E07738: Gregory of Tours, in his Histories (2.2), describes the martyrdom of an unnamed girl in Spain by the Vandals, c. 420s. Written in Latin in Tours (north-west Gaul), 575/594.
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posted on 2019-08-21, 00:00authored bydlambert
Gregory of Tours, Histories (Historiae) 2.2
Post multas quaestiones, post ablatus terrenarum divitiarum thesaurus, cum ad hoc frangi non possit, ut beatam scinderit Trinitatem, ad rebaptizandum invita deducitur. Cumque in illud caenosum lavacrum vi cogeretur inmergi ac proclamaret: 'Patrem cum Filio ac Spiritum sanctum unius credo esse substantiae essentiaeque', digno aquas unguine cunctas infecit, id est fluxu ventris aspersit. Exhinc ad legitimam deductam quaestionem, post aeculeos, post flammas et ungulas, Christo domino capitis decisione decatur.
'She was tortured repeatedly and all her earthly possessions were removed from her, but her will was not broken by this and she would not renounce the Holy Trinity. As she was dragged off to be re-baptized against her will and compelled to suffer immersion in the filthy font, she shouted: "I believe the Father with the Son and the Holy Ghost to be of one substance." As she said this she fittingly stained all the water with her blood, that is, splashed it with the flow from her stomach. Then she was submitted to a legal interrogation, and tortured by the rack, the flames and the pincers. Finally she was consecrated to Christ our Lord by having her head cut off.'
Literary - Other narrative texts (including Histories)
Language
Latin
Evidence not before
575
Evidence not after
594
Activity not before
409
Activity not after
429
Place of Evidence - Region
Gaul and Frankish kingdoms
Place of Evidence - City, village, etc
Tours
Place of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Tours
Tours
Tours
Toronica urbs
Prisciniacensim vicus
Pressigny
Turonorum civitas
Ceratensis vicus
Céré
Major author/Major anonymous work
Gregory of Tours
Cult Activities - Miracles
Miracle at martyrdom and death
Other specified miracle
Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Women
Source
Gregory of Tours wrote the Histories (Historiae) during his episcopate in Tours (573–594). They constitute the longest and most detailed historical work of the post-Roman West. Gregory's focus is Gaul under its Frankish kings, above all the territories of Tours and (to a lesser extent) Clermont, where he had been born and brought up. Much of his work tells of the years when, as bishop of an important see, he was himself centrally involved in Frankish politics. The Histories are often wrongly referred to as a History of the Franks. Although the work does contain a history of the rulers of Francia, it also includes much hagiographical material, and Gregory himself gave it the simple title the 'ten books of Histories' (decem libri historiarum), when he produced a list of his own writings (Histories 10.31).
The Histories consist of ten books whose scope and contents differ considerably. Book 1 skims rapidly through world history, with biblical and secular material from the Creation to the death in AD 397 of Martin of Tours (Gregory’s hero and predecessor as bishop). It covers 5596 years. In Book 2, which covers 114 years, the focus moves firmly into Gaul, covering the years up to the death of Clovis in 511. Books 3 and 4, which cover 37 and 27 years respectively, then move fairly swiftly on, closing with the death of king Sigibert in 575. With Book 5, through to the final Book 10, the pace slows markedly, and the detail swells, with only between two and four years covered in each of the last six books, breaking off in 591. These books are organised in annual form, based on the regnal years of Childebert II (r. 575-595/6).
There continues to be much discussion over when precisely Gregory wrote specific parts of the Histories, though there is general agreement that none of it was written before 575 and, of course, none of it after Gregory's death, which is believed to have occurred in 594. Essentially, scholars are divided over whether Gregory wrote the Histories sequentially as the years from 575 unfolded, with little or no revision thereafter, or whether he composed the whole work over the space of a few years shortly before his death and after 585 (see Murray 2015 for the arguments on both sides). For an understanding of the political history of the time, and Gregory's attitude to it, precisely when the various books were written is of great importance; but for what he wrote about the saints, the precise date of composition is of little significance, because Gregory's attitude to saints, their relics and their miracles did not change significantly during his writing-life. We have therefore chosen to date Gregory's writing of our entries only within the broadest possible parameters: with a terminus post quem of 575 for the early books of the Histories, and thereafter the year of the events described, and a terminus ante quem of 594, set by Gregory's death.
(Bryan Ward-Perkins, David Lambert)
For general discussions of the Histories see:
Goffart, W., The Narrators of Barbarian History (A.D. 550–800): Jordanes, Gregory of Tours, Bede, and Paul the Deacon (Princeton, 1988), 119–127.
Murray, A.C., "The Composition of the Histories of Gregory of Tours and Its Bearing on the Political Narrative," in: A.C. Murray (ed.), A Companion to Gregory of Tours (Leiden and Boston, 2015), 63–101.
Pizarro, J.M., "Gregory of Tours and the Literary Imagination: Genre, Narrative Style, Sources, and Models in the Histories," in: Murray, A Companion to Gregory of Tours, 337–374.
Discussion
Gregory places this event in Spain, before the Vandal invasion of Africa in 429. However, he names the Vandal king responsible as Trasamund, who ruled 496-523.
Gregory's presentation hints that the girl's contamination of the heretical font with her menstrual blood was miraculous, but he does not state this directly.
Bibliography
Edition:
Krusch, B., and Levison, W., Gregorii episcopi Turonensis Libri historiarum X (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum I.1; 2nd ed.; Hannover, 1951).
Translation:
Thorpe, L., Gregory of Tours, The History of the Franks (Penguin Classics; London, 1974).
Further reading:
Murray, A.C., "The Composition of the Histories of Gregory of Tours and Its Bearing on the Political Narrative", in: A.C. Murray (ed.), A Companion to Gregory of Tours (Leiden-Boston 2015), 63-101.
Vieillard-Troiekouroff, M., Les monuments religieux de la Gaule d'après les œuvres de Grégoire de Tours (Paris, 1976).