proaches; but the prayer of the mother was heard, and the child restored to health.

Clovis.

X

It was not, however, in this gentler character that the Frank would own the power of the Christian's God. The Franks and the Alemanni met in battle at Tolbiac, not far from Cologne. The Franks were worsted, when Clovis bethought him of Clotilda's God. He cast off his own inefficient divinities; he prayed to Christ, and made a solemn vow, that if he were succoured, he would be baptized as a Christian. The tide of battle turned; the king of the Alemanni was slain; and the Alemanni, in danger of total destruction, hailed Clovis as their sovereign.

Clotilda, without loss of time, sent the glad tidings to Remigius, Bishop of the city of Rheims. Clovis still hesitated, till he could consult his people. The obsequious warriors declared their readiness to be of the same religion as their king. To impress the minds of the barbarians the baptismal ceremony was performed with the utmost pomp; the church was hung with embroidered tapestry and white curtains; odours of incense like airs of Paradise were diffused around; the building blazed with countless lights. When the new Constantine knelt in the font to be cleansed from the leprosy of his heathenism, "Fierce Sicambrian," said the Bishop, "bow thy neck: burn what thou hast adored, adore what thou hast burned!"

According to Gregory of Tours, she argued with her husband against the worship of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, and Mercury. Was it ignorance, or did Gregory suppose that he was writing like a Roman ?-Gregor. Turon. ii.

y "Invocavi enim Deos meos, sed, ut experior, elongati sunt ab auxilio meo, unde credo eos nullius esse potestatis præditos, qui sibi obedientibus non succurrunt. Te nunc invoco, et tibi credens desidero, tantùm ut eruar ab adversariis meis."-Greg. Turon. ii. 30.

Three thousand Franks followed the example of Clovis. During one of their subsequent religious conferences, the Bishop dwelt on the barbarity of the Jews in the death of the Lord. Clovis was moved, but not to tenderness," Had I and my faithful Franks been there, they had not dared to do it."

A.D. 496.

only orthodox

At that time Clovis the Frank was the only orthodox sovereign in Christendom. The Emperor Clovis the Anastasius lay at least under the suspicion of sovereign. favouring the Eutychian heresy. The Ostrogoth Theodoric in Italy, the Visigothic and Burgundian kings in France, the Suevian in Spain, the Vandal in Africa were Arians. If unscrupulous ambition, undaunted valour and enterprise, and desolating warfare, had been legitimate means for the propagation of pure Christianity, it could not have found a better champion than Clovis. For the first time the diffusion of belief in the nature of the Godhead became the avowed pretext for the invasion of a neighbouring territory.a Already the famous Avitus, Bishop of Vienne, has addressed a letter to Clovis, in which he augurs from the faith of Clovis the victory of the Catholic faith; even the heterodox Byzantine emperor is to tremble on his throne; Catholic Greece to exult at the dawning of this new light in the West. The wars of Clovis with Burgundy were all but

want of bishops and clergy to perpetuate the Catholic succession, ruined churches, and grass-grown altars, reads as too eloquent. Reveillot admits that the views of Euric were political rather than religious (p. 141).

Euric, the greatest of the Visi- | vacant by the intolerance of Euric, the gothic kings, was now dead; he had left but feeble successors. Euric laboured under the evil fame of a persecutor; he had attempted what Theodoric aspired to effect in Italy, but with far less success, the fusion of the two races-the Roman and Teutonic; but that of which Sidonius so bitterly complains, of so many sees

VOL. I.

a The rebellion of Vitalianus in the East was a few years later.

2 A

b

openly-declared wars of religion; the orthodox clergy hardly condescended to disguise their inclination to the Franks, whom they supported with their prayers, if not with more substantial assistance. Before the war broke out, a synod of the orthodox Bishops met, it is said, under the advice of Remigius, at Lyons. With Avitus at their head, they visited King Gundebald, and proposed a conference with the Arian bishops, whom they were prepared to prove from the Scripture to be in error. The king shrewdly replied," If yours be the true doctrine, why do you not prevent the King of the Franks from waging an unjust war, and from caballing with my enemies against me? There is no true Christian faith where there is rapacious covetousness for the possessions of others, and thirst for blood. Let him show forth his faith by his good works." Avitus skilfully eluded this question, and significantly replied, that he was ignorant of the motives of Clovis, "but this I know, that God overthrows the thrones of those who are disobedient to

d

b The barbarous Clovis must have heard, it must not be said, read, still less, considering the obscure style of the prelate, understood, the somewhat gross and lavish flattery of his faith, his humility, even his mercy, to which the saintly Bishop scrupled not to condescend: "Vestra fides nostra victoria est. . . . Gaudeat ergo quidem Græcia se habere principem legis nostræ. Numquid fidem perfecto prædicabimus quam ante perfectionem sine prædicatore vidistis? an forte humilian misericordiam quam solutus a vobis adhuc nuper populus captivus gaudiis mundo insinuat lacrymis Deo?" The mercy of Clovis! Avitus, Epist. xli.

