Page 159 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

The saint as envoy: bishops’ Lives

differentiates Vita Germani from its influential Gallic predecessor, Vita
Martini. Even in recounting Germanus’ journeys, Constantius could have
chosen to stress his role as a theologian or exegete, in his debates with the
British Pelagian bishops; instead, the disputationes in Britain are assimilated
with the secular journeys for tax-remission and amelioration of punish-
ment. The image of Germanus as a ‘homme d’action au service de la com-
munaut´ e’ is no less a literary artifice than that of the saint as thaumaturge. 70
Why did Constantius choose to craft his portrait of Germanus in this
way? Although classical legatine functions feature in parts of the New
Testament, Constantius does not follow a biblical model in his portrait of
71
Germanus as an envoy. It is natural for the historian to look to the wider
political context of late fifth-century Gaul, rapidly passing out of imperial
control. The author of a sensitive reading of the Vita, after considering
what is known of Sidonius’ friend Constantius (in particular his assistance
to Sidonius during a Gothic seige of Clermont), states: ‘the author might
be expected to have an eye to the role which a cleric might play in times
of crisis...[and to produce] a work whose central concern was episcopal
behaviour in a period of crisis, almosta handbook for bishops in the 470s
72
or 480s. And this is what the Vita Germani is.’ Does Vita Germani indeed
invoke a sense of ‘crisis’? Modern scholars seem to expect that it should,
but not all find that it does: ‘[a characteristic of Constantius’ writing is] his
serenity, or atleasthis apparenttranquility. To read him, one would not
imagine that his hero had lived, and he himself still lived, in the terrible
fifth century which saw the Roman empire of the West collapse...[Itis
impossible to see in Constantius’ letters to Patiens and Censurius or in his
preface] the least allusion, the least reference to contemporary events.’ 73
Indeed, Constantius’ general portrait of the West – and one has no
reason to believe that the author himself in fact intended to produce
any sortof general political or social account– seems rather sunny. The
churches of various provinces communicate with each other, and though
a heresy exists, it is rapidly dispelled. No paganism lurks in the towns
or countryside of Constantius’ Gaul. Germanus’ sanctity and authority

70
Quotation from Borius, Introduction to Vie de Germain, 69; cf. Chadwick, Poetry and Letters, 266.
71
Bash, Ambassadors for Christ, chapters 6–8, 81–151. On biblical models for hagiography: M. van
Uytfanghe, ‘Mod` eles bibliques dans l’hagiographie’, in Bible de tous les temps iv: Le Moyen Age et
la Bible (Paris, 1984), 449–88.
72
Wood, ‘End of Roman Britain’, 9, 12.
73
Borius, Introduction to Vie de Germain, 24: ‘Un dernier trait de caract` ere de ce lettre que fut
Constance de Lyon demande que l’on s’y attarde quelques instants: c’est sa s´ er´ enit´ eoudumoins
son apparente tranquillit´ e. A le lire, on n’imagineraitpas que son h´ erosav´ ecu, etque lui-mˆ eme
e
vitencore, dans ce terrible v si` ecle qui voitdisparaˆ ıtre l’Empire Romain d’Occident.’ Ibid.,
26: ‘pas la moindre allusions, pas la moindre r´ ef´ erence aux ´ ev´ enements contemporains’. Borius
attributes this apparent ommision to ‘l’illusion, qui n’est pas sans grandeur’, of the eternity of
Rome.
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