Germanic Sources
- M - N - O - P - R - S - T - V - W - Z -
***
Latin Panegyrics (Panegyrici Latini) 4th century CE; VII, VIII 7.4-9.4, X 10.2-5, XI 7.1-2, XII mention the Franks;
From Roman to Merovingian Gaul:From the Latin Panegyrics (Panegyrici Latini)
Contemporary references to the Franks first appear in the late third century in the so-called Panegyrici Latini, where the name seems already well established.
The Panegyrici Latini is a collection of twelve panegyrics, eleven of which were delivered between 289 and 389 to various emperors by Gallic rhetors, mainly at Trier, the principal imperial residence in the north-west; a twelfth specimen is a highly respected model piece by Pliny, delivered before Trajan two centuries earlier.
The panegyric in its imperial dress was a formal eulogy made before the emperor, praising his achievements with exaggerated flattery, passing over his setbacks, and denigrating, sometimes heaping vituperation on, his enemies. The relation of panegyric to truth is often incidental but the genre, for all its tendentiousness, can still cast valuable light, not only on what happened, but also on the ideological face of power, political culture, and public fidelity.
VI (10-13.1) [310] Constantine defeated the Franks and killed their kings, Ascaric and Merogaisus, thereby securing the Rhine as a frontier. He built forts at intervals on the Roman's side and enlarged the Rhine fleet. A bridge across the Rhine was built at Cologne.
A devastating raid on the Bructeri (who inhabited the west bank) resulted in:
"countless numbers slaughtered and very many captured. Whatever herds there were, were seized or slaughtered; all the villages were put to flame; the adults who were captured, whose untrustworthiness made them unfit for military service and whose ferocity for slavery, were given over to the amphitheater for punishment, and their great numbers wore out the raging beasts.
VIII [events of 296]- Constantius I had to build a fleet and deal with the Franks who were occupying Batavia and the land around the Scheldt river. This excerpt illustrates the problems of campaigning in the region and the fate of barbarian captives.
7.4-9.4 But neither the treacherous nature of this region (marsh) nor the very many refuges which were to be found in its forests could protect the barbarians from being compelled to give themselves up en masse…and with their wives and children and the rest of their swarm of relatives and chattels they crossed over to lands long since deserted in order to restore to cultivation through their servitude what they themselves, perhaps, had once devastated by their plundering.
In all the porticoes of our cities sit captive bands of barbarians, the men quaking, their savagery utterly confounded, old men and wives contemplating the listlessness of their sons and husbands, youths and girls fettered together whispering soothing endearments, and all these parceled out to the inhabitants of your province for service, until they might be led out to the desolate lands assigned to be cultivated by them. And so it is for me now that the Chamavian and Frisian plows, and that vagabond, the pillager, toils at the cultivation of the neglected countryside and frequents my markets with beasts for sale, and the barbarian farmer lowers the price of food. Furthermore, if he is summoned to the levy, he comes running and is crushed by the discipline; he submits to the lash and congratulates himself upon his servitude by calling it soldiering…
18.3 Indeed it is recalled to mind that incredible audacity and undeserved good fortune of a few Frankish captives in the time of Probus [a. 276-82], who seizing some ships, plundered their way from the Black Sea right to Greece and Asia and, driven not without causing damage from very many parts of the Libyan shore, finally took Syracuse itself, once renowned for its naval victories, and, after traveling on an immense journey, entered the Ocean were it breaches the lands, and thus showed by the outcome of their boldness that nothing is closed to a pirate's desperation where a path lays open to navigation…
21. …the Laeti, restored by right of postliminium, and the Franks, admitted to our laws, have cultivated the empty fields of the Arvii (Armorica) and the Treveri, so…whatever land remained abandoned in the territory of the Ambiani (Amiens), Bellovaci (Beauvais), Tricasses (Troyes), and Lingones (Langres) turns green again under cultivation by barbarians.
Note: This excerpt contains the earliest mention of 'laeti'. Laeti were not an ethnic group but barbarian settlers of various origins planted in the empire with a distinct and hereditary status. They are distinguished here from recently captured Franks. Postliminium is a term for the full restoration of rights following a person's return from captivity.
