page_title: Prætextatus (bishop of Rouen)
section_title: Death
hierarchical_section_title: Prætextatus (bishop of Rouen) / Biography / Death
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Fredegund by Praetextatus death bed. Collection of Pushkin museum, Moscow[1] «&#160;Фредегунда приходит навещать умирающего Претекстата&#160;». Español: Fredegonda en el lecho de muerte de Praetextatus. Français&#160;: Frédégonde devant le lit de mort de l'évêque de Rouen Prétextat.
context_page_description: Saint Prætextatus, also spelled Praetextatus, Pretextat, and known as Saint Prix, was the bishop of Rouen from 549 until his assassination in 586. He appears as a prominent character in Gregory of Tours’ Historia Francorum. This is the principal source from which information on his life can be drawn. He features in many of its most notable passages, including those pertaining to his trial in Paris and his rivalry with the Merovingian Queen Fredegund. The events of his life, as portrayed by Gregory of Tours, have been important in the development of modern understandings of various facets of Merovingian society, such as law, the rivalry between kings and bishops, church councils, and the power of queens.
context_section_description: Praetextus was assassinated at his own church in Rouen on 24 February 586. Gregory of Tours implies strongly that this was arranged by Queen Fredegund. The assassination, he writes, occurred shortly following a "bitter exchange of words" between the two. Fredegund visited Prætextatus on his deathbed. At this meeting he accused her of having organised the whole thing. It is likely that this was a fair accusation given that Fredegund later had the man who committed the act beaten – this man subsequently implicated her in the assassination plot. It is not, however, certain that Fredegund was behind the assassination, as is exemplified by a later passage in which King Guntram refers to the event as remaining worthy of investigation.
  Prætextatus’ assassin was killed, after his confession, by a man referred to as his nephew, which suggests the bishop had at least one sibling. This is the only reference to any of his family members.
  Joaquin Martinez Pizarro has argued that Praextextatus’ rivalry with the ‘Jezebel-like Fredegund’ is part of a typological tradition, adhered to by Gregory of Tours, that made contemporary rivalries between bishops and rulers echo Old Testament rivalries between prophets and kings.
caption: Frédégonde visite Prétextat sur son lit de mort (Fredegund visits Prætextatus on his deathbed), painting by Lawrence Alma-Tadema, of the bishop's enemy enjoying his suffering.
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