Books modelled on the Old Testament Books of
Chronicles. Until the later Middle Ages, they
were usually written in Latin by clerics, who
borrowed extensively from one another. Two
early examples were written by Gregory of
Tours in the 6th century and by Bede. In the
later Middle Ages, vernacular chronicles
appear, written by laymen, but by then the
chronicle tradition was in decline, soon to
be supplanted by Renaissance histories.