Before France and Germany: The Creation and Transformation of the Merovingian World
Patrick J. Geary
Number of quotes: 45
Book ID: 40 Page: 82
Section: 3D2
Upon the death of Childeric the leadership of the Salian Franks passed to his son Clovis, who followed the policies of his father.….
... although a pagan, he was expected to serve the Christian Roman community...
"A great rumor has reached us that you have undertaken the command of Belgica Secunda. It is no surprise that you have begun just as your forefathers had always done . . . the bestowal of your favor must be pure and honest, you must honor your bishops and must always incline yourself to their advice. As soon as you are in agreement with them your territory [provincia] will prosper." {4}
This advice to a pagan chieftain to administer fairly and to seek out the advice of the bishops did not reflect any new state of affairs but described the tradition of imperial Germanic commanders in the service now Christian Romanitas.
Quote ID: 851
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 40 Page: 83
Section: 3D2
Clovis’s absorption of the kingdom of Soissons was, from one perspective, a coup d’etat: the replacement of the barbarized Roman rex by a Romanized barbarian one.
Quote ID: 852
Time Periods: ?
Book ID: 40 Page: 84
Section: 3D2
Clovis, like his father before him, cemented relationships with the Gothic kingdoms through marriage alliances. Clovis may even have adopted their religious beliefs.
Quote ID: 853
Time Periods: ?
Book ID: 40 Page: 85
Section: 3D2
To what he was converted is equally problematic. Given the syncretistic nature of late antique religion, one need not suppose that his conversion to Christianity was a conversion to radical monotheism—Clovis may have viewed Christ as a powerful, victory-giving ally to enlist on his behalf.….
According to Gregory, it was Clovis’s orthodox Burgundian wife Clotild who first urged Clovis to embrace her religion. However, the decisive moment came, as it had two centuries earlier for another ambitious pagan commander, Constantine, in battle. Pressed by Alemani at Tolbac, he vowed baptism in return for victory. The parallel with Constantine, explicitly developed by Gregory, was unmistakable.
….
The conversion of the king necessarily meant the conversion of his followers. Small wonder, then, that Gregory tells that before his baptism Clovis consulted with his “people” —presumably his most important supporters. And small wonder that not only was he baptized but at the same time were baptized “more than three thousand of his army”. However many Franks followed their king into the font, the conversion was clearly a military affair—the adoption by the commander and his army of a new and powerful victory-giver.
Quote ID: 854
Time Periods: ?
Book ID: 40 Page: 86
Section: 3D2
Now no cult barrier separated the army from the indigenous inhabitants of Gaul—the peasants, artisans, and most importantly the Gallo-Roman aristocracy and its leaders, the bishops, ...
Quote ID: 855
Time Periods: ?
Book ID: 40 Page: 86
Section: 3D2
Instead, as a ruler bent on expansion, his orthodoxy increased the likelihood that the Gallo-Roman aristocracies within these neighboring kingdoms would be inclined to collaborate with him.
Quote ID: 856
Time Periods: ?
Book ID: 40 Page: 87
Section: 3D2
On his victorious journey homewards, Clovis was met in Tours by emissaries from Emperor Anastasius who presented him with an official document recognizing him as an honorary consul. Clovis used his honor, which apparently included imperial recognition of Clovis’s kingdom or at least the symbolic adoption of Clovis into the imperial family, to strengthen his authority over the newly-won Gallo-Romans. He appeared in the basilica of St. Martin of Tours dressed in a purple tunic and a chlamys, or military mantle, and placed a diadem on his head. None of this was part of consular tradition, but he probably wished to enhance his kingship by associating with the Roman imperial tradition. In a famous but ambiguous passage, Gregory says that “from this time forward he was acclaimed ‘consul or augustus’.….
Now he began eliminating other Frankish chieftains, his own kinsmen for the most part, in order to consolidate his power over the Franks as he had done over the Gallo-Romans.
Quote ID: 857
Time Periods: ?
Book ID: 40 Page: 88
Section: 3D2
By the end of his reign, Gregory tells us, he was wont to complain, “How sad a thing it is that I live among strangers like some solitary traveller, and that I have none of my own relations left to help me when disaster threatens!” {8} This comment was made, Gregory assures us, not because he grieved for them, but in the hope of finding some relative still alive whom he could kill.
Quote ID: 858
Time Periods: ?
Book ID: 40 Page: 89
Section: 3D2
Clovis’s kingdom from the beginning experienced a much more thorough mixture of Frankish and Roman traditions.….
More important for the establishment of continuity and effectiveness in rule was the dual Roman heritage of both conquerors and conquered.
The indigenous population....had preserved the late Roman infrastructure virtually intact.
