Letter to King Clovis (Letter 46)

Avitus was bishop of Vienne, in the kingdom of the Burgundians, whose kings were Arian Christians. He was not present at the baptism; he writes that a messenger had told him beforehand that the king had enrolled as a candidate. He pictures the scene as it was reported to him: a large gathering of bishops, and the king, feared by the nations, bowing his head to the servants of God.

The letter tells Clovis that his faith is “our victory”, says that the water of rebirth brought him forth on the day the Lord was born, and urges him to send envoys to carry the faith to pagan peoples further off. It opens by saying that the followers of various sects had tried to cloud the king’s judgment, which Danuta Shanzer (cited in the dating note of the Baptism of Clovis) reads as a sign that Clovis had been drawn towards Arian Christianity before he chose the Catholic side. Avitus names no place, no bishop and no battle, and the letter carries no date; its place in the reign is argued from its contents.