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History of the Franks
St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927
nb7
1. Although I am fain to continue this History. For the first six books of the History, as already noted in the Introduction, p. 41, the text of Omont and Collon, used in the translation, follows the MS. of Corbie (Paris, MS. lat. 17655). For the remaining books it follows MS. 9403 in the Royal Library at Brussels.
Under the Rule instituted by the Fathers. For the Rules obeyed in Gaul in the sixth century see Introduction, p. 367.
To offer them bread of oblation. The words used are: ut... eulogias ministraret. For eulogiae see note on IV. 35, and cf. VI. 23 (32).
He went on as follows. The vision of Salvius is of a type familiar to students of monastic life in the Middle Ages.
Led many away into captivity from the city. Albi was taken from the young Childebert by Guntram, and not restored until 587. Mummolus was in Guntram’s service until 581 (cf. VI. 1).
3. Childeric the Saxon. Cf. VIII. 18; X. 22. It seems doubtful whether he can be identified with the Childeric who died after robbing Church property, as related in G. C., ch. 70, and is described as having been primus apud Sigibertum regem.
4. In the cathedral (ad ecclesiam confugit). Cf. note to VI. 23 (32).
Officials of the treasury (thesaurarii). These would be subordinates of the cubicularius; see note to ch. 21 below.
6. A hostile party. Chilperic and his followers who were guilty of breaking the peace.
These kings. Chilperic and Childebert II, for the moment in alliance through the intrigues with the former of the Austrasian aristocratic party.
Judges and avengers. This introduction of the names of saints into a document, that their miraculous power (virtus) might strike the breaker of the agreement, …. This is the earliest mention of S. Polyeuctes, an early Christian martyr, who sought to force the pagans to condemn him by interfering with their services. For his Acta see Aubé, Polyeucte dans l’histoire (1882). SS. Hilary and Martin were both saints whose fame was especially connected with Gaul.
7. And hailed him under the name of Lothar (Chlotharium vocitaverunt). As the child had not yet been baptized, the words seem to imply a national wish that he should bear the name of his grandfather, Lothar I. They may also imply a certain dictation to the queen-mother, the notables being in a general sense guardians of a king during his minority, as in Austrasia: cf. ch. 19 below, and V. 1; VI. 4.
8. After the deacon had imposed silence on the people. This was perhaps after the formula for dismissal of the catechumens had been pronounced by the deacon. See Introduction, p. 337.
As late ye slew my brothers. Gregory’s words are: nec me, ut fratres meos nuper fecistis, interimatis. Guntram probably meant: do not let me be slain as you suffered my brothers to be murdered. These words rather imply that in his opinion the assassin who killed Chilperic was not an emissary of Brunhild. As at the time of this speech he was treating Fredegund with marked favour, he had not yet thought of accusing her. He may have suspected that Chilperic’s murder was an act of political revenge carried out by the order of persons to whom his government had become intolerable. As he speaks of the earlier murder of Sigibert in the same language, he may have regarded that too as primarily a political act; it must be remembered that Sigibert, through his minister Parthenius, was proposing to adopt a Gallo-Roman system of taxation highly unpopular with the free Franks. The speech of Guntram, in fact, affords some support to those who exonerate both queens of the murder of Chilperic. The warning later given to him (ch. 14 below) by the Austrasian envoys seems also in accord with this view.
The nephews whom I have made my adopted sons. The young Childebert II of Austrasia and the infant Lothar II, son of Chilperic. The adoption of the two young kings gave Guntram practical control of the whole of Gaul.
9. Close to the Gothic territory. That is, to the frontier of Septimania. Cf. Introduction, p. 145.
10. With whom he had entered into alliance two years before. As it was now 584, this must have been in 582, the year in which the pretender Gundovald was received by Mummolus on his arrival from Constantinople.
Brives-la-Gaillarde. In the department of Corrèze (Longnon, as above, p. 525). The Latin is Briva Curretia.
Made a progress through the surrounding cities. This progress on the part of a new king was a traditional custom; it was undertaken by Gundovald to impress the people and strengthen his position. Cf. IV. 9 (14), 10 (16).
