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)  



ENDNOTES:

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)