HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

108 MICHEL SOTmethod. The bishop Angilram of Metz had requested the compositionof a metric catalogue of his predecessors several years beforehe commissioned Paul the Deacon to write the gesta, and at le Mansthe catalogue and Actus pontificum appear to have been composedsimultaneously. In order to offer details on the local lists, it was necessaryto establish dating, generally with respect to other lists ofprelates and in particular with respect to those of Rome. We findat Auxerre, as at le Mans, a Liber pontificalis that gives not only thedates of the popes but also those of the consuls and emperors forthe beginnings of the churches—and, in addition, dates of the kings.In the Gesta abbatum of Saint-Bertin, Folcuin relies on three lists atonce: that of the abbots, of course, but also that of the kings, whichconfirms the donations made to the abbey, and that of the bishopsof Thérouanne, upon whom the abbey depended. 54 In Fontenelle’sGesta abbatum, datings are written with particular care: the beginningof each abbacy is dated from the year of the Incarnation and of theyear of indiction, followed by the correspondence between the reignof the Frankish king and that of the pope. For each donation to theabbey, the same careful attention to chronology can be observed. 55The proof that this concern with the catalogue and with chronologyis fundamental to local history is contained in the titles that theauthors give to their works. Paul the Deacon wrote for Metz a Libellusde numero sive ordine episcoporum and Agnellus for Ravenna an Ordinatumlibellum de ordine pontificalis successionis. 56 This concern with chronologywas the same for Gregory of Tours when he added a Libellus of thebishops of Tours to his Ten Books of History: “I considered it fitting”,he writes, “to go back and note their succession and to calculatetheir years; and I have done this beginning with the first time thatan evangelist came to the city of Tours”. 57 It is indeed a matter ofestablishing the chronological continuity of the institution from itsestablishment.The gesta have the advantage over the simple list in being able toshow how the succession took place, how it was a normal succes-54Folcuin, Gesta abbatum sancti Bertini Sithiensium, ed. Holder-Egger, 619.55Chronique des abbés de Fontenelle, ed. Pradié, ex. Benignus, 39–57.56Paul the Deacon, Liber de episcopis mettensibus, ed. Pertz, 261; Agnellus, Liberpontificalis ecclesiae Ravennatis, ed. Holder-Egger, 278.57Gregory of Tours, Libri historiarum X, ed. Krusch and Levison.