Gregory of Tours, in his Histories (1.31), recounts the coming of Christianity to Bourges (central Gaul), and mentions relics of *Stephen (the First Martyr, S00030) in its most important church. Written in Latin in Tours (north-west Gaul), 575/594.
E02013
Literary - Other narrative texts (including Histories)
Gregory of Tours
Gregory of Tours, Histories (Historiae) 1.31
In the previous chapter (E01530), Gregory has told of the seven bishops sent from Rome to seven cities of Gaul in the reign of the emperor Decius (AD 249-251):
De horum vero discipulis quidam Bituricas civitatem adgressus, salutare omnium, Christum dominum populis nuntiavit.
'One of their disciples went to the city of Bourges and preached to the people that Christ our Lord had come to save mankind.'
There he ordains some priests but is unable to obtain a house for worship, because all his congregation are poor and the richer people of Bourges still pagan.
Hi vero, non obtentam a quo petierant domum, Leocadium quendam et primum Galliarum senatorem, qui de stirpe Vecti Epagati fuit, quem Lugduno passum pro Christi nomine superius memoravimus, repererunt. Cui cum petitionem suam et fidem pariter intimassent, ille respondit: "Si enim domus mea, quam apud Bituricam urbem habeo, huic operi digna esset, praestare non abnuebam". Illi autem audientes, pedibus eius prostrati, oblatis tricentis aureis cum disco argenteo, dicunt eam huic ministerio esse condignam. Quod ille, acceptis de his tribus aureis pro benedictione, clementer indulgens reliqua, cum adhuc esset in errore idolatriae inplicitus, christianus factus, domum suam fecit aecclesiam. Haec est nunc ecclesia apud Bituricas urbem prima, miro opere conposita et primi martyres Stephani reliquiis inlustrata.
'They did not obtain the use of the house for which they had asked; they therefore went to see a man called Leocadius, the leading senator of Gaul, who was of the same family of that Vettius Epagatus who, as I have already told you, suffered martyrdom in Lyon in the name of Christ. They told him of their Christian faith and explained what they wanted. 'If my own house,' he replied, 'which I possess in Bourges, were worthy of being put to such a use, I would be willing to offer it to you.' When they heard him they fell at his feet. They said that his house was indeed suitable to be used for religious ceremonies and they offered him three hundred gold coins (aureii) for it, together with a silver salver. Leocadius accepted three of the gold coins as a blessing and refused the rest. Up to this moment he had believed in heathen gods, but now he became a Christian and turned his house into a church. This is now the primary church [i.e. cathedral] in the town of Bourges, constructed with great skill and famous for the relics of Stephen, the first martyr.'
Text: Krusch and Levison 1951, 24.
Translation: Thorpe 1974, 87-88, lightly modified.
Cult building - independent (church)
RelicsUnspecified relic
Transfer, translation and deposition of relics
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 was particularly interested in the founder of this church, Leocadius, because he claimed descent from Vettius Epagatus, martyr of Lyon and of the same family as Leocadius. However, when Gregory wrote Glory of the Confessors 79 (E02711), which was probably after he wrote this passage in Histories 1.31, he tells a very different story about the coming of Christianity to Bourges, attributing it to a Bishop Ursinus sent from Rome 'by disciples of the apostles' (in other words, very early in the history of the Church). See E02711 for a fuller discussion of this discrepancy.Gregory provides no information as to when relics of Stephen arrived in Bourges, though of course this can only have happened after the discovery of the body in Palestine in 415. In his Glory of the Martyrs 33 (E00517) he tells us the relics consisted of some of Stephen's blood. The church Gregory mentions may have been built by Simplicius, bishop of Bourges 472-480 (Vieillard-Troiekouroff 1976, 59-61; Prévot 1989, 20-21).
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.
Prévot, F., "Bourges," in: N. Gauthier and J.-Ch. Picard (eds.), Topographie chrétienne des cités de la Gaule des origines au milieu du VIIIe siècle, vol. 6: Provinces ecclésiastique de Bourges (Aquitania Prima) (Paris, 1989), 15-26.
Vieillard-Troiekouroff, M., Les monuments religieux de la Gaule d'après les œuvres de Grégoire de Tours (Paris, 1976).
Katarzyna Wojtalik, Bryan Ward-Perkins
24/3/2020
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00030 | Stephen, the First Martyr | Stephanus | Certain |
|---|
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