tatem

tinguished and influential of the clergy appear on the Catholic side. The Arians are unknown even by name. It is true that we have only Catholic annalists. But I have little doubt that the Arian prelates were for the most part barbarians, inferior in education and in that authority which still, in peaceful functions, attached to the Roman name. It was Rome now enlisting a new clan of barbarians in her own cause, and under her own guidance, against her foreign oppressors.

d The Bishop Avitus of Vienne was in correspondence with the insurgent Vitalianus in the court of the Emperor Anastasius. So completely were now all wars and rebellions religious

c It is remarkable that all the dis-wars.

e

his law." When after the submission of the Burgundian kingdom to the payment of tribute to the Franks, Gundebald resumed the sway, his first act was to besiege his brother Godesil, the ally of Clovis, in Vienne. Godesil fled to the Arian church, and was slain there with the Arian Bishop. On this occasion Avitus tried again to work on the obstinate mind of Gundebald; his arguments confounded, but did not persuade the king, who retained his errors to the end of his life.

g

wars.

When, however, Clovis determined to attack the kingdom of the Visigoths, the monkish his- Religious torian ascribes to him this language:-"I am sore troubled that these Arians still possess so large a part of Gaul." Before he set out on his campaign, the King of the Franks went to perform his devotions before the shrine of St. Martin at Tours. As he entered the church he heard the words of the Psalm which they were chaunting,-"Thou hast girded me, O Lord, with strength unto the battle; thou hast subdued unto me those which rose up against me. Thou hast given me the necks of mine enemies, that I might destroy them

• Collatio Episcop. apud D'Achery, mostitiæ parabantur ad gaudium. Spicileg. iii. p. 304.

f M. Reveillot has very ingeniously, perhaps too ingeniously, worked out the religious history of the reign of King Gundebald (p. 189 et seq.). But he is somewhat tender to the Bishop, who "almost praises Gundebald for the murder of his brothers." The passage is too characteristic to be omitted: "Flebatis quondam pietate ineffabili funera germanorum (he had murdered them), sequebatur fletum publicum universitatis afflictio, et occulto divinitatis intuitu, instrumenta

Minuebat regni felicitas numerum regalium personarum et hoc solum servabatur mundo, quod sufficeret imperio (the good Turkish maxim). Illic repositum est quicquid prosperum fuit catholicæ veritati." This is said of an Arian, but the father of an orthodox son, Sigismund, converted by Avitus.-Epist. v. p. 95.

g" Valde molestè fero, quod hi Ariani partem Galliarum tenent. Eamus cum Dei adjutorio, et superatis eis terram redigamus in ditionem nostram."Greg. Tur. ii. 37.

that hate me." The oracular words were piously fulfilled by Clovis. The Visigothic kingdom was wasted and subdued by the remorseless sword of the Frank. These are not the only illustrations of the Christianity practised by Clovis, and related in perfect simplicity by his monkish historian. Gregory of Tours describes without emotion one of the worst acts which darken the reign of Clovis. He suggested to the son of Sigebert, King of the Ripuarian Franks, the assassination of his father, with the promise that the murderer should be peaceably established on the throne. The murder was committed in the neighbouring forest. The parricide was then slain by the command of Clovis, who in a full parliament of the nation solemnly protested that he had no share in the murder of either; and was raised by general acclamation on a shield, as King of the Ripuarian Franks. Gregory concludes with this pious observation:"For God thus daily prostrated his enemies under his hands, and enlarged his kingdom, because he walked before him with an upright heart, and did that which was pleasing in his sight." Yet

h Psalm xviii. 39. Did Clovis understand Latin? or did the orthodox clergy of Tours interpret the flattering prophecy?

i Miracles accompany his bloody arms; a hind shows a ford; a light from the church of St. Hilary in Poitiers summons him to hasten his attack before the arrival of the Italian troops of Theodoric in the camp of the Visigoth. The walls of Angoulême fall of their own accord. Gregory Tur. ii. 37. According to the life of S. Remi, Clovis massacred all the Arian Goths in the city-Ap. Bouquet, iii. D. 379. S. Cesarius, the Bishop of

Arles, when that city was besieged by Clovis and the Burgundians, was suspected of assisting the invader by more than his prayers. He was imprisoned, his biographers assert, his innocence proved.-Vit. S. Cæsar. in Mabill. Ann. Benedic. sæc. i.

k Greg. Turon. ii. 42. "Prosternebat enim quotidie Deus hostes ejus sub manu ipsius et augebat regnum ejus, eò quod ambulavit rectè corde omnino, et fecerit quæ placita erant in oculis ejus." There follows a long list of assassinations and acts of the darkest treachery. "Clovis fit périr tous les petits rois des Francs