In 589, a great flood of the Tiber river sent a torrent of water rushing through the city of Rome
Adversus paganos: Disaster, Dragons, and Episcopal Authority in Gregory of Tours
December 8, 2014 By
Hagiography and the Experience of the Holy in the Work of Gregory of Tours
November 9, 2014 By
The rich literature associated with the Desert Fathers provides convincing evidence of the important role played by charismatic figures in the transformation of Late Antiquity.
The Frankish Pretender Gundovald, 582–585. A Crisis of Merovingian Blood
October 12, 2014 By
In the autumn of 582, a claimant to Frankish kingship named Gundovald landed in Marseilles, returning from exile in Constantinople with covert support from very powerful persons in the kingdom.
The Birth of the Monarchy out of Violent Death
August 30, 2014 By
There were many motives for murdering a king.
The secret histories of Gregory of Tours
July 9, 2014 By
In recent years the spiritual side of Gregory’s Histories has been firmly brought into focus, but the possibility that there may be a political aspect to them and to their literary form has been little considered
Blended and Extended Families in Carolingian Charters
May 27, 2014 By
This is a summary of a paper on Carolingian charters and the relationship between step and blended families.
Merovingian Diplomacy: Practice and purpose in the sixth century
April 6, 2014 By
The practise of diplomacy has not been much studied in Merovingian Gaul, although there are numerous works that deal with its political dealings with its neighbours and with the administration and culture of Gaul at this time.
The ‘second Jezebel’: representations of the sixth-century Queen Brunhild
January 26, 2014 By
The sixth century Merovingian queen Brunhild is a figure of extremes, lauded by Pope Gregory the Great as ‘most excellent daughter’ and later defiled as ‘the enemy of
Christianity’.
The Liber Historiae Francorum – a Model for a New Frankish Self-confidence
August 7, 2013 By
The Liber Historiae Francorum – a Model for a New Frankish Self-confidence Philipp Dörler Networks and Neighbours, Volume One, Number One (2013) The Liber historiae Francorum was influenced by different historiographic traditions. In this paper, I pursue two arguments. First, I believe that the author of the Liber historiae Francorum juxtaposes and slightly transforms these […]
Tenebrae Refulgeant: Celestial Signa in Gregory of Tours
March 24, 2013 By
Celestial portents appear frequently in the Historiae of Bishop Gregory of Tours (ca. 539–94). Gregory carefully distinguished between the interpretation of celestial signs and horoscopic astrology by describing signs as natural, albeit miraculous, elements of God’s Creation.
The ‘Prehistory’ of Gregory of Tours: An Analysis of Books I-IV of Gregory’s Histories
February 11, 2013 By
In northern Gaul in the second half of the sixth century, a bishop of Tours, Georgius Florentius Gregorius, known to posterity as Gregory of Tours, composed eight books of hagiography and ten books of history. These testaments survive as evidence of the politics, society and theology of this post-imperial world.
Relics, Religious Authority, and the Sanctification of Domestic Space in the Home Gregory of Tours: An Analysis of the Glory of the Confessors 20
March 6, 2012 By
With the rival clerics out of the way, Gregory still needed to solidify his new and publicly contested position with local elites and other powerful members of his new congregation. Thus, much of what Gregory did early in his episcopacy was intended to convince the community at Tours that he was their right man.
Gregory of Tours, Monastic Timekeeping, and Early Christian Attitudes to Astronomy
December 11, 2011 By
If there was little scientific progress in the early Middle Ages, a rudimentary scientific activity was nonetheless essential to that later quest for learning.
A Merovingian Commentary on the Four Gospels
June 26, 2011 By
A Merovingian Commentary on the Four Gospels Hen, Yitzhak Revue des Etudes Augustiniennes, 49 (2003) Abstract The Bible was a vital force in early medieval Francia. It offered Merovingian authors a veiled way of talking about the current order of things, and it provided them with an ideal image, against which the present could be […]
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