The Conversion Of The Franks The

Chlodowech (Clovis, 481-511) was originally a king of the Salian Franks,

near Tournay. By his energy he became king of all the Franks, and,

overthrowing Syagrius in 486, pushed his frontier to the Loire. In 496 he

conquered a portion of the Alemanni. About this time he became a Catholic.

He had for some time favored the Catholic religion, and with his

conversion his rule was associated with that cause in the kingdoms subject
br /> to Arian rulers. In this way his support of Catholicism was in line with

his policy of conquest. By constant warfare Chlodowech was able to push

his frontier, in 507, to the Garonne. His death, in 511, at less than

fifty years of age, cut short only for a time the extension of the

Frankish kingdom. Under his sons, Burgundy, Thuringia, and Bavaria were

conquered. The kingdom, which had been divided on the death of Chlodowech,

was united under the youngest son, Chlotar I (sole ruler 558-561), again

divided on his death, to be united under Chlotar II (sole ruler 613-628).

In Spain the Suevi, in the northwest, became Catholic under Carrarich in

550. They were conquered in 585 by the Visigoths, who in turn became

Catholic in 589.





(a) Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum, II, 30. 31. (MSL, 71:225.)





Gregory of Tours (538-593) became bishop of Tours in 573. Placed

in this way in the most important see of France, he was constantly

thrown in contact with the Merovingian royal family and had

abundant opportunity to become acquainted with the course of

events at first hand. His most important work, the History of the

Franks, is especially valuable from the fifth book on, as here he

is on ground with which he was personally familiar. In Book II,

from which the selection is taken, Gregory depends upon others,

and must be used with caution.





The baptism of Chlodowech was probably the result of a long

process of deliberation, beginning probably before his marriage

with Chrotechildis, a Burgundian princess, who was a Catholic.

While still a pagan he was favorably disposed toward the Catholic

Church. About 496 he was baptized, probably on Christmas Day, at

Rheims, by St. Remigius. The place and date have been much

disputed of late. The earliest references to the conversion are by

Nicetus of Trier (ob. circa 566), Epistula ad Chlodosvindam

reginam Longobardorum (MSL, 5:375); and Avitus, Epistula 41,

addressed to Chlodowech himself. (MSL, 59:257). A careful

examination of all the evidence may be found in A. Hauck,

Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, fourth ed., I, 595 ff. Hauck

concludes that "the date, December 25, 496, may be regarded as

almost certainly the date of the baptism of Chlodowech. The

connection as to time between the first war with the Alemanni and

the baptism may have given occasion to seek for some actual

connection between the two events." The selection is therefore

given as the traditional version and is not to be relied upon as

correct in detail. It represents what was probably the current

belief within a few decades of the event.





Ch. 30. The queen (Chrotechildis) ceased not to warn Chlodowech that he

should acknowledge the true God and forsake idols. But in no way could he

be brought to believe these things. Finally war broke out with the

Alemanni. Then by necessity was he compelled to acknowledge what before he

had denied with his will. The two armies met and there was a fearful

slaughter, and the army of Chlodowech was on the point of being

annihilated. When the king perceived that, he raised his eyes to heaven,

his heart was smitten and he was moved to tears, and he said: "Jesus

Christ, whom Chrotechildis declares to be the Son of the living God, who

says that Thou wilt help those in need and give victory to those who hope

in Thee, humbly I flee to Thee for Thy mighty aid, that Thou wilt give me

victory over these my enemies, and I will in this way experience Thy

power, which the people called by Thy name claim that they have proved to

be in Thee. Then will I believe on Thee and be baptized in Thy name. For I

have called upon my gods but, as I have seen, they are far from my help.

Therefore, I believe that they have no power who do not hasten to aid

those obedient to them. I now call upon Thee and I desire to believe on

Thee. Only save me from the hand of my adversaries." As he thus spoke, the

Alemanni turned their backs and began to take flight. But when they saw

that their king was dead, they submitted to Chlodowech and said: "Let not,

we pray thee, a nation perish; now we are thine." Thereupon he put an end

to the war, exhorted the people, and returned home in peace. He told the

queen how by calling upon the name of Christ he had obtained victory. This

happened in the fifteenth year of his reign (496).



Ch. 31. Thereupon the queen commanded that the holy Remigius, bishop of

Rheims, be brought secretly to teach the king the word of salvation. The

priest was brought to him secretly and began to lay before him that he

should believe in the true God, the creator of heaven and earth, and

forsake idols, who could neither help him nor others. But he replied:

"Gladly do I listen to thee, most holy Father, but one thing remains, for

the people who follow me suffer me not to forsake their gods. But I will

go and speak to them according to thy words." When he met his men, and

before he began to speak, all the people cried out together, for the

divine power had anticipated him: "We reject the mortal gods, pious king,

and we are ready to follow the immortal God whom Remigius preaches." These

things were reported to the bishop, who rejoiced greatly and commanded the

font to be prepared. The king first asked to be baptized by the pontiff.

