The Horizons of Gregory of Tours

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Erin Dailey discusses the world as Gregory of Tours saw it, links that world to Gregory’s worldview, and unsettles our own established views about what mattered to the bishop of Tours.

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Erin Dailey discusses the world as Gregory of Tours saw it, links that world to Gregory’s worldview, and unsettles our own established views about what mattered to the bishop of Tours.

Image courtesy of interviewee. May 22, 2024

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This video video discusses Gregory of Tours, a bishop and historian from the city of Tours in modern-day France, during the time of Barbarian Kings following the fall of the Roman Empire. Gregory, who had a Roman background, is noted for his engaging writings, particularly his ten books of histories, which blend contemporary and past events, showcasing his unique perspective on the world. His historical works reveal a mix of personal anecdotes, gossip, and societal commentary, contrasting with his writings on saints and miracles, which reflect a sense of wonder and a more spiritual perspective.

Gregory's understanding of the medieval world distinguished him from modern interpretations, as he felt closer to regions like North Africa and Syria than to places like Britain. His writings, including a notable trial for gossiping about a queen, illustrate the potential dangers of contemporary historical writing.

This video video emphasizes the importance of understanding historical authors within their worldviews, cautioning against imposing modern categorizations on medieval thinkers. It advocates for fresh examinations of historical sources to appreciate their unique perspectives and interconnectedness across regions. Overall, it underlines the complexities of interpreting history through the lens of an author’s lived experience and societal context.

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Gregory of Tour is someone I've

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been interested in a long time.

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Um, he was a bishop of the City of Tour,

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which is in modern day France.

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They called it Gaul at the time.

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Um, and it was

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after the fall of the Roman Empire when Gaul was ruled

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by Barbarian Kings, the Franks.

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But Gregory himself was from a Roman backward.

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Um, so he is in an unusual situation.

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He's a very interesting figure, not only for the details

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of his life, but because of what he wrote.

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Um, he wrote several works, most famously 10 books

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of histories, and you can really see Gregory's

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personality in these works.

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Um, he's entertaining.

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He has an eye for interesting anecdotes.

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He's a little bit of a snob, I have to say.

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Um, and he also likes some gossip, you know,

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so it's the perfect kind of, perfect kind of book

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to get interested in and, and to read.

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Gregory also wrote, hey, geographic works

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that are about miracles and about saints.

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So, he is a, he is a kind

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of well-rounded author to work.

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I mean, the article i I produced here on the Horizons

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of Record Tour was part of a collection of works,

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that we're looking at the way

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that medieval people thought about their own world,

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because we tend to categorize them

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as this is a medieval European author.

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And then we assume they had a concept of Europe that aligns

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with our own, and that they're familiar for that reason.

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So in the collection, several authors were included,

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primary source authors

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who had a different worldview than we might expect.

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And Gregory was a great case study in that,

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because Gregory's understanding of

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what his world looked like was very different from ours.

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Um, he felt much closer to people who were as far away

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as North Africa or Syria than he did to people who were in,

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say, Britain,

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or even Britney, which was actually

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very close to where he lived.

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So that can really give you an opportunity to think,

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how do we think about these concepts?

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Like what is medieval Europe

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and how did medieval Europeans actually see their world,

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the 10 books of histories?

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Um, Gregory purports to explain a long, a large amount

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of history going back very far in the past,

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but really what he wants to do is give

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a contemporary history of his own times.

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And, within those 10 books,

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the last six books really deal with his lifetime.

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Um, and he's a, he's an interesting author

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because he is writing about things that are happening,

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contemporary to himself,

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which very few other people were prepared to do.

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And it was in fact, potentially a dangerous thing to do

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because it could get you in a lot of trouble

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if you said the wrong thing about the wrong person, and,

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and you were found out for it.

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Um, and in fact, Gregory was put on trial

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for spreading rumors about the queen,

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and in the end he was okay,

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but, he learned just how dangerous it was,

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and you can actually sort of see that in his histories

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at certain times he's dancing around subjects

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or he's waiting for someone to die,

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so he can then tell you how he

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Really feels.

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Yeah, I mean, Gregory was a bishop,

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and he saw himself as being part of this universal church,

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and he saw himself as having an affinity, not only

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with other Christians, Catholics like himself,

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but really with people who belong

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to this single institutional, organized church.

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So when he talked about, people who might be Christian,

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but who didn't really fit into that organized structure,

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he didn't really know what to make of it,

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or when he talked about areas that were beyond,

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the reach of this, institution, he started to get a

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little bit worried and a little bit anxious,

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and he, he followed them as very strange places.

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Um, so his world really is defined by this,

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this sort of spiritual ecclesiastical

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institutional structure.

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You know, Gregory was, was not a very well traveled person,

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even though he talked about places as far away as Indian.

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Um, he never left Gaul.