Quote ID: 859
Time Periods: ?
Book ID: 40 Page: 90
Section: 3D2
After their victory, Clovis Franks, accustomed to working closely with Romans, were in an ideal position to absorb them into the administration.The Franks themselves were likewise deeply Romanized. Even prior to the victory at Soissons, Clovis and the Franks had been accustomed to the discipline of Rome. Generations of Roman service had taught the Franks much about Roman organization and control. This heritage is even visible in that supposedly most Frankish tradition, the Salic Law. Sometime between 508 and 511 Clovis issued what is known as the Pactus Legis Salicae....
Quote ID: 860
Time Periods: ?
Book ID: 40 Page: 90
Section: 3D2
In issuing the text, Clovis was acting not as a barbarian king but as the legitimate ruler of a section of the romanized world. Moreover, the Pactus, applies not simply to Franks. It is intended for all the barbari in his realm.
Quote ID: 861
Time Periods: ?
Book ID: 40 Page: 93
Section: 3D2
As long as provincial governors or barbarian kings allowed the Gallo-Roman elite autonomy, with control over their local dependents, these aristocrats were accustomed to providing assistance to the state.
Quote ID: 862
Time Periods: 67
Book ID: 40 Page: 93
Section: 3A4B
Rather than claiming the right to central government, this aristocracy was much more comfortable allowing the bishop, chosen by and of themselves, to direct what remained of the public sphere, the res publicae, at the local level of the civitas, which included the city and its immediate territory. Thus Remigius’s plea to Clovis [PJ: ?–511] to follow his bishops’ advice is no more than a plea for him to follow the advice of the Roman aristocracy. Power over the people was held by the great landowners, who were the real authority.
Quote ID: 863
Time Periods: 56
Book ID: 40 Page: 93
Section: 3D2,1A
As deeply Romanized as Franks were in terms of military discipline...they were, except for a small elite, as untouched by Roman social and cultural traditions as the Gallo-Roman aristocracy was by military tradition. The unique achievement of Clovis and his successors was that, through his conquest and conversion, he was able to begin to reunite these two splintered halves of the Roman heritage. The process was a long one and not without difficulty, but in time it created a new world.3D2
Quote ID: 864
Time Periods: 46
Book ID: 40 Page: 113
Section: 4B
Exactly what freedom meant for these people is unclear; freedom is always relative, and particularly in traditional societies in which dependency is a given, the real issue is the nature of the dependency—political, economic, juridical—rather than whether it existed.
Quote ID: 865
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 40 Page: 113
Section: 4B
Traditionally, slaves in Germanic societies were prisoners of war and individuals who lost their freedom as a result of crimes. However, as Germanic tribes moved into the Empire and established themselves alongside and in the place of Gallo-Roman landlords, they absorbed the tradition of Roman slavery.
Quote ID: 866
Time Periods: 47
Book ID: 40 Page: 114
Section: 4B
Thus at both ends of the social spectrum an amalgamation of traditional Gallo-Roman and barbarian societies was under way.
Quote ID: 867
Time Periods: 57
Book ID: 40 Page: 115/116
Section: 3D2
A new kind of Christian barbarian kingdom had been established north of the Alps—one which changed forever the face of the West. With the exception of the Burgundians (whose kingdom would be destroyed and integrated into the Frankish realm by Clovis’s sons), the core of the Frankish kingdom had been constituted; a loose confederation of barbarian chieftains had been replaced by a single ruler whose wealth was matched only by his capacity for violence; an uneasy alliance of pagan and Arian barbarians and Christian Romans had been replaced by a kingdom unified culticly under a Christian king recognized by the emperor in Constantinople and supported by orthodox bishops, the representatives of the Gallo-Roman elite. In spite of the disunity and internecine violence that characterized the reigns of Clovis’s sons and grandsons, the transformation of the West would continue along the lines he had begun.
Quote ID: 869
Time Periods: ?
Book ID: 40 Page: 117
Section: 3D2
Within this divided kingdom his successors continued the main lines of his policies. In terms of internal affairs, it often meant the attempt to eliminate each other as he had eliminated his cousins. The result is a complex and violent political narrative, perhaps more reminiscent of late Roman imperial history than of early Germanic tradition. In their internecine struggles the Merovingians had obviously absorbed much from Romans.
Quote ID: 870
Time Periods: ?
Book ID: 40 Page: 123
Section: 3A4B
The great majority of early Merovingian bishops were of aristocratic Gallo-Roman background. This was only to be expected given the role the episcopacy played in the late Roman Gaul. In fact, the lives of Merovingian bishop saints, composed in the seventh century, generally begin by describing the noble family from which the bishop had sprung: “he was noble by birth, but still more noble by faith” is repeated with minor variations throughout the literature.
