This undergraduate essay applied biblical hermeneutics to Gregory of Tours’ Miracula. This was in order to answer the question ‘what can the social historian make of either Gregory’s Histories or his books of miracles?’ A subsection of it covers the same ground as my original post on the Late Antique Holy Man. However, it mainly focuses on why we should use hermeneutics to understand Gregory’s religious writings and the problems solved by taking such an approach.

The social historian can use Gregory’s books of miracles to understand his personal experience of Late Antique Gaul. This essay will argue, using the The Life of the Fathers and The Glory of the Confessors, that previous attempts at understanding Gallic society have limitations as they have applied modern methodologies to the Miracula or have used them as empirical resources. Instead, to utilise the Miracula as a source for Gallic society we must engage with how Gregory interpreted the world and not how historians wish to view it. The first section of this essay argues for a methodology based on the biblical hermeneutical tradition, which allows us to capture Gregory’s interpretation and experience of Gallic society. The following sections build on this by testing this model against three key themes: the Holy Man, paganism and gender. While other aspects of Gallic society have also received attention, like magic and heresy, I will limit my focus to those mentioned as they best reflect the historiographical issues that arise from using Gregory’s books of miracles. Furthermore, as there is not space here to provide a comprehensive overview of Late Antique hermeneutics and because other texts do this satisfactorily, I will only mention ideas relevant to the passages analysed. Likewise, I have only used the hermeneutical theories of Augustine, Cassiodorus and Gregory the Great.

A methodology based on the biblical hermeneutical tradition benefits the social historian in several ways. It is clear from The Life of the Fathers and The Glory of the Confessors that Gregory of Tours believed God still had an active role in society; the miracles and divine interventions found within the Old and New Testaments were still everyday occurrences in Gallic society. For Gregory, ‘God deigned to increase them [miracles] daily to strengthen the faith of believers. For it was surely improper for them to disappear from memory’. While not all the Miracula contain stories contemporary to Gregory, he clearly thought the lifestyles and actions contained in them were still possible. In The Life of the Fathers, Gregory writes he hopes his text ‘encourages the minds of listeners to follow their [the saints’] example’. Therefore, Gregory believed he was writing down stories similar to those found in the Bible and while he was not claiming equivalence to the writers of the Old Testament or the Apostolic Age, he thought he was a substitution. Consequentially, it makes senses to use contemporary scriptural theories when understanding how Gregory interpreted Gallic society. Secondly, this methodology allows us to address the contradictions found in the Miracula that arise from the interaction between the realities of Frankish society and Gregory’s interpretation of them. Finally, using hermeneutics while reading Gregory allows us to gather insights into Gallic society that may have otherwise been missed.

Having proven the importance of taking a hermeneutical view of The Life of the Fathers and The Glory of the Confessors, I will now apply this model to solve several problems encountered by social historians of Merovingian Gaul. I will firstly examine the role of the Holy Man. Peter Brown attributes the rise of the Holy Man due to a variety of social, economic and cultural conditions in Late Antique Syria. The Holy Man rose in communities in a need of a mediator or patron, with his actions being carried out in the language of religion. Corbett through applying Brown’s thesis to Gaul and the Cult of St Martin, has shown this equally applies to Frankish society. Therefore, these writers have taken an anthropological approach to understanding the Holy Man. For example, possession can be explained as the process through which disruptive behaviour was communicated and the subsequent exorcism as how an individual was reintegrated into society. Viewing the Miracula through biblical hermeneutics would not disagree with the key tenets of this approach. For example, the instance where St Martin raises a tree fallen on a road in Neuillé-le-Lierre, as described in The Glory of the Confessors, can be seen in two ways. Firstly, it was an act of patronage by St Martin seen through the language of religion by those who experienced it. Secondly, Gregory, writing years later, evidently also interpreted events like these in a similar vocabulary. He notes ‘still today this tree is seen to stand up straight next to the road’. Therefore, Gregory’s hermeneutical understanding of the event, through his textual representation, was unlikely to have differed from those who directly experienced it. Consequentially, the social historian can make use of Gregory’s books of miracles by applying hermeneutics in support of current discussion surrounding the Holy Man.

