Reims
The Roman city of Durocortorum in northern Gaul, seat of Bishop Remigius, who according to Gregory of Tours baptised Clovis, king of the Franks.
Reims was the Roman Durocortorum, chief city of the Remi. Gregory of Tours names Remigius as its bishop when he baptised Clovis, and describes the squares shaded with embroidered hangings and the baptistery prepared for the ceremony (Gregory of Tours, Histories 2.31). Gregory does not say in so many words where the baptism was held; it is placed at Reims because the bishop who performed it was bishop of that city.
What happened here
- c. AD 496–508, estimated dateThe Baptism of Clovis
Clovis, king of the Franks, is baptised a Catholic Christian by Bishop Remigius of Reims, with many of his warriors. Unlike the Burgundian and Visigothic kings, who were Arians, he shares the faith of his Gallo-Roman subjects and their bishops.
Primary sources
Histories (History of the Franks)
- Gregory of Tours, Histories 2.31sourcebooks.fordham.edu