Gregory of Tours

For 1400 years Gregory''s Histories--the principal work of Merovingian history--have been understood as a history of the Franks and as an objective portrayal of history albeit told by a naive narrator. This completely new interpretation of the Histories reveals connections between apparently unconnected adjacent chapters and also begins to make out their real function. Gregory (538-594) can be seen as focusing on the development of a socio-political concept of society which anticipates the leadership of the Christian state entrusted to the joint government of bishops and king.