The church of the blessed Mary at Toulouse. Now La Daurade, celebrated for its (lost) mosaics, and for decorative sculpture in stone, partly preserved (cf. P. Clemen, Monumentalmalerei in den Rheinlanden (1916), p. 183; C. Enlart, Manuel d’arch. française, i (1919), p. 143).
By the advancing enemy. The words are ab imminenti hoste. The translation adopted does some violence to the meaning of imminere. The alternative is to take hostis as the enemy of mankind, ever watching to do a mischief.
12. The men of Bourges were called out (commoti). The word commovere is constantly used in the sense of ‘levy’. Bourges belonged to Guntram, who now ordered the men liable for service to take the field against Tours, which city wished to place itself under Childebert. This was a legitimate wish, for the city and territory had belonged to Sigibert, Childebert’s father, and its usurpation by Chilperic gave Guntram no right to assert his individual authority there. But as Guntram claimed as adoptive father of Childebert, whose guardian he was, they thought it best to give him temporary allegiance.
Mareuil (Maroialum). On the Cher in Loir-et-Cher, arrondissement of Blois, where the church is dedicated to S. Martin.
The very herbs. These were laid on the tombs of miracle-working saints that they might thence derive miraculous healing power. They are mentioned in various passages in Gregory’s works.
13. As his father Lothar had done before him. The case was not exactly parallel, for Lothar’s brothers predeceased him, leaving no male issue, whereas Guntram’s brothers had left heirs. But Guntram, as adoptive father and guardian, was in fact almost as supreme as his father until the two young princes reached man’s estate.
Treasurer of Childebert (cubicularius). Cf. note to ch. 21 below.
Have these districts. The text is: ut pacis bonus rex Guntramnus accipiat, and the words pacis bonus must clearly be emended. We have read ut pagos bonus rex, &c. Others suggest ut pacem bonum rex Guntramnus accipiat, which seems less probable.
14. Egidius, Guntram Boso. Both most unwelcome personalities to Guntram. Their choice by Childebert seems a provocative act, and the conduct of the envoys in King Guntram’s presence bears out the supposition.
Fredegund, the sorceress. Fredegund is accused by Gregory of giving her emissaries potions to fortify their courage. Cf. IV. 36 (51). Doubtless she had the repute of power in witchcraft.
A Ballomer. This Teutonic word is said to mean a ‘false prince’, or pretender, and may well have been applied to the unfortunate Gundovald even in his early days, until it became his nickname.
The axe... which clave the heads of thy brothers; soon shall it sink in thine and cleave thy brain. Guntram’s brothers were stabbed, and not killed with the axe. But since death by an axe-blow on the skull was a Frankish form of execution, the envoys used it as appropriate to their general meaning. They were not themselves threatening the king, but warning him that a persistence in his present policy might well lead to his own violent death. We may perhaps draw from their warning the inference that Sigibert and Chilperic were not really killed by emissaries, but by their own discontented subjects. The whole scene between Guntram and the Austrasian envoys is of high interest as showing the almost insolent freedom with which Frankish notables dared to address a king.
15. The ex-domestic. Cf. note to IV. 3.
The princess Rigunth. The word actually used is regina, the title of ‘king’ and ‘queen’ being given by courtesy to the members of the royal family. Cf. n. on p. 550.
Stripped of his garments (nudatum vestimentis). Probably this means stripped of his cloak or mantle, which, like his baldric, may have been of a costly kind.
17. After that king’s decease. It was really done by the Council of Paris in 573, two years before Sigibert’s death. Bishop Egidius was rebuked for having consecrated Promotus to act as bishop in the Austrasian part of the diocese of Chartres, his residence being Châteaudun (Duchesne, Fastes épiscopaux de l’ancienne Gaule, iii, p. 83).
19. Rueil (Rotoialensis villa). This was in Seine-et-Oise, in the arrondissement of Versailles (Longnon, Géogr., p. 360). Cf. X. 28.
