Burgundians and Bishops
- Resource Type
- Book
- Authors
- Wood, Ian
- Source
- Bishops under Threat: Contexts and Episcopal Strategies in the Late Antique and Early Medieval West. 150:167-182
- Subject
- Language
Despite contrary claims in the Histories of Gregory of Tours and in the letters of Avitus of Vienne, any persecution of Catholic bishops by those 5th-6th century Burgundian rulers of Arian faith seems to have rarely been driven by differences in their beliefs. Those instances of conflict between the Gibichung rulers and bishops in their territories - mostly known thanks to descriptions of them having to flee their sees - may primarily be seen in the context of the struggle over territorial control with the neighboring kingdoms of the Franks and Visigoths. Further sources of conflicts are found within the internal matters of the bishoprics and in different rulings as to the legality of marriages to widowed spouses of close relatives. The transfer of churches and liturgical vessels between Catholic and Arian endowments is a rare case where the difference in faith appears to have triggered a conflict. Otherwise, the relations seem to have been cordial and conflicts based mostly on suspicions due to the maintenance of episcopal contacts across the newly established - and still contested - borders. This did, however, only result in threats to individual bishops and not the episcopate as a whole.