (New York: Palgrave, 2000), pp. 63–73 Wiśniewski, Robert, The Beginnings of the Cult of Relics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019) Wood, Ian, ‘Constructing Cults in Early Medieval France: Local Saints and Churches in Burgundy and the Auvergne 400–1000’, in Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West, eds. Thacker and Sharpe, pp. 155–188 Wood, Ian, ‘Forgery in Merovingian Hagiography’, in Fälschungen im Mittelalter: Internationaler Kongress der Monumenta Germaniae Historica, München, 16.–19. September 1986, vol. v: Fingierte Briefe, Frömmigkeit und Fälschung, Realienfälschungen (Hannover: Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 1988), pp. 369–384 Wood, Ian, ‘The Franks and Papal Theology, 550–660’, in The Crisis of the Oikoumene, eds. Chazelle and Cubitt, pp. 223–242 Wood, Ian, Gregory of Tours (Oxford: Headstart History, 1994) Wood, Ian, ‘Gregory of Tours and Clovis’, Revue Belge de Philologie et d’Histoire 63:2 (1985), 249–272 Wood, Ian, The Merovingian Kingdoms, 470–751 (London and New York: Longman, 1994) Wood, Ian, The Missionary Life: Saints and the Evangelisation of Europe, 400–1050 (Harlow: Longman, 2001) Wood, Ian, ‘The Use and Abuse of Latin Hagiography in the Early Medieval West’, in East and West: Modes of Communication, eds. Ian Wood and Euaggelos Chrusos (Leiden: Brill, 1999), pp. 93–109 Wood, Ian, ‘The Vita Columbani and Merovingian Hagiography’, Peritia 1 (1982), 63–80 Woods, David, ‘The Emperor Julian and the Passion of Sergius and Bacchus’, Journal of Early Christian Studies 5 (1997), 335–367 Woods, David, ‘The Origins of the Cult of St. George’, in The Great Persecutions: The Proceedings of the Fifth Patristic Conference, eds. Vincent Twomey and Mark Humphries (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2003), pp. 141–158, Wortley, John, ‘The Origin of Christian Veneration of Body-parts’, Revue de l’histoire des religions 1 (2006), 5–28 Wynn, Philip, ‘Cultural Transmission Caught in the Act: Gregory of Tours and the Relics of St Sergius’, in East and West in the Early Middle Ages, eds. Esders, Fox, Hen, and Sarti, pp. 67–73 Zuckerman, Constantine, ‘Qui a reppelé en Gaule le “Ballomer” Gondovald’, Francia 25:1 (1998), 1–18

Index Adam 114 Aegidius of Reims 31 Agathonice, martyr 16, 17, 91 Agaune, monastery 156 Agricola, martyr 52 Alamanni 154-156 Alexander of Lyons, martyr 150 Alexandria 81 Ambrose of Milan 147 Anastasius I, Byzantine Emperor 83 Anderson, Benedict 14 Anicia Juliana 82-85, 97 Antioch 63-64, 73-74, 76, 87-89 Apostles 15, 40, 51, 54, 60, 86, 97, 104, 117-119, 122-123, 126, 153, 159, 168 Aquileian schism 164 Arecius (Aretius), martyr 160 Aredius of Limoges 88 Arianism 58, 132, 138-153, 158, 163-164 Arius 139, 148 Armenia 41, 105 (see also: Sebaste, Forty Martyrs) Armogas, saint 146 Asia 17, 92 Asia Minor 41, 59, 73, 75, 93 Asterius of Amasea 73 Attalus, martyr 160 Auerbach, Erich 108-109 Augustine of Hippo 125 Austrasia 30 Auvergne 30-31 Auxerre 71 Avitus of Clermont 44 Bacchus, martyr 66-67, 94 (see also: Sergius) Barnes, Timothy 119-120 Basil of Caesarea 63 Baudilius, martyr 137 Baudonivia, nun 24 Bede Venerabilis 121 Benedict of Nursia 39, 159 Berschin, Walter 103 Bertram of Bordeaux 32, 68 Bethlehem 104 Birosaba (Be’er Sheva) 67 Bizani 80 Bologna 48, 52 Bordeaux 67-70, 92, 94, 106 Brittany 56, 151 Brown, Peter 18, 21-22, 27, 87, 102-103, 134, 168 Brown, Thomas S. 149 Brunhild, Frankish queen 51 Buchberger, Erica 135-136

