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The Work of Gregory of Tours in the Light of Modern Research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

J. M. Wallace-Hadrill
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Extract

It is now three years since Wilhelm Levison, one of the last of the great Monumenta editors, died at Durham. Among the tasks he left unfinished were two of major importance to those whose concern is with Frankish studies. The first, a much-needed edition of the Lex Salica, he seems to have brought no nearer completion than had his predecessor, Bruno Krusch, or any other of the long line of Monumenta scholars who broke their hearts in the attempt to unravel it. The second, the completion of the new Monumenta edition of the Historia Francorum of Gregory of Tours, to supersede that of Arndt and Krusch, was a good deal further advanced. In fact, the text itself had already appeared in print under the name of Bruno Krusch alone, although it was an open secret that a great part of the burden of editing had fallen on Levison's shoulders. What remained—and still remains—to be published is the critical introduction, w*here Levison is under-stood to have developed views on the manuscript tradition that owed less to Krusch than to Krusch's own master, Wilhelm Arndt. While this introduction remains unpublished it is hazardous for others to proceed very far with work based on the text of the Historia Francorum. My own intention here is to do no more than to present an interim report on some of the ways in which historians have been using Gregory in the twenty years since the publication of Dill's and Dalton's books; for they were the last English scholars to whom Frankish studies seemed important for themselves. My debt to them is great.

Type
Research Article
Information
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 1 , December 1951 , pp. 25 - 45
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1951

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References

page 25 note 1 See Holtzmann's, W. preface to Aus Rheinischer und Fränkischer Frkühzeit (Düsseldorf, 1948)Google Scholar, which is a memorial collection of Levison's papers; and Stein, S., ‘Lex Salica 1’, Speculum, xxii (1947), 113–34CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 25 note 2 M[onumenta] G[ermaniae] H[istorica], S[criptores] R[erum] M[erovingicarum], fasc. 1 (Books i–vi. 29), 1937; and fasc. 2 (Books vi. 30–x), 1942. Copies are still so rare in this country that it has been thought best to give references in this paper to the edition of H. Omont and G. Collon, revised by R. Poupardin (Paris, 1913).

page 25 note 3 Professor Holtzmann is preparing the work for publication.

page 26 note 1 Dill, S., Roman Society in Gaul in the Merovingian Age (1926)Google Scholar.

page 26 note 2 Dalton, O. M., The History of the Franks by Gregory of Tours, translated with an introduction, 2 vols. (1927)Google Scholar.

page 26 note 3 Historia Ecclesiastica, v. 24 (ed. Plummer, C., i. 357)Google Scholar.

page 26 note 4 Hist. Franc., x. 31 (pp. 463–5); I have used Dalton's translation. Levison, (SRM, iv. 781)Google Scholar drew attention to the subscription of Irenaeus of Lyon, in Rufinus, Hist. Eccl., v. 20, 2(ed. Mommsen, p.483)Google Scholar; ‘adiuro te, inquit, qui transcripseris librum hunc… ut conferas haec quae scribis et emendes diligenter ad exemplaria'.

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page 27 note 2 Vinay, G., San Gregorio di Tours (Turin, 1940), pp. 173 and 190Google Scholar, argues that the longer version is older than the shorter.

page 27 note 3 As, for example, the sermon in Hist. Franc., x. 1. See the arguments of Chadwick, O., ‘Gregory of Tours and Gregory the Great’, Journal of Theological Studies, 1 (1949), pp. 38–49CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 27 note 4 In so far as this is possible without a critical edition of the works of Bede, ‘probably the greatest lack in the whole field of English ecclesiastical history’ (Colgrave, B., Two Lives of Saint Cuthbert, p. vii)Google Scholar.

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page 28 note 2 Ibid., p. 630.

page 28 note 3 See Meunier, R. A., Grǵoire de Tours et I'histoire morale du centreouest de la France (Poitiers, 1946), pp. 27–36Google Scholar, for a summary of Gregory's use of earlier writings on St. Martin (Sulpicius Severus, Paulinus of Nola and Paulinus of Périgueux). The book is not otherwise helpful.

page 28 note 4 Griffe, É., La Gaule Chretienne á I'époque romaine, i (1947)Google Scholar, chap, vi, is the best modern account of the career of St. Martin.

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page 28 note 7 See Marignan, A., Le culte des saints sous les mérovingiens (1899)Google Scholar, passim, and Muller, H. F., L'époque mérovingienne (New York, 1945), p. 82Google Scholar.

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page 30 note 1 Kemp, E. W., Canonization and Authority in the Western Church (Oxford, 1948), p. 31Google Scholar.

page 30 note 2 This is not to deny to Gregory a certain culture. His language can no longer be studied, as by Bonnet, Max (Le Latin de Grégoire de Tours, 1890)Google Scholar, without regard to the problems raised by manuscript transmission. Cf. Vielliard, Jeanne, Le Latin des diplômes royaux et chartes privées de l'époque mérovingienne (1927), p. viiiGoogle Scholar, and Vinay, , op. cit., p. 42Google Scholar.

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page 30 note 5 Glor. Conf., pref. (p. 747).

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page 35 note 1 Roman Society, p. 306. Dill's book was published, posthumously, only in 1926.

page 35 note 2 La Gaule mérovingienne (1897), pp. 179 and 235.

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page 39 note 2 Hist. Franc, ii. 11 (12) (p. 52).

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page 41 note 1 Hist. Franc., ii. 26 (35) (p. 68).

page 41 note 2 Ibid., ii, 28 (38) (p. 72); cf. editorial note on codecillos in the KruschLevison, edn., fasc. 1, p. 88Google Scholar.

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page 41 note 5 To Ennodius, for example, Theodoric exercised ‘imperialis auctoritas’ (Libelluspro synodo, ed. Hartel, , Corp. Script. Eccles. Lat., vi (1882), p. 298)Google Scholar.

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page 42 note 2 L' impôt foncier et la capitation personnelle sous le Bas-Empire et à l'époque franque (Bibl. de l'école des hautes études, fasc. 253).

page 42 note 3 Lib. de mart, persec., 23; cf. Lot, , op. cit., p. 21Google Scholar.

page 42 note 4 Hist. Franc., ix. 30 (pp. 380–2).

page 42 note 5 Ibid., v. 26 (34) (pp. 187–9).

page 42 note 6 Ibid., v. 21 (28) (p. 184).

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page 43 note 2 Dalton completely misunderstood the situation when he wrote: ‘prodigality was seldom absent, and all the easy chances of a surplus thrown away’ (op. cit., i. 219).

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page 43 note 4 Lot, , Pfister, and Ganshof, , op. cit., p. 365Google Scholar.

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page 43 note 6 Ibid., vi. 2 (p. 208).

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page 45 note 3 Op. cit., i. 30.

page 45 note 4 Hist. Franc., x. 31 (p. 464).