Coming to Terms with the Past in Merovingian Saints' Lives: The Maior Domus Ebroin as a Hagiographical Prop / 'חיי קדושים' מרובינגיים כזירת התמודדות עם העבר: ראש הארמון אברואין כאביזר הגיוגרפי

As mayor of the palace of the Neustro-Burgundian kingdom, Ebroin was, for over two decades in the late seventh-century, the most powerful man in Gaul. His numerous appearances in late Merovingian sources have caused this period of Frankish history to be remembered as a nadir of barbarity and cruelty. The savagery with which Ebroin persecuted his opponents in his quest for political dominance and the control he wielded over a succession of Frankish kings have been seen by scholars as a clear sign of the decline of the Merovingian kings, who had, by the turn of the century, become utterly dependent on their powerful mayors. Ebroin was indeed a forceful, even violent, actor in Frankish politics, but in this he was hardly unique. As I shall argue in this paper, the critical depiction he received by Merovingian hagiography was not an unimpassioned report of his mayoral career, nor was it an entirely fair one. Rather, it should be understood as an attempt, made by the factions that commissioned hagiographical compositions, to come to terms with historical events in which he played a central role. The paper will consider three categories of saints' lives in which Ebroin appears as a supporting character – those composed by his allies, by his rivals, and finally, by neutral parties affected by Ebroin's grab for power. As I will show, Ebroin's portrayal in these texts should be read against the political considerations at the time of composition, which reinterpreted the historical import of his actions to suit contemporary needs.