The written sources for Barbarian Gaul are numerous, varying according to genre and the individual litterateurs' agendas. One unifying feature for nearly all surviving literature of the age is composition by upper class persons, especially ecclesiastics. This control of written evidence by a sub-group among the powerful makes an understanding of the situation of non-elites problematic. This chapter will begin by considering briefly the variety among available sources and the difficulties they pose for the study of society. Because personal aspirations and social agendas were peculiar even among the narrow group of literarily active ecclesiastics, and because single authors expressed themselves by writing in multiple genres, the last part of the chapter will examine in greater detail the literary production of four writers: Avitus of Vienne, Caesarius of Arles, Venantius Fortunatus, and Gregory of Tours. The careers of these litterateurs cover the full span of the Barbarian era, and so this exercise will provide a brief but cohesive narrative for the period under review. More importantly, it will reveal how writing constituted an element of the strategies by which powerful people attempted to fashion society to their advantage.