Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/446

 438 REVIEWS OF BOOKS July Passiones Vitaeque Sandorum Aevi Merovingici {Script. Rerum Mero- vingicarum, torn, vii, pars 1). Edited by B. Krusch and W. Levison. (Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Hanover : Hahn, 1919.) It is with great pleasure that after six years we welcome a new instalment of the Monumenta Germaniae, and perhaps more especially since it con- tinues the valuable edition of the lives of Merovingian saints which is throwing so much light on some of the darkest pages of history. Of the texts here published the only one which is entirely new is the worthless second life of Germanus of Paris, but the uninterpolated life of Germanus of Auxerre by Constantius now appears for the first time since the edition of Mombritius in the fifteenth century. The lives of Lupus and Afra, and part of the lives of the abbots of Agaune, which appeared in earlier numbers, are now re-edited from better texts. The only absolutely contemporary life is the very disappointing one of Germanus of Paris by Fortunatus, which, though it contains important obiter dicta as to the kings and bishops of the time, is in substance nothing but a string of miracles ; but those of Eucherius of Orleans and Germanus of Auxerre were written little after the time of the saints, Alcuin's life of Willibrord is a genuine historical document, which, if we had not better information in Bede, would be of the greatest value and interest, and the lives of Leutfred, Pardulf, and Rigobert, though of late date, are based upon genuine information. The others, which range from the life of the well- known Bishop Lupus of Troyes to those of such shadowy persons as Afra and Gamalbert, are historically almost valueless, and in the cases of Afra and Gamalbert one cannot but ask, as in similar instances in earlier numbers,^ if they are really ' Monumenta Historica ', and if the time of the editors and the money of the society would not have been better spent upon other work. The editors are as downright and thorough- going in their exposure of time-honoured fiction as in the previously published lives, and attempts to defend the authenticity of the lives which they condemn meet with short shrift. Dr. Krusch is perhaps a little too hard upon the wretched biographers. ' Falsarius ' does not seem to me to be a correct word to apply to a man who does not claim to be a contemporary, and perhaps even confesses that he has no written sources of information. When a saint was honoured in some church or monastery, an oflBcial account of him was needed ; and, if nothing was known, what could the poor author do except concoct a life from stock miracles and incidents from lives of other saints ? Some documents, indeed, such as the lives of the abbots of Agaune, are written to maintain privileges claimed by a monastery, and others, as the life of Lupus, include matter which is apparently connected with claims to property ; but such cases are exceptional, and most of the concocted lives are written for devotional purposes only and contain nothing worse than pious fiction. Constantius and Alcuin also insert much matter of this kind ; and, as they had the material for writing a life without it, they are more blameworthy than the concoctors of these imaginary lives. I do not add Fortunatus, since the miracles ascribed to Germanus of Paris ^ Ante, xxix. 341.