He went, a new Constantine, into the font to be washed clean from the old

leprosy, and to purify himself in fresh water from the stains which he had

long had. But as he stepped into the baptismal water, the saint of God

began in moving tone: "Bend softly thy head, Sicamber, reverence what thou

hast burnt, and burn what thou hast reverenced."



Therefore the king confessed Almighty God in Trinity, and was baptized in

the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, and was

anointed with the holy chrism with the sign of the cross. Of his army more

than three thousand were baptized. Also his sister Albofledis was

baptized. And another sister of the king, Lanthechildis by name, who had

fallen into the heresy of the Arians, was converted, and when she had

confessed that the Son and the Holy Ghost were of the same substance with

the Father, she was given the chrism.





(b) Gregory of Tours, Hist. Francorum, II, 35-38. (MSL, 71:232.)





Clovis at the head of the anti-Arian party in Gaul.





Ch. 35. When Alarich, the king of the Goths, saw that King Chlodowech

continually conquered the nations, he sent messengers to him saying: "If

my brother wishes, it is also in my heart that we see each other, if God

will." Chlodowech was not opposed to this and came to him. They met on an

island in the Loire, in the neighborhood of Amboise, in the territory of

Tours, and spake and ate and drank together, promised mutual friendship,

and parted in peace.



Ch. 36. But already many Gauls wished with all their heart to have the

Franks for their masters. It therefore happened that Quintianus, bishop of

Rhodez, was driven out of his city on account of this. For they said to

him: "You wish that the rule of the Franks possessed this land." And a few

days after, when a dispute had arisen between him and the citizens, the

rumor reached the Goths who dwelt in the city, for the citizens asserted

that he wished to be subject to the rule of the Franks; and they took

counsel and planned how they might kill him with the sword. When this was

reported to the man of God, he rose by night, and with the most faithful

of his servants left Rhodez and came to Arverne.



Ch. 37. Thereupon King Chlodowech said to his men: "It is a great grief to

me that these Arians possess a part of Gaul. Let us go forth with God's

aid, conquer them, and bring this land into our power." And since this

speech pleased all, he marched with his army toward Poitiers, for there

dwelt Alarich at that time. King Chlodowech met the king of the Goths,

Alarich, in the Campus Vocladensis [Vouille or Voulon-sur-Clain] ten miles

from Poitiers; and while the latter fought from afar, the former withstood

in hand to hand combat. But since the Goths, in their fashion, took to

flight, King Chlodowech at length with God's aid won the victory. He had

on his side a son of Sigbert the Lame, whose name was Chloderich. The same

Sigbert, ever since he fought with the Alemanni near Zulpich [in 496], had

been wounded in the knee and limped. The king killed King Alarich and put

the Goths to flight. From this battle Amalrich, Alarich's son, fled to

Spain, and by his ability obtained his father's kingdom. Chlodowech,

however, sent his son Theuderic to Albi, Rhodez, and Arverne, and

departing he subjugated those cities, from the borders of the Goths to the

borders of the Burgundians, to the rule of his father. But Alarich reigned

twenty-two years.



Chlodowech spent the winter in Bourdeaux, and carried away the entire

treasure of Alarich from Toulouse, and he went to Angouleme. Such favor

did the Lord show him that, when he looked on the walls, they fell of

themselves. Thereupon when the Goths had been driven from the city he

brought it under his rule. After the accomplishment of these victories he

returned to Tours and dedicated many gifts to the holy Church of St.

Martin.



Ch. 38. At that time he received from the Emperor Anastasius the title of

consul, and in the Church of St. Martin he assumed the purple cloak and

put on his head a diadem. He then mounted a horse and with his own hand

scattered among the people who were present gold and silver in the

greatest profusion, all the way from the door of the porch of the Church

of St. Martin to the city gate. And from this day forward he was addressed

as consul, or Augustus. From Tours Chlodowech went to Paris and made that

the seat of his authority.(220)





(c) Third Council of Toledo, A. D. 589, Acts. Mansi, IX, 992.





This council is the most important event in the history of the

Visigothic Church of Spain, marking the abandonment of Arianism by

the ruling race of Spain and the formal acceptance of the doctrine

of the Trinity or the Catholic faith and unity. The Suevi had

accepted Catholicism more than thirty-five years before; see Synod

of Braga, A. D. 563, in Hefele, § 285 (cf. also Hahn, § 176, who

gives the text of the anathematisms in which, after a statement of

the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity, the balance of the

anathematisms are concerned with Priscillianism). Reccared, the

Visigothic king (586-601), became a Catholic in 587, and held the

council of 589 to effect the conversion of the nation to his new

faith. For a letter of Gregory the Great on the conversion of

Reccared, see PNF, ser. II, vol. XII, pt. 2. p. 87, and two from

Gregory to Reccared himself (ibid., vol. XIII, pp. 16, 35). The

creed, as professed at Toledo, is the first instance of the

authorized use of the term "and the Son" in a creed in connection

with the doctrine of the "procession of the Holy Spirit," the form

in which the so-called Nicene creed came to be used in the West,

and the source of much dispute between the East and the West in

the ninth century and ever since.





