The History of the Franks

Saint Martin’s successor as bishop of Tours was Bricius. Gregory recounts how, when Saint Martin was alive, Bricius “continued to cause pain to the Saint by his sarcastic remarks” (104). Still, Gregory admits that Bricius was chaste and spent much time in prayer. When a crowd accused Bricius of impregnating a woman, he miraculously caused the baby to declare that Bricius was not his father. When the crowd accused him of witchcraft, Bricius tried to prove himself by putting hot coals on his body at the tomb of Saint Martin without causing himself pain, but he was still exiled from Tours. The people of Tours tried nominating two new bishops, Justinian and Armentius, who both died suddenly, which Gregory attributes to God's intervention. At last, Bricius was restored as the bishop of Tours.

In the meantime, a Germanic people, the Vandals, attacked Gaul and Spain and settled in the old Roman province of Africa in North Africa. The kings of the Vandals belonged to the Arian sect of Christianity and persecuted Catholic Christians (See: Background). The Arian bishop Cyrola had the bishop Eugenius brought before the Vandal king Huneric. Eugenius was able to defeat Cyrola in debate and perform miracles. When Cyrola tried to cure a man of his blindness, he only caused pain to the blind man. Eugenius, however, was able to perform a miracle curing the man of his blindness. Enraged that Eugenius was making Arianism look bad, King Huneric ordered a brutal persecution of Catholic Christians and exiled Eugenius. Before he was exiled, Eugenius wrote a letter urging Catholic Christians to stay faithful (109-10).

In Gaul, the Huns were about to invade. In the town of Tongres, the bishop Aravatius begged God not to allow the Huns to enter Gaul, but “Because of the sins of the people, he felt in his heart that his prayer had not been granted to him” (114), so Aravatius went to Rome to pray at the tomb of the Apostle Paul. However, Aravatius had a dream where Paul told him that the Huns would attack Gaul “like some great tornado” (114) and that before then he would die. After returning to Gaul, Aravatius died from a fever.

As was predicted, Attila, the king of the Huns, looted several cities in Gaul. Gregory recounts that every building in the city of Metz was destroyed because of the “evil-doing of the inhabitants” (116) except the oratory of Saint Stephen, which was miraculously spared. At the city of Orleans, the bishop Anianus had the people there pray until a Roman army led by Aetius along with the Goths arrived to save the city.

Gregory recounts a story about Aetius’s wife. She had continuously prayed at the churches in Rome. A drunk man fell asleep in the church of St. Peter and woke up, hearing St. Peter saying that, although God had decided that Aetius should die, he had “obtained this immense concession that Aetius shall not be killed” (117). St. Peter also told the man overhearing this not to tell what he heard. When the drunk man told the story to Aetius’s wife herself, he went blind. Aetius not only survived, but, along with the support of the Germanic forces of the Franks and the Goths, he managed to drive the Huns out of Gaul. When Emperor Valentinian III in Rome became afraid that Aetius would turn on him, he had Aetius killed. Afterward, Valentinian III was killed by Occila, one of Aetius’s retainers.

Drawing from Sulpicius Alexander’s Historia (120-21) and Renatus Profuturus Frigeridus (123-24), and Orosius (124), Gregory tries to recount from these historians the origins of the Franks. The Franks first encountered and fought the Romans in the Roman province of Germania. Roman forces were wiped out when they tried to pursue the Franks into deep forests across the border. Gregory notes that none of these historians give the names of the Franks’ early kings. However, Gregory is able to describe how the Franks came from Pannonia (Hungary) and crossed the Rhine into Germany. In their newly-conquered territories and cities, they set up kings who were all “long-haired” (125). One Frankish king, Clodio, defeated the Romans and invaded the town of Cambrai and some territory around the River Somme in Gaul. The Franks were originally pagans who “fashioned idols for themselves out of the creatures of the woodlands and the waters, out of birds and beasts: these they worshipped in the place of God, and to those they made their sacrifices” (125).

