Posted on 05/24/2025 6:27:33 AM PDT by Antoninus
The nation of the Franks are well known today as the progenitors of modern France, as well as the barbarian nation that most readily and ardently embraced Catholicism. As Saint Avitus of Vienne shows in his letter to King Clovis upon the latter’s baptism in AD 496, the subject Christian Romans placed great hopes in the conversion of the Frankish king and his court, and the event was an occasion of great joy. This was particularly true given Clovis’s previous history as a ruthless conqueror who defeated and dissolved the last remnant of Western Roman power in Gaul, the so-called Kingdom of Soissons under Syagrius a mere 10 years prior in AD 486.
But spiritual rebirth and cultural metamorphosis doesn’t happen overnight. And for the Franks, some old habits were hard to break.
In Belisarius, Book III, Rome the Eternal, there is a scene where a tremendous Frankish army under the Merovingian King Theudibert marches across a bridge at Ticinum (modern day Pavia) over the Po River into Italy, Brushing aside the demand of the Gothic commander that they treat before crossing, the Franks make it obvious from the start that they have not come to be allies of the Goths. The Gothic commander faced with this situation is Uraias, the nephew of Vittiges, the Gothic King. He rushes to the bridge and is horrified by what he witnesses there:
By the time Uraias arrived at Ticinum two hours later, about twenty thousand Franks had already crossed the ancient bridge over the Padus. “I ordered you to hold them on the other side!” shouted Uraias at the befuddled garrison commander of Ticinum.“But...the Franks...they would not heed,” the man replied, spreading his hands helplessly.
“O Prince! Come see what these treacherous heathens are doing!” a soldier on the walls called down.
Bounding up to the top of the wall, Uraias’s face paled in horror at the sight before him. From the battlements, he had a clear view of the practically infinite mass of Frankish warriors trudging over the bridge. They were talking, laughing, singing—every one of them leering like raptors and grinning like wolves as they crossed the river.
“Over there, O Prince. Look!”
A contingent of Franks on the near side of the river had seized a dozen women and children of the Goths. An especially large and gaudily attired Frank seemed to be uttering a strange incantation in his guttural language over the screaming captives, held by their hair on the river bank. Upon reaching the end, he and his comrades plunged their swords into the innocents and dumped their bleeding bodies into the Padus.
“Stop, you fiends! What is this? Stop at once!” cried Uraias.
“Why don’t you come and stop us if you can, miserable Goth,” one of the Franks shouted as he marched in line across the bridge. “These sacrifices are needful if we are to have a successful campaign in Italy. The gods demand the blood of innocents, and what the gods want, they shall have.”
“Bloody-minded pagans!” Uraias screamed. Then, turning to his men, he ordered: “Quick! Block the bridge. Let no more cross!”
The soldiers on the wall looked back at him as if he were a madman. None moved. “It’s too late to stop them crossing,” one man stuttered, his voice cracking.
“Then close and bar the gates! We must not allow this murderous horde into the city! Do you hear me? If we fail, then we’re all dead men!”
“Aye! That we must do!” one of the officers responded, his torpor broken by the urgency of Uraias’s voice.
Down below, the Franks marched on, their tremendous host pushing forward like a boiling tidal wave, compelling all to flee before them. [Belisarius Book III: Rome the Eternal, Chapter XXXVII]
Lest the reader think that this passage was merely some lurid fever-dream sprung from the delusional mind of the novelist, here is the passage from Procopius which inspired it:
Thus the Franks crossed the Alps which separate the Gauls from the Italians, and entered Liguria. Now the Goths had previously been vexed at the thanklessness of the Franks, on the ground that, although they, the Goths, had often promised to give up to them a large territory and great sums of money in return for an alliance, these Franks had been unwilling to fulfil their own promise in any way; but when they heard that Theudibert was at hand with a great army, they were filled with rejoicing, lifted up, as they were, by the liveliest hopes and thinking that thereafter they would have the superiority over their enemy without a battle. As for the Germans [Franks], as long as they were in Liguria, they did no harm to he Goths, in order that these might make no attempt to stop them at the crossing of the Po.Gold solidus of Theudibert I, King of the Franks in Austrasia, AD 534-548.
Consequently, when they reached the city of Ticinum, where the Romans of old had constructed a bridge over this river, those who were on guard there gave them every assistance and allowed them to cross the Po unmolested. But, upon getting control of the bridge, the Franks began to sacrifice the women and children of the Goths whom they found at hand and to throw their bodies into the river as the first-fruits of the war. For these barbarians, though they have become Christians, preserve the greater part of their ancient religion; for they still make human sacrifices and other sacrifices of an unholy nature, and it is in connection with these that they make their prophecies. And the Goths, upon seeing what was being done, fell into a kind of irresistible fear, took to flight and got inside the fortifications. [Procopius, History of the Wars, Book VI, xxx, 6-11]
As far as I know, this is the only mention in ancient literature of the Franks engaging in outright human sacrifice as a religious practice. That said, it is very clear from the History of the Franks by Gregory of Tours in the 6th century that the pre-Christian Franks “have always been addicted to heathen worship, and they did not know God, but made themselves images of the woods and the waters, of birds and beasts and of the other elements as well. They were wont to worship these as God and to offer sacrifice to them.” [Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks, Book II, Chapter 10]
The Franks were also extraordinarily violent in the prosecution of war, and that this tendency was only mildly muted by the acceptance of Christianity. Indeed, their warlike ferocity was perhaps only restrained with regard to respecting the possessions of the Church, and the lives of Christian clerics. When describing the aftermath of King Clovis’s successful campaign to conquer the Kingdom of Soissons, Gregory relates: “At that time many churches were despoiled by Clovis' army, since he was as yet involved in heathen error.” [Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks, Book II, Chapter 27]
Based on the above, and evidence of other Germanic nations of antiquity practicing various forms of cultic human sacrifice, we can assume that Procopius’s account of the Franks sacrificing Gothic women and children at the outset of a war was based on actual events, and was not a fanciful interpolation by the historian.
GGG ping.
narrative reads made up.
Very interesting. Thanks for posting it.
Aaaah, so bloody what? All societies involved horrors. Don’t you know that all enslaved and were slaves?
At least they were Frank about the way they approached the faith.
At least in this case they outright killed them with the sword instead of burning them alive.
They stopped the Islamists... So they were very good Christians indeed !
The narrative is from a novel. But the scene is based on an account in Procopius. If you think that’s made up, that’s your prerogative, but the public Histories of Procopius are the gold standard for the 6th century. If we dispute the accuracy of those, then we know nothing about the 6th century.
Or carving out their hearts by the tens of thousands. Human sacrifice is the epitome of barbarism.
I’ll agree. It is well to keep in mind that Charles Martel was 200 years after the events described above. The Franks were significantly more Christian by that time.
There's surprisingly little about *the* Franks in the "Franks" keyword, it's mostly stuff about Gen. Franks, and a few about a common Memorial Day food.
Seriously. I clicked on it and got nothing.
Catholic history ping!
Clearly the Franks (or rather the managers of their estate) need a better publicist.
https://freerepublic.com/tag/franks/index
I don’t like it when one heroic voice is heard above the din of an Infinite mass: of clashing barbarians, sounds like a PR release. Super hero movies got old real fast for me too, though I enjoyed the comic books so much when I was a kid.
Thanks for the explanation, I should read more carefully before commenting
Bkmk
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