X (10.2-5) mentions an early king, likely a Frank, by the name of Gennobaudes, to whom Maximian restored a kingdom.
XI
7.1-2 "the destruction here of the Chaibones and Eruli and the victories across the Rhine and the wars with the pirates who were suppressed when the Franks were subdued"
XII (21.5-24.2) [313] Constantine, during a campaign on the Rhine, pretended to withdraw thereby encouraging the Franks to cross the river. An ambush was sprung by troops left behind and by the Roman fleet. The captives were offered in the games. The Calendar of Philocalus lists Frankish games (ludi Francici) under July 15 and 20.
"He threw so great a multitude of captives to the beasts that the ungrateful and faithless men experienced no less suffering from the sport made of them than from death itself.
This is the reason why, although they might defer their end, they rush to their ruin and offer themselves to lethal wounds and to death. It is apparent from this very fact how great a thing it is to have conquered men so wasteful of themselves.
It is easy to conquer timid creatures unfit for war…but…the grim Frank filled only with the flesh of wild beasts, who despises life because of the meanness of his substance, how much trouble it is to overcome or capture these!"
***
Laws of Æþelberht seventh century Anglo-Saxon law code
***
Laws of Ine seventh century Anglo-Saxon law code appended to Ælfred's law code.
***
Laws of Rothari (Lombard): Succession of Legitimate and Natural Sons, c. 643
If any one should leave one son, that is an only son, and one or more natural sons, the legitimate son shall have two thirds of his father's substance, and the natural sons the remaining third. And if there be two legitimate sons, they shall have four parts and the natural sons a fifth, however many there may be. And if there be three legitimate sons, the natural sons shall have a seventh part. If there be four legitimate sons, the natural sons shall have a ninth part. If there be five legitimate sons, the natural sons shall have a twelfth part. But if there be more, they shall divide the substance of the father by this number.
Source: L. A. Muratori, ed., Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, (Milan, 1725), Tome I, Part II, p. 26; reprinted in Roy C. Cave & Herbert H. Coulson, A Source Book for Medieval Economic History, (Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Co., 1936; reprint ed., New York: Biblo & Tannen, 1965), pp. 336-337. Scanned by Jerome S. Arkenberg, Cal. State Fullerton. The text has been modernized by Prof. Arkenberg.
***
Lebuin, Life of St., 10th century CE
Talbot Introduction: Though the life of St. Lebuin written by Hucbald of St. Amand is better known and was considered for a long time to be the first, M. J. A Moltzer showed in 1909 that it was based on an older biography, which is here translated. Hucbald was born about A.D. 840 and became monk of Elnone on the Scarpe. He went to Auxerre, where he followed the lectures of Heiric, a disciple of John Scotus Eriugena. Later he passed to St. Bertin, where he was placed in charge of the schools. The successor of Hincmar of Rheims, Fulques (881-900), invited him to reorgamze the schools in the cathedral city, and after doing so he returned to St. Amand, where he died, 20 June, probably in the year 931. Among a number of other lives of Saints, he wrote a biography of St. Lebuin at the request of Baldric, the restorer of the diocese of Utrecht (91876), but as he merely pads out the facts without making any original contribution it has seemed better to present the original and earlier text to the reader.
Sources: The Life of St. Lebuin was first published by Surius, vol. vi, pp277-86, but this was the text written by Hucbald of St. Amand. A translation of this appeared in Serenus Cressy's Church History of Brittany, vol. xxivv, 7. The present text is, however, based on the Vita Lebuini Antiqua, edited by A. Hofmeister, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores (x926-34), vol. xxx, 2, pp. 789-95.
[229] THE LAND of England which was converted to the faith of Christ by the intervention of the blessed Pope Gregory has always been most steadfast in its religion. And just as it is prolific in all kinds of animals, so also is it productive of holy men. There one finds laymen devoted to the service of God, virgins of exceptional virtue and monks of outstanding generosity spurning the world for the love of Christ. Very many of these have forsaken their country for the Lord's sake, either to expiate their sins or benefit pagans and Christians by their teaching.
