A Source Book for Ancient Church History - Mirrors

640 A Source Book for Ancient Church HistoryThe Chronicon of Fredegarius is important, as it continuesin its last book the History of the Franks by Gregory ofTours. The best edition is in the MGH, Scriptores rerumMerovingicarum II, ed. Krusch. An account of the workmay be found in DCB, art. “Fredegarius Scholasticus.” In theFrankish kingdom the higher clergy, especially the bishops,assembled with the great men of the realm in councils underthe king to discuss affairs of State. These councils have beencalled concilia mixta. They are, however, to be distinguishedfrom the strictly ecclesiastical assemblies in which the clergyalone acted. A change was introduced by Charles the Great.The following passage shows the king consulting with thebishops, along with the other nobles.[585]§ 75. In the eleventh year of his reign Dagobert came to thecity of Metz, because the Wends at the command of Samo stillmanifested their savage fury and often made inroads from theirterritory to lay waste the Frankish kingdom, Thuringia, and otherprovinces. Dagobert, coming to Metz, with the counsel of thebishops and nobles, and the consent of all the great men of hiskingdom, made his son, Sigibert, king of Austrasia, and assignedhim Metz as his seat. To Chunibert, bishop of Cologne, andthe Duke Adalgisel, he committed the conduct of his palace andkingdom. 238 Also he gave to his son sufficient treasure and fittedhim out with all that was appropriate to his high dignity; andwhatsoever he had given him he confirmed by charters speciallymade out. Since then the Frankish land was sufficiently defendedby the zeal of the Austrasians against the Wends.§ 76. When in the twelfth year of his reign a son namedChlodoveus was born by Queen Nantechilde to Dagobert, hemade, with the counsel and advice of the Neustrians, an agreementwith his Sigibert. All the great men and the bishops ofAustrasia and the other people of Sigibert, holding up their238 Sigibert appears to have been born 629.