orig. Georgius Florentius
born Nov. 30?, 538/539, Clermont, Aquitaine?
died Nov. 17, 594?, Tours, Neustria
Frankish bishop and writer.
Born into an aristocratic family that had produced several bishops of what is today central France, Gregory succeeded his cousin as bishop of Tours in 573. He was involved in numerous political events and in open dispute with the king, Chilperic I . His fame rests on his History of the Franks , a chief source for knowledge of the 6th-century Franco-Roman kingdom. His other writings, including Lives of the Fathers , on the lives of saints, and seven books of miracles, afford unique evidence of religious and social life in Merovingian France.