Burgundian kingdom 30 Byzantium 24, 50, 52, 66, 89, 96-97, 116, 170 calendars (see: hagiography) Cama, martyr 160 Camasus, martyr 160 Cameron, Averil 24, 118 canon law 31-32, 77 Cappadocia 70 Carpus, martyr 17, 91 Cassianus of Italy, martyr 105 Cassiodorus 121, 125 Chalcedonian schism 93-94, 153 Childebert II, Frankish king 32, 51, 96 Chilperic, Frankish king 30-32, 84 Chios 81-82 Christ (see: Jesus) Christa, martyr 160 Christmas 56, 159 Chromatius, bishop 163 Chronicle of Fredegar 111 Chrysanthus, martyr 51 Chrysostom, John 73 Cilicia 160 Clement of Rome, pope 48-49, 52, 105, 118 Clermont 29, 31, 37, 42, 44, 52, 55 Clotild, Frankish queen 154 Clovis, Frankish king 107, 132, 154, 155-156 Constantine the Great, Roman Emperor 118, 121-122, 155 Constantinople 63, 67, 70, 80, 82, 84, 93, 105 Constantinople, First Church Council 93 Corbett, John 21 Cosmas and Damian, martyrs 53, 70-73, 76-77, 86, 92, 96, 115, 151 Creed 93, 141, 148-149 Crescentia, martyr 160 cult of saints 14-21, 23, 25-27, 32-34, 37-40, 45, 47-50, 52-53, 55-56, 59, 61, 63-67, 69-82, 84-85, 88, 91-92, 94-97, 99, 101, 103-104, 113, 137, 159, 161, 165, 167-170 (see also: relics) Cyprian of Carthage, martyr 48 Cyrinus, martyr 160 Cyrola, Arian priest 144, 149 Cyrrhus 70, 73, 76 Dal Santo, Mathew 61 Daria, martyr 51 Datianus, martyr 160 de Nie, Giselle 23, 109-110 Decius, Roman Emperor 58, 81, 82 Decian persecutions 58, 61 Decretum Gelasianum 79 DeVore, David 120, 124

192 

Hagiogr aphy, Historiogr aphy, and Identit y in Six th Century Gaul

Diana, goddess 88 Dinocus, martyr 160 Diospolis 80 Domitius, martyr 53, 75-78, 86, 92 Drews, Wolfram 94 Ebustus Rusticus, martyr 160 ecclesiastical history 14-15, 17, 27, 54, 63, 108, 115-127, 136-137, 143, 148-149, 156-158, 164, 167-170 Edessa 66, 70 Edict of Thessalonica 163 Eiagonus, martyr 160 Elusa (Haluza) 67 envoys 51, 68, 92, 95-98, 145 Epachius of Riom 56 Ephesus 53, 57-59, 61, 76, 95 Epipodious of Lyons, martyr 150 episcopal authority 26, 30, 37, 69-70, 90-91, 129, 132-133 Esders, Stefan 24, 48, 84-85 Eufronius of Bordeaux 68 Eufronius of Tours 35 Eulalia, martyr 137 Eusebius of Caesarea 15-17, 27, 42, 54, 114, 117-127, 158, 168 Chronicle 114, 132 Ecclesiastical History 15-17, 27, 42, 54, 117-127, 168 Martyrs of Palestine 158 Vita Constantini 118 Eusebius of Paris 94-95 Eusebius of Vercelli 105 Eusticus Rustulus, martyr 160 Eustochious of Tours 52 Euticus, martyr 160 Eutychian heresy 93 Evagrius Scholasticus 121 Expergentus, martyr 160 Felix IV, pope 71 Felix of Gerona, martyr 137 Fischer, Andreas 24 Florida and Paschasia, saints 39 Fortunatus, Venantius 21-22, 24, 30-31, 34, 80, 98-99 Fortunus, martyr 160 Fouracre, Paul 103 Fowden, Elizabeth Key 65 Franks 107, 116, 129, 131-133, 135-136, 163 Frankish Church 25, 69 Frankish Kingdom 50-52, 67, 78, 97, 111, 135 identity 130-134 (see also: Merovingians) Fredegund, Frankish queen 32 Furtunius, martyr 160 Galdunus, martyr 160 Gallinara, island 33 Gallus of Clermont 29, 42-43

