"They still make human sacrifices..." ~ How Christian were the 6th century Franks, anyway?

Merovingian Frankish warriors looking especially fierce in this fanciful 19th century engraving.

The nation of the Franks are well known today as the progenitors of modern France, as well as the barbarian nation that most readily and ardently embraced Catholicism. As Saint Avitus of Vienne shows in his letter to King Clovis upon the latter’s baptism in AD 496, the subject Christian Romans placed great hopes in the conversion of the Frankish king and his court, and the event was an occasion of great joy. This was particularly true given Clovis’s previous history as a ruthless conqueror who defeated and dissolved the last remnant of Western Roman power in Gaul, the so-called Kingdom of Soissons under Syagrius a mere 10 years prior in AD 486.

But spiritual rebirth and cultural metamorphosis doesn’t happen overnight. And for the Franks, some old habits were hard to break.

In Belisarius, Book III, Rome the Eternal, there is a scene where a tremendous Frankish army under the Merovingian King Theudibert marches across a bridge at Ticinum (modern day Pavia) over the Po River into Italy, Brushing aside the demand of the Gothic commander that they treat before crossing, the Franks make it obvious from the start that they have not come to be allies of the Goths. The Gothic commander faced with this situation is Uraias, the nephew of Vittiges, the Gothic King. He rushes to the bridge and is horrified by what he witnesses there:

By the time Uraias arrived at Ticinum two hours later, about twenty thousand Franks had already crossed the ancient bridge over the Padus. “I ordered you to hold them on the other side!” shouted Uraias at the befuddled garrison commander of Ticinum.

“But...the Franks...they would not heed,” the man replied, spreading his hands helplessly.

“O Prince! Come see what these treacherous heathens are doing!” a soldier on the walls called down.

Bounding up to the top of the wall, Uraias’s face paled in horror at the sight before him. From the battlements, he had a clear view of the practically infinite mass of Frankish warriors trudging over the bridge. They were talking, laughing, singing—every one of them leering like raptors and grinning like wolves as they crossed the river.

“Over there, O Prince. Look!”

A contingent of Franks on the near side of the river had seized a dozen women and children of the Goths. An especially large and gaudily attired Frank seemed to be uttering a strange incantation in his guttural language over the screaming captives, held by their hair on the river bank. Upon reaching the end, he and his comrades plunged their swords into the innocents and dumped their bleeding bodies into the Padus.

“Stop, you fiends! What is this? Stop at once!” cried Uraias.

“Why don’t you come and stop us if you can, miserable Goth,” one of the Franks shouted as he marched in line across the bridge. “These sacrifices are needful if we are to have a successful campaign in Italy. The gods demand the blood of innocents, and what the gods want, they shall have.”

“Bloody-minded pagans!” Uraias screamed. Then, turning to his men, he ordered: “Quick! Block the bridge. Let no more cross!”

The soldiers on the wall looked back at him as if he were a madman. None moved. “It’s too late to stop them crossing,” one man stuttered, his voice cracking.

“Then close and bar the gates! We must not allow this murderous horde into the city! Do you hear me? If we fail, then we’re all dead men!”

“Aye! That we must do!” one of the officers responded, his torpor broken by the urgency of Uraias’s voice.

Down below, the Franks marched on, their tremendous host pushing forward like a boiling tidal wave, compelling all to flee before them. [Belisarius Book III: Rome the Eternal, Chapter XXXVII]

Lest the reader think that this passage was merely some lurid fever-dream sprung from the delusional mind of the novelist, here is the passage from Procopius which inspired it:

Thus the Franks crossed the Alps which separate the Gauls from the Italians, and entered Liguria.⁠ Now the Goths had previously been vexed at the thanklessness of the Franks, on the ground that, although they, the Goths, had often promised to give up to them a large territory and great sums of money in return for an alliance, these Franks had been unwilling to fulfil their own promise in any way; but when they heard that Theudibert was at hand with a great army, they were filled with rejoicing, lifted up, as they were, by the liveliest hopes and thinking that thereafter they would have the superiority over their enemy without a battle. As for the Germans [Franks],⁠ as long as they were in Liguria, they did no harm to he Goths, in order that these might make no attempt to stop them at the crossing of the Po.

