Description
Book SynopsisGregory of Tours was a bishop of late antiquity who was famously devoted to promoting the efficacy of saintly powers. In his writings, both historical and hagiographical, Gregory depicted the saints and reprobates of his age. This book analyses Gregory’s writings about death and the afterlife, thereby illuminating the bishop’s pastoral imperative to save souls and revealing his opinions about the fates of Merovingian royals, among many others he mentions in his voluminous text. The study provides insight into Gallic peoples living at the dawning of the Middle Ages and their hopes and fears about the otherworld. It affords an original, nuanced interpretation of Gregory’s motives for penning his works, particularly the
Historiae, which remained unfinished upon the author’s death.
Trade Review"This well-written volume provides a detailed overview of particular and significant aspects of Gregory’s thought on saints and their relationship to death, judgment, heaven, and hell within the context of the thought of his contemporaries during a time when many of these ideas were in developing stages. [...] This book will be a welcome addition to the flourishing fields of late antique studies and of Merovingian Gaul, as well as to the library of new work on a most interesting figure, Gregory of Tours."
- Eileen Gardiner,
The Medieval Review, 21.11.36 (2021)
"Allen E. Jones’s recent study tackles a subject that is hardly studied: the theological views of the sixth-century Merovingian bishop, Gregory of Tours. [...] His study offers a fresh new perspective on Gregory of Tours and his works, and it paves the path for further studies on the theology of Gregory of Tours. [...] Jones does an excellent service for the ‘Gregorian’ scholarship by looking into the theology of Gregory of Tours, and his study opens new ways to discuss Gregory and his works."
- Tamar Rotman,
Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 12, 39 (2021)
"
Death and Afterlife in the Pages of Gregory of Tours is a self-proclaimed intellectual biography (17) of the author of ten books of history and seven books of miracles, which refreshingly makes use of the bishop’s entire corpus and broader historical context in order to get inside his head. [...] This book will remain an excellent resource for death in Gregory of Tours. Its expansive index makes it easy to use and ensures scholars of Gregory and sixth-century Gaul will return to it after reading."
- A. E. T. McLaughlin,
Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture, 90, 3 (2021)
"In a book that combines impressive scholarship with some genuinely funny lines, Jones’s book takes on this challenge with illuminating results. It is essential and gripping reading for anyone interested in Gregory of Tours and his ideas about death and salvation."
- Isabel Moreira,
Early Medieval Europe, Vol. 31, Iss. 1
"Overall, the book reflects an engaging attempt at constructing an intellectual biography of Gregory of Tours, and has much to commend it. [...] Jones is an astute reader, able both to articulate cohesive arguments and to trace them effectively across a variety of textual events."
- Kavya Bhat & Maria E. Doerfler,
Journal of Early Christian Studies, Vol. 29, No. 3
Table of ContentsIntroduction
Part I Death
Chapter One Peering into the Invisible World
Death and the Little Boy
Becoming Gregory I
Conclusion
Chapter Two Maturing Spiritually in a Perilous World
Death and the Aspiring Cleric
Becoming Gregory II
Studium ad ecclesiasticae scriptae
Conclusion
Chapter Three Pastoring from the Pulpit and the Page
Death and the Bishop
Death and the Historian?
Bishop, Author, Pastor
-Writings and Sermons
-Sin, Penance, Grace
-Living Holy People
-Sinners
Conclusion
Part II Afterlife
Chapter Four Discerning the Denizens of Heaven and Hell
The Saved
Visionaries and Heaven
Communicating Salvation: Migrare and Transire
Hellmates
Signs of Condemnation
Communicating Damnation: Interire, Iudicium Dei, Ultio Divina
Lessons and Warnings for Contemporaries
Conclusion
Chapter Five Fathoming the Fates of the Merovingians
Merovingians in Heaven
-King Clovis and Queen Clotild
-King Theudebert
Merovingians in Hell
-King Chlodomer et al.
-A Mixed Bag: Kings Theuderic, Theudebald, Childebert I, Chlothar I and Prince Chramn
Kings Charibert and Sigibert
Kings Chilperic and Guntram
Conclusion
Conclusion
Killer Queen(s)
King Guntram and Gregory's Unfinished Project
Afterword
Bibliography
Index
