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From Town to Country: The Christianisation of the Touraine 370–600

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

C. E. Stancliffe
C. E. Stancliffe*
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
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Extract

When Martin became bishop of Tours c370, Christianity had already taken root in the town; but the surrounding countryside was still untouched by the new religion. Although it was over fifty years since Constantine had first recognised Christianity, and thirty-three years since Tours had had a permanent bishop, the attention of the Gallic bishops had been distracted first by the Arian heresy, and latterly by Julian’s revival of paganism. Martin was therefore the first bishop of Tours to concern himself with the conversion of the countryside, and this work was continued by his successors in the fifth and sixth centuries.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 16: The Church in Town and Countryside , 1979 , pp. 43 - 59
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1979

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References

1 Gregory [of Tours] Hist[oriae] 10, 31, ii; ed Krusch, B. and Levison, W., MGH SRM I.1 (new ed 1951) pp 526-7Google Scholar.

2 Ibid 10, 31.

3 [Sulpicius Severas] V[ita] M[artini] (c396); D[ialogi] (c404-6); ed Halm, C., CSEL 1 (1866)Google Scholar.

4 [Forma Orbis Romani: Carte archéologique de la Caule romaine], directed by A. Grenier and P. M. Duval, 13: Boussard, [J.], Carte [et Texte du département d’Indre-et-Loire] (Paris 1960)Google Scholar. It is on this that the archaeological information in fig 1 is based, although the map and the classification of material are my own.

5 ‘[Essai sur] le peuplement [de la Touraine du 1er au viiie siècle]’. Moyen Age 60 (1954) pp 261-91. This has provided me with the settlement evidence indicated on fig 4, although the map is my own.

6 Boussard, ‘le peuplement’ pp 264 seq, 287-9; de la Blache, P. Vidal, Tableau de la Géographie de la France (Paris 1908) pp 163-70Google Scholar.

7 See Boussard, J., ‘Étude sur la ville de Tours du 1er au ive siècle’. Revue des études anciennes, 4 ser, 50 (Bordeaux 1948) pp 313-29Google Scholar.

8 Grenier, [A.], Manuel [d’archéologie gallo-romaine], 4 parts in 7 vols (Paris 1931-60) part 2, 2 (1934) pp 695–726 Google Scholar, esp 719 seq. Seston, [W.], ‘Note [sur les origines religieuses des paroisses rurales]’, Revue d’Histoire et de Philosophie religieuses 15 (Strasbourg 1935) pp 244-6Google Scholar.

9 The whole question of rural settlement in Gaul is much discussed at the moment. See Wightman, E. M., ‘The pattern of rural settlement in Roman Gaul’, Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt (1974- in progress) 2, 4, ed Temporini, H. and Haase, W. (Berlin/New York 1975) pp 584–657 Google Scholar, esp 646-54; [R.] Agache, ‘La campagne [à l’époque romaine dans les grandes plaines du Nord de la France d’après les photographies aériennes]’ ibid pp 658-713, esp 700-2; Percival, J., The Roman Villa (London 1976) cap 6 Google Scholar; Grenier Manuel pp 733-5.

10 Boussard Carte pp 25-26.

11 Compare Gregory Hist 5, 4, ‘civitatem et omnia suburbana eius’; see also Latouche, R., The Birth of Western Economy (Eng tr London 1961) pp 109 Google Scholar seq.

12 Boussard ‘le peuplement’ pp 273-5; Carte pp 11-12.

13 Compare the settlement evidence on figs 1 and 4.

14 Boussard ‘le peuplement’ pp 278-91.

15 This is implicit in Sulpicius, D, 1, 27, 4.

16 The source is Gregory Hist 10, 31. Unless otherwise indicated, I have followed the identifications of Longnon, [A.], Géographie [de la Gaule au VIe siècle] (Paris 1878) pp 260 Google Scholar seq.

17 ‘in confinio Biturigum adque Turonorum’, Sulpicius, D, 2, 8, 7.

