The clergy between town and country in late Merovingian hagiography

ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to examine the hagiographical portrayal of ecclesiastical activity in the late Merovingian countryside, especially as it pertains to parochial priests and deacons. It considers two saints’ Lives, the Suffering of Praejectus of Clermont and the Life of Eligius of Noyon, two roughly contemporaneous late seventh-century compositions, and the different ways they approached the relationships between bishops and their rural priests, and between the town and its suffragan parishes. Although both saints were of humble origins, their career trajectories differed significantly. Eligius was a senior courtier parachuted into a politically significant bishopric by royal fiat, while Praejectus was a cleric who climbed to the episcopacy in his home town after several unsuccessful attempts. It is argued that the now familiar episcopal strategies for networking, attaining upward mobility and competing effectively with peers were available to the rural clergy, albeit on a smaller, more localised, level.