Dennis Quinn: Defeating the Devil: Demonology and Soteriology in the Libri Miraculorum of Gregory of Tours

This paper examines the ways in which Gregory bishop of Tours (ca. 538-94) uses tales of threats from demonic forces and their ultimate defeat in his Libri Miraculorumto reinforce his overall Catholic soteriological message.In Gregory’s narrative accounts of demonic encounters, the devil and his demons arrive on the scene to demonstrate how the demonic are conquered with the sign of the cross, the Catholic symbol of Christ's conquest of the devil through crucifixion. These encounters are presented in Gregory’s miracle stories to emphasize the promise of the final victory of good against evil, thus retelling the apocalyptic narrative.Drawing from the work of such scholars as Martin Heinzelmann, Peter Brown, and Isabel Moreira, I explore the ways in which Gregory may be understood, not only a sophisticated propagandist of his own social and religious authority through drawing associations between himself and particular saints and their cults, but also a noteworthy theologian using hagiography to develop Patristic Christological, ecclesiological, and soteriological concepts. Also, through an analysis of the common structures of his narrative of demonic encounters, I suggest where Gregory draws from biblical, apocryphal, patristic, and monastic imagery to merge demonology and soteriology in an intricately woven retelling of Christ’s salvific sacrifice on the cross to explore Gregory’s overall apocalyptic vision of the world.