18 Longnon Géographie pp 264-6, followed by Vieillard-Troiekouroff, [M.], [Les monuments religieux de la Gaule d’après les oeuvres de Grégoire de Tours] (Paris 1976) p 72 Google Scholar.

19 Notably Mabille, who points to a tenth-century charter which designates Bléré as villa Bidrada. See Longnon Géographie p 265, and Mabille, E., ‘Notice sur les divisions territoriales et la topographie de l’ancienne province de la Touraine’, BEC 25, 5 ser, 5 (1864) p 248 Google Scholar. Mabille is followed by Boussard ‘le peuplement’ p 276; and by Griffe, [E.] [La Gaule chrétienne à l’époque romaine], 3 vols (Paris 1947-65) 3 p 282 Google Scholar.

20 Ibid p 282.

21 Both Perpetuus’s successor, Volusianus, and the next bishop, Virus, were exiled by the Visigoths; but compare also below p 51.

22 Gregory Hist 10, 31, xviii.

23 Compare Seston ‘Note’ pp 245-9.

24 Agache ‘La campagne’ p 697.

25 VM 13, 9.

26 D 3, 8, 4-7.

27 The extensive archaeological remains at Candes may indicate a temple: see Boussard Carte p 38. Martin definitely founded a church there: Sulpicius epp 3, 6, 9.

28 Sculptured stones from this temple were found in the Merovingian foundations of the twelfth-century church: see Boussard, Carte p 15.

29 This was certainly so in the case of Martin: VM caps 13-15.

30 This may be misleading in individual cases, as some sites marked as Roman may have been abandoned by the fifth century, while other sites of our period may await discovery. However, the general picture is reasonably clear.

31 On this sec Griffe pp 291-6.

32 As, for instance, in Gregory’s de [passione et] virt[utibus Sancti] Jul[iani martyris] cap 50; ed Krusch, B., MCH SRM 1, 2 (new ed 1969) pp 133-4Google Scholar.

33 Chaume, M., ‘Le mode de constitution et de délimitation des paroisses rurales aux temps mérovingiens et carolingiens’, Revue Mabillon 27 (Ligugé 1937) pp 61–73 Google Scholar at p 65.

34 He appears to rely entirely on the evidence of church dedications: ibid p 65, n 1.

35 For example, Orleans (AD 511) §25; Concilia Galliae 511-695, ed de Clercq, C., CC 148A (1963) p 11 Google Scholar.

36 Compare Beck, [H. G. J.], [The] Pastoral Care [of Souls in south-east France during the sixth century], Analecta Gregoriana 51 (Rome 1950) p 74 Google Scholar; Fisher, J. D. C., Christian Initiation: Baptism in the Medieval West, Alcuin Club Coll, no 47 (London 1965) pp 72-4Google Scholar.

37 In time, of course, this changed, and the estate churches became full parish churches. In southern Gaul this development began in the sixth century: Beck, Pastoral Care, pp 75-6; Griffe pp 295-6.

38 § 20; CC 148 A pp 183-4; Compare Beck, Pastoral Care, p 79; Riché, [P.], Education [et Culture dans l’Occident barbare, vie-viiie siècles] (3 ed Paris 1962) pp 170-1Google Scholar.

39 Assuming that we accept the identification of Briotreidis with Bléré.

40 Above p 46.

41 Details are given by Gregory Hist 10, 31. These are interpreted slightly differently by Longnon, Géographie pp 245-60, and by Vieillard-Troiekouroffpp 304-29.

42 Note that Gregory gives us details of his work on the churches in Tours itself, while not finding space to record the names of those he has dedicated in the countryside : Hist 10, 31, xviii.

43 I do not think that sociological analysis on its own can ‘explain’ religious conversion; but it can usefully throw light upon the sort of social conditions in which people are more likely to respond to the call of a prophetic religion. It can analyse the soil in which the word of God falls, and predict whether it has a high or low chance of taking.