Promising her that they would bring him up with the very greatest care. The notables of Neustria are here seen taking the responsibility for bringing up the minor, Lothar II, as those of Austrasia had taken it when Childebert II was left fatherless after the death of Sigibert. But whereas in the latter case the notables were hostile to the queen-mother (Brunhild), in the present case they expressed their devotion to Fredegund, who, despite her crimes, always commanded the loyalty of Neustria. Cf. Introduction, p. 78.
20. By having his hands and feet cut off. The different character of the two queens is strikingly shown by their treatment of this cleric. Brunhild, whose life he threatened, suffers him to return to his mistress; Fredegund mutilates him for not succeeding in the murder. The cleric himself seems to have been strangely ill-informed of Fredegund’s nature, or he would never have been foolish enough to go back.
21. Eberulf the treasurer. Perhaps ‘chamberlain’ would better describe Eberulf’s functions, though among some Teutonic peoples the cubiculum was the same as the aerarium or thesaurus of the king, and the cubicularius was the keeper of its contents. Cf. Cassiodorus, Var. v. 44 (Theodoric to Trasimund, king of the Vandals: redeant ad cubiculum vestrum munera).
Here was the ringleader in the crime. It has been stated above (note to VI. 33 (46) that both Fredegund herself and Brunhild were themselves accused, the former by popular tradition handed down in the Gesta Francorum, the latter by Fredegar, who says that she sent an emissary named Falco to do the deed. Fredegund’s accusation against Eberulf appears to have been nothing but a spiteful slander, though the man’s character was as bad as her own. In ch. 8 above, Guntram, who seemed at first to have considered his brother’s murder as a political crime, now wrought himself into a fury against Eberulf, ‘whose seed he will destroy to the ninth generation ’.
22. The lands granted him by the king. These were lands granted for life (commendata), and reverting to the Crown at the grantee’s death unless the king thought fit to extend the grant to the heir. But they were not formally held by a feudal tenure with obligation to military service.
To keep him from the covering placed on the holy bishop’s tomb (quod ego eum vellem a sancti antestitis fimbriis separare). The fringes or borders (fimbriae) of the rich coverings laid on the tombs of the miracle-working saints were the especial aim of sick persons, who cut small pieces from them, and …. Gregory’s works on the confessors and martyrs are full of instances illustrating this practice (cf. IX. 21 and Introduction, p. 321). Eberulf probably wished rather to be assured of access to the tomb in case he were suddenly attacked; he would then have held the fringe of the covering in his hand. Gregory’s vision in the following paragraphs shows how men protected themselves by holding these fimbriae.
The bailiffs (actores) of the church estates. These were agents or stewards who administered Church property (qui bona, possessiones et facultates Ecclesiarum administrabant veluti earum oeconomi vel villici, Ducange).
23. Injuriosus. This was one of the names adopted by the early Christians to express their humility, but afterwards retained. It may be assumed that this Injuriosus was a Gallo-Roman whose name had been handed down in his family.
On the security of receipts from the public taxes. The count and his chief subordinates were responsible to the king for the revenue from taxes, the sums derived from which were annually handed over to the king by the count in person. Cf. Introduction, p. 203. Eunomius had borrowed the money to make up the sum due from him, promising to repay it from revenue not yet collected.
To clear himself by oath (ut se insontem redderet sacramento). This was the common escape from a deadlock in the Frankish courts.
That the tribune Medard was involved in the affair. The tribunus was a subordinate of the count and his vicarii (Introduction, p. 203, and n. to X. 21 on p. 598). His functions were connected with the collection of revenue and the charge of prisoners, his authority extending over a vicus. Baudonivia, in her Life of S. Radegund, relates how on the day of the saint’s death Domolen, a tribunus fisci, dreamed that Radegund arrived in his vicus, and demanded that for her sake all prisoners should be released (i, ch. 38, in M. G. H., Scriptores rerum merovingicarum, vol. ii).
In Byzantine Italy the term tribunus seems to have been equivalent to comes (F. H. Dudden, Gregory the Great, i, p. 183). Cf. below, X. 20.