I. From the Speech of Reccared at the Opening of the Council.





I judge that you are not ignorant, most reverend priests [i.e., bishops]

that I have called you into our presence for the restoration of



ecclesiastical discipline; and because in time past the existence of

heresy prevented throughout the entire Catholic Church the transaction of

synodical business. God, who has been pleased by our action to remove the

obstacle of the same heresy, warns us to set in order the ecclesiastical

laws concerning church matters. Therefore let it be a matter of joy and

gladness to you that the canonical order is being brought back to the

lines of the times of our fathers, in the sight of God and to our glory.





II. From the Statement of Faith.





There is present here all the famous nation of the Goths, esteemed for

their real bravery by nearly all nations, who, however, by the error of

their teachers have been separated from the faith and unity of the

Catholic Church; but now, agreeing as a whole with me in my assent to the

faith, participate in the communion of that Church which receives in its

maternal bosom a multitude of different nations and nourishes them with

the breasts of charity. Concerning her the prophet foretelling said: "My

house shall be called the house of prayer for all nations." For not only

does the conversion of the Goths add to the amount of our reward, but also

an infinite multitude of the people of the Suevi, whom under the

protection of Heaven we have subjected to our kingdom, led away into

heresy by the fault of an alien,(221) we have endeavored to recall to the

source of truth. Therefore, most holy Fathers, I offer as by your hands to

the eternal God, as a holy and pleasing offering, these most noble

nations, who have been attached by us to the Lord's possessions. For it

will be to me in the day of the retribution of the just an unfading crown

and joy if these peoples, who now by our planning have returned to the

unity of the Church, remain founded and established in the same. For as by

the divine determination it has been a matter of our care to bring these

peoples to the unity of the Church of Christ, so it is a matter of your

teaching to instruct them in the Catholic dogmas, by which they may be

instructed in the full knowledge of the truth, that they may know how to

reject totally the errors of pernicious heresy, to remain in charity in

the ways of the true faith, and to embrace with fervent desire the

communion of the Catholic Church. As it is of benefit to us to profess

with the mouth what we believe in the heart therefore I anathematize

Arius with all his doctrines so I hold in honor, to the praise and honor

and glory of God, the faith of the holy Council of Nicaea. I embrace and

hold the faith of the one hundred and fifty Fathers assembled at

Constantinople. I believe the faith of the first Council of Ephesus

likewise with all the Catholic Church I reverently receive the faith of

the Council of Chalcedon. To this my confession I have added the holy

constitutions [i.e., confessions of faith] of the above-mentioned

councils, and I have subscribed with complete singleness of heart to the

divine testimony.





Here follows the faith of Nicaea, the so-called creed of

Constantinople, with the words relating to the Holy Ghost, ex

Patre et Filio procedentem (proceeding from the Father and the

Son); the actual form filioque does not here occur.





III. From the Anathemas, Hahn, § 178.





3. Whosoever does not believe in the Holy Ghost and will not believe that

He proceeds from the Father and the Son, and will not say that He is

co-essential with the Father and the Son, let him be anathema.





IV. From the Canons, Bruns, I, 212.





Canon 1. After the damnation of the heresy of Arius and the exposition of

the Catholic faith, this holy council ordered that, because in the midst

of many heretics and heathen throughout the churches of Spain, the

canonical order has been necessarily neglected (for while liberty of

transgressing abounded, and the desirable discipline was denied, and every

one fostered excesses of heresy in the protection and continuation of evil

times, a strict discipline was far off, but now the peace of the Church

has been restored by the mercy of Christ), everything which by the

authority of early canons may be forbidden is forbidden, discipline

arising again, and everything is required which they order done. Let the

constitutions of all the councils remain in their force, likewise all the

synodical letters of the holy Roman prelates. Henceforth let no one aspire

unworthily to ecclesiastical promotions and honors against the canons. Let

nothing be done which the holy Fathers, filled with the Spirit of God,

decreed should not be done. And let those who presume to violate the laws

be restrained by the severity of the earlier canons.



Canon 2. Out of reverence for the most holy faith and to strengthen the

weak minds of men, acting upon the advice of the most pious and glorious

King Reccared(222) the synod has ordered that throughout the churches of

Spain, Gaul, and Gallicia, the symbol of the faith be recited according to

the form of the Oriental churches, the symbol of the Council of

Constantinople, that is, of the one hundred and fifty bishops; and before

the Lord's prayer is said, let it be pronounced to the people in a clear

voice, by which also the true faith may have a manifest testimony, and the

hearts of the people may approach to the reception of the body and blood

of Christ with hearts purified by faith.