The History of the Franks

Gregory begins this book by denouncing the civil war between the Franks and writing, “Beware, then, of discord, beware of civil wars, which are destroying you and your people” (254). When Brunhild heard that her husband King Sigibert had been assassinated, “she was prostrate with anguish and grief, and she hardly knew what she was doing” (254). Sigibert’s son, Childebert, who was only five years old, became the next king.

While she was in Paris, Brunhild was captured by Chilperic and banished to Rouen. Chilperic ordered his and Audovera’s son Merovich to march on Poitiers, then part of Childebert’s kingdom, but Merovich disobeyed his father and instead went to Rouen, where he married Brunhild. Chilperic had Merovich imprisoned. Gregory stops to introduce one of Chilperic’s commanders, Duke Rauching. When two serfs from his estates married without his permission, he vowed to the priest who presided over the marriage not to separate them. Then he had them buried alive.

Gregory describes how Felix, the bishop of Nantes, accused his brother Peter, a deacon, of killing his bishop. He accuses Felix of making the accusation as part of a plot to take some of the church land entrusted to Gregory. Peter was alleged to have used witchcraft to cause Bishop Silvester to die from a stroke, provoking Silvester’s son into ambushing Peter and killing him with a spear. The deacon Lampadius, who incited the accusations against Peter, was stripped of his church office and his control over church property by the bishop Mammodius, who eventually succeeded Silvester.

Next, Gregory writes that “many miraculous cures were performed at the tomb of Saint Martin” (263). A bishop named Leunast went blind and consulted with a Jewish doctor. Then he went to pray at the shrine of Saint Martin. Gregory asserts that his eyesight was not restored even after that because he went to a Jewish doctor for help. Gregory also tells the story of Avitus, who converted 500 Jews in Clermont-Ferrand to Christianity and caused the rest to be exiled to Marseilles. Avitus also prevented a mob from assaulting a Jewish man who poured “rancid oil” (266) over a Jewish convert to Christianity, although at the same time a crowd did destroy a local synagogue.

Returning to politics, Gregory describes how Chilperic forced his son Merovich to become a monk. Merovich escaped and Gregory recounts how Merovich himself threatened to kill him and his congregation unless he gave him communion and sanctuary in the church. A woman had a prophecy that the realms of the Franks in Gaul would be united with Merovich as king, although Merovich did not believe the prophecy. Guntram Boso, one of Merovich’s companions, was secretly working for Merovich’s stepmother Fredegund, who wanted to have him killed. Guntram Boso did convince Merovich into leaving the safety of the church, but nothing happened. Instead, Merovich left Tours when Chilperic’s army came near and went to meet up with Brunhild, but her retainers refused to let him see her.

King Guntram’s two sons died, leaving him without an heir. He met with his nephew Childebert, adopting him and appointing him as his heir. Praetextatus, the bishop who presided over Merovich and Brunhild’s marriage, was accused of bribing people to act against Chilperic and stealing some royal possessions. Chilperic put Praetextatus on trial before the other bishops of Gaul. Gregory spoke out in Praetextatus’s defense, causing Chilperic to meet with him personally to accuse Gregory of treating him unjustly. He also adds that representatives from Fredegund tried unsuccessfully to bribe him.

Taking another tactic, Chilperic convinced Praetextatus to plead guilty, claiming that he would be pardoned. The bishop did so. Rather than being pardoned, he was arrested and sent into exile on an island. Meanwhile, Merovich was surrounded while trying to return to Tours. He asked his loyal servant Gailen to kill him. Chilperic had Galen and many of Merovich’s other supporters brutally executed.

In the Byzantine Empire, the Emperor Justin became mentally incapacitated and was eventually succeeded by Tiberius. Gregory describes Tiberius as “full of charity and dedicated to the care of the needy” (283). As a reward for his kind deeds, someone told Tiberius about the treasure hidden by a man named Narses, which was soon discovered. Elsewhere, King Guntram deposed and imprisoned two corrupt bishops, Salonius and Sagittarius. They escaped, but they left to live in obscurity. In King Chilperic’s domains, Chilperic had passed a number of harsh taxes. This led to a revolt, which Chilperic’s officials blamed on a number of priests and abbots, who were brutally tortured.

There were devastating floods in Auvergne, along with a hailstorm and fires from the sky that struck the cities of Bordeaux and Orleans, which Gregory sees as omens of a coming plague. Two of Chilperic and Fredegund’s sons were dying from this plague. Believing that the plague was God’s punishment, Fredegund had a change of heart and pleaded with Chilperic to lower the taxes, saying, “Now we are losing the most beautiful of our possessions!” (297). King Guntram’s queen Austrechild demanded that the doctors who treated her also be killed. According to Gregory, Guntram was “forced by this dying wish of his evil consort to commit the foul deed which she begged of him” (299).

Persecutions of Catholic Christians once again broke out in Spain, which Gregory blames on Goiswinth, the wife of King Athanagild. Back in Gaul, Fredegund was frightened when Chilperic and Audovera’s son, Clovis, made threatening comments about her. A woman accused Clovis of using witchcraft to kill Fredegund’s sons. Chilperic had Clovis dressed in rags and marched in front of Fredegund, and Clovis was later stabbed to death. Two women who were said to have taught Clovis witchcraft were executed. The woman who testified against Clovis was tortured and also killed. Gregory mentions that he intervened to save Clovis’s treasurer, Chuppa.

Meanwhile, Gregory got into a debate over theology with Agilan, an envoy to King Chilperic sent by King Leuvigild of Spain. Gregory says he won the debate and that Agilan converted to Catholic Christianity after he fell ill. Gregory resisted when Chilperic issued an order that the Trinity should be simply seen as God, and eventually Chilperic was forced to give up the idea. Gregory also notes that Chilperic wrote poetry, but “his poems observed none of the rules of prosody” (312), and that he tried adding letters to the alphabet. The Count of Tours, Leudast, went to Chilperic and accused Gregory of plotting to have Brunhild and Childebert take over Tours and of slandering Queen Fredegund.

Things had gotten so bad that Gregory was told he should flee by his own enemies, but he refused. Instead, he stayed and was put on trial by Chilperic. A carpenter named Modestus was imprisoned for defending Gregory before one of his enemies, but miraculously his chains broke, something Gregory credits to the intervention of Saint Martin. Meanwhile, Leudast was disgraced and fled.