Full text of history of the franks internet archive. A chronicle that tells of how king clovis converted franks into christianity. History of the franks by gregory, saint, bishop of tours, 538594. By writing down this information, albeit biased information, gregory gives an account of the politics of the time and how they worked. He had a distinguished and successful career as bishop. A galloroman who spoke latin as his native language, he was ordained as a deacon in 563 and was bishop of tours from 573 until his death in 594.
Christianization of the franks was the process of converting the pagan franks to catholicism during the late 5th century and early 6th century. Bishop gregory of tourss history of the franks depicts artlessly but vividly, from firsthand observation, the lives and personalities of the four grandsons of clovis and their fierce queens in merovingian gaul of the 6th century. An illustration of a computer application window wayback machine an illustration of an open book. Gregory, the assiduous bishop of tours, treats the history of the world until the year 511 in the first two books, and covers the history of the franks up the the year 591 in the remaining eight. Gregory of tours, history of the franks internet history sourcebooks. Franks, along with seven books of miracula, one book on the life of. Seal of childerictodays blog take a quick look at some of the disputes surrounding gregory of tours history of the franks,1 composed late in the sixth century.
Franks when gregory of tours wrote his history of the. Gregory s historia francorum history of the franks is a major source for the history of france under the merovingians ruled from the. Gregory wrote accounts of miracles of the saints, an astronomical work to determine movable feasts, and a commentary on the psalms. The history of the franks was written about a century after the time of clovis by gregory, bishop of tours. His writings demonstrate his concern with church legislation, and he was known for his promotion of the cults of numerous saints. Pdf this article uncovers some of the intricate storytelling patterns in the histories of gregory of tours ca. This article analyses the style of the passage to reveal it to be a complex rhetorical piece of prose. Gregory of tours, lewis thorpe this colorful narrative of french history in the sixth century is a dramatic and detailed portrait of a period of political and religious turmoil. Columbia university press, 1916 this text is part of the internet medieval source book. The brutal honesty of gregory of tours in reporting the hideous. A christian classic active table of contents history of the franks comes complete with a touchorclick table of contents, divided by each section.
The region on either side of the rhine riverwhat is now france and germanywas gradually occupied by the franks. The history of the franks classics kindle edition by. Bedes ecclesiastical history of the english people, of the 8th century. A history of the franks by gregory of tours author. He was indeed a man of refined manners, but his acts were not virtuous and he often made. Its value, however, as an accurate sources for merovingian gaul remains controversial. Other articles where the history of the franks is discussed. War was commonplace and possibly the most practical way to gain power. Saint gregory of tours, bishop and writer whose ten books of histories is the major 6thcentury source for studying the merovingian kingdom of the franks. Ernest brehaut extended selections, records of civilization 2, new york. Download file to see previous pages as a youth, gregory lived with his uncles nicetius and archdeacon avitus who later became bishop of lyons and bishop of clermont respectively. Ad 539594 is a fascinating exploration of the events that shaped sixthcentury france. Search the history of over 439 billion web pages on the internet. Thorpe has his own extensive notes and index in the book.
Goffart winner of the medieval academy of americas haskins medal for 1991, the narrators of barbarian history treats the four writers who are the main early sources for our knowledge of the ostrogoths, franks, anglosaxons, and. Frankish kings, and until recently the book has consequently been known. Books by gregory of tours author of the history of the. Our father among the saints gregory of tours was a sixth century bishop of tours and a galloroman historian. This volume contains all ten books from the work, the last seven of which provide an indepth description of gregorys own era, in which he played an important role as bishop of tours. Here begins the chapters of the fourth book queen clotildas death. What were the aims of gregory of tours history of the. Gregory of tours history of the franks zendonaldson. Pdf perceptions of the past in merovingian historiography, the. Then when the people of tours saw that they had fallen asleep they seized on the clay of the holy body and some thrust it out the window and others received it outside, and placing it in a boat they went down the river vienne. He was born georgius florentius and later added the name gregorius in honour of his maternal greatgrandfather. For more than seventy years, penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the englishspeaking world.
Source gregory of tours history of the franks trans by e brehaut new york from history 360508 at francisco bravo medical magnet high. A history of the franks by by gregory of tours this a history of the franks book is not really ordinary book, you have it then the world is in your hands. Pdf on may 30, 2016, michalis naidos and others published perceptions of the past in merovingian historiography, the case of gregory of tours historia francorum find, read and cite all the. Author gregory, saint, bishop of tours, 538594 subjects franks history to 768. It is one of the most important medieval histories to survive from late antiquity. When gregory of tours wrote his history of the franks, he wrote it in a way that glorified clovis as a converted christian king who help spread the word of god to the unbelievers. The preface to book v of gregory of tours histories has long been known as a central passage in the bishop of tours works, expressing his view of good kingship. Kodi archive and support file vintage software apk community software msdos cdrom software cdrom software library. The first translation into english of life of the fathers, a collection of twenty lives of saints which lives present a crosssection of the gallic church and are a counterpart to the secular society described in gregorys history of the franks. Written following the collapse of romes secular control over western europe, the history of gregory c. Contains some extracts from gregorys eight books of miracles.