The Lord Himself admonished St. Lebuin to forsake his country and to preach to the Saxons across the sea and told him to instruct the people who dwelt in the lands of the Franks and Saxons near the river Isel. After receiving this command, not once but a second and a third time, he embarked on a ship and came to the priest Gregory, who at that time was in charge of the church at Utrecht, which in olden times was called Wiltenburg. Though Gregory was only a priest, he was fulfilling the duties of a bishop. This man, who was the scion of a noble Frankish family, had been brought up in the service of St. Boniface since he was a boy and first joined him when at God's command he went to preach to the people of Hesse and Thuringia. Boniface had come from England at the time of Charles and became so renowned for his wisdom and holiness in the days of that king's two sons, Carloman and Pippin, that he was able to effect reforms both in religion and belief throughout the whole Frankish kingdoms. Though he set out as a poor pilgrim, such was his eloquence and prudence that he was chosen by the kings and the people to be Bishop of Mainz, and when he went to Rome to be consecrated archbishop by Pope Gregory the third his name was changed from Wynfrith to Boniface because of his good deeds [bona facta]. But after this blessed master was slain by the sword vrith fiftytwo companions whilst he [230] was preaching in Frisia, St. Gregory spent the rest of his life ministering to the young Chistian community which St. Willibrord and other disciples of the Lord had baptized in Frisia and in the districts round about.
St. Lebuin, therefore, told St. Gregory what the Lord had comrnanded him and asked to be conducted to the spot in his diocese which the Lord had pointed out and commended to his care. After blessed Gregory had listened to him, congratulated him and welcomed this visitation from the Lord, he directed him to the place he had mentioned and gave him as a companion the servant of God, Marchelmus, who had been one of Willibrord's disciples Then he was received into the house of a widow named Abarhilda and enjoyed her hospitality for some days.
When many had accepted his teaching, the Christians who lived there built an oratory for him near the western bank of the river Isel at a place called Wilp, and not long afterwards they built a church and a dwellingplace on the eastern bank of the same river, where the man of God remained intent on the work of God. From time to time he went into Saxony to see if he could gain souls to God, and he persuaded many to accept the faith of Christ. Among his friends and acquaintances were people of the nobility, one of whom was a rich man named Folcbert who lived in the village of Suderg.
But as it were not possible for him who bore the light of Christ to remain concealed for long, nor for the seed of Christ to grow without persecution, complaints arose among those who did not believe and they began to threaten the man of God because some of their number had abandoned the ancient worship and had turned to new ways. "Why do we not get hold of this fanatic," they said," and give him what he deserves for gadding about the province and jabbering his incantations and sending people out of their minds?" And so they banded together in a mob, burned down his church and drove out the Christians from their midst.
In olden times the Saxons had no king but appointed rulers over each village; and their custom was to hold a general meeting once a year in the centre of Saxony near the river Yser at a place called Marklo. There all the leaders used to gather together and they [231] were joined by twelve noblemen from each village with as many freedmen and serfs. There they confirmed the laws, gave judgment on outstanding cases and by common consent drew up plans for the coming year on which they could act either in peace or war.
Folcbert, whom we have already mentioned, had a son named Helco, who was to set out with the other youths for the meeting. One morning, whilst he was speaking to his son, he said, among other things: " I feel anxious about Wine" - for this is what he used to call Lebuin - "and I am afraid that if he meets with those who hate him they will either kill him or drag him to the meeting place and have him killed there." Whilst he was still speaking, the dogs began barking in the hall and growling at someone coming in. The young man Helco went to the door to see who it was and there he found Lebuin trying to ward off the dogs with his stick. He ran up to him and, driving the dogs away, brought him vwith joy to his father. After they had greeted each other and sat down, Folcbert said to the man of God: "You have just come at the right time, my dear Wine, for I was wanting to see you and have a few words with you. Where do you intend to go now?" The man of God said: " I am going to the meeting of the Saxons." Folcbert said: "You are on friendly terms with many of us, dear Wine, and what you say gives pleasure even to me. But I hear that there are many insolent young fellows who insult and threaten you. Listen to me and be on your guard against them. Do not go to the meeting, but return home to your friend Davo. For once the meeting is over you may go about with less danger and then you can come here in safety and we shall listen to your words with very great pleasure." The man of God replied: " I must not fail to be present at this meeting, for Christ himself has commanded me to make known his words to the Saxons." Folcbert said: " You will not get away." He answered: " I shall escape easily enough, for He who sent me will be my aid."