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And when he got close to the orders of Gaul,

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he got a little bit, anxious

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because across, the frontiers that he surveyed,

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you know, if he didn't see, a society

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that he recognized, he might talk about omens,

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he might talk about strange events,

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he might see signs of the heavens.

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You know, he had some anxiety about that.

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So there's a, there's an alignment between the world

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that he lived in and the conceptual

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landscape that he described.

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No. So he gets, he gets invited to Royal court in bl,

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which is right on the edge of Ga.

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And beyond that, there had not been, an,

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the expansion of the institutional church.

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There were people with Christian practices out there,

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but they didn't have bishops.

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They didn't have church at these companies in the same way.

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And what he says when he gets there, you could tell he's,

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he's worried, he's scared, he's clutching his relics.

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Um, he gets on a boat and it, it, it sinks.

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And he thinks, you know, he's had this near death experience

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and sw to the shore and barely survived.

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He decides to go home after that.

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Um, he sees comets in the sky, he reports on it.

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And in another of his works where he talks about,

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the motions of heavenly bodies,

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he talks about these comments

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and how they signal things like the death of a king.

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Um, so he had some of his most,

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uneasy experiences, when he's physically gone

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beyond the area that he's comfortable.

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And that's surprising because,

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Copeland is not a place it's thought of as on any kind

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of border land, even in this time.

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It's, it, it had been on the borders of the Roman Empire,

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but by this point it was at the

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heartland of the Frankish kingdom.

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I mean, the royal court is there.

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Um, and so it's not, it's not the kind

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of place you would necessarily expect someone

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to have these feelings, but Gregory did, for one, you have

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to think about the histories

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that he wrote alongside the age geographic works that

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He wrote. So biographies

05:57.755 --> 05:59.725
of saints and collections of miracles.

06:00.505 --> 06:03.445
And one of the temptations as a historian

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that you might have is to just focus on the histories,

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because that's the familiar kind

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of text you're interested in.

06:09.505 --> 06:13.045
But actually Gregory himself didn't see history in that way,

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is collection of books of history have plenty

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of miracles in them, and his works of miracles have history.

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So you have to take them both together to try

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and really understand his complete view of the world.

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Um, and a different side

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of his personality comes out in the Books of Miracles.

06:29.665 --> 06:31.285
Um, he has a certain sense of wonder.

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Um, he has a sense of an enchanted world.

06:35.765 --> 06:37.545
You don't necessarily get into histories.

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And also, you know, I have to say a few more

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of his prejudices can leak out there as well,

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because you does certainly have people he didn't like.

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Um, and he found opportunities to talk about that.

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And in the geography, you get a different understanding of

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that than its historical.

06:52.285 --> 06:54.065
One takeaway message is that we have

06:54.065 --> 06:57.665
to understand historians that when we pick an area of study,

06:58.245 --> 07:01.505
you know, we are at risk of imposing those boundaries upon

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our authors, right?

07:02.965 --> 07:05.305
So you have to start fresh, you have to go right back to

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what the sources say, and you have to go in there really

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with attention to where the authors horizons were,

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what did they think their world looked?

07:13.155 --> 07:15.735
Um, so if you go in for example, with an assumption

07:15.805 --> 07:18.855
that there's this division between say, Western Europe

07:18.915 --> 07:20.935
and Eastern Europe, you might miss the fact

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that medieval people didn't think about

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that in that way at all.

07:23.955 --> 07:27.495
Um, or if you think there's a division between North Africa

07:27.875 --> 07:30.575
and Southern Europe, you might be surprised to learn that,

07:30.595 --> 07:32.815
people saw themselves as part

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of one interconnected world.

07:34.845 --> 07:37.385
So I think the most important thing here,

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the takeaway really, is to try and take an author

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and their worldview for its own sake rather than to think,

07:44.135 --> 07:45.545
okay, I know who this person was,

07:45.705 --> 07:47.305
I know the world they were situated in.

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Now let me go ask you my questions

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that I've already determined.

07:51.845 --> 07:53.945
And by doing that, you're kind of determining

07:53.945 --> 07:55.985
what answers you can get and what answers you can't.