However, applying biblical hermeneutics also offers new insights for the social historian using the Miracula to understand Gallic society. Translating the language of the Holy Man into that of modern anthropology has often proved problematic for scholars. Notably, when it comes to healings for illnesses and sicknesses that have no modern medical remedy. Van Dam writes he cannot state ‘all the physiological (or even sociological) explanations for all the miraculous cures that Gregory and his contemporaries recorded’. Corbett suggests that we should mostly ignore healings of physical illnesses when studying Holy Men, suggesting they only form a minority of the miracles contained in Gregory’s work. However, this is not an excuse to ignore them.

Applying hermeneutical theories to Gregory’s texts would solve this dilemma faced by the social historian. The role of allegory in scripture is emphasised by Augustine, he writes ‘when something meant figuratively is interpreted literally, it is understood in a carnal way’. Likewise, Gregory the Great suggests it is necessary to ‘point out the secret allegories’ in the Book of Job. Many illnesses found in the The Glory of the Confessors and The Life of the Fathers can be understood allegorically. This is seen when Monegundis heals a boy with serpents in his body using the green leaves of a vine. While aspects of this miracle can be understood through anthropological theories, the ailment itself cannot. Instead, the serpents are an allegory for sin or Satan. This is not mere literary embellishment though, Cassiodorus suggests ultimately a healing is a sign of God in the world. He also states that heavenly truth is often presented through parables and mysteries, as these allow humans to have a level of comprehension. The healing to the Bishop of Tours was then a genuine divine sign found within the world, but one refigured into an allegory. This did not deter from the accuracy of its representation, as it prompted the reader to a higher divine experience. The social historian can therefore use hermeneutics to solve difficulties encountered when trying to match Gregory’s view of society with modern metaphysical assumptions.

However, the social historian can also apply hermeneutics to Gregory’s books of miracles, when examining paganism. Hen has already demonstrated, using the story of Vulfolaic the Lombard, that Gregory cannot be used as evidence for a continuation of paganism. Nevertheless, Gregory still often describes the people found in these passages as pagan. When St Nicetius of Trier became stuck on a ship, he commented he was ‘the only Christian amid that multitude of pagans.’ However, it is clear these were not part of an organised religion, as they show little knowledge regarding the gods. When trapped at sea they call Jupiter, Mercury, Minerva and Venus, without considering calling Neptune, the God of the Sea. So why does Gregory paint them as fully-fledged pagans? Within the hermeneutical tradition, Augustine suggests the interpreter of scripture is ‘the defender of truth’ and so they ‘must communicate what is good and eradicate what is bad’. Truth is equated with what is good, regardless of the accuracy of this passage what matters is that Gregory is pointing towards the experience of a higher truth, that of the Christian God and his ability to stop the storm with Nicetius’ intervention. The social historian can therefore use hermeneutics to explain why Gregory departs from what we would perceive to be a more accurate statement about paganism in Gallic society.

However, the social historian can also apply hermeneutics to the Miracula to understand another moral dimension to Christian encounters with alleged pagans. Wood suggests using the labels ‘pagan’ and ‘Christian’ locks ourselves into the cultural constructs and value judgements of early medieval missionaries. This is true for empirical studies but misses what is gained by understanding the language through which Christians experienced deviation. Gregory the Great describes scripture as a ‘mirror’ in which ‘we recognise our ugliness and beauty’. Therefore, interpreting deviation was a way of reaffirming one’s orthodoxy. We can see this in how Gregory of Tours’ interpreted St Hilary’s encounter ‘in the territory of Javols’ with a crowd ‘offering libations to the lake’. Annual storms kept affecting this practice, with them only stopping when they started giving the libations to a church built by St Hilary instead. Fletcher describes this as an example of rural evangelisation through a transference of ritual. However, whether this actually happened is not Gregory’s concern, instead he is reaffirming his own values by comparing the initial ‘ugliness’ of the rustics with the ‘beauty’ of God’s intervention. The social historian can therefore apply hermeneutics to the Miracula to understand Gregory’s interpretations of society.