Quote ID: 871
Time Periods: 56
Book ID: 40 Page: 124
Section: 3A4B
As Martin Heinzelmann points out in a study of the 707 bishops whose names are known from the eight ecclesiastical provinces of Tours, Rouen, Sens, Reims, Trier, Metz, Cologne, and Besancon, for example, fully 328 are known only by their name. {3} However, of the 179 bishops who can be assigned to a social rank, only eight were, like Iniuriosus of Tours, who was “of inferior but nevertheless free parentage,” definitely not of the senatorial aristocracy.
Quote ID: 872
Time Periods: 56
Book ID: 40 Page: 124
Section: 3A4B
Such episcopal dynasties reflected both the power of bishops to influence the naming of their successors and the networks, often stretching back generations, uniting senatorial families across Gaul. Control of episcopal sees was one of the major goals in family strategies, and the competition between senatorial families could be vicious and deadly.
Quote ID: 873
Time Periods: 56
Book ID: 40 Page: 126
Section: 3A4B
Such complex family rivalries focused on the office of bishop because it was a prize worth fighting for. Control of major bishoprics was the key to continued regional power of the kindred. It also provided great wealth. From the fourth century on, enormous amounts of land had been passing into the hands of the church, and all this was controlled by the bishop.
Quote ID: 874
Time Periods: 456
Book ID: 40 Page: 127
Section: 3A4B
In fact, the episcopal office has been seen as the bulwark of the Roman population, and it alone could protect Roman traditions and culture from the barbarian Franks.Certainly in the early sixth century, and, in the south, through much of the seventh and eighth, bishops did come from great senatorial families. However, alliances and intermarriages between Romans and Franks began even before the time of Clovis, and in the course of the sixth century these families began to fuse, uniting the courtly favor and military power of Frankish leaders with the cultural traditions and regional patronage and kin networks of the senatorial aristocracy.
Quote ID: 875
Time Periods: 67
Book ID: 40 Page: 127/128
Section: 3A4B
True, some bishops arrived at their positions after a regular career in the clergy, rising from lector through priest to bishop, but this was so much the exception that when it occurred, as in the case of Bishop Nivard of Reims or Heraclius of Angouleme, hagiographers considered it worthy of comment.
Quote ID: 876
Time Periods: 56
Book ID: 40 Page: 128
Section: 3A4B
Many bishops entered their office from secular life and even for those who rose within the clergy, the priesthood was normally not the route to ecclesiastical office.
Quote ID: 877
Time Periods: 56
Book ID: 40 Page: 128
Section: 3A4B
However, since most of these bishops had entered the church late in life, the nature of this education was usually more in the tradition of late Latin letters than of theological or ascetic and spiritual instruction.
Quote ID: 878
Time Periods: 56
Book ID: 40 Page: 129
Section: 3A4B
If many bishops held secular office prior to entering monasteries on their way to the episcopal dignity, many more went directly from their secular positions to their sees. The office of bishop thus crowned a cursus honorum in the traditional sense. In the fifth and sixth centuries, this career progression often went through the surviving offices of the later Empire or positions as regional administrators; increasingly in the seventh century meant service at the royal court.
Quote ID: 879
Time Periods: 56
Book ID: 40 Page: 131
Section: 3A4B
The only potential rival that bishops faced for authority in the city was the count, but with the disappearance of civil government the rivalry was no equal contest. The position of bishop was considered a step up from that of count of the city, with the former office often filled by an aristocrat who had already served as count.
Quote ID: 880
Time Periods: 56
Book ID: 40 Page: 132
Section: 3A4B
Toward the end of the sixth century the imbalance between the count and bishop became such that the former’s appointment needed approval by the latter or else the bishop actually appointed the count. Gregory, for example, had been requested by King Theudebert to reappoint Leudast. Rather than the representative of the king, the count had become an agent in episcopal administration.
Quote ID: 881
Time Periods: 56
Book ID: 40 Page: 133
Section: 3A4B
Tradition demanded that the bishop be elected by the “clergy and people” of the diocese. In practice this was probably never how the majority of bishops were selected, although in the isolation of late Roman Gaul, something akin to this formula was probably followed, if by “clergy” one means primarily the archdeacon and by “people” the senatorial aristocracy. Following the establishment of the Frankish kingship, a new element was introduced, or rather reintroduced—the approval of the king.
Quote ID: 882
Time Periods: 56
Book ID: 40 Page: 134
Section: 3A4B
Normally, three kings had to be secured—election, confirmation by the king, and consecration, the last being the most important. Once an individual had been consecrated, even if scandalously elected or unconfirmed, while he could as a last resort be exiled and even excommunicated, it was extremely difficult to replace him before his death, and in any case he remained a bishop.
