4 6o CHRONICLES, HISTORIES, MEMOIRS. 



The fifth book of this work contains some very valuable information concern- 

 ing the reigns of Clotaire II., Dagobert I., and Clovis the younger. The 

 author states in his preface that he relates what he has either seen, or heard 

 from persons in whom he can place reliance, or taken from standard works. 

 It is the only historical record of what took place in France during that 

 obscure period. 



It is difficult to give an explanation for the scarcity of contemporary 

 Chronicles in the seventh and eighth centuries, when we remember that the 

 bishops were the true guardians of history, and that monks in all the large 

 monasteries made a point of collecting in chronological order the principal 

 events of civil and religious history. It is true that these Chronicles were 

 diffuse and loosely put together, and in these monastic Chronicles more space 

 is devoted to the internal affairs of the community than to public occurrences, 

 of which only vague rumours often reached them. Some of these Chronicles 

 are nevertheless valuable (Fig. 357), on account of the scarcity of historical 

 documents relating to early ages ; and amongst the mass of them which have 

 been published we may cite as the most interesting those of Moissac, 

 Fontenelle, St. Medard de Soissons, Fleury-sur-Loire, St. Gall, and St. 

 Bertin. Nor do we know anything as to the names of the authors who wrote 

 the daily chronicles, the diary as we should say, of the ordinary incidents 

 which occurred in the households of the King and of the nobility, except that 

 two of those who succeeded Fredegaire in his work say that their labours 

 were undertaken, the one by order of Childebrand, uncle of Pepin d'Heristal, 

 mayor of the palace, the other by order of Nibelung, son of Childebrand, who 

 were anxious to possess annals of the First Race. There is reason for believing 

 that many of the Chronicles were lost in the wars and devastations of these 

 barbarous epochs, in the course of which most of the towns and monasteries 

 were burnt and put to sack. This is to be regretted, for, as Lacurne de St. 

 Palaye observes, " No age was so barbarous but what the French felt how 

 useful might be the knowledge of their history, in order to stimulate men, 

 by the example of their forefathers, to lead virtuous and honourable lives." It 

 must not be supposed, however, that the ancient Asiatic and Northern peoples 

 who had successively invaded Europe during the fifth and sixth centuries had 

 no history. Their history, although not committed to writing, consisted of 

 warlike and religious songs, which were transmitted from generation to 

 generation, and which dated from a very remote period. These were the 