Gaudentius of Brescia 64 Geiseric, Vandal king 146 Genesius of Tarbes, martyr 137 genre 18, 26, 101-103, 117-127, 160, 168-169 George, martyr 53, 56, 78-81, 96 Germanus of Auxerre 71 Gerontius 63 Gervasius, martyr 49-50, 52 Giles of Reims (see: Aegidius of Reims) God 13, 15, 35, 42-43, 60-61, 70, 72, 75-76, 79, 82, 89, 114-115, 117, 119, 138-139, 141, 144-145, 148, 152, 154, 163 Goffart, Walter 24, 109, 112, 131-132, 134-136 Goiswinth 141-143 Goths 135, 149, 153 (see also: Ostrogoths, Visigoths) Gratian, Roman Emperor 163 Graus, František 21, 103 Gregory of Langres 43 Gregory of Nyssa 63 Gregory of Tours audience 14-15, 18, 25, 35, 45, 49, 61, 110, 115116, 127, 129, 135, 145, 147, 153, 156-158, 170 autohagiography 41-45 family 29-30, 35, 42-44, 53-55, 81, 147 Glory of the Confessors 17, 20, 22-26, 36, 39-40, 45, 47-48, 52, 86-87, 91-92, 99, 101, 104-108, 116, 122, 127, 136, 143-145, 149, 152, 157, 165, 167 Glory of the Martyrs 14, 17, 20, 22-26, 40, 45, 47-53, 55-59, 62, 64, 66-67, 69-73, 75, 77-78, 80-87, 91-92, 95-99, 101, 104-108, 116, 122, 127, 136-145, 150-153, 155-157, 161, 165, 167, 169 historical perception 111-116, 122-127, 129-130, 153-157 literary style 41-42, 45, 108-111, 123-124, 141-143, 147-148, 150-152 opposition 32, 36, 38 ordination 29-32, 35-36 Ten Books of Histories 18-20, 22, 26, 31-32, 34, 36, 41, 44, 52, 54, 60-61, 64, 67-69, 72, 77-78, 84-85, 88, 92, 94, 96-97, 103-104, 106-116, 119-121, 123-127, 129-136, 139, 141-145, 148-149, 153-157, 165, 168 Virtutibus Sancti Juliani 17, 20-21, 23, 26, 31, 37-40, 44-45, 47, 108 Virtutibus Sancti Martini 17, 20-21, 23, 26, 34-40, 44-45, 47, 108 Vita Patrum 17, 20-22, 25-26, 38-39, 41-42, 45, 47, 104, 106-107, 116, 122, 127, 136, 143, 165, 167 youth 29, 42-44 Gregory the Great 27, 38-39, 50-51, 61, 158-159, 165 Dialogues 39, 61, 158-159, 165 Registrum Epistularum 51 Gundovald, Frankish pretender 67-70, 154 Guntram, Frankish king 30, 84, 92-93