At around this time, a man from Clermont-Ferrand, Avitus, was made emperor of Rome. However, he was overthrown because “his way of life was too libidinous” (128). Meanwhile the Frankish king, Childeric, was also deposed because he kept seducing the daughters of his people. He fled to the German region of Thuringia, where he stayed at the royal court of King Basinus and Queen Basina. After another king, Aegidius, had reigned for eight years, Childeric was restored to his throne. Basina left Basinus for Childeric and became the mother of Childeric’s son, Clovis.

In Clermont-Ferrand, after the reigning bishop Venerandus died, the election of the next bishop was bitterly disputed. A woman prophesized that God would choose someone to become bishop and proclaimed that she saw the priest Rusticus become bishop. The people agreed and acclaimed Rusticus as the new bishop. At Tours, the bishop Perpetuus had the chapel over Saint Martin’s tomb replaced with a larger church, in recognition of the miracles taking place at the tomb.

Euric, the king of the Goths, placed Duke Victorious in charge of several cities and territories, including Clermont-Ferrand. There he made several expansions to the city, including underground chapels. However, Victorious had an innocent senator named Eucherius imprisoned due to false rumors, and then had him killed. As he was “too much given to irregular affairs with women” (133), Victorious was sent into exile to Rome, where he was eventually stoned to death.

Next, Gregory describes Eparchius, the bishop of Clermont-Ferrard. Since he described Satan as a sex worker, Satan cursed him with constant sexual desire, but “he was protected by the sign of the Cross and the Devil was unable to harm him” (133). Next, Gregory describes Sidonius, prefect of Clermont-Ferrand, who was “a very saintly man” (134) who would give silver vessels to the poor. However, Sidonius had two priests as his enemies, and Gregory claims that God punished one of the priests by having him die while on the toilet. The other priest tried to take Sidonius’s property after he died. As soon as a servant told him he had a vision of his death, the other priest died. At the same time, one of Sidonius’s relatives, Ecdicius, helped with a famine in Burgundy by collecting and redistributing food from the cities.

After succeeding his father Childeric to the throne of the Franks, Clovis defeated the Roman leader Syagrius and conquered the city of Soissons. Even though Clovis at the time was a pagan, he agreed to return an ewer that belonged to a bishop that had become part of the loot from Soissons. One soldier refused to give up any of his loot, so Clovis killed him with an axe.

Clovis married Clotild, a Catholic Christian princess from Burgundy whose father had been overthrown and killed by her uncle. When Clotild gave birth to a son named Ingomer, she wanted to have him baptized. After Ingomer died, Clovis blamed the baptism. Clotild gave birth to another son who was also baptized. While this baby also became sick, he recovered after Clotild prayed. Clovis himself converted to Christianity when he was losing a war against the Alamanni. Once Clovis won the battle, he credited his prayer to Jesus with his victory. At Clotild’s urging, Clovis agreed to be baptized by a bishop named Remigius.

Later, Clovis entered an alliance with the Arian king Gundobad against his brother Godigisel, with whom he shared the territory of Marseilles in southern Gaul. Gundobad promised to pay Clovis tribute if they won against Gundobad, but after only paying one year of tribute, he reneged on his vow. After defeating his brother, Gundobad renounced Arianism and converted to Catholic Christianity, but he never publicly admitted it. Gundobad did sponsor a writer named Avitus, who wrote books condemning certain heretical movements that emerged in Constantinople.

Meanwhile, Clovis agreed to have a diplomatic meeting with King Alaric II of the Goths. Eventually, though, Clovis attacked the Goths, reportedly because they were Arian. Clovis’s army marched through Tours, where Gregory reports Clovis killed one of his own soldiers who tried taking hay from a farmer, since Clovis feared offending Saint Martin. Clovis defeated the Goths and “gave many gifts to the church of Saint Martin” (154). Afterward, Emperor Anastasius in Constantinople recognized Clovis by giving him the old Roman title of consul. Clovis established the city of Paris as his capital.

At this time, Clovis wrote to the Frankish prince Sigibert, offering to ally with him when his father Chloderic, king of Cologne, died. After Sigibert was apparently prompted by this to kill his father and take his throne, Clovis had him killed and annexed his kingdom. Clovis continued his conquests against other Frankish kings, including Chararic, Ragnachar, and Ricchar. Following these conquests, Clovis died peacefully in Paris.