24. Broke a gold chalice... had it made into coins. This passage illustrates the valuable nature of the church plate in Merovingian cathedrals (cf. Introduction, pp. 333, 430). For a similar sacrifice of chalices, cf. Mabillon, Liturgie gallicane, i, ch. 7.
25. Marileif, who had been the chief physician. He is here called primus medicorum in domo Chilperic regis: royal physicians as a class received the Greek name of archiater (cf. V. 8 (14); X. 15). See also Introduction, p. 417.
The authority of the Church. Guntram’s men restored Marileif to the social grade from which he had risen, perhaps that of serf.
26. An oath in the name of King Childebert. This action on the part of Gundovald shows from what quarter the encouragement of his enterprise came.
27. Magnulf. It seems unlikely that this Magnulf can be identified with the brother of Duke Lupus whom Fortunatus praises in a metrical letter (Carm. vii. 10) as a good legist and governor.
Sigulf, who had in like manner pretended to the throne. We know nothing definite as to this enterprise. Sigulf is mentioned in IV. 33 (47) as a supporter of King Sigibert, who in 572 hunted Chilperic’s son Chlodovech out of Toulouse ‘like a stag’. If he embarked on the career of a pretender to the Austrasian throne it may have been after Sigibert’s death in 575.
Duke Desiderius. This was Chilperic’s duke who, on his master’s death, laid hands on Princess Rigunth’s treasure and joined Mummolus, Gundovald’s chief supporter. Cf. V. 7 (13), 29 (39); VI. 7 (12), 22 (31); VII. 9.
In the church house. As previously noted on pp. 488 and 554, the residence of the priest or bishop, adjoining the church.
28. Bladast. Chilperic’s duke in Aquitaine (cf. VI. 7 (12), 22 (31)). But Gregory has not previously mentioned him as joining Gundovald.
29. Above all I warn thee to do no outrage to the hallowed church. It has been remarked in the Introduction how typical this injunction was of Guntram’s character: the destruction of his enemy mattered little so long as the blood was shed outside the precincts. The ruthless Fredegund made no such stipulations.
Began to take notice of omens, and to find them unfavourable. He probably observed what birds, &c., he met, and in what position. Cf. Loebell, Gregor von Tours, p. 271; Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, pp. 1081 ff. (Giesebrecht, ad loc.).
At the holy church. i. e. in the church house.
Strolled together about the forecourt of the church house (per atrium domus basilicae deambulare coeperunt). The sequel suggests that the murder was done in the atrium of the church. Possibly the ‘church house’ abutted on the atrium.
At thy lodging (ad metatum tuum). Eberulf had first established himself in the vestry. He would appear to have later removed his quarters to some dependency of the church within the precincts.
Thy mightiness (strenuitas tua). This kind of appellation was common in the sixth century. It came down from late Roman times, and examples are frequent in the official correspondence of Theodoric, the Ostrogoth king of Italy.
Those of Latium and those of Gaza (Laticina videlicet atque Gazitina). Italian and Syrian wines are apparently contrasted. In G. C., ch. 64, we read of vinum Gazetum, a strong wine of Gaza used for the Sacrament. Gaza wine was popular in Gaul and in the West. Cf. Sidonius, Carm. xvii. 15; Cassiodorus, Var. xii. 12; Isidore, Origines, xxii; Corippus, De laude Iustini, iii. 87 (Arndt, ad loc.).
Under the beds. The abbot’s ‘cell’ was clearly a room of some dimensions, having more than one window, and more than one bed. Perhaps, like bishops, abbots did not sleep alone, and there were beds for one or more monks in their quarters.
Some of the almsmen attached to the church, with other of the poor (Nonnulli etiam matriculariorum et reliquorum pauperum). Churches often had a roll or list (matricula) of poor who were regularly housed and fed. Matricula thus came to mean the whole body of persons benefited, who were known as matricularii. The other almsmen were, perhaps, people waiting to get their names on the list, and therefore living more precariously upon alms. Cf. Introduction, p. 276.
Whom the holy bishop suffered to endure such things. The words in the text are: quem talia beatus antistes perferre permisit. The reference is to Eberulf.