Since he could not persuade him, he sent him away.
When the day of the meeting came round, all the leaders were present, as were others whose duty it was to attend. Then, when they had gathered together, they first offered up prayers to their gods, as is their custom, asking them to protect their country and [232] to guide them in making decrees both useful to themselves and pleasing to the gods. Then when a circle had been formed they began the discussions.
Suddenly Lebuin appeared in the middle of the circle, clothed in his priestly garments, bearing a cross in his hands and a copy of the Gospels in the crook of his arm. Raising his voice, he aied: "Listen to me, listen. I am the messenger of Almighty God and to you Saxons I bring his command." Astonished at his words and at his unusual appearance, a hush fell upon the assembly. The man of God then followed up his announcement with these words: " The God of heaven and Ruler of the world and His Son, Jesus Christ, commands me to tell you that if you are willing to be and to do what His servants tell you He will confer benefits upon you such as you have never heard of before." Then he added: "As you have never had a king over you before this time, so no king will prevail against you and subject you to his domination. But if you are unwilling to accept God's commands, a king has been prepared nearby who will invade your lands, spoil and lay them waste and sap away your strength in war; he will lead you into exile, deprive you of your inheritance, slay you with the sword, and hand over your possessions to whom he has a mind: and afterwards you will be slaves both to him and his successors."
At this they could no longer hold their tongue and cried out in a loud voice: "This is the wandering charlatan who goes about the country preaching wild, fantastic nonsense. Catch him and stone him to death." In spite of the efforts of the wiser among them to prevent it, the mob ran to the fence close by, wrenched stakes from it, pared and sharpened them and threw them, trying to transfix him. But suddenly he was no longer there. Then, all of them, both those who had been put to confusion and those who had tried to control them, condemned their action as unjust, and one of them in particular, a speaker named Buto, climbed on to the trunk of a tree and addressed them as follows: "All you who have any sense of justice, listen to what I have to say. When the Normans, Slavs and Frisians or any other people send messengers to us we receive them peacefully and listen with courtesy [233] to what they have to say. But now, when a messenger of God comes to us, look at the insults we pour upon him! The ease with which he escaped from our hands ought to prove to you that he spoke the truth and that the threats he uttered will not be long in happening."
Moved by regret at what they had done, they decided that the messenger of God should go unharmed if he appeared again and that he should be allowed to travel wheresoever he pleased. Then, after this decision had been reached, they continued with the business they had in hand.
St. Lebuin, therefore, went about wherever the Spirit of God led him, persevering in the work of God until he gave back his soul to its Creator. He was buried after his death in the church which had formerly been burned down and rebuilt. But after his death the wicked Saxons laid waste that place and set the church on fire and for three days tried without success to find his body. At the same time Abbot Gregory also died and his diocese was taken over by his nephew Albricus, who loved Liutger [l] with a deep affection. He said to him: " Because you are now my dearest brother, I beg you to carry out my wishes. For the place in which St. Lebuin carried out his work until his death and where he is now buried has been laid waste. I want you to restore that place and to rebuild the church over his body."
[1] The St. Liutger mentioned in this biography was the first Bishop of Munster in Westphalia. Born at Zuilen near Utrecht about 774 (d. 26 March 809), he was sent to the school of Gregory at Utrecht and from there went to York with Alubert, who was consecrated bishop At York Llutger studhed under Alcuin and contracted a friendship with him that lasted throughout hus hfe. It was in 775 that he was despatched to Deventer to restore the chapel destroyed by the Saxons and to find the relics of St. Lebuin, after which he spent some time teaching at the school of Utrecht. In 777 he was ordained at Cologne and put in charge of the Eastern part of Friesland, with Dokkum, the scene of St. Boniface's martyrdom, as his centre. After seven years he was drlven out by the Frisians, instigated by Widukind, leader of the Saxons, and in 785 vlsited Rome, where he was received by Pope Adrian. For the next two years he stayed at Monte Cassino, and there, on the arrival of Charlemagne, was appointed musslonary to the five districts at the mouth of the river Ems. In 793 Charlemagne wlshed to make him Bishop of Trier, but he declined the honour and proposed instead to evangelize the Saxons. He built a monastery m the place, later called Munster, and lived there under the Rule of St. Chrodegang of Metz, whlch a few years before had been imposed in all Frankish territories. Someume between 80z and 803 he was consecrated Bishop of Munster and died on Passion Sunday 809. His body rests at Werden, the Benedictine monastery begun by hlm in 799 and completed in 804.