Quote ID: 883
Time Periods: 56
Book ID: 40 Page: 134
Section: 3A4B
The sacred nature of consecration was such that God’s anointed remained a bishop, regardless of how he reached that position.
Quote ID: 884
Time Periods: 56
Book ID: 40 Page: 135
Section: 3A4
The model bishop was an administrator both of his clergy and of the monasteries in his diocese, but he was above all a defender of the faith and protector of the poor.
Quote ID: 885
Time Periods: 56
Book ID: 40 Page: 135
Section: 3A4
At the Council of Orleans in 533, for example, bishops assembled primarily from northern Aquitaine enacted measures against Catholics who continued to make sacrifices to idols, a measure reaffirmed in the same city at a council eight years later. {21}….
The countryside could not be fully Christianized until the network of parishes extended into every corner of the kingdom, a development which would not take place until the ninth century.
Quote ID: 886
Time Periods: 567
Book ID: 40 Page: 136
Section: 2E5
In this world of strong personalities, the primary source of unity for the competing forces within society was sought in the personality of the saints. One of the major achievements of recent scholarship, particularly that of Peter Brown, is to elucidate the absolutely critical social role that saints’ cults played in early medieval society. {22}
Quote ID: 887
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 40 Page: 137
Section: 2E5
If the bishops’ greatest source of spiritual power was that of dead saints, their greatest threat was that of living ones.
Quote ID: 888
Time Periods: 567
Book ID: 40 Page: 221
Section: 3D2
The glorious brutality and faithless cruelty of Clovis and his successors was seen to have been followed by the impotence, passivity, and incompetence of his last heirs.
Quote ID: 889
Time Periods: ?
Book ID: 40 Page: 221
Section: 3D2
While every country in the West seems eager to claim Charles the Great (Charlemagne, Karl der Grosse, Carlo magno) as their own, and pan-Europeanists term him the “Father of Europe,” Clovis and even Dagobert are largely unclaimed.
Quote ID: 890
Time Periods: ?
Book ID: 40 Page: 222
Section: 3D2
In France, national memory jumps from Gallo-Roman period of Syagrius (or perhaps even before, from the time of Asterix) to the glory of Charlemagne. A long tradition, nourished by three disastrous Franco-German wars, has encouraged the French to forget that before there was a “douce France” there was a “Frankono lant,” and that this Frankish land was centered in the lower Seine.
Quote ID: 891
Time Periods: ?
Book ID: 40 Page: 224
Section: 3D2
This tradition, which culminated in Einhard, dismisses the Merovingians as ridiculous anachronisms. They are not so much troublesome as they are useless.
Quote ID: 892
Time Periods: ?
Book ID: 40 Page: 225
Section: 3D2
The Carolingian historiographers were extremely successful in creating an image of the preceding dynasty that has been accepted for centuries. Subsequent political apologists could use the image of a dynasty that lost power through incompetence. If a Merovingian could be deposed and sent to a monastery, and a new king elected and consecrated in his place, so too could a Carolingian. In less than a century, this happened to Louis the Pious, Charlemagne’s son.
Quote ID: 893
Time Periods: ?
Book ID: 40 Page: 230
Section: 3A4
The Merovingians had been preeminently the embodiment of local authority. Never needing election or consecration, they were kings by their very nature, quite apart from any external religious or secular authority. The election and anointment of Pippin upon papal approval or even, according to some traditions, papal directive, fundamentally altered the nature of kingship, tying it to a particular religious and institutional tradition quite apart from the old Gallo-Roman and Frankish worlds.
Quote ID: 894
Time Periods: 567
Book ID: 40 Page: 230
Section: 3G
Finally, along with the Carolingians, rose a new “imperial aristocracy” composed of nobles from many different backgrounds. Many were from Austrasian families; others were from regional elites who had made the Carolingians secure in the various areas of Francia; still others had risen through service to the Carolingians or even to their predecessors but who had joined forces with the winning side at an early date. From this relatively small group of families the Carolingians drew their bishops and counts, whom they sent throughout the empire.
Quote ID: 895
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 40 Page: 231
Section: 3F
The Rome that had sponsored Boniface was itself a new, artificial creation, as were the traditions of Latin letters and imperial destiny cultivated in Carolingian circles. And yet the transformed barbarian world so badly needed a Roman imperial tradition, even more than it had in the sixth century, that on Christmas Day in 800, Charles Martel’s grandson received the title of emperor and Augustus. The barbarian world, that creature of Rome, had become its creator.
Quote ID: 896
Time Periods: 67
End of quotes