193

Index

hagiography 17-18, 21-22, 25-27, 40, 61, 101-104, 112, 116, 122-123, 136, 164-165, 168-169 autohagiography 41-45 calendars 17, 74, 103, 159-162, 166 genre 101-104 martyrologies 17, 103, 159-164 passiones 16-17, 122 topos 36-37, 92-93 vita 17, 21, 34, 38, 71, 81, 92, 103, 112, 122, 159, 164-165 (see also: Gregory of Tours; Martyrologium Hieronymianum) Hall, Stuart 118 Halsall, Guy 125-126 Hawran 66 Heinzelmann, Martin 31, 103, 109-110 Heliodorus, bishop 163 Hen, Yitzhak 21, 24, 48, 69, 157 Heresy 55, 58, 60-62, 93, 119, 123, 138, 145-146, 152 (see also: Arianism) Heretics 49, 61, 78, 114, 119, 126, 138-139, 145, 147-148, 164, 168 Hermanegild, Visigothic prince 141-142 Hesychius of Miletus 80 Hilary of Poitiers 33, 39, 84, 105 Holy Cross, relics 24, 52, 97-98 Holy Land 59, 80, 95 holy man 18, 38, 40, 42, 44, 72, 87-88, 90, 102, 129, 159, 168-169 Ibas of Edessa 50 identity 14-15, 18, 25, 27, 49, 127, 129-166, 170-171 Imola 48 Ingund, Frankish princess 141-143 Innocent I, pope 50 Irenaeus of Lyons 55, 57, 118, 150 Isidore of Chios, martyr 53, 81-82, 96 Italius, martyr 160 Italy 33, 41, 49-50, 96, 98, 105, 132, 153, 162-163, 165 Iulia, martyr 160 Jacincthus of Ravenna 140 Jacob of Serugh 59 James, Edward 22 Jerome 114, 124-125, 153, 163-164 Jerusalem 59, 71, 98 Jesus 15, 40, 60, 75, 78, 86, 93, 104, 114-115, 117-118, 122-123, 141, 143, 148, 152-154, 163 Jews 75, 77-78, 92-93, 117, 119, 123, 126, 152, 168 Johannes, Syrian translator 57, 95 John I, pope 49 John Malalas 76 John of Biclaro 146 John Rufus 63 Life of Peter the Iberian 64 John the Apostle 51, 54-55, 69 John the Baptist 104 Josephus 118, 120

Julian of Brioude 23, 31-32, 37-38, 95 vita 17, 20-21, 23, 26, 31, 37-40, 44-45, 47, 108 Julian, Roman Emperor 76 Justin I, Roman Emperor 83-84 Justin II, Roman Emperor 24, 84 Justin Martyr 118 Justinian the Great, Roman Emperor 50, 67, 80, 82-85, 97 Kitchen, John 22, 112 Koch, Manuel 149 Krautheimer, Richard 65 Kreiner, Jamie 21, 103 Krusch, Bruno 73, 102, 131 Kurth, Godefroid 113 Last Judgment 13-14, 106, 133, 155, 170 Laurentian Schism 49 Laurentius, antipope 49 Laurentius, martyr 49, 51 Leudast, count of Tours 32 Leyser, Conrad 49 Liber Historiae Francorum 111 Liber Pontificalis 39, 164 Licinius, Roman Emperor 62 Lifshitz, Felice 101, 104, 161, 164-165, 169 Limoges 49, 52, 79, 88, 106 Liturgy 18, 21, 48, 53, 56-57, 111, 157, 159-161, 165-166, 168-169 Lombards 96 Lusor, saint 39 Lycias, proconsul 70 Lyons 17, 29-30, 42, 55, 91, 150 Lyons, forty-eight martyrs of 15, 17, 29, 42, 62-64, 91, 159 Mainz 80 Mango, Cyril 94 Marcellinus Comes 125 Marius of Avenches 125 Markus, Robert 118-119, 121, 123 Maroveus of Poitiers 97 Marsham, Andrew 120 Martin of Tours 17, 23, 32, 33-39, 45, 52, 84, 88, 105, 107-108 church in Tours 68-69, 72, 88-89, 115 vitae 17, 20-21, 23, 26, 33-40, 44, 47, 98, 108 Martyrdom 15-17, 37, 42, 49, 55, 58, 62, 64, 71-72, 78-80, 91, 105, 117, 119, 140-144, 152-153, 158, 160, 163 martyrologies (see: hagiography) Martyrologium Hieronymianum 27, 74, 76, 82, 158-166 Maurice, Byzantine Emperor 96 Maximus, Roman Emperor 163 McKitterick, Rosamond 164 Melania the Younger 63 Melitene 82 Mendels, Doron 120

