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 CLOVIS

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CLOVIS

spies to ascertain the strength of Clovis's army, and upon returning they said: "It is a great reinforce- ment for you and your Farron." Meanwhile, Clovis advanced and the battle began. Being defeated, Ragnacaire sought refuge in flight, but was overtaken, made prisoner, and brought to Clovis, his hands bound behind him. "Why", said his conqueror, "have you permitted our blood to be hiuniliated by allowing yourself to be put in chains? It were better that you should die." And, so saying, Clovis dealt him his death-blow. Then, turning to Richaire, Rag- nacaire 's brother, who had been taken prisoner with the king, he said: "Had you but helped your brother, they would not have bound him", and he slew Ri- chaire also. After these deaths the traitors discovered that they had been given counterfeit gold and com- plained of it to Clo-iis, but he only laughed at them. Rignomir, one of Ragnacaire's brothers, was put to death at Le Mans by order of Clovis, who took posses- sion of the kingdom and the treasure of his victims.

Such is the legend of C1o\ts; it abounds in all kinds of improbabilities, which cannot be considered as true history. The only facts that can be accepted are that Clo\'is made war upon Kings Ragnacaire and Chara- ric, put them to death, and seized their territories. Moreover, the author of this article is of the opinion that these events occurred shortly after the conquest of the territory of Syagrius, and not after the war against the Visigoths, as has been maintained by Gregory of Tours, whose only authority is an oral tradition, and whose chronology in this matter is de- cidedly misleading. Besides, Gregory of Tours has not given us the name of Chararic's kingdom; it was long believed to have been established at Therouanne, but it is more probable that Tongres was its capital city, since it was here tiiat the Franks settled on gain- ing a foothold in Belgium.

In 492 or 49.3 Qovis, who was master of Gaul from the Loire to the frontiers of the Rhenish King- dom of Cologne, married Clotilda, the niece of Gonde- bad. King of the Burgvmdians. The popular epic of the Franks has transformed the story of this marriage into a veritable nuptial poem, the analysis of which will be found in the article on Clotilda. Clotilda, who was a Catholic, and very pious, won tiie consent of Clovis to the baptism of their son, and then urged that he himself embrace the Catholic Faith. He de- liberated for a long time. Finally, during a battle against the Alemanni — which without apparent rea- son has been called the Battle of Tolbiac (Ziilpich) — seeing his troops on the point of yielding, he invoked the aid of Clotilda's God, and promised to become a Christian if only victory should be granted him. He conquered and, true to his word, was baptized at Reims by St. Reniigius, bishop of that city, his sister .\lbofledis and three thousand of his warriors at the same time embracing Christianity. Gregory of Tours, in his ecclesiastical history of the Franks, has de- scribed this event, which took place amid great pomp at Christmas, 496. "Bow thy head, O Sicambrian", said St. Remigius to the royal convert. "Adore what thou hast burned and burn what thou hast adored." According to a ninth-century legend found in the life of St. Remigius, written by the celebrated Hincmar, himself Archbishop of Reims, the chrism for the baptismal ceremony was missing and was brought from heaven in a vase {ampulla) borne by a dove. This is what is known as the Sainte Ampoule of Reims, preserved in the treasurj- of the cathedral of that city, and used for the coronation of the kings of France from Philip .\ugustus down to Charles X.

The conversion of Clovis to the religion of the majority of his subjects soon brought about the union of the Gallo-Romans with their bari)arian con- querors. While in all the other Germanic kingdoms foimded on the ruins of the Roman Empire the dif- ference of religion between the Catholic natives and

Arian conquerors was a very active cause of destruc- tion, in the Frankish Kingdom, on the contrary, the fimdamental identity of religious beliefs and the equality of political rights made national and patri- otic sentiment universal, and produced the most per- fect harmony between the two races. The Frankish Kingdom was thenceforth the representative and de- fender of Catholic interests throughout the West, while to his conversion Clovis owed an exceptionally brilliant position. Those historians who do not un- derstand the problems of religious psychology have concluded that Clovis embraced Christianity solely from political motives, but nothing is more erroneous. On the contrary, everything goes to prove that his conversion was sincere, and the opposite cannot be maintained without refusing credence to the most trustworthy e%'idence.

In the year 500 Clovis was called upon to mediate in a quarrel between his wife's two uncles, Kings Gondebad of Vienne and Godegisil of Geneva. He took sides with the latter, whom he heljied to defeat Gondebad at Dijon, and then, deeming it prudent to interfere no further in this fratricidal struggle, he returned home, leaving Godegisil an auxiliary corps of five thousand Franks. After Clovis's departure Gondebad reconquered Vienne, liis capital, in which Godegisil had established himself. This reconquest was effected by a stratagem seconded by treachery, and Godegisil himself perished on the same occasion. The popular poetry of the Franks has singularly mis- represented this intervention of Clovis, pretending that, at the instigation of his wife Clotilda, he sought to avenge her grievances against her uncle Gondebad (see Clotilda), and that the latter king, besieged in Avignon by Clovis, got rid of his opponent through the agency of Aredius, a faithful follower. But in these poems there are so many fictions as to render the history in them indistinguishable.

An expedition, otherwise important and profitable, was undertaken by Clovis in the year 506 against Alaric II, King of the Visigoths of Aquitaine. He was awaited as their deliverer by the Catholics of that kingdom, who were being cruelly persecuted by Arian fanatics, and was encouraged in his enterprise by the Emjieror Anastasius, who wished to crush this ally of Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths. Desjjite the diplomatic efforts made by the latter to prevent the war, Clovis crossed the Loire and proceeded to Vouill^, near Poitiers, where he defeated and slew Alaric, whose demoralized troops fled in disorder. The Franks took possession of the Visigoth Kingdom as far as the PjTcnees and the Rhone, but the jjart situated on the left bank of this river was stoutly defended by the armies of Theodoric, and thus the Franks were preventeil from seizing Aries and Pro- vence. Notwithstanding this last failure, Clovis, by his conquest of Aquitaine, added to the Frankisli crown the fairest of its jewels. So greatly did the Emperor Anastasius rejoice over the success attained by Clovis that, to testify his satisfaction, he sent the Frankish conqueror the insignia of the consular dig- nity, an lionour always highly appreciated by the barbarians.

The annexation of the Rhenish Kingdom of Cologne crowned the acquisition of Gaul by Clovis. But the history of this conquest, also, has been disfigured by a legend that Clovis instigated Chloderic, son of Sige- bert of Cologne, to assassinate his father, then, after the jjerpetration of this foul deed, caused Chloderic himself to be assassinated, and finally offered himself to the Rhenish Franks as king, protesting his inno- cence of the crimes that had been committed. The only historical element in this old story, preserved by Gregory of Tours, is that the two kings of Cologne met with violent deaths, and that Clovis, their rela- tive, succeeded them jiartly by right of birth, partly by popular choice. The criminal means by which he