[234] Therefore the servant of God Liutger, in obedience to the commands of his master, looked for the body of the saint in the place just mentioned but was unable to f nd it. He began to raise a church, however, in the part where he thought it ought to be. When he had laid the foundations and was trying to erect the walls St. Lebuin appeared to him in a dream and said: " Dearest brother Liutger, you have done well in restoring the church of God which the heathens destroyed so long ago: my body, which you were looking for, will be found buried under the south wall which you have built." On the following morning, after saying his prayers, Liutger found the body in the place described to him in the dream, and, gathering together a large band of men, he had the foundations moved to the south part of the building so that the tomb of the saint could be enclosed within the church. It is in this place that God works many miracles through his servant Lebuin even to the present day.
Source: C. H. Talbot, The Anglo-Saxon Missionaries in Germany, Being the Lives of SS. Willibrord, Boniface, Leoba and Lebuin together with the Hodoepericon of St. Willibald and a selection from the correspondence of St. Boniface, (London and New York: Sheed and Ward, 1954)
The copyright status of this text has been checked carefully. The situation is complicated, but in sum is as follows. The book was published in 1954 by Sheed & Ward, apparently simultaneously, in both London and New York. The American-printed edition simply gave 'New York' as place of publication, the British-printed edition gave 'London and New York'. Copyright was not renewed in 1982 or 1983, as required by US Law. The recent GATT treaty (1995?) restored copyright to foreign publications which had entered US public domain simply because copyright had not be renewed in accordance with US law. This GATT provision does not seem to apply to this text because it was published simultaneously in the US and Britain by a publisher operating in both countries (a situation specifically addressed in the GATT regulations). Thus, while still under copyright protection in much of the world, the text remains in the US public domain.
This text is part of the Internet Medieval Source Book. The Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted texts related to medieval and Byzantine history.
Permission is granted for electronic copying, distribution in print form for educational purposes and personal use.
***
Leges Langobardorum (!)
***
Lex Frisionum: in the mid-eighth-century ad laws of the Frisians: when a man was killed in a riot, his murderer could be discovered by the use of lots, 'two slips cut from a branch, which they call teni, of which one is marked with the sign of the cross and the other is cast blank' Lex Frisionum 14.1
***
Lex Saxonum (65) the law of the Saxons uses the phrases 'uxorem emere' and 'uxorem vendere', 'to buy and sell a wife'.
***
Life of Charlemagne: 2 different texts of the same name; (+ see Files: Charlemagne)
Einhard, 829-836 CE: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/einhard.html
The Monk of St Gall, 883 CE: Internet Medieval Source Book
***
List of Paganiae and Superstitions (MGH Cap. i 223): The only specific evidence for the use of horses in divination comes from an eighth-century ad text known as the List of Paganiae and Superstitions (MGH Cap. i 223). This is a set of brief rubrics, perhaps the headings of a more detailed work now lost, covering various pagan practices of the time. The thirteenth item is 'concerning the auguries of birds or horses or cattle; dung and sneezes'. Since no other medieval guide to pagan practices mentions divination of this sort, it is likely to have been an actual practice of the time, presumably with much older roots
***
Liutberga, The Life of St., c. 870 CE; Vita S. Liutberga, ed. G. H. Pertz, MGH SS 4, 158-164.
Translation and notes by Jo Ann McNamara [jmcnamar@shiva.hunter.cuny.edu]
The convent of Winadohusen (Windenhausen) was built by a daughter of Hesse who did homage to Charlemagne in 775 and died 804. The Life of Liutberga was written by a monk of Halberstadt who knew her well close to her death (866-76), around 870. Feast, Feb. 28. I have not been able to check any alternate text but the gaps in the text (indicated ...) are probably omissions by the editor of religious material not considered historically interesting (at that time).