Gold solidus of Theudibert I, King of the Franks in Austrasia, AD 534-548.

 Consequently, when they reached the city of Ticinum, where the Romans of old had constructed a bridge over this river, those who were on guard there gave them every assistance and allowed them to cross the Po unmolested. But, upon getting control of the bridge, the Franks began to sacrifice the women and children of the Goths whom they found at hand and to throw their bodies into the river as the first-fruits of the war. For these barbarians, though they have become Christians, preserve the greater part of their ancient religion; for they still make human sacrifices and other sacrifices of an unholy nature, and it is in connection with these that they make their prophecies. And the Goths, upon seeing what was being done, fell into a kind of irresistible fear, took to flight and got inside the fortifications. [Procopius, History of the Wars, Book VI, xxx, 6-11]

As far as I know, this is the only mention in ancient literature of the Franks engaging in outright human sacrifice as a religious practice. That said, it is very clear from the History of the Franks by Gregory of Tours in the 6th century that the pre-Christian Franks “have always been addicted to heathen worship, and they did not know God, but made themselves images of the woods and the waters, of birds and beasts and of the other elements as well. They were wont to worship these as God and to offer sacrifice to them.” [Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks, Book II, Chapter 10]

The Franks were also extraordinarily violent in the prosecution of war, and that this tendency was only mildly muted by the acceptance of Christianity. Indeed, their warlike ferocity was perhaps only restrained with regard to respecting the possessions of the Church, and the lives of Christian clerics. When describing the aftermath of King Clovis’s successful campaign to conquer the Kingdom of Soissons, Gregory relates: “At that time many churches were despoiled by Clovis' army, since he was as yet involved in heathen error.” [Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks, Book II, Chapter 27]

Based on the above, and evidence of other Germanic nations of antiquity practicing various forms of cultic human sacrifice, we can assume that Procopius’s account of the Franks sacrificing Gothic women and children at the outset of a war was based on actual events, and was not a fanciful interpolation by the historian.

"Faithfully compile the acts of the martyrs, omitting nothing." ~ The duty of the Popes to preserve the history of the Church

Images of Popes Clement I, Anteros, Fabian, and Damasus I, all holding codices indicating their legacies
of defending the doctrines and preserving the history of the Church.

Immediately prior to a Papal Conclave seems like the absolute best time to break out the Liber Pontificalis – that fascinating, frustrating, and enigmatic work of Late Antiquity that purports to provide a brief biographical sketch of each of the first 65 Popes of Rome.

This is perhaps the fourth or fifth time I have read the Liber cover to cover, not including the dozens of times I’ve referenced individual accounts for research purposes, posts, comments, etc. Admittedly, the text is littered with errors: some obvious, others requiring a PhD in Patristics to spot. Thankfully, the version I most commonly use includes copious footnotes by early 20th century classicist, Louise Ropes Loomis, who herself draws heavily from such hoary authorities as Mommsen and Duchesne. 

Click for more info.

If you decide to embark upon reading the Liber, it is well to keep in mind that the work in its earliest iteration was likely assembled in the 6th century, and based on earlier sources which the anonymous compiler may have known only imperfectly. As a result, the earliest entries tend to be the most disappointing in terms of details and accuracy. Those sketches closer to the compiler’s own day are much more satisfying, replete with curious anecdotes and details found nowhere else in the historical record.  

There are a few clear themes that run throughout the entire work. These are as follows:

• The Popes as martyrs and confessors—and the rare exceptions which prove the rule.
• The Popes as defenders of doctrine.
• The Popes as builders and restorers of the physical edifices of the Church.
• The Popes as guardians of the relics and monuments of the great saints and martyrs.
• The Popes as stewards of the Church's wealth, derived from princes and generous donors.
• The Popes as recorders and transmitters of the history of the Church.

