Rebel Nuns and the Bishop Historian

Abstract

This article contextualizes the letter that Radegund (c. 520–587 CE), who had been married to the Merovingian king Clothar, wrote to the bishops of Gaul to establish her new convent. Gregory of Tours preserved this letter in his account of the rebellion that erupted in Radegund’s convent two years after she died. By analyzing this letter as a tool of Gregory’s historical narrative and then evaluating it as an independent source for Radegund’s life, this paper demonstrates that Gregory’s deliberate misinterpretation of Radegund’s letter illuminates the conflict between holy women and bishops for religious influence in Late Antiquity.