Gregory of Tours, in his Histories (4.11), tells of how a presbyter at Clermont named Cato disdained appointment as bishop of Tours, and bribed a woman to pretend to be possessed by a demon and to cry out that he was a saintly man, and holier than the bishop; in 551/570. Written in Latin in Tours (north-west Gaul), 575/594.
E07753
Literary - Other narrative texts (including Histories)
Gregory of Tours
Gregory of Tours, Histories (Historiae) 4.11
Decedente vero apud urbem Turonicam Guntharium episcopum, per emissionem, ut ferunt, Cautini episcopi Cato presbiter ad gubernandam Turonicae urbis ecclesiam petebatur. Unde factum est, ut coniuncti clerici cum Leubaste martyrario et abbate cum magno apparatu Arvernum properarent.
[...]
Sed qui cathedram beati Martini contemptui habuit, quam voluit non accepit; impletumque est in eo quod David cecinit, dicens: Noluit benedictionem, et prolongabitur ab eo. Erat enim vanitatis coturno elatus, nullum sibi putans in sanctitate haberi praestantiorem. Nam quadam vice conductam pecuniam mulierem clamare fecit in ecclesia quasi per inergiam et se sanctum magnum Deoque carum confiteri, Cautinum autem episcopum omnibus sceleribus criminosum indignumque, qui sacerdotium debuisset adipisci.
'Bishop Guntharius died in the city of Tours. At the suggestion, or so it was said, of Bishop Cautinus [of Clermont], the priest Cato was invited to take over the diocese. As a result a deputation of clergy, led by Abbot Leubast, the guardian of martyrs’ relics, set out for Clermont-Ferrand with great pomp. [...]
Gregory goes on to explain that Cato rejected the offer to be made bishop of Tours because he was more interested in ousting Cautinus and becoming bishop of Clermont.
The man who had despised the throne of Saint Martin was not, however, elevated to the one which he wanted: and the words which David sang were true of him: "As he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him." He was so above himself in his vain conceit that he imagined that no one was more holy than he. Once he bribed a woman to behave in church as if she were possessed and to shout out that he, Cato, was a great saint and very dear to God, whereas Bishop Cautinus had committed every crime in the calendar and was unworthy to have been ordained a priest.'
Text: Krusch and Levison 1951, 142.
Translation: Thorpe 1974, 204, adapted.
Uncertainty/scepticism/rejection of a saint
MiraclesOther miracles with demons and demonic creatures
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - lesser clergy
Demons
Theorising on SanctityUsing saints to assert ecclesiastical/political status
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
Cato, a presbyter at Clermont, was chosen by the people of the city as bishop following the death of bishop Gallus in 551. However, his rival, the archdeacon Cautinus, pre-empted him by going to King Theudebald and seeking the bishopric from the king; he was consecrated as bishop by a church council summoned by Theudebald (Gregory, Histories 4.6-7). According to Gregory, the church at Clermont remained bitterly divided between the two men and their supporters until both died of plague in 571 (Histories 4.31). The incident described here would therefore have taken place sometime in the 550s or 560s.An incidental but significant detail in the story, is the reference to the leader of the delegation from Tours, Abbot Leubast, being the ecclesiastic at Tours in charge of relics (or possibly of the saint's tomb), indicated by the rare word martyrarius.
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).
David Lambert
24/10/2019
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00050 | Martin, ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397 | Certain |
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