Gregory of Tours was a bishop of late antiquity who was famously devoted to promoting the efficacy of saintly powers. In his writings, both historical and hagiographical, Gregory depicted the saints and reprobates of his age. This book analyses Gregory’s writings about death and the afterlife, thereby illuminating the bishop’s pastoral imperative to save souls and revealing his opinions about the fates of Merovingian royals, among many others he mentions in his voluminous text. The study provides insight into Gallic peoples living at the dawning of the Middle Ages and their hopes and fears about the otherworld. It affords an original, nuanced interpretation of Gregory’s motives for penning his works, particularly the Historiae, which remained unfinished upon the author’s death.
Author(s): Allen E. Jones
Series: Social Worlds of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 324
City: Amsterdam
Cover
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Introduction
Part I: Death
1. Peering into the Invisible World
Death and the Little Boy
Becoming Gregory I
Conclusion
2. Maturing Spiritually in a Perilous World
Death and the Aspiring Cleric
Becoming Gregory II
Studium ad ecclesiastica scripta
Conclusion
3. Pastoring from the Pulpit and the Page
Death and the Bishop
Death and the Historian?
Bishop, Author, Pastor
Writings and Sermons
Sin, Penance, Grace
Living Holy People
Sinners
Conclusion
Part II: Afterlife
4. Discerning the Denizens of Heaven and Hell
The Saved
Visionaries and Heaven
Communicating Salvation: Migrare and Transire
Hellmates
Signs of Condemnation
Communicating Damnation: Interire, Iudicium Dei, Ultio Divina
Lessons and Warnings for Contemporaries
Conclusion
5. Fathoming the Fates of the Merovingians
Merovingians in Heaven
King Clovis and Queen Clotild
King Theudebert
Merovingians in Hell
King Chlodomer
A Mixed Bag: Kings Theuderic, Theudebald, Childebert I, Chlothar I and Prince Chramn
Kings Charibert and Sigibert
Kings Chilperic and Guntram
Conclusion
6. Conclusion
Killer Queen(s)
King Guntram and Gregory’s Unfinished Project
Afterword
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Secondary Works
Index
