reveals the state of culture of Merovingian Gaul in Gregory's day. Hence, for the history of thought and society, the poorest part of Gregory's work ranks in importance with the best.
It might be urged that the one solution for these editorial problems would be to offer a translation of the whole of Gregory's work. But this, aside from the cost of publication, seems too great a bulk of text for all but special students of the period, who should in any case go to the original. The student of European history in its larger aspects, to whom one Childebert is like another, demands an anthology; for he finds the text so crowded with similar incidents that he is likely not only to lose the thread of the narrative but also to fail to appreciate the sections most significant for his own purpose. In the circumstances, a middle course has been taken. The chapters omitted are summarized and in cases where they contain any items of special interest sections of them have been quoted in the summary. This work of excision and condensation has been made with the ever-present sense of the protest sure to come from the medievalist when he sees the work of desecration at last accomplished which Gregory himself so sadly feared, and upon the authors of which he called down the wrath of Heaven throughout all eternity, in the forceful words on page 247 of this translation. It is only to be hoped that a new social value—which anthropologists tell us is the basis of the sacred—may justify the sacrilege.
With reference to the text itself, the translator has attempted to follow the original as faithfully as possible. It is difficult to render into another language Gregory's combination of literary qualities, the chief of which are vigor, crudity, and a frequent affectation of literary style; but this, we believe, Dr. Brehaut has succeeded in accomplishing in a marked degree. There are chapters which have the charm of Froissart, swift in motion and tinged with romance; but the most romantic figure of all is the bishop of Tours himself, whose quaint but shrewd outlook penetrates the whole; and this impression of subjectivity the present version seeks to convey.
In addition to the text of the History of the Franks, the volume contains some extracts from Gregory's Eight Books of Miracles and a short apparatus of notes and aids for further study.
