Episcopal Politics in Sixth-Century Bordeaux: Fortunatus’s Hymnus de Leontio episcopo

Abstract

Among the works of the sixth-century poet Venantius Fortunatus is found an abecedarian Versus aut Hymnus (Carmina 1.16) that was written for Leontius II, bishop of Bordeaux. This singular survival of poetic polemic from early Merovingian Gaul alleges a failed plot, ca. 568, by a would-be episcopal usurper. This article first places this polemical work against the backdrop of contemporary clerical factionalism and civic politics in the Merovingian kingdoms. It then offers an analysis of this Hymnus in the context of its late antique literary antecedents. It argues that this text of an essentially oral work represents a valuable documentation of organized polemic and sloganeering. It demonstrates that episcopal propaganda played a notable part in the civic and religious life of Frankish Gaul during the early Middle Ages.