30. Hidden under the wax of sunk wooden tablets. The message was written on the hollowed or sunk surface; this was then covered by wax, on which the person using such tablets wrote with a stylus. Its presence would therefore be undetected by any one whose suspicions were not aroused. The custom of writing on wax tablets lasted through the Middle Ages long after parchment and paper were in general use. For memoranda they were very convenient, since the writing was easily smoothed away, leaving the wax ready for a new entry.
31. Bishop Bertram. We have already met with this rather equivocal character in the History (V. 12 (18), 49); he was a connexion of King Guntram, but had not hesitated to seek the favour of Chilperic, and was now inclined to intrigue with Gundovald. Cf. also VIII. 2, 7, 20; IX. 33.
Sergius. This saint, usually mentioned in conjunction with S Bacchus, was especially venerated in Syria, where he suffered martyrdom in the third century. Hence a Syrian would be likely to possess his relics. For references to him see U. Chevalier, Rép. des sources hist. du Moyen Âge: Bio-bibliogr., col. 4211.
Caused him to be tonsured against his will, because he coveted his possessions. Perhaps only for the Church, which would have obtained them after his death.
The diploma (praeceptio). This was regularly granted by the king. Cf. Introduction, p. 288.
Though he was metropolitan. The passage shows that at this time Dax was in the province of Bordeaux (Longnon, Géogr., p. 590).
32. Bearing consecrated rods according to the custom of the Franks (virgis consecratis iuxta ritum Francorum). These may have been wooden staves with flat surfaces, on which were inscribed their credentials; cf. Waitz, Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte, ii, p. 234. Fortunatus (Carm. vii. 18) says that the barbarians wrote their runes on flat beechen virgulae:
Barbara fraxineis pingatur runa tabellis,
Quodque papyrus agit virgula plana valet.
He is rebuking his friend Flavus for not writing to him, and suggests that his excuse may be lack of paper. If so, let him try any substitute he can think of, among others the flat virgulae of beech used by the Franks.
The whole treasure had been seized by Gundovald. It had been placed under seals by Desiderius, Chilperic’s disloyal duke (VII. 19).
33. Placed his spear in the hand of King Childebert. The spear, not the sceptre, was the sign of royal power among the Franks. The gold ring of Childeric found at Tournay shows that king with his spear (Babelon, Le tombeau du roi Childeric (Paris, 1922), Fig. 3, p. 35, and Hist. de la gravure sur gemmes en France (1902), Fig. 1, p. 4). On the coins the case is the same.
No male of my line. The actual words are nihil... de stirpe mea remansit; but the reference is necessarily to male children. Guntram leaves out of account his other nephew, the infant Lothar II, though after a preliminary period of doubt he had accepted him as really the son of his brother Chilperic. He never, however, placed Lothar on the same footing as Childebert; nor did he propose to leave him anything but a small part of his kingdom. Childebert was now (A. D. 585) in his fifteenth year, possibly the age at which a Frankish prince attained his majority.
All his people (omnem exercitum). This really means, through such representatives of the Frankish people in Guntram’s kingdom as could be present. Theoretically he addressed his remarks to all his male followers, who in early Merovingian days attended in arms at the mallum or mallus, the popular assembly, exercitus and populus being practically the same thing. The banquet was probably given in a hall or chamber where only a chosen few could attend.
Writing to Gundovald or receiving letters from him in return. Guntram suspected Brunhild of backing the pretender’s cause; he even insinuated that she wished to marry him (cf. IX. 28). His own forged letter to Gundovald, written in her name (see ch. 34), is an interesting commentary on his suspicion. The meeting of Childebert with his uncle was one of the marks of the young king’s emancipation from his mother’s complete control. It is probable that Guntram’s suspicion of Brunhild was unfounded; the introduction of the pretender into Gaul was the work of the aristocratic party in Austrasia, which was always bitterly hostile to the queen-mother.
