03 — Bishop of Tours

Gregory’s twenty-one years in the see of Martin (573–594): the guardian of the great shrine caught between four Merovingian kings, his verdict on the worst of them, and the trial at Berny-Rivière in 580 at which he was accused in connection with Queen Fredegund and cleared on oath.

Tradition: Western (pre-Schism Gaul; father of Western hagiography)

To be bishop of Tours was to hold one of the most coveted sees in Gaul — the city of St. Martin, whose basilica was a place of pilgrimage, asylum, and royal resort — and to sit at a strategic point contested by the divided Frankish realms. This section follows Gregory through that episcopate: the kings he served and judged, above all Chilperic I, whom he called “the Nero and Herod of our time”; and the great crisis of his career, the trial of 580, which reveals both his exposure to royal power and the nature of his office as a civic leader.

Files in This Section

File Description
the-kings-and-the-see.md Consecration in 573; Tours between Sigibert I, Chilperic I, Guntram, and Childebert II; the guardianship of Martin’s shrine; and Gregory’s famous obituary verdict on Chilperic (Hist. VI.46).
berny-riviere-and-the-civic-bishop.md The trial at Berny-Rivière in 580, the accusation touching Queen Fredegund, the acquittal on oath, and Venantius Fortunatus; the bishop as judge, patron, protector of asylum, and political actor in his city.

See Also

References

  • Gregory of Tours. The History of the Franks. Trans. Lewis Thorpe. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974.
  • Van Dam, Raymond. Leadership and Community in Late Antique Gaul. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985.
  • Heinzelmann, Martin. Gregory of Tours: History and Society in the Sixth Century. Trans. Christopher Carroll. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.