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512 18. the north-western provinces
for the collection of clothes, 117 and more generally of a tithe, to support the
poor. 118 He was constantly occupied in the ransom of Roman captives. 119
More miraculously, he ended the threat of floods at Quintanis, 120 and he provided
the poor of Lauriacum with oil. 121
It was not, however, only churchmen who emerged as charismatic
leaders in this period of crisis. We hear of the virgin Genovefa, who is said
to have organized famine relief in Paris, 122 and also to have freed prisoners,
much to the aggravation of the Frankish king, Childeric. 123 The Vita
Genovefae may well cast its heroine rather unrealistically in the mould of a
bishop, 124 but it appears to have been written as early as 520, 125 and the
actions it attributes to the saint may not be fiction. Stripped of its literary
models, what is extraordinary about the career of Genovefa is not her lay
status but simply the fact that she was a woman, the only one to achieve
such prominence as a saint in the north in this transitional period. Patrick
thought the Gallo-Romans notable for the ransoming of captives. 126 In
addition to his exploits in raising the siege of Clermont, Ecdicius was
remembered for relieving a famine in Burgundy out of his own resources;
he was rewarded, according to Gregory of Tours, with the heavenly
promise that neither he nor his heirs would ever lack food. 127 Charisma was
not confined to churchmen or even, in the case of Ecdicius, to saints.
Where churchmen and saints held an advantage was in their ability to
make moral capital out of the situation in which they found themselves.
The message of Salvian and the other Gallic moralists sprang very precisely
from the crisis of the fifth century – it was a reaction to disaster. Not surprisingly,
a model of safety achieved through prayer, fasting and good
works was put forward. The Britons defeated the Picts and Saxons after following
Germanus’ instructions that they should receive baptism. 128
Genovefa was said to have saved Paris from Attila by persuading its female
citizens to fast, 129 and Orleans was also supposedly saved from the Huns
because Anianus instructed the people to pray and process round the
city. 130 A similar tactic would be used against the Franks a century later,
when the population of Saragossa went into mourning and carried the
relics of St Vincent round the walls to counter Childebert’s siege. 131 One
of the most influential of all processions, the minor Rogations, was instituted
in Vienne about the year 470 by Bishop Mamertus, though to ward
off earthquakes rather than barbarians. 132 By 473 Sidonius was following
117 Eugippius, Vita Severini 29. 118 Eugippius, Vita Severini 17. 119 Eugippius, Vita Severini 9.1.
120 Eugippius, Vita Severini 15. 121 Eugippius, Vita Severini 28.
122 Vita Genovefae 35, 39, 40, ed. B. Krusch, MGH, SRM 3. 123 Vita Genovefae 26.
124 Wood (1988) 378. 125 Heinzelmann and Poulin (1986).
126 Patrick, Epistola ad Milites Corotici 14, ed. R. P. C. Hanson, SChrét. 249 (Paris 1978).
127 Greg. Tur. Hist. ii.24. 128 Constantius, Vita Germani 17. 129 Vita Genovefae 12.
130 Vita Aniani 8, 9. 131 Greg. Tur. Hist. iii.29.
132 Sid. Ap. Ep.14.2; Avitus, hom. 6, ed. R. Peiper, MGH, AA 6 (2) (Berlin 1883).
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