34. Convenae. The place bearing this name, the Lugdunum Convenarum of earlier times, had belonged to the Visigoths before it passed successively into the hands of Charibert, Chilperic, and Guntram. After the destruction of the place by Guntram’s troops, recorded by Gregory, the site remained deserted until the latter part of the eleventh century, when Bertrand, appointed bishop, restored the church and attracted inhabitants to the place. Dying in 1152, he was canonized, and towards the end of the century his name had already replaced that of Convenae, the city being henceforth known as Saint-Bertrand. The combination of the new and old names yielded Saint Bertrand-de-Comminges, now chef-lieu of the arrondissement of Saint-Gaudens, Haute-Garonne (Longnon, Géogr., pp. 591-2). Fredegar (iii. 89) adds to the list of those with Gundovald, Syagrius, bishop of Autun, and Flavius, bishop of Chalon-sur-Saône.
In V. P. viii. 11 a story is told of a man at the siege of Convenae who made a vow of two silver chalices if he returned safely. He did return, but gave only one chalice, whereupon S. Nicetius appeared to him in a vision, warning him to keep his word. In the same chapter of V. P., Syagrius, bishop of Autun, is said to have told King Guntram how in one night S. Nicetius appeared in seven distinct prisons in the king’s territory, and released all the prisoners, Guntram’s judges not daring to seize them again.
Duke Desiderius had abandoned his cause. This personage had probably concluded that the reconciliation of Guntram with Childebert, and the imminent concentration of their armies against the pretender, had destroyed all prospect of success. If it was he who had brought to Gundovald the camel-loads of treasure taken from Princess Rigunth, described in the next chapter, he was at any rate forced to suffer some material loss.
In the name of Queen Brunhild. Cf. ch. 33, last note.
35. Camels. This passage shows that in the sixth century camels were used for transport in the south of France.
They found it filled with all manner of treasure belonging to the inhabitants of the place. Churches, especially those dedicated to miracle-working saints, were liable to be used in this kind of way as repositories or banks; cf. Introduction, p. 320. According to Fortunatus the church containing the remains of S. Vincent, on the left bank of the Garonne, had been roofed with tin by Leontius, bishop of Bordeaux about 560 (Carm. i. 8). In Carm. i. 9 he says that this Leontius consecrated to S. Vincent a pagan temple in a spot called Vernemetis, which in Celtic meant ‘great temple’. This second site may have been the scene of S. Vincent’s martyrdom (Longnon, pp. 550 and 551).
Began brawling. The text is: Plurimi vero semutua sedicione propriis se iaculis sauciabant. Some read semoti a seditione: ‘leaving the hurly-burly.’ But if semutua is divided into two words, the se governed by sauciabant, an intelligible meaning is obtained without either this emendation or inter se mota seditione, suggested by others. The vengeance of the martyr on those who violated his church is mentioned in G. M., ch. 104.
36. And there was left only one young child. Gundovald’s statements did not accord with facts. He had arrived in Gaul in 582, when Chilperic was still living (cf. VI. 16 (24). He ascribes to the time of Guntram Boso’s visit to Constantinople the state of affairs existing at the time of his speech (585).
In twelve sacred places received his oath. Probably the pair went from altar to altar in those churches of Constantinople dedicated to ‘powerful’ saints. The number of oaths taken illustrates the distrust with which Gundovald regarded his guest.
Radegund at Poitiers and Ingitrude at Tours. The reference of Gundovald to so respected a name as that of Radegund confirms in our minds the suspicion that he was the unhappy victim of circumstances, rather than an unscrupulous intriguer. He may have been known to these ladies of the monastic world as a religious man. Radegund had sent to Constantinople to beg a fragment of the True Cross, and her messengers, during their stay in the imperial city, may well have brought back news of so remarkable a Frankish resident as Gundovald.
37. Leudegisel. Guntram’s commander. Fredegar (iv. 2), says that Leudegisel was Marshal, or Count of the Stables, and that Guntram sent with him the patrician Aegilan (Leudegisil comestaboli et Aegilanem patricium). For Aegilan cf. also VIII. 30.
38. Ullo, count of Bourges, and by Boso. The Boso here mentioned is rather the leader of the name mentioned in IX. 31, than the notorious Guntram Boso. Ullo or Ollo is miswritten a little lower down as Bolo, ab Ullone becoming a Bolone, an obvious copyist’s error.
