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the north-western provinces 519
This may well be more than a hagiographic topos: the Burgundian is known
from Sidonius’ letters to have worked happily with the Catholic bishop of
Lyons, Patiens. More specifically, he is said to have praised the bishop’s banquets,
while his wife admired his fasts. 195
Nor was Chilperic the last Burgundian ruler to have a Roman title and
to act in concert with his Catholic clergy. His own rule came to an end in
unclear circumstances in c. 474. At about that time Gundobad, son-in-law
and successor to the magister militum Ricimer, left Italy, and established
himself, with his brothers, as ruler of that part of Gaul controlled by the
Burgundians. 196 In time, Gundobad was to dispose of his brothers. Even
as king, despite the absence of an emperor in the west, Gundobad appears
to have kept the title of magister militum. On his death, his son Sigismund
wrote to the emperor Anastasius, asking to take over his father’s office. 197
Like many of the kings of the period, including his uncle Chilperic,
Gundobad had to deal with a charismatic cleric – this time the Italian,
Epiphanius of Pavia, who demanded the return of prisoners taken by the
Burgundians in a raid on Italy. 198 Also like Chilperic, Gundobad was closely
associated with his bishops, notably with Avitus of Vienne, with whom he
corresponded regularly. He did so despite the fact that he is the only king
of the Burgundians known to have ruled as an Arian. Avitus was also a
close confidant of Gundobad’s son, Sigismund, who converted to
Catholicism before his accession. Interestingly, despite his Catholicism, he
fell foul of his bishops, who effectively withdrew their support from him
over a case of incest, which he apparently condoned. 199 Not long after, his
kingdom was the object of a Frankish invasion, and he was handed over to
king Chlodomer, who had him thrown down a well. 200 His body was later
transferred to the monastery of St Maurice d’Agaune, where he became the
focus of the first royal saint-cult of the Middle Ages. 201
Although to posterity Sigismund was important as a saint, the most
important action of his reign was arguably the compilation of the Liber
Constitutionum of the Burgundians. 202 This law book, which was issued at the
Easter court of 517, includes a number of edicts promulgated by the king’s
predecessors. Both in the form of its legislation and in its contents, the Liber
Constitutionum is a very much more Roman document than the Pactus Legis
Salicae issued by Clovis, probably a decade or more earlier. 203 The laws of the
Liber Constitutionum were addressed to the leading officials of the kingdom’s
cities, the comites of the civitates, both Burgundian and Roman. 204 They were
195 Sid. Ap. Ep. 6.12.3. 196 Greg. Tur. Hist. ii.28. 197 Avitus, Ep. 93.
198 Ennod. Vita Epiph. 136–77. 199 Council of Lyons (519), ed. R. Peiper, MGH, AA 6 (2).
200 Greg. Tur. Hist. iii.6. 201 Paxton (1993). 202 Wood (1986) 10.
203 Wood, Merovingian Kingdoms 108–13.
204 Liber Constitutionum, prima constitutio ed. L. R. von Salis, Leges Burgundionum, MGH, Leges 2 (1)
(Hanover 1892).
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