44 Nock, A. D., Conversion (Oxford 1933) pp 1–10 Google Scholar.

45 Peter, Brown, The World of Late Antiquity (paperback ed London 1971) cap 2, esp pp 60 Google Scholar seq.

46 In Tours itself, it was the hostility of pagans which prevented the city from having a permanent bishop till c333 : Gregory Hist 1, 48 and 10, 31, ii.

47 Powell, T. G. E., The Celts (paperback ed London 1963) pp 116-20Google Scholar; Jullian, C., Histoire de la Gaule, 8 vols (Paris 1908-20) 6, cap 1, esp pp 53–64 Google Scholar; Leclercq, H., art ‘Paganisme’, § xxix, DACL 13, 1, cols 311-29Google Scholar.

48 Gregory Hist 6, 44.

49 These are the objections which Arnobius and Prudentius sought to answer. See Dölger, F. J., ‘Christliche Grundbesitzer und heidnische Landarbeiter, Antike und Christentum, 6 vols (Münster im Westfalen 1929-50) 6 pp 297–320 Google Scholar, esp 298-300.

50 Gregory, Hist 10, 31, 6 Google Scholar. It is true that some feast days were fixed on pagan festivals (for example, Christmas on the day of Sol invictus); but even here, the accommodation was more to the oriental mystery religions.

51 This does not necessarily mean that none whatever were held, even in the countryside; but it does reveal which feasts the bishop regarded as of major importance. The origins of the ‘Major Rogations’ to protect crops (distinguish from the ‘Minor Rogations’, to protect people from pestilence) are obscure; but they seem to have been celebrated in Rome under Gregory I (DACL 9, 2, col 1551). Note also that the synod of Riez in 439 mentions blessings ‘per familias, per agros, per privatas domos’ (can 4; CC 148, p 68); while later Gallic liturgical books contain at least some readings and prayers suitable for farmers, for example, The Bobbio Missal, ed Lowe, E. A., HBS 58 (1920) pp 88–90 Google Scholar.

52 Griffe pp 289-90.

53 Note the revealing mistake made by Martin, VM 12, 2.

54 VM 15, 4; compare D 2, 4, 4-9.

55 For example ibid 2, 11.

56 Stancliffe, C.E., Sulpicius’ Saint Martin, unpubl Oxford D Phil thesis (1978) p 435 Google Scholar and cap 12, esp pp 348-50. On Brice compare D 3, 15, 2 and 1, 21, 3-5.

57 Bishop Perpetuus commissioned Paulinus of Périgueux to versify Sulpicius’s Martinian writings; and to conclude this work he transmitted to Paulinus accounts of miracles wrought recently by Martin’s virtus. These form the sixth book of Paulinus’s poem, de vita Martini, composed c462-4. It is edited by Petschenig, M., CSEL 16 (1888)Google Scholar.

58 Paulinus concludes, ‘Haec . . . signavi indoctus populo relegenda fideli’ (ibid 6, lines 500-1); and he tells stories with an obvious moralising intent : for example 6 lines 67-8; 6 lines 165-214. For Gregory, see below.

59 Gregory, In gloria confessorum, cap 2; ed Krusch, , MGH SRM 1, 1 pp 299–300 Google Scholar.

60 Of course, this was not the only way the church sought to reach people; but it is all I have the space to consider here. Compare Riché Education pp 536-47.

61 In gloria martyrum, pref; Vita patrum, pref; both ed by Krusch, , MGH SRM 1, 2 pp 37 Google Scholar, 212.

62 Hist 6, 5; 6, 40.

63 Compare de virt[utibus beati] Mart[ini episcopi] pref, ed Krusch, , MGH SRM 1, 2 p 136 Google Scholar.

64 Ibid 2, 40.

65 Ibid 1, 26 & 27.

66 Ibid 3, 18; 4, 15.

67 Theodosian Code 9, 16, 3; ed Mommsen, T. and Meyer, P. M., Theodosiani libri xvi, 2 vols (Berlin 1905) 1 Google Scholar.

68 Sulpicius D 3, 7.

69 Gregory, de virt Mart 1, 34 Google Scholar.

70 Gregory de virt Jul caps 5, 6.