Wednesday, November 27, 2024

It is the 27th of November 2024. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org. I'm your guest host, Sam Leanza Ortiz.

If you listened closely to the most recent weekend edition of the Christian History Almanac, the subject of today's show was briefly mentioned as a notable Christian convert, the kind of popular figure an evangelist might like to reach in order to gain a new audience. That's right, today, we're talking about King Clovis I, the first Christian king of the Franks, who died on this day in 511.

It did not take long after King Clovis’s death for church historians to conclude the significance of his conversion to Christian history in the West. The trajectory of the Western Church, European history, and the nation of France, in one way or another, can all trace the paths they took back to Clovis.

So, who was King Clovis?

King Clovis was born around 466 to Childeric, the pagan king of the Salian Franks, and Basina, a Thuringian queen, making him the heir to what would become the Merovingian dynasty. His childhood, for what is known of it, was relatively short as he took over the Frankish throne in 481 at about the age of 15.

This period in Western Europe was one of disarray, as Rome fell just five years before Clovis became king, and tribal warfare exploded in this imperial vacuum. For Clovis, this meant he needed to unite as many Germanic tribes under his rule as possible to absorb the chaos.

Like any other monarch, one easy way to make an alliance is by marriage. He married his sister off to Theodoric, a Gothic king of the Arian persuasion whose lands stretched from the Balkans to what is now Portugal. As for Clovis, he set his sights on the Burgundian princess and devout Catholic, Clotilda, whom he married in 493. She may be better known to you as Saint Clotilda, “the patron saint of brides and parents, especially parents of difficult children.”

At the time of their union, Clovis remained outside the bounds of orthodox Christianity – whether he was a practicing pagan or flirting with the still-popular Arian heresy is uncertain, but Clotilda, as presented in later texts, was persistent in her prayers for his conversion and in her appeals to Clovis to turn to the one true, triune God as confessed at the Council of Nicea.

That Clovis did convert and receive baptism is something scholars can agree on, but the timing of these events is highly debated. Much of what is known about Clovis comes to us from Gregory of Tours, a sixth-century saint whose Histories serve as an invaluable source for insight into early medieval Gallic society. What it is slightly less useful for is accurate reporting. Hagiographic in style, Gregory is less concerned with the details than the story of a powerful pagan king becoming a champion for Catholic Christianity.

The lack of a precise date can be frustrating for historians, but his conversion is placed somewhere between 496 and 508. The story, as told by Gregory, conveniently does a few things for the Frankish kingdom by placing Clovis' conversion in 496 at the Battle of Tolbiac between the Franks and the Germanic Alemanni tribe. Clovis’ armies were close to defeat, spurring him to call on the God of Clotilda. The Alemanni were defeated, and Clovis converted and sought to be baptized by Bishop Remigius at Reims, along with the Frankish armies, numbering as many as 3,000.

This narrative paints Clovis as a new Constantine, coming to God in the thick of battle, only to convert once victory was secured, bringing many of his fellow Franks with him into the faith. Future victories pour forth from this one, thus attributing the consolidation of the Franks to the one true God, who was bringing more peoples into his kingdom.

The Battle of Vouille in 507 was a significant victory over the Arian Visigoths under Alaric II and won Clovis a significant piece of territory that gave the Franks a dominant place in Western European power politics and, by extension, the victory of Catholic orthodoxy over the Arian heresy in the West. 

While it was mostly battles for this warrior king, that was not the entirety of his reign. In his final years, a new code of law was issued with Roman, Germanic, and Christian influences, and in 511, he called the Council of Orleans, inviting the bishops of France together to cement the place of orthodox, Nicene Christianity in this new, unified kingdom.

 Following his death, he gave each of his four sons a part of his kingdom that would unify and divide and unify but remain intact. His dynasty lasted until the eighth century until Pippin the Short and the Carolingians (the family of Charlemagne) would push Clovis’ descendants out. But, the Frankish kingdom he had won remained intact, such that the boundaries of his domains come close to those of modern-day France.

Not only would it remain intact, but it would remain under the influence of Christianity for over a thousand years. France was a hotspot for Christian activity in the Middle Ages, and it would go on to give the Church some of her strongest scholars, her most beautiful cathedrals, and her fiercest defenders. While France has formally shed its religious heritage for a secular republic, Christian history has woven its way into France's holidays, its history, its architecture, and even its borders, testifying to a past shaped by the story of King Clovis, who died on this day in 511.

 

The last word for today comes from the daily lectionary, from John 16:

 “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.

³³ “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 27^th of November 2024, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

This show has been produced by Christopher Gillespie.

This show has been written and read by Sam Leanza Ortiz, who has been to both cities named Clovis in the USA, in California and in New Mexico.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.