The Franks were still a heathen people, when they began
their career of conquest. Clovis, however, had married a Burgundian princess,
Clotilda, who was a devout Catholic and an ardent advocate of Christianity. The
story is told how, when Clovis was hard-pressed by the Alamanni at the battle
of Strassburg, he vowed that if Clotilda's God gave him victory he would become
a Christian. The Franks won, and Clovis, faithful to his vow, had himself
baptized by St. Remi, bishop of Reims. "Bow down thy head," spoke the
bishop, as the Frankish king approached the font, "adore what thou hast
burned, burn what thou has adored." [9] With Clovis were baptized on that
same day three thousand of his warriors.
[9] Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum, ii, 31.
SIGNIFICANCE OF CLOVIS'S CONVERSION
The conversion of Clovis was an event of the first
importance. He and his Franks naturally embraced the orthodox Catholic faith,
which was that of his wife, instead of the Arian form of Christianity, which
had been accepted by almost all the other Germanic invaders. Thus, by what
seems the merest accident, Catholicism, instead of Arianism, became the
religion of a large part of western Europe. More than this, the conversion of
Clovis gained for the Frankish king and his successors the support of conversion
the Roman Church. The friendship between the popes and the Franks afterwards
ripened into a close alliance which greatly influenced European history.
