The Social Life of Hagiography in the Merovingian Kingdom

Abstract

This book charts the influence of Christian ideas about social responsibility on the legal, fiscal and operational policies of the Merovingian government, which consistently depended upon the collaboration of kings and elites to succeed, and it shows how a set of stories transformed the political playing field in early medieval Gaul. Contemporary thinkers encouraged this development by writing political arguments in the form of hagiography, more to redefine the rules and resources of elite culture than to promote saints' cults. Jamie Kreiner explores how hagiographers were able to do this effectively, by layering their arguments with different rhetorical and cognitive strategies while keeping the surface narratives entertaining. The result was a subtle and captivating literature that gives us new ways of thinking about how ideas and institutions can change, and how the vibrancy of Merovingian culture inspired subsequent Carolingian developments.

Advancing rational analysis to the algorithmic level

“…Not only were their donations not a waste of money. They were motivated by the sense that God's unique power made it possible to connect the economies of earth and heaven (Brown 2012;Kreiner 2014;Wood 2013).…”

Handmaids of God: Images of Service in the Lives of Merovingian Female Saints

“…They shared, however, in a common enterprise. As Jamie Kreiner makes clear, Merovingian hagiography "was principally, although not exclusively, a literature of and for the ruling classes," 45 Their subjects were not ordinary women and the authors were well-educated men and women, writing from positions of security and authority. Their hagiographies were written to fulfil a number of probable motives, including piety, the desire to promote particular communities, or as an engagement in political and religious debates.…”

You Only Die Twice? Abbots between Community and Empire. The Cases of Martin of Tours and Benedict of Aniane

“…The works of Sulpicius Severus were crucial in the making of Martin's sainthood, but it was the promotion of the succeeding bishops of Tours, Perpetuus and most notably Gregory, writing nearly two centuries later, who claimed the saint and his miracles as the centrepiece of the episcopal see of Tours 60 . Gregory, in his Histories and in his books On the Virtues of Saint Martin, linked the saint, the basilica and the see closely together and anchored the saint among the most important cult sites and pilgrimage centres in the thriving religious landscape of the Merovingian kingdoms 61 . After Martin's death, Marmoutier may have lost its relevance as a monastery, but over time it gained importance as a pilgrimage site and as a shrine to Martin 62 .…”