medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
According to Sulpicius Severus (_Dialogi_, 3. 15), Brictius (also Brictio, Briccius, Brixius, etc.; in French and in English usually Brice) was raised by St. Martin of Tours and succeeded him in that see. Attested since the time of bishop St. Perpetuus (d. 491), his cult is closely connected with that of his mentor. St. Gregory of Tours relates a story (_Historia Francorum_, 2. 1) in which Brictius is said to have maligned Martin both during the latter's lifetime and afterward. As punishment for this, according to Gregory, when Brictius had served as bishop for thirty-three years he was unjustly driven from Tours by its inhabitants who believed, wrongly, that he had impregnated a dedicated virgin who had then carried her child to term. Brictius' accusers were unpersuaded both when he commanded the woman's month-old baby to declare whether he were its father, whereupon the baby said that Brictius was not, and when, to prove his purity, he carried hot coals in his robe to Martin's grave without their causing damage to the garment. His exile lasted for seven years, during which time he betook himself to Rome, confessed to the pope his sins against Martin's good name, and remained there as a penitent priest. Returning by papal authorization, Brictius entered Tours just after the death of the second of his two successors, resumed his seat, and served happily for another seven years. Thus far Gregory of Tours, whose narrative Jacopo da Varazze follows very closely in his abbreviation in the _Legenda aurea_ (ed. Graesse, cap. 167). Brictius is usually said to have died in about the year 444.
Supplementing Gordon Plumb's post of earlier today, herewith some links to other period-pertinent images of Brictius of Tours (the suffix distinguishes him from his homonyms of Orvieto and Heiligenblut):
a) as depicted (three scenes: accused of fathering the baby; casting hot coals at Martin's grave; commanding the baby to speak) in the late twelfth-century Navarre Picture Bible (1197; Amiens, Bibliothèque Louis Aragon, ms. 108, fols. 243r,244v):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht3/IRHT_060531-p.jpg
Detail view (accused of fathering the baby):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht3/IRHT_060529-p.jpg
Detail view (commanding the baby to speak):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht3/IRHT_060532-p.jpg
b) as depicted (at left; at right, St. Martin of Tours) in an earlier thirteenth-century choir window (w. 217) in the cathédrale Saint-Étienne in Bourges:
http://www.therosewindow.com/pilot/Bourges/w217-whole-w.htm
c) as depicted (commanding the baby to speak) in an earlier thirteenth-century collection of saint's lives in their French-language translation by Wauchier de Denain (betw. 1226 and 1250; London, BL, Royal 20 D VI, fol. 127r):
http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllID=42726
d) as depicted (commanding the baby to speak) in a late thirteenth-century copy of French origin of the _Legenda aurea_ (San Marino, CA, Huntington Library, ms. HM 3027, fol. 156v):
http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/ds/huntington/images//000919A.jpg
e) as depicted (commanding the baby to speak) in a late thirteenth-century collection of saint's lives in French (1285; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 412, fol. 127r):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84259980/f263.item.zoom
f) as depicted (commanding the baby to speak) in a late thirteenth- or early fourteenth-century breviary for the Use of the abbey of Montier-la-Celle (Paris, BnF, Nouvelle acquisition latine 3241, fol. 190v):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b6000034g/f390.item.zoom
g) as depicted (at left; at right, St. Martin of Tours) in an earlier fourteenth-century copy of the _Legenda aurea_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (ca. 1326-1350; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 185, fol. 173r):
http://tinyurl.com/yezr24z
h) as depicted (at right; at left, St. Martin of Tours) in an earlier fourteenth-century copy, from the workshop of Richard and Jeanne de Montbaston, of the _Legenda aurea_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (1348; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 241, fol. 304r):
http://tinyurl.com/yhnr4sg
i) as depicted in a late fourteenth- or early fifteenth-century copy of the _Legenda aurea_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (Rennes, Bibliothèque de Rennes Métropole, ms. 266, fol. 316r):
http://tinyurl.com/p92rwbf
j) as depicted in an early fifteenth-century copy of the _Legenda aurea_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay followed by the _Festes nouvelles_ attributed to Jean Golein (ca. 1401-1425; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 242, fol. 256r):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8426005j/f527.item.zoom
k) as depicted (receiving the last rites) in an early fifteenth-century copy of the _Elsässische Legenda aurea_ (1419; Heidelberg, Universitätsbibliothek, Cod. Pal. germ. 144, fol. 194v):
http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/cpg144/0404
l) as depicted (bringing hot coals to Martin's grave) by the court workshop of Frederick III in a mid-fifteenth-century copy of the _Legenda aurea_ (1446-1447; Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, cod. 326, fol. 243r):
http://tarvos.imareal.oeaw.ac.at/server/images/7006892.JPG
m) as depicted (commanding the baby to speak) in a later fifteenth-century copy from Bruges of the _Legenda aurea_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay followed by the _Festes nouvelles_ attributed to Jean Golein (ca. 1460-1470; Mâcon, Médiathèque municipale, ms. 3, fol. 44v):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht6/IRHT_095326-p.jpg
n) as depicted (commanding the baby to speak) in a late fifteenth-century breviary for the Use of Langres (after 1481; Chaumont, Mediathèque de Chaumont, ms. 33, fol. 516v):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht6/IRHT_097091-p.jpg
o) as depicted (four scenes) in a late fifteenth-century panel painting (1483) in the Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, Budapest:
http://tinyurl.com/prnkhx9
Detail view (bringing hot coals to Martin's grave):
http://www.mng.hu/en/collections/allando/181/oldal:3/962
p) as portrayed (at right, flanking St. John the Evangelist; at left, St. Martin of Tours) as portrayed in a late fifteenth-century wooden sculpture (1483) now in the Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, Budapest:
http://www.mng.hu/en/collections/allando/181/oldal:3/961
q) as portrayed in an early sixteenth-century polychromed limewood statue (ca. 1510-1520) in the Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe:
https://www.heiligenlexikon.de/Fotos/Brictius_von_Tours.jpg
Best,
John Dillon
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