Summary
Death was a constant around which Gregory, like countless other Christians, constructed the central meaning of life, to overcome it through attaining salvation. The bishop preached how people could accomplish this through contrition and by living a virtuous life. Necessary to the salvific process was the accumulation of sin-annulling divine grace, which Gregory believed one could accumulate by participating in the sacraments, obeying one’s ecclesiastical betters, and especially by developing an unquestioning reliance on, and loyalty to, the saints. Because he regarded physical death as a cutoff point after which there could be no further effective effort to remove sin from one's soul – although one might tender a final appeal for a saint to intercede on one's behalf on Judgment Day –, Gregory exhorted sinners to take action while they still lived. He encouraged them to address their inner struggles: to practice virtues, overcome vices, and become servants of Christ. It is ironic that this bishop, who maintained a conviction that humans had a limited opportunity to repent while still living, in the first four years of his episcopal tenure witnessed alarming numbers of people being deprived of those precious moments. He feared his congregants, and other acquaintances, from king to common soldier, losing their souls as a consequence. It has been argued in this book that the many deaths inflicted on Gallic inhabitants during the tumults of the mid-570s, residents of the Touraine especially, along with the startling special case of King Sigibert’s assassination, compelled Gregory to complement his hagiography with history. As his years as a bishop progressed and he put his pastoral messages to paper, Gregory simultaneously did what he always had, elude Death.
The contents for the final six books of the Historiae reveal how Death continued to haunt Gregory following the civil wars of the 570s. One potentially deadly incident was the bishop's 580 trial for accusing Queen Fredegund of adultery. Although the writer portrayed himself showing a brave face, this may have actually constituted a life-jeopardizing situation on par with his earlier, nearly fatal illnesses. Even if it is rather unlikely he would have received a death penalty had he been charged with slandering Queen Fredegund, the designs of his conspiratorial subordinates posed a real threat to the prelate's life.
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- Death and Afterlife in the Pages of Gregory of ToursReligion and Society in Late Antique Gaul, pp. 275 - 296Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2020