History of the Franks, Book II

It is book II where St. Gregory will begin going into the details of the Merovingian dynasty, the first dynasty to govern the Franks. He continues with background information. His book is very much, up until the time period he lives, a work in hagiography as much as it is in history. He writes of saints along with their persecutors and he isn't shy to praise the victories of saints when God gives this to them. "It will not, I am sure, be held unreasonable of me if I describe the blessed lives of the Saints together with the disasters of the unfortunate: for it is the course of events which demands this and not my own fantasy as a writer." (II) In the context of the Frankish Kingdom, this is important to take note of, especially when it comes to Clovis I's conquests, as St. Gregory uses the horrific deeds of the persecutions of the Arian Vandals and Goths to lavish praise on this King of the Franks and show how Clovis's Trinitarian faith was what led to his victories (III). The Arian controversy broke out in the fourth century of the Church in which the heretic Arius rejected the divinity of Christ and considered him to be a creature instead of Creator, equal to the Father, which is the orthodox opinion. The Goths, when they accepted Christianity, were evangelized by the missionaries sent by the Arian Emperor Valens. Thus, they accepted Arianism and held that as "orthodoxy" not knowing of its deficiencies. For this reason, they persecuted orthodox Christians severely, believing they held to the true faith when it was indeed a counterfeit faith.

St. Gregory begins this book where the previous book left off. The death of St. Martin of Tours led to an episcopal vacancy. There was a deacon who would later be a priest who served the Bishop of Tours during his lifetime. This priest was named Brycius and Brycius was always skeptical of the miracles of St. Martin calling into question both the legitimacy of these miracles and even the intelligence of St. Martin. St. Martin had overheard this Brycius call him a "half-wit" behind his back and Brycius vigorously denied this. But there was no hiding the truth from St. Martin who declared to Brycius that after he died, Brycius would succeed him to the episcopal throne but his episcopacy would be filled with various troubles. Soon after St. Martin reposed, Brycius succeeded him to the episcopal throne, and although arrogant, was known for chastity in body. He would be accused by a woman considering a religious vocation of violating her. When the baby came, he called on the baby to answer whether or not he was the baby's father. The baby declared that Brycius was not the father and the people accused him of witchery. "To justify himself to the people, he placed burning coals in his cassock and pressed them against his body and went in procession with the whole mob to the tomb of Saint Martin. When he reached the tomb of he dropped the coals on the ground, but his cassock had no marks of burning on it." (II.1) The people would eventually expel Brycius and after he spent seven years in Rome, he would return to his episcopal see and lived in Tours for another seven years, expiring in the forty-seventh year of his episcopacy. The troubles he received as a bishop were enough to justify him and he is venerated on November 13.

St. Gregory begins to describe the persecution of the Vandals in the next book. "The Christians were persecuted more cruelly in the tie of the Vandals" (II.3) informs the Bishop. And he resists not to censor the persecutions done by the Vandals either as in the prior chapter, he describes the suffering of one Catholic who was coerced into being re-baptized into the Arian "faith" by these same Vandals. She had her menstruation just at the moment she was forced into the water, contaminating the water so that the Arians could not subject her to this re-baptism. They went on to behead her (II.2). The girl is left unnamed. He vividly describes the encounter between Cyrola and Eugenius, the former attempted a miracle in which he had his servant press his hands to his eyes and call out to Cyrola to open them. However, as the servant continued to press his hand to his eyes, it came to such an extent that he could not move his hand but it would press harder. The orthodox bishops Eugenius, Vindimialis, and Longinus anointed him upon the repentance of his heresy and confession to orthodoxy. King Huneric of the Vandals had Vindimialis and Longinus executed but refused to give the award of martyrdom to Eugenius and had him exiled (II.3). Because of heresies which ravaged the churches in Gaul, the barbarians were sent to bring judgment upon it. Bishop Aravatius, despite much fastings and prayers to the Apostle Peter, was powerless to stop the divine judgment, though St. Stephen's oratory was preserved. Gaul was ravaged by the Athanaric of the Goths and Attila of the Huns. (II.4-6) Attila was stopped by Aetius with the aid of St. Peter the Apostle at the city of Metz. (II.7)

It is after the defeat of Attila that St. Gregory goes into deal about the race of the Franks. He hypothesizes that they were once a group of individual tribes with different warlords. The name of their first king is unknown and the texts given seem to be ambiguous for though regales is used to describe their leaders by the differing authors he cites, specifically Sulpicius Alexander, it is not clear what their function was. (II.9) At some point, the governing authority of the Franks was eventually consolidated into a monarchy. One thing that we can be certain about with respect to the Franks is that they seem "always to have followed idolatrous practices" (II.10). St. Gregory, a Catholic, makes this point the only negative element about the Franks. After Gregory describes the extravagances of their idolatrous practices, he goes on to give a history of the succeeding bishops of various French cities.

