Bishops, Barbarians, and the Battle for Gaul
Matthew E. Bunson
Number of quotes: 3
Book ID: 41 Page: 1
Section: 3A1,4B
In the face of the invasions, the Church in Gaul was confronted with many of the same difficulties as the communities elsewhere in the West, including the disappearance of local Roman authority and the emergence of violent barbarian kingdoms built upon the remains of Gallo-Roman civilization. Of the surviving institutions of Roman imperial society, however, only the Church in Gaul was positioned ideally not merely to endure but to influence those who claimed supremacy over the fallen empire.The history of the Church is filled with periods in which the Church has stood as the last vestige of civilization, of light, and of hope. Gaul in the early fifth century was just such a time.
Quote ID: 897
Time Periods: 5
Book ID: 41 Page: 1
Section: 3A4B,3D1
Since its introduction into the Gallic provinces—there was a Christian community in Lugdunum (modern Lyons) from around 177—the Christian faith had spread steadily in the cities, so that by 250 there were some 30 episcopal sees, and by A.D. 400 virtually every town or large community was governed by its own bishop. At the same time, the bishops in the cities had been forced to serve also as civil leaders, filling the administrative roles abandoned by imperial Roman officials. Bishops such as Sidonius Apollinaris, Avitus, Germanus of Auxerre, and Caesarius of Arles were viewed as defensores civitatum (defenders of the city). They maintained order in the civitates and were spokesmen and trustees for the patrimony of the bankrupt empire to the reges crinite, or “long-haired kings.” Indeed, the bishops in many instances were all that stood between the violent Germanic tribes and the defenseless citizens of a now-dead empire.What followed was a relationship of necessity between the bishops and the Germanic chieftains. For their part, the barbarian rulers needed the bishops to speak to their new subjects, to have some connection to the past, and to find a way to administer even rudimentary government. The bishops, meanwhile, had to work with the new overlords to protect their frightened people and safeguard Church property, as only the German kings and chieftains could keep their warriors in line.
The bishops assumed key posts in the nascent royal regimes as judges, advisors, diplomats, and administrators. In so doing, they guaranteed the security of the Church, created the opportunity to influence directly the development of post-Roman institutions, and served as intermediaries between the old Roman culture and the new order. All this they did without compromising religious principle. [PJ: Ha!]
Kingdom of the Franks
In the immediate wake of the invasions, the Christians of Gaul confronted not only the final demise of imperial government and order, but persecution by the conquerors. The Germanic tribes, chiefly the Goths and the Vandals, had been converted to Christianity through the Arian missionary Ulfilas. They were hence adherents of the Arian heresy that had so troubled the Church in the fourth century. Once in control, the tribes sporadically persecuted orthodox Christians. They confiscated their lands, expelled bishops, and installed Arian liturgies. This persecution gradually eased, however, as the Germans began to assimilate and to conform to the only true civilization that any of them had ever encountered, that of the Romans. Wherever possible, the bishops negotiated a policy of moderation, such as at the Council of Agde for Visigothic Gaul in 506, but the Arian ascendancy under the Germanic tribes remained a lingering problem for the orthodox Church. The solution rested not in a resurgence of Roman imperial suzerainty but in the conversion of the barbarians. Indeed, the last significant Gallo-Roman official, Syagrius of Soisson, was defeated in 486 by the rising Germanic power in northern Gaul, the Franks.
Quote ID: 898
Time Periods: 456
Book ID: 41 Page: 2
Section: 3D2
Clovis the CatholicSoon after his accession at the age of 15, Clovis received a letter from Bishop Remigius with advice on how to rule, a communication that forecast the interest of the bishops in the new pagan ruler. In his History of the Franks, Gregory of Tours recorded the process of Clovis’ eventual conversion, placing the chief impetus for his embrace of Christianity with his wife. Clotilde was a Burgundian princess and a Catholic who had insisted that the first of their children be baptized. Clovis embraced orthodox Christianity also through the influence and examples of the bishops and Catholic subjects, but Clotilde had the major role. Bishop Nicetus of Trier confirmed her decisive role in a letter dated around 565 to Clovis’ granddaughter, Chlodoswintha. In it he wrote that Clotilde led her husband to the faith, although, “because he was a very shrewd man, he was unwilling to accept it until he knew it was true” (J.N. Hilgarth, Christianity and Paganism, 350-750. The Conversion of Western Europe, 76-78). It is also likely that Clovis wished to identify himself with the Roman provincials—the Catholics—who were his subjects. Their faith was seen as the repository of Romanitas in a way that the Arianism of the Goths was not.
The baptism of Clovis took place either at Rheims or Tours in 496 or 498. Aside from the report that he was baptized with 3,000 of his warriors—he did not compel his followers to do so—what made the baptism so significant for the Church in Gaul was that he had converted to orthodox Christianity. The Church in Gaul henceforth had a patron and champion. The royal baptism began a steady conversion of the Frankish people, hastening their fusion with the Gallo-Roman Catholics. At the same time, the numerous bishops of Gaul celebrated Clovis as their own son, and what had been reluctant and cautious cooperation with the Franks grew rapidly into open and enthusiastic support. In addition, Frankish sentiment increased among the Catholics of southern Gaul and gave them encouragement to begin working toward the defeat of the Arian kingdoms.
In 507, Clovis defeated the Arian Visigoths at Vogladensis (Vouillé), near Poitiers, shattered Visigothic power in southern Gaul, and drove them out of Aquitania beyond the Pyrenees. He then established Lutetia (Paris) as his capital, and in 507-08 received the title of consul with the right to use the imperial insignia from the Eastern Emperor Anastasius in Constantinople. Bishop Avitus expressed what Clovis’ campaigns meant to the orthodox Christians: “Your faith is our triumph. Every battle you fight is a victory for us” (Avitus, Epistulae ad Diversos, 46).
The inevitable success of orthodox Christianity in Gaul under the Merovingian Dynasty was assured through Clovis, who took as his model Emperor Constantine the Great. Clovis was generous to the Church and, like Constantine, crafted for himself a position as protector, convoking a council for Gaul in 511 that hastened the conversion of the Arian clergy, especially in Aquitania. He also specifically mentioned his conversion in the prologue to the Pactus Legis Salicae, the law code for the regnum Francorum that had been drafted with the close consultation of the bishops.
After Rome, Renewal
After the death of Clovis in 511, the succeeding Merovingian kings continued to favor the Frankish Church, which enjoyed tax exemption, with the right to taxes and tithes of its own. Other gifts included massive land grants, so that by the start of the eighth century the Church owned almost one-third of the Frankish kingdom. The Franks, unlike the Goths, willingly intermarried with the peoples they governed. So, as heirs to the Roman authority, they created a mixed culture, with vulgar Latin as the common tongue and Catholic Christianity as the unifying faith.
Quote ID: 899
Time Periods: ?
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