194 

Hagiogr aphy, Historiogr aphy, and Identit y in Six th Century Gaul

Merida 39, 137 Merovingians 19, 21, 23-24, 44, 47, 50, 78, 84, 90-91, 94, 96-97, 99, 115-116, 123, 141, 144, 149-150, 152-153, 156-157, 165-166, 170 identity 144-145, 149-153 Merovingian Church 14, 106-107, 127, 157, 167-168 Merovingian Gaul 14, 19-22, 24-30, 47-59, 67, 69, 77, 82, 84, 94, 97, 101, 106-107, 122, 132-133, 144, 149-157, 165-170 Merovingian hagiography 21-22, 103 (see also: Franks) Mesopotamia 66 Middle East 66 Milan 33, 48-50, 52, 105, 147, 163 Momna, martyr 160 Monegundis, nun 38 Monophysite Theology 93 (see also: Chalcedonian schism) Moore, Michael E. 132-133, 135-136 Moreira, Isabel 24 Mummolus 68 Musurillo, Herbert 16 Namatius of Clermont 52 Nazarius, martyr 52, 151 Nearchus, martyr 82 Nessana (Nitzana) 66-67 Neustria 30 New Testament 20, 40, 104, 118 Nicaea 148 Nicetius of Lyons 29, 43-44 Ninitta, martyr 160 Nola 48 North Africa 20, 41, 47-48, 86, 105, 146, 162 Nyon (Noviodunum) 160 Olybrius, Flavius Anicius, Byzantine Emperor 83 Orléans 92-93 Orléans, Fourth Synod 31-32 Second Council 77 Third Council 77 Orosius 114, 124, 132 Historiae Adversus Paganus 125 Ostrogoths 49, 149 persecutions 149 Overbeck, Franz 120 Pachomius the Great 16 Palestine 41, 79, 158 Palmer, James 104 Pancras, martyr 49-51, 105 Pannonia 33, 160 Papula, saint 39 Papylus, martyr 17, 91 Paris 84, 94-95, 106 Paul, deacon 39 Paul the Apostle 51, 60, 153

Paulinus of Périgueux 34 Pelagius, pope 50-52, 97 Perpetua, martyr 16 persecutions 16-17, 49, 58, 61-62, 81, 87, 91, 93, 105-106, 118-119, 122, 141-143, 146, 153, 156, 167 (see also: martyrdom) Persian Empire 64, 66, 76 Peter the Apostle 51 Philippus, martyr 160 Philo of Alexandria 118 Phocas, martyr 53, 72-77, 86, 92 Phrygia 17, 91 Pictus, martyr 160 pilgrimage 82, 95, 157 pilgrims 33, 59, 74, 80, 87, 92, 95 Pizarro, Joaquin Martinez 109-110 Poetovio, battle 163 Pohl, Walter 130 Poitiers 33, 39, 84, 98, 105 Polycarp of Smyrna 16, 53-57, 80, 86 Polyeuctus, martyr 48, 53, 82-85, 97, 116 Procopius of Caesarea 80 The Buildings 80 Prosper of Aquitaine 125 Protasius, martyr 49-50, 52 Quirinus of Rome, martyr 160 Radegund, Frankish queen and nun 24, 39, 52, 97-98, 105 Ragnemod of Paris 94 Ravenna 70, 140 Reimitz, Helmut 126, 132-136 Reims 30-31, 106 relics 15-17, 21, 24, 26, 31, 37-39, 49, 51-52, 59, 63-64, 66, 68-70, 72, 74, 76, 78-79, 82, 84, 86, 88, 91-92, 94, 96-99, 101, 105, 111, 115, 137, 154, 161, 170 Remigius of Reims 155 resurrection 58, 60-62, 104, 115 Rhone, river 15 Riculf, priest 32 Riom 53, 55-56 Roman Empire 15, 19-20, 61, 83, 87, 90, 107, 121-122, 129, 134, 147, 155, 162 Romanness 147, 162 Rome 48-52, 71, 105, 118, 153, 160 Rouche, Michel 130 Rufinus of Aquileia 121, 125 Ecclesiastical History 121 Rusafa 65-67 Rutulus, martyr 160 Sabaria 160 Saint-Martin-des-Bois 79 Saint-Nazaire 151 saints, cult (see: cult of saints) Salaminias 66 Salvian of Marseilles 125, 147

