The Baptism of Clovis

When Clovis became king of the Franks he was a pagan, and the other Germanic kings who ruled in Gaul, the Burgundians and the Visigoths, were Arian Christians (Gregory of Tours, Histories 2.27, 2.32, 2.37). Two accounts of his baptism are followed here: a letter written to him at the time by Bishop Avitus of Vienne, and the narrative of Gregory of Tours, composed some eighty years later.

Gregory tells the story through the queen. Clovis married Clotilde, a Burgundian princess and a Catholic. She had their first son baptised; the child died in his baptismal robes, and the king blamed her God. A second son was baptised, fell ill and recovered (Gregory of Tours, Histories 2.28–29). Then, in a battle against the Alamanni which was going against him, Clovis called on “Jesus Christ, whom Clotilda asserts to be the son of the living God”, and promised to be baptised if he won. The Alamanni broke and fled (Gregory of Tours, Histories 2.30).

The queen sent for Remigius, bishop of Reims, who instructed the king in secret. Clovis feared that his people would not give up their gods, but when he met them they declared themselves ready to follow the God whom Remigius preached. The churches were hung with white curtains and the baptistery was filled with incense. Gregory calls the king “another Constantine” and gives the bishop the words: “worship what you burned; burn what you worshipped.” More than three thousand of his army were baptised with him, and his sister Lanthechild, who had been an Arian, was received into the Catholic church (Gregory of Tours, Histories 2.31).

The letter of Avitus is shorter and different in emphasis. Avitus says nothing of a battle or of the queen. He writes that the followers of various sects had tried to cloud the king’s judgment, that Clovis in choosing for himself has judged for all, and that the king’s faith is “our victory”. The baptism took place at Christmas, before a large gathering of bishops; Avitus himself was not there. He urges the king to send envoys to spread the faith among pagan peoples further away (Avitus, Letter 46).

Gregory presents what followed as a religious war: Clovis marched against the Arian Visigoths saying that he could not bear to see them hold part of Gaul, and killed their king Alaric at Vouillé (Gregory of Tours, Histories 2.27, 2.32, 2.37). By this baptism the king of the Franks came to share the creed of the bishops of Gaul, which the Arian kings around him did not (Gregory of Tours, Histories 2.31). The later alliance of their successors with the bishops of Rome is told under the Donation of Pepin and the Papal States and Charlemagne Is Crowned Emperor.