Made the sign of the Lord’s Cross. The words are: Haec cum dixisset, consignans se cruce dominica abire coepit cum hominibus supradictis. This can only mean that he ‘crossed himself ’.
The sign of the Cross is mentioned elsewhere by Gregory, as by Gregory the Great, in whose Dialogues (iii. 3) we read of it as rendering poison harmless, and performing other miracles (i. 10; ii. 3; ili. 5, 6); also as made before meals or before going to sleep (i. 4; iii. 7).
Ullo pushed him down. Fredegar (iii. 89 and iv. 2) says that Boso himself cast Gundovald down: Exinde de rupe a Bosone duce praecipitatus interiit, and Gundovaldus a Bosone duce... de cacumine rupis impingitur, ibique diruptus moritur. The whole story of Gundovald is discussed by Fauriel, Hist. de la Gaule méridionale, ii, ch. xvi.
39. Thus he fell and died. Fredegar (iv. 4) gives the name of the place as Senuvia, which Jacobs, p. 227, identifies with Chenove.
To entice Gundovald. Her object doubtless was to embarrass Guntram, against whom she now entertained resentment.
40. The wife of Mummolus. Fredegar (Chron. iv. 4) says that her name was Sidonia.
Talents of silver, and... gold. Ducange and other authorities hold that talents here, as elsewhere, has the sense of one pound only, not of a hundred or fifty pounds.
42. Belonging to the blessed Martin. That is, church property.
44. Ageric, bishop of Verdun. This bishop had held the see for half a century. Fortunatus addressed two poems to him (Carm. iii. 29, 30). For his death see IX. 23.
47. A cruel feud now arose between citizens of Tours. This terrible chapter is one of the most shocking in Gregory’s writings; no passage of equal length in literature can better show the Dark Ages at their worst. We see a law that shelters lawlessness, a society sunk in savagery, a Church too powerless to do more than patch the present evil and break existing law to prevent worse things. The persons concerned are all, or nearly all, free Franks, members of the conquering race, safe from the death penalty, except at the hands of the king and his great men, and allowed by the law to buy immunity with money. As such they could not be imprisoned by the court, and if they pleaded poverty could apparently escape without any greater unpleasantness than that of being liable to pay the money at their convenience. A clear account of this feud at Tours is given by C. Galy, La famille à l’époque mérov., pp. 215-230. Cf. for other feuds, III. 35; V. 5; VIII. 18; X. 27.
Manthelan (Mantalomagus vicus). The place is in the department of Indre-et-Loire, arrondissement of Loches (Longnon, p. 278).
Before a tribunal of citizens. Savigny (Geschichte des römischen Rechts im Mittelalter, i, p. 268 (1st ed.)) sees in this chapter a proof that Roman municipal institutions survived under the Franks. Loebell (Gregor von Tours und seine Zeit, p. 52) argues with greater probability that as the parties to the feud were Franks, the court was that of the count, and that the ‘citizens’ were chiefly other Franks acting as assessors of the count, the case being tried under Frankish law. In X. 27 a feud between Frankish families was so obstinate and bloodthirsty that even Fredegund was unable to compose it, and applied to the stubborn principals the unanswerable argument of the axe.
Acting in conjunction with the judge. i. e. the count. It must be remembered that Gregory, as bishop of Tours, had his own recognized judicial functions and his own court. Very often in matters of justice the count and the bishop were at loggerheads; their active collaboration on the present occasion marks the extreme gravity of the case.
The Church shall redeem the debt from her own moneys. Here we see the Church apparently disregarding the law to tide over the crisis, and at all costs check the horrible vendetta. The guilty were to have their fines paid for them if only they would cease from further assassination; the burden of their sole and most inadequate punishment was to be lightened. We see at the close of the chapter that in the end a part of the compositions was actually paid out of Church funds.
From his master’s baldric (extracto baltei gladio). The text suggests that the serf drew a sword from his own baldric. But it seems improbable that a serf should have been allowed to work armed in this fashion.