The pauperes in the ‘Libri Historiarum’ of Gregory of Tours

Abstract

Abstract The paper focuses on specific case studies concerning the representation of the figure of the poor in bishop Gregory of Tours’ ‘Libri Historiarum’. The analysis of this source demonstrates how the needy, although on the edge of society, nevertheless constituted a significant spiritual resource for those who wanted to ensure the purification from their sins through alms, especially the richest. This constituted a dynamics of reciprocal remuneration through which, on the one hand, the suffering of the indigent was made less arduous by the charity of the divites; on the other hand, the pauperes themselves were believed to act in favour of their earthly benefactors in the afterlife. Although certainly marginal figures, the poor were not, therefore, completely excluded from Merovingian society in the sixth century. Rather, in the Gaul of the ‘Libri Historiarum’, an attempt was made to offer them adequate assistance thanks to the concrete measures taken by those who, whether lay or ecclesiastical, recognised, as Peter Brown has pointed out, the figure of Christ in every needy. Such benefactors were able to offer help to those who extended their hands to receive alms. At the same time, they earned a credit for the salvation of their souls to enter the kingdom of heaven. The different social function of the poor, as illustrated by Gregory of Tours, finds a full correspondence in the theological and social vision of other illustrious Christian authors of the sixth century, such as bishop Caesarius of Arles and, above all, Pope Gregory the Great. These maintained that, according to divine providence, the inferior pay respect to the superior and the superior show benevolence towards the inferior, thus creating a single concordant harmony. The paper, therefore, highlights the different social functions of pauperes both by studying some specific figures of indigents and by examining the ecclesiastical mentality concerning the general question of poverty and its effects on marginalisation.