The social historian can also apply hermeneutics to the Miracula to understand how Gregory interprets gender. Bitel has already noted the restrictive stereotypes existing for women in Gaul. However, Gregory’s interpretation of Monegundis shows experience of gender did not always meet one’s expectations. Gregory states ‘He [God] gives us as models not only men, but also the lesser sex, who fight not feebly, but with a virile strength’. By stating that Monegundis is of the ‘lesser sex’ but also has a ‘virile strength’, Gregory of Tours initially appears to be contradicting himself. However, interpreting this passage within the hermeneutical tradition is less problematic. Gregory the Great, while discussing contradictory statements made by Solomon in the Bible, suggests when understanding scripture, we must not understand contradictions in isolation and look towards the entire meaning of the text. The necessity to subvert gender norms for Monegundis is secondary to the religious and pedagogical purposes of The Life of the Fathers. This point is supported by the fact that Monegundis’ life has structural similarities to other chapters throughout the text. The social historian can therefore apply hermeneutics to understand why Gregory departs from gender stereotypes.

This idea from hermeneutics can also be extended to cases where Gregory transgresses masculinity and femininity. St Papula in The Glory of the Confessors spent thirty years living in a monastery living as a man, for ‘no one knew of her gender’. Gregory mainly spends the passage praising her virtues, suggesting once again he is willing to subvert gender norms if it does not undermine the text’s meaning. However, at the same time the story of Papula suggests limitations to these departures from the stereotypes of Frankish society. When Papula dies she is ‘washed by other women’ rather than the men she lived around. Therefore, the social historian can use the Miracula to understand that while Gregory makes interesting departures, there are limits to his interpretations as they are always partially based on Gallic societal norms.

This essay has argued the social historian can best understand Gregory’s books of miracles by applying biblical hermeneutics to them. It has done this by examining key themes prominent in scholarship on Gallic society; the Holy Man, paganism and gender. While my argument may initially appear cynical regarding the amount of information about Gallic society we can ascertain from them, it reminds us while consulting sources that they are ultimately an interpretation of reality. Further studies could apply hermeneutics to other sources, as by collating different interpretations we would be in a better position to assess the realities of Gallic society. Nevertheless, it is now clear that the social historian can use Gregory’s Miracula to understand his personal interpretations of Late Antique Gaul.

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Augustine, On Christian Doctrine translated by Roger P.H Green in Saint Augustine: On Christian Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Cassiodorus, Institutions of Divine and Secular Learning translated by James W. Halporn and Mark Vessey in Cassiodorus: Institutions of Divine and Secular Learning and On the Soul. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2004.

Gregory of Tours, The Glory of the Confessors translated by Raymond Van Dam in Gregory of Tours: Glory of the Confessors. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1988.

Gregory of Tours, The Life of the Fathers translated by Edward James in Gregory of Tours: Life of the Fathers. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1998.

Gregory the Great, Commentary on Job translated by Brian Kerns in Gregory the Great: Moral Reflections on Job, Volume 1, Preface and Books 1-5. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2014.

Secondary Sources

Bitel, Lisa M. Women in Early Medieval Europe, 400-1100. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Brown, Peter. “The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity.” The Journal of Roman Studies 61 (1971): 80-101.

Corbett, John H. “Praesentium signorum munera: The Cult of the Saints in the World of Gregory of Tours.” Florilegium 5 (1983): 44-61.

———. “The Saint as Patron in the Work of Gregory of Tours.” Journal of Medieval History 7, no. 1 (1981/01/01 1981): 1-13.

Fletcher, Richard A. The Conversion of Europe: From Paganism to Christianity, 371-1386 AD. London: HarperCollins, 1997.

Hen, Yitzhak. “‘Paganism and Superstition in the Time of Gregory of Tours: Une question mal posée!’.” In The World of Gregory of Tours, edited by Kathleen Mitchell and Ian N. Wood, 229-40. Leiden: Brill, 2002.

Kitchen, John. Saints’ Lives and the Rhetoric of Gender: Male and Female in Merovingian Hagiography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Markus, Robert A. Signs and Meanings: World and Text in Ancient Christianity. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1996.

Van Dam, Raymond. Leadership and Community in Late Antique Gaul. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.

Wood, Ian. “Pagan Religions and Superstitions East of the Rhine from the Fifth to the Ninth Centuries.” In After Empire : Towards an Ethnology of Europe’s Barbarians, edited by Giorgio Ausenda, 253-79. Woodbridge,: Boydell Press, 1995.