It is that last bullet that I’d like to focus on a bit here. 

As a historical aggregator himself, the compiler of the Liber Pontificalis gives due honor to those who came before him who preserved the records of the ancient Church. He tells us that the fourth Pope, Saint Clement, who lived in the 1st century AD, “created seven districts and assigned them to notaries of the church that they might make diligent, careful and searching inquiry, each in his own district, regarding the acts of the martyrs.” Whether Clement actually did this, or whether the compiler is ascribing this act to a great ancient saint like Clement to ennoble his own profession is a matter of scholarly debate. In any event, the compiler of the Liber is the only one to record this aspect of Clement's biography.

Anecdotes recorded in the later sketches are more likely to be accurate. In the record of the practically un-remembered Pope Anteros who perished after an abbreviated reign of 40 days in AD 236—likely as a martyr—only one deed worthy of note is recorded by the author of the Liber Pontificalis:

“He collected carefully from the notaries the acts of the martyrs and of the readers and deposited them in the church, for the sake of one Maximinus, a priest, who had been crowned with martyrdom.”

The successor of Anteros, Pope Fabianus, who reigned until AD 250, continued the work begun by his short-lived immediate predecessor. The Liber says that he “created seven subdeacons to be associated with the seven notaries, that they might faithfully compile the acts of the martyrs, omitting nothing.”

Fragmentary grave marker of Pope Anteros in the Cemetery of Callixtos.

Unfortunately, from AD 249 through AD 311, there occurred three Roman Empire-wide persecutions of Christians under the emperors Decius (AD 249-251), Valerian (AD 258-260) and the Tetrarchy of Diocletian (AD 304-311). The aforementioned Pope St. Fabianus was among the first victims of the Decian persecution. Certainly during the last of these in the early 4th century, a systematic search was made for Christian literary works which, when found, would be consigned to the flames. I have previously written posts concerning the evidence for such efforts by the persecutors here, here, and here. It may be presumed that many, if not all of the acts of the Martyrs collected by Clement, Anteros, and Fabianus were destroyed during this time.

Seated statue believed to
be a representation of
Saint Hippolytus of Rome. 

The destroyers were very thorough in their work. Case in point are the Acts of Saint Hippolytus who lived a very impactful life in the early 3rd century AD. He was a theologian, a bishop, possibly an anti-Pope, and likely a Novatian heretic who was reconciled with the Church prior to his martyrdom. Saint Jerome lists him among the "illustrious men," while admitting that he has not been able to learn the name of the city of which Hippolytus had been bishop. 

It wasn't until Damasus was made Pope about AD 366, that a far-reaching project of recovery was begun to restore the glorious history of the early martyrs that had been lost during the persecutions. To that end, according to the Liber, Damasus "searched out many bodies of the saints and found them and marked them with verses.” Many of these poetic epitaphs have come down to us from antiquity, and I have posted about them previously. But in some cases, even such a zealous researcher as Pope Damasus was at a loss. Regarding the aforementioned Hippolytus, Damasus admits his ignorance in this touchingly honest epitaph:

"Hippolytus, it is said, once a venerable bishop,

At the time when a schism arose in the city of Rome,

Yet it is not certain what he did or from where,

Whether a martyr, an exile, or reconciled,

Damasus placed this, uncertain but with love for the faith."

[From Damasi epigrammata. Translated into English by Grok3]

So as we pray for the Holy Spirit to bless the Conclave and provide the Church with a saintly Pope, let us beg the intercession of those early Pontiffs who worked to preserve the historical records of the ancient Church and the glorious Acts of the Martyrs:

Papa Clemens, ora pro nobis!
Papa Anteros, ora pro nobis!
Papa Fabiane, ora pro nobis!
Papa Damase, ora pro nobis!
Sancte Hippolyte, ora pro nobis!