Medieval France. An Encyclopedia

LATIN POETRY, MEROVINGIAN

. The term “Merovingian” not only suggests Christian imperial influence from Ravenna
but describes a transition that occurred in the Latin poetry composed in France from ca.
482, the beginning of the reign of Clovis I, until after 751, the advent of Pepin I. At the
time that the last of the native, Gallo-Roman rulers was ceding power to the first of the
Merovingians, Clovis I (r. 482–511), native Gallo-Roman poetry was in decline. The
Gallo-Latin poets of this period, Virgilius Maro and Theodofrid, are generally cited and
then ignored.
Both “Merovaeus” (Gmc. “Merewig”), the legendary founder of the line, and the best-
known poet of the period, Venantius Fortunatus, immigrated from Ravenna to the north
of France. “Merovingian Latin poetry” refers primarily to that of Venantius (540–600),
who continued the tradition of occasional poetry that preceded 482:

Fortunatus ego hinc humili prece voce saluto

(Italiae genitum Gallica rura tenent)

Pictavis residens, qua sanctus Hilarius olim

natus in urbe fuit, notus in orbe pater.

(“I, Fortunatus, here greet you in the speech of humble entreaty/[Rustic Gaul keeps me,
Italian born] /Now living at Poitiers, the city where St. Hilary was born long ago,/ Father
Hilary known all over the world.”) But he also introduces the rhythmic poetry that
followed:

Vexilla regis prodeunt,

fulget crucis mysterium

quo carne carnis conditor

suspensus est patibulo....

(“The battle standards of the King march forth,/The sacred sign of the Cross shines./On
it, the founder of the flesh hung/In the flesh, suspended on the crosspiece....”) The
disparate qualities of Merovingian latinity blend in the rhythms of Venantius Fortunatus.
His occasional pieces retain the grace of the old Gallo-Roman style of Ausonius (310-ca.
393) (natus in urbe fuit, notus in orbe pater); he effaces his personal voice within the
requisite formality (Italiae genitum Gallica rura tenent). In his rhythmic hymns, he
imports imperial legalities from Byzantium by way of Ravenna (conditor, baiulat),
adopts a warlike spirit from the Sicambrian tribal culture of Clovis I (vexilla regis
prodeunt), stamps the verses with the meters of St. Ambrose, the teacher of Theodosius
(fulget crucis mysterium), and converts the Roman sense of military duty into the
Christian sense of militancy for Christ:

Pange, lingua, gloriosi proelium certaminis

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