The Senator Avitus first succeeded in becoming Emperor but was deposed for his libidinous way of life. Somehow, he then became the Bishop of Piacenza but the Senate was still hostile to him and he fled to the church of St. Julian, reposing on the journey and was buried at the foot of the martyr (II.11). Childeric King of the Franks began to seduce the daughters of many of his subjects and there was an assassination plot that rose against him as a result. He entrusted a friend of his with half of a coin and said that when the coin was to be made whole again, he would know it would be safe to return. This was when the Roman Commander Aegidius made Soissons a rump state of the Roman Empire. (II.12) Childeric fled to the King Bisinus and his wife Basina where he seduced Basina after finding her loyal to him and she bore Clovis and deserted her husband. The succeeding bishops of Clermont-Ferrand are Arthemius, Venerandus, and Rusticus. Eustochius was succeeded by Perpetuus in Tours. Eufronius would be made a bishop in Autun. Namatius succeeded Rusticus (II.13-16). During this time, Childeric made alliance with Odovacer and laid waste to the Saxons, subduing the Alamanni to his rule (II.18-19). Duke Victorius was put in charge of the seven cities by Euric, King of the Goths, and he built many underground chapels, erected columns in the church of St. Julian, built the church of St. Lawrence and the church of St. Germanus in Saint-Germain-Lanbron (II.20).

After Namatius, Eparchius succeeded the episcopal throne in Clermont-Ferrand. Sidonius Apollinaris succeeded Eparchius (II.21). After Victorius was stoned to death for creating scandalous rumors about Senator Eucherius and was given over to irregular affairs with women (II.20), King Euric of the Goths started a violent persecution of the Christians in Gaul (II.25). "He ordered the doorways to churches be blocked with briers so that the very difficulty of finding one's way in might encourage men to forget their Christian faith." After the death of Perpetuus, Voluousianus became Bishop of Tours, Verus succeeded him in turn, and it was at this time that Clovis succeeded Childeric and waged battle against Syagrius, the son of Aegidius in Soissons (II.26-27). Syagrius was not afraid to fight Clovis but "the army of Syagrius was annihilated" and he fled to Alaric II in Toulose who handed the refugee over out of fear of the Franks. "At that time many churches were plundered by the troops of Clovis, for he still held fast to his pagan idolatries" (II.27).

This persecution was soon about to change for Clovis was about to meet Clotilda. According to Gregory, she was the daughter of Chilperic, the son of Athanaric, who was killed by his brother Gundobad along with his wife (II.28). Clotilda was taken in with Gundobad and her sister Chroma became a religious. This account is disputed by the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia.

"The popular poems substituted for King Godegisil, uncle and protector of Clotilda, his brother Gondebad, who was represented as the persecutor of the young princess. Gondebad is supposed to have slain Chilperic, thrown his wife into a well, with a stone tied around her neck, and exiled her two daughters. Clovis, on hearing of the beauty of Clotilda, sent his friend Aurelian, disguised as a beggar, to visit her secretly, and give her a gold ring from his master; he then asked Gondebad for the hand of the young princess. Gondebad, fearing the powerful King of the Franks, dared not refuse, and Clotilda accompanied Aurelian and his escort on their return journey. They hastened to reach Frankish territory, as Clotilda feared that Aredius, the faithful counsellor of Gondebad, on his return from Constantinople whither he had been sent on a mission, would influence his master to retract his promise. Her fears were justified. Shortly after the departure of the princess, Aredius returned and caused Gondebad to repent to the marriage. Troops were despatched to bring Clotilda back, but it was too late, as she was safe on Frankish soil. The details of this recital are purely legendary. It is historically established that Chilperic's death was lamented by Gondebad, and that Cartena lived until 506: she died "full of days", says her epitaph, having had the joy of seeing her children brought up in catholic religion. Aurelian and Aredius are historical personages, though little is known of them in the legend is highly improbable." (New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia: Clotilda)

Regardless, Clovis would become attracted to this saintly woman and would ask for her hand in marriage which led to a religious disputation between the two shortly after the birth of their son Ingomer. Clotilda called on Clovis to forsake his pagan gods. "The gods whom you worship are no good...They are carved out of stone or wood or some old piece of metal...Jupiter, that obscene perpetrator of all sorts of mucky deeds, who couldn't keep his hands off other men, who had fun with all his female relatives...Mars and Mercury...were certainly not worthy of being called divine" (II.29). "[N]o sooner had [the child] received baptism than he he died in his white robes." Clovis became angry but Clotilda rendered her thanks to God. "I am not at all cast down in my mind because of what has happened, for I know that my child, who was called away from this world in his white baptismal robes, will be nurtured in the sight of God." Chlodomer was born, was baptized, and became sick which caused Clovis more anger. Clotilda prayed for the healing of her son Chlodomer and he recovered from the illness. It was in fighting with the Alamanni that Clovis saw his life threatened, he called out to the God of Clotilda at that point, "Jesus Christ, you who Cotild maintains to be the Son of the living God, you who deign to give help to those in travail and victory to those who trust in you, in faith I beg the glory of your help. If you will give me victory over my enemies, and if I may have evidence of that miraculous power which the people dedicated to your name say that say they have experienced, then I will believe in you and I will be baptized in your name. I have called upon my own gods, but, as I see only too clearly, the have no intention of helping me. I therefore cannot believe that they possess any power, for they do not come to the assistance of those who trust in them. I now call upon you. I want to believe in you, but I must first be saved from my enemies." (II.30) After this, the battle turned in Clovis's favor and the Alamanni were routed. He told Clotilda what had happened and she called for the Bishop Remigius and Clovis was baptized as the first convert to the Christian religion from the Franks (II.31).

Clovis would defeat Gundobad with the assistance of Godigisