| ||
Home | Site Index | Heithinn Idea Contest | | ||
Grimm's TM - Chap. 6 Chapter 6
What Gregory of Tours tells us (2, 29-31) of the baptism of Chlodovich
(Clovis) and the events that preceded it, is evidently touched up, and the speeches
of the queen especially I take to be fictitious; yet he would hardly have put
them in her mouth, if it were generally known that the Franks had no gods or
statues at all. Chrothild (Clotilda) speaks thus to her husband, whom she is
trying to prepossess in favour of baptism: Nihil sunt dii quos colitis, qui
neque sibi neque aliis poterunt subvenire; sunt enim aut ex lapide aut ex ligno
aut ex metallo aliquo sculpti, nomina vero, quae eis indidistis, homines fuere,
non dii. Here she brings up Saturnus and Jupiter, with arguments drawn from
classical mythology; and then: Quid Mars Mercuriusque potuere ? qui potius sunt
magicis artibus praediti quam divini numinis potentiam habuere. Sed ille magis
coli debet qui coelum et terram, mare et omnia quae in eis sunt, verbo ex non
extantibus procreavit, &c. Sed cum haec regina diceret, nullatenus ad credendum
regis animus movebatur, sed dicebat: Deorum nostrorum jussione cuncta creantur
ac prodeunt; deus vero vester nihil posse manifestatur, et quod magis est, nec
de deorum genere esse probatur (that sounds German enough!). When their little
boy dies soon after receiving christian baptism, Chlodovich remarks: Si in nomine
deorum meorum puer fuisset dicatus, vixisset utique; nunc autem, quia in nomine
dei vestri baptizatus est, vivere omnino non potuit.----So detailed a report
of Chlodovich's heathenism, scarcely a hundred years after the event, and from
the mouth of a well instructed priest, would be absurd, if there were no truth
at the bottom of it. When once Gregory had put his Latin names of gods in the
place of the Frankish (in which he simply followed the views and fashion of
his time), he would as a matter of course go on to surround those names with
th appropriate Latin myths; and it is not to be overlooked , that the four deities
named are all gods of the days of the week, the very kind which it was quite
customary to identify with native gods. I think myself entitled therefore, to
quote the passage as proving at least the existence of images of gods among
the Franks (see Suppl.). The narrative of an incident from the early part of the 7th century
concerns Alamannia. Columban and St. Gallus in 612 came upon a seat of idolatry
at Bregenz on the Lake of Constance: Tres ergo imagines aereas et deauratas
superstitiosa gentilitas ibi colebat, quibus magis quam Creatori mundi vota
reddenda credebat. So says the Vita S. Galli (Pertz 2, 7) written in the course
of the next (8th) century. A more detailed account is given by Walafrid Strabo
in his Vita S. Galli (acta Bened. sec. 2. p. 233)> Egressi de navicula oratorium
in honore S. Aureliae constructum adierunt........Post orationem, cum per gyrum
oculis cuncta lustrassent, placuit illis qualitas et situs locorum, deinde oratione
praemissa circa oratorium mansiunculas sibi fecerunt. Repererunt autem in templo
ires imagines aereas deauratas parieti affixas, (5) quas
populus, dimisso altaris sacri cultu, adorabat, et oblatis sacrificiis dicere
consuevit: isti sunt dii veteres et antiqui hujus loci tutores, quorum solatio
et not et nostra perdurant usque in praesens.......Cumque ejusdem templi solemnitas
ageretur, venit multitudo non minima promiscui sexus et aetatis, non tantum
propter festivitatis honorem, verum etiam ad videndos peregrinos, quos cognoverant
advenisse..........Jussu venerandi abbatis (Columbani) Gallus coepit viam veritatis
ostendere populo.........est in conspectu omnium arripiens simulacra, et lapidibus
in frusta comminuens projecit in lacum. His visis nonnulli conversi sunt ad
dominum.----Here is a strange jumble of heathen and christian worship. In an
oratory built in honour of St. Aurelia, three heathen statues still stand against
the wall, to which the people continue to sacrifice, without going near the
christian altar: to them, these are still their old tutelary deities. After
the evangelist has knocked the images to pieces and thrown them into the Lake
Constance, a part of these heathen turn to Christianity. Probably in more places
than one the earliest christian communities degenerated in like manner, owing
to the preponderance of the heathen multitude and the supineness of the clergy.
A doubt may be raised, however, as to whether by these heathen gods are to be
understood Alamannish, or possibly Roman gods? Roman paganism in a district
of the old Helvetia is quite conceivable, and dii tutores loci sounds almost
like the very thing. On the other hand it must be remembered, that Alamanns
had been settled here for three centuries, and any other worship than theirs
could hardly be at that time the popular one. That sacrifice to Woden on the
neighbouring Lake of Zurich (6) (supra,
p. 56) mentioned by Jonas in his older biography of the two saints, was altogether
German. Lastly, the association of three divinities to be jointly worshipped
stands out a prominent feature in our domestic heathenism; when the Romans dedicated
a temple to several deities, their images were not placed side by side, but
in separate callea (chapels).----Ratpert (Casus S. Galli, Pertz 2, 61) seems
to have confounded the two events, that on L. Zurick, and the subsequent one
at Bregenz: Tucconiam (to Tuggen) advenerunt, quae est ad caput lacus Turicini,
ubi cum consistere vellent, populumque ab errore demonum revocare (nam adhuc
idolis immolabant). Gallo idola vana confringente et in lacum vicinum demergente,
populus in iram conversus........sanctos exinde pepulerunt. Inde iter agentes
pervenerunt ad castrum quod Arbona nuncupatur, juxta lacum potamicum, ibique
a Willimaro presbytero honorifice suscepti, septem dies cum gaudio permanserunt.
Qui a sanctis interrogatus, si sciret locum in solitudine illorum proposito
congruum, ostendit eis locum jocundissimum ad inhabitandum nomine Grigantium.
Ibique reperientes templum olim christianae religioni dedicatum, nunc autem
demonum imaginibus pollutum, mundando et consecrando in pristinum restituerunt
statum, atque pro statuis quas ejecerunt, sanctae Aureliae reliquias ibidem
collocaverunt.---By this account also the temple is first of all christian,
and afterwards occupied by the heathen (Alamanns), therefore not an old Roman
one. That Woden's statue was one of those idola vana that were broken to pieces,
may almost be inferred from Jona's account of the beer-sacrifice offered to
him. Ratpert's contilena S. Galli has only the vague words: Castra de Turegum
adnavigant Tucconium, Docent fidem gentem, Jovem linquunt ardentem. This Jupiter
on fire, from whom the people apostatized, may very well be Donar (Thunar, Thor),
but his statue is not alluded to. According to Arx (on Pertz 2, 61), Eckehardus
IV. quotes 'Jovis et Neptuni idola,' but I cannot find the passage; conf. p.
122 Ermoldus Nigellus on Neptune. It is plain that the three statues have to
do with the idolatry on L. Constance, not with that on L. Zurich; and if Mercury,
Jupiter and Neptune stood there together, the first two at all events may be
easily applied to German deities. In ch. VII, I will impart my conjecture about
Neptune. But I think we may conclude from all this, that our tres imagines have
a better claim to a German origin, than those imagines lapideae of the Luxovian
forest, cited on p. 83. (7) 5. So then, in a church really christian, these old heathen gods' images had been let into the wall, probably to conciliate the people, who were still attached to them? There are several later instances of this practice, conf. Ledebur's archiv. 14, 363. 378. Thür. mitth. VI. 2, 13 (see Suppl.). (back) 6. Curiously, Mone (Gesch. des heid. 1, 171-5) tries to put this Woden worship at Tuggen upon the Heruli, who had never been heard of there, instead of the Alamanns, because Jonus says: Sunt inibi vicinae nationes Suevorum. But this means simply those settled thereabouts; there was no occasion to speak of distant ones. Columban was staying in a place not agreeable to himself, in order to convert the heathen inhabitants; and by Walafrid's description too, the district lies infra partes Alamanniae, where intra would do just as well. (back) 7. Two narratives by Gregory of Tours on statues of Diana in
the Treves country, and of Mercury and Mars in the south of Gaul, though they
exclude all thought of German deities, yet offer striking comparisons. Hist.
8, 15: Deinde territorium Trevericae urbis expetii, et in quo nunc estis monte
habitaculum, quod cernitis, proprio labore construxi; reperi tamen hic Dianae
simulacrum, quod populus hic incredulus quasi deum adorabat. columnam etiam
statui, in qua cum grandi cruciatu sine ullo pedum stabam tegmine.......Verum
ubi ad me multitudo vicinarum civitatum confluere coepit, praedicabam jugiter,
nihil esse Dianam, nihil simulacra, nihilque quae eis videbatur exerceri cultura:
indigna etiam esse ipsa, quae inter pocula luxuriasque profluas contica proferebant,
sed potius deo omnipotenti, qui coelum fecit ac terram, dignum sit sacrificium
laudis impendere. orabam etiam saepius, ut simulacro dominus diruto dignaretur
populum ab hoc errore discutere. Flexit domini misericordia mentem rusticam,
ut inclinaret aurem suam in verba oris mei, ut scilicet relictis idolis dominum
sequeretur, (et) tunc convocatis quibusdam ex eis simulacrum hoc immensum, quod
elidere propria virtute non poteram, cum eorum adjutorio possem eruere; jam
enim reliqua sigillorum (the smaller figures) quae faciliora erant, ipse confregeram.
Convenientibus autem multis ad hanc Dianae statuam, missis funibus trahere coeperunt,
sed nihil labor eorum proficere poterat. Then came prayers; egressusque post
orationem ad operarios veni, adprehensumque funem ut primo ictu trahere coepimus,
protinus simulacrum ruit in terram, confractumque cum malleis ferreis in pulverem
redegi. So images went to the ground, whose contemplation we should think very
instructive now. This Diana was probably a mixture of Roman and Gallic worship;
there are inscriptions of a Diana arduinna (Bouquet 2, 319).----The second passage
stands in Mirac. 2, 5: Erat autem haud procul a cellula, quam sepulchrum, martyris
(Juliani Arvernensis) haec matrona construxerat (in vico Brivatensi), grande
delubrum, ubi in columna altissima simulachrum Martis Mercuriique colebatur.
Cumque delubri illius festa a gentilibus agerentur ac mortui mortuis thura deferrent,
medio e vulgo commoventur pueri duo in scandalum, nudatoque unus gladio alterum
appetit trucidandum. The boy runs to the saint's cell, and is saved. Quarta
autem die, cum gentilitas vellet iterum diis exhibere libamina, the christian
priests offer a fervent prayer to the martyr, a violent thunderstorm arises,
the heathens are terrified: Recedente autem tempestate, gentiles baptizati,
statuas quas coluerant confringentes, in lacum vico amnique proximum projecerunt.---Soon
after this, the Burgundians settled in the district. The statues broken down,
crushed to powder, and flung into the lake, every bit the same as in that story
of Ratpert's. (back) << Previous Page Next Page >>
© 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. |
|