1. In his time, the emperor Charles the Great, first to bear the august title of caesar in German lands, subjugated many nations to the kingdom of the Franks. Among them he acquired many of the most noble and prepotent men of the Saxon people of that age with great estates. He subdued some by way of war and [converted] others by the industry of his own ingenuity and great sagacity from pagan rites to the religion of the Christians. One of the first and most noble among these was named Hesse with whom he kept company more than others. He sustained him with great honors because he remained faithful to him in everything. Hesse lacked male children, for his only son died in the flower of his youth leaving his rich substance to his daughters. When he grew very old he distributed the inheritance among his daughters and entered the Lord's service at Fulda and died happily in the monastic habit.
2. One of his daughters, Gisla, born first among the others, took a husband named Unwan by whom she had a son, Bernhart, and two daughters, one called Bilihild and the other Hruothild, both of whom founded monasteriola after the death of their husbands and took the sanctimonial habit: one in Winithohus (Windenhausen) in Saxony, in the country called Harthagewi (Harz) which separated Saxony and Thuringia; the other in Franconia in Salugewe, in the neighborhood of Bochonia in the place called Karolsbach (east of Gemundae at Moenum). Each of the girls ruled their own congregations of virgins respectively (Bilihild at Windenhausen and Hruothild at Karolsbach). Gisla herself in widowhood led a religious life, building many churches and giving alms and caring for pilgrims. I don't know you should discern a virile soul in the feminine sex with sharp ingenuity in carrying out various affairs, or whether you might wonder at the effect of piety.
***
Livy, Titus: History of Rome; Livy devoted the 104th book of his histories to an account of Germany. The 104th book is not known to exist.
Online: http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/browse-mixed-
new?id=Liv1His&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/
modeng/parsed&tag=publicand:
http://hydra.perseus.tufts.edu/cgibin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3
Atext%3A1999.02.0026&query=head%3D%231
book 9, chapter 36 (BCE 321-304): The Second Samnite War
The Ciminian forest was, in those days, more frightful and impassable than the German forests were recently found to be; not a single trader had, up to that time, ventured through it.
Per. 63: "The Cimbri, a wandering and plundering people, entered Illyria. The consul Papirius Carbo was defeated with his army by them."
Per. 65: "Consul M. Iunius Silanus fought against the Cimbri but he had no luck. The senate denied the claims of Cimbrian envoys for settlements and the land, in which their people had already arrived."
Per. 68:"Consul C. Marius defended the camps which were attacked by large forces of the Teutoni and Ambroni. In two battles at Aquae Sextiae he defeated the enemy; it is said that in those battles 200,000 enemies fell, 90,000 were captured. He put off the triumph that was offered to him, until he would have won over the Cimbri. The Cimbri defeated proconsul Q. Lutatius Catulus who tried to make a stand in the valleys of the Alps, and drove him away. At the river Athesis he abandonned a squad that had put up a camp there; but proving themselves brave [in a fight] they followed the proconsul and his army on the run. When the Cimbri crossed [the Po Valley] for Italy, they were defeated by the united armies of Catulus and Marius in a battle. It is said that in this battle 140,000 enemies fell and 60,000 were captured."
(Per. 140): In 17 BC the Usipi and Tencteri, together with the Sugambri, killed the Romans who were in their territory, and crossed the Rhine to plunder. All three were later subjugated by Drusus.
44. 26. 3, According to tradition, the Bastarnae already employed a similar device in the early second century bc, although apparently less as a support for the riders than as a way quickly to replace those who had fallen [writing about the practice of pairing runners with riders]
© 2004-2007 Northvegr.
Most of the material on this site is in the public domain. However, many people have worked very hard to bring these texts to you so if you do use the work, we would appreciate it if you could give credit to both the Northvegr site and to the individuals who worked to bring you these texts. A small number of texts are copyrighted and cannot be used without the author's permission. Any text that is copyrighted will have a clear notation of such on the main index page for that text. Inquiries can be sent to info@northvegr.org. Northvegr™ and the Northvegr symbol are trademarks and service marks of the Northvegr Foundation.
|