His primary concerns were shaped by his theological, ecclesiastical, and political commitments. A history of the franks gregory of tours, lewis thorpe. Gregory of tourss most popular book is the history of the franks. In fact, he was educated by his own uncle gallus, who was the bishop of clermont. V the class read primary texts instead of the usual dry drivel that history teachers. Historia francorum by saint gregorius, bishop of tours, gregory.
Saint gregory of tours was born in 538 in what is now clermontferrand in the auvergne region of central france. History of the franks internet history sourcebooks project. His education was in church schools and primarily limited to a study of the scripture. Brehaut, ernest, 1873publication date 1916 topics franks history to 768, france church history publisher new york. This electronic text file was created by optical character recognition ocr. The region on either side of the rhine riverwhat is now france and germany was gradually occupied by the franks. The question who was the first of the kings of the franks is disregarded by many writers. For that place was shut in on either side by mountains and the torrent flowed in a narrow way. Gregorius turonensis catalogus translationum et commentariorum. Be sure to see the onsite links toward the bottom for other duerinck pages dealing with the. Much material about gregory is to be found in the five prefaces and the epilogue ofthe history of the franks.
Gregory of tours clovis conversion to orthodox christianity in the history of the franks, gregory of tours portrayed clovis as a leader who, although his conversion to christianity appeared to be genuine, nonetheless, used his conversion to realize his political aspirations. Gregory of tours history of the franks begins and ends with a chronology of the world starting with the birth of adam and finishing n 591 when gregory installed as bishop of tours for 18 years concludes his history with the sentence. In his general preface he mourned that there was little learning in gaul and made excuses for his own temerity in writing in his own unlearned style. He is the primary contemporary source for merovingian history.
Gregory of tours has 31 books on goodreads with 4125 ratings. His most notable work is the ten books of histories, better known as the history of the franks historia francorum. Written in the 6th century by gregory, the bishop of tours, historia francorum, translated as history of the franks, is a ten volume work that recounts the worlds history from creation, focusing on the movement of christianity into gaul, an ancient region corresponding to modern france, belgium, the south netherlands, southwest germany, and northern italy. The history of the franks work by gregory of tours. Gregory of tours history and society in the sixth century. The history of the franks by gregory, bishop of tours, is an historical record of. Books i to iv recount the worlds history from the creation but move quickly to the christianization of gaul, the life and times of saint martin of tours, the conversion of the franks and the. Gregory, bishop of tours selections translated ernest brehaut. It was started by clovis i, regulus of tournai, with the insistence of his wife, clotilde and saint remigius, the bishop of reims political landscape. Gregory of tours 538594 was a historian of his time and place. The benefit you get by reading this book is actually information inside this reserve. Encoding has been done through automated and manual processes using the. Gregory of tours, the eastern emperor, and merovingian gaul. Unlike many other germanic people who migrated to the roman empire during the migration period the.
Though the history of sulpicius alexander tells much of them, still it does not. Martin of tours, leeds university library, brotherton collection ms 2, fol. I first ran across gregory of tours years ago in an early medieval history course at the university of houston go haskins society. A history of the franks by gregory of tours free ebooks. Source gregory of tours history of the franks trans by e. The following extracts give some notion of this valuable source, upon which a great part of our knowledge of the merovingian period rests.
These are my notes on the history of the franks historiae francorum by gregory of tours georgius florentius as translated by lewis thorpe 1974deceased. B and often to be found, in an edited tenbook format, with fredegars. Jordanes, gregory of tours, bede, and paul the deacon walter a. His masterpiece, historia francorum history of the franks, in 10 books, is a universal history. Summary an english translation of the sixthcentury text in which the author chronicles events in the history of france from the creation through his own term as bishop of tours. The historical account of the franks written by saint gregory of tours is one of the best historical accounts written in the middle ages particularly in the early middle ages shortly after the miserable demise of the western roman empire after 478 a. The history of the franks by gregory of tours lewis thorpe this colorful narrative of french history in the sixth century is a dramatic and detailed portrait of a period of political and religious turmoil for than seventy years, penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the english speaking world with than 1,700 titles. History of the franks fine print by gregory of tours. Aims of gregory of tours in the history of franks by of the of the of the school october 7, 2012 born of florentius and armentaria in auvergne on november 30 53839, gregory of tours was a descendant of a distinguished galloroman family. The history of the franks gergely toursi, gregorius. Map of frankish dominions 511561 ad 73k jpeg file, facing p. The sourcebook is a collection of public domain and copypermitted texts related to medieval and byzantine history. Although he wrote in the crude latin that was later to become the native french, his narrative is still entertaining and valuable for the knowledge he.