Arians, Catholics, and Vouillé

Tür:

Kitap Bölümü

Yazar:

Ian Wood

Yayın yılı:

2012

Yayıncı:

De Gruyter

It would appear that the baptism of Clovis took place at Christmas 508. 1 Traditionally the event has been placed twelve years earlier, on the grounds that Gregory of Tours presents the king's conversion as occurring after a Frankish victory over the Alamans, which some manuscripts of his Histories place in the fifteenth year of the king's reign. 2 Gregory's account, however, is contradicted by every other reference to what appears to be the same battle, which would seem to have taken place in the year 506-though it has to be admitted that the Alamans almost certainly fought the Franks on more than one occasion; 3 indeed, although Clovis is commonly thought to have defeated the Alamans at Zlpich/Tolbiac, which is known to have been the site of an engagement between the two barbarian peoples, this may well have been a different battle altogether; even Gregory does not claim that his hero was at Tolbiac. 4 And while the only contemporary source to mention Clovis's baptism, the letter of Avitus of Vienne, is difficult to date, every indication would seem to suggest that it was written at the end of 508 or the beginning of 509. 5 Of course, the letter does not necessarily help date the conversion of the king: conversion and baptism are two very different issues, and often, during Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages, an individual was baptized some while, sometimes even some years, after his or her conversion: Emperor Constantine provides an excellent example.Thus, it is p…

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