195

Index

Saturnina, martyr 160 Saturninus, martyr 160 Schwartz, Eduard 120 Sebaste, forty martyrs of 53, 62-64 Septimius Severus, Roman Emperor 55 Sergiopolis (see: Rusafa) Sergius, martyr 53, 65-70, 72, 92, 94, 96, 151, 154 Seven Sleepers of Ephesus 53, 57-62, 76, 95 Severus of Antioch 76 Shanzer, Danuta 22-23, 47 Shaw, Richard 41 Sicharius and Chramnesindus 108-109 Sidonius Apollinaris 125 Sigeric, Frankish prince 156 Sigibert I, Frankish king 29-30, 32, 35, 84-85, 97 Sigismund, Frankish king 155-156 Simeon Stylites 40, 87-92, 152 Sinope 73-74 Smyrna 53-54 Sobota (Shivta) 67 Socrates Scholasticus 121 Soisson 30 Sozomen 121 Ecclesiastical History 63 Spain 20, 40-41, 48, 58, 87, 105, 132, 137-145, 149-150, 152, 170 Sulpicius Severus 17, 34 Dialogues 34 Vita Martini 17, 34 Sylvester I, pope 155 Symmachus, pope 49-50, 71 Syria 18, 41, 66, 72-73, 75, 77-78, 80, 87, 92, 95, 105 Syrians 25, 40, 57-58, 65, 68-70, 72-75, 77, 87, 92-95, 102, 135, 151, 162 Theodolinda, Lombard queen 51 Theodora, Roman Empress 67, 94 Theodore of Moposuestia 50 Theodoret of Cyrrhus 50, 121

Theodosius, pilgrim 80, 95 De Situ Terrae Sanctae 59, 80, 95 Theodosius I, Roman Emperor 58, 60, 83, 121, 163 Thessaloniki 70 Theudigisel, Visigothic king 138, 145 Toledo, Council of 146 Touraine 30 Tours 26, 29-38, 45, 52, 59, 64, 68-70, 85, 88, 106, 108, 115-116 Thrasamund, Vandal king 142-143 Three Chapters controversy 50-51, 153, 164 Trier 88 Trinity 13, 126, 140, 148 Valentinian, Roman Emperor 163 Van Dam, Raymond 21-22, 32, 47, 62-63, 65, 73, 103, 113, 141-142 Van Uytfanghe, Marc 103 Vandals 142-144, 146, 149 Vannes, Council 77 Vettius Epagatus, martyr 29, 42 Victor of Milan, martyr 52, 105 Victor of Vita 146-147 History of the Vandal Persecution 146 Victorius of Aquitaine 114, 124 Vieillard-Troiekouroff, May 65, 73 Vienne 17, 91 Vincentius, martyr 137 Virgin Mary 40, 58, 86, 104 Visigoths 40, 138, 141, 143-146, 149 Vita Caesarii 92 Vitalis, martyr 52 Vulfilaic of Trier 88-91, 95, 129 Waroch, count of Brittany 151-152 Wenskus, Reinhard 130 Wolfram, Herwig 130 Wood, Ian 24, 41, 50, 103 Woods, David 79-80 Zoticus, martyr 160