Understanding Gregory of Tours' Unique Perspective

00:00:00 - Gregory of Tour is someone I've been interested in a long time. he was a bishop of the City of Tour, which is in modern day France. They called it Gaul at the time. and it was after the fall of the Roman Empire when Gaul was ruled by Barbarian Kings, the Franks. But Gregory himself was from a Roman backward. so he is in an unusual situation. He's a very interesting figure, not only for the details of his life, but because of what he wrote. he wrote several works, most famously 10 books of histories, and you can really see Gregory's
00:00:35 - he's entertaining. He has an eye for interesting anecdotes. He's a little bit of a snob, I have to say. and he also likes some gossip, you know, so it's the perfect kind of, perfect kind of book to get interested in and, and to read. Gregory also wrote, hey, geographic works that are about miracles and about saints. So, he is a, he is a kind of well-rounded author to work. I mean, the article i I produced here on the Horizons of Record Tour was part of a collection of works,
00:01:06 - that medieval people thought about their own world, because we tend to categorize them as this is a medieval European author. And then we assume they had a concept of Europe that aligns with our own, and that they're familiar for that reason. So in the collection, several authors were included, primary source authors who had a different worldview than we might expect. And Gregory was a great case study in that, because Gregory's understanding of what his world looked like was very different from ours.
00:01:39 - as North Africa or Syria than he did to people who were in, say, Britain, or even Britney, which was actually very close to where he lived. So that can really give you an opportunity to think, how do we think about these concepts? Like what is medieval Europe and how did medieval Europeans actually see their world, the 10 books of histories? Gregory purports to explain a long, a large amount of history going back very far in the past,
00:02:09 - a contemporary history of his own times. And, within those 10 books, the last six books really deal with his lifetime. and he's a, he's an interesting author because he is writing about things that are happening, contemporary to himself, which very few other people were prepared to do. And it was in fact, potentially a dangerous thing to do because it could get you in a lot of trouble if you said the wrong thing about the wrong person, and, and you were found out for it.
00:02:41 - for spreading rumors about the queen, and in the end he was okay, but, he learned just how dangerous it was, and you can actually sort of see that in his histories at certain times he's dancing around subjects or he's waiting for someone to die, so he can then tell you how he Really feels. Yeah, I mean, Gregory was a bishop, and he saw himself as being part of this universal church, and he saw himself as having an affinity, not only

Gregory's Anxieties About Organized Christianity

00:03:13 - but really with people who belong to this single institutional, organized church. So when he talked about, people who might be Christian, but who didn't really fit into that organized structure, he didn't really know what to make of it, or when he talked about areas that were beyond, the reach of this, institution, he started to get a little bit worried and a little bit anxious, and he, he followed them as very strange places.
00:03:46 - this sort of spiritual ecclesiastical institutional structure. You know, Gregory was, was not a very well traveled person, even though he talked about places as far away as Indian. he never left Gaul. And when he got close to the orders of Gaul, he got a little bit, anxious because across, the frontiers that he surveyed, you know, if he didn't see, a society
00:04:15 - he might talk about strange events, he might see signs of the heavens. You know, he had some anxiety about that. So there's a, there's an alignment between the world that he lived in and the conceptual landscape that he described. No. So he gets, he gets invited to Royal court in bl, which is right on the edge of Ga. And beyond that, there had not been, an, the expansion of the institutional church. There were people with Christian practices out there,
00:04:44 - They didn't have church at these companies in the same way. And what he says when he gets there, you could tell he's, he's worried, he's scared, he's clutching his relics. he gets on a boat and it, it, it sinks. And he thinks, you know, he's had this near death experience and sw to the shore and barely survived. He decides to go home after that. he sees comets in the sky, he reports on it. And in another of his works where he talks about, the motions of heavenly bodies,
00:05:15 - and how they signal things like the death of a king. so he had some of his most, uneasy experiences, when he's physically gone beyond the area that he's comfortable. And that's surprising because, Copeland is not a place it's thought of as on any kind of border land, even in this time. It's, it, it had been on the borders of the Roman Empire, but by this point it was at the heartland of the Frankish kingdom. I mean, the royal court is there.
00:05:47 - of place you would necessarily expect someone to have these feelings, but Gregory did, for one, you have to think about the histories that he wrote alongside the age geographic works that He wrote. So biographies of saints and collections of miracles. And one of the temptations as a historian that you might have is to just focus on the histories, because that's the familiar kind of text you're interested in. But actually Gregory himself didn't see history in that way, is collection of books of history have plenty

Understanding Gregory's Worldview and Biases

00:06:20 - So you have to take them both together to try and really understand his complete view of the world. and a different side of his personality comes out in the Books of Miracles. he has a certain sense of wonder. he has a sense of an enchanted world. You don't necessarily get into histories. And also, you know, I have to say a few more of his prejudices can leak out there as well, because you does certainly have people he didn't like. and he found opportunities to talk about that.
00:06:50 - that than its historical. One takeaway message is that we have to understand historians that when we pick an area of study, you know, we are at risk of imposing those boundaries upon our authors, right? So you have to start fresh, you have to go right back to what the sources say, and you have to go in there really with attention to where the authors horizons were, what did they think their world looked? so if you go in for example, with an assumption that there's this division between say, Western Europe
00:07:20 - that medieval people didn't think about that in that way at all. or if you think there's a division between North Africa and Southern Europe, you might be surprised to learn that, people saw themselves as part of one interconnected world. So I think the most important thing here, the takeaway really, is to try and take an author and their worldview for its own sake rather than to think, okay, I know who this person was, I know the world they were situated in. Now let me go ask you my questions
00:07:53 - And by doing that, you're kind of determining what answers you can get and what answers you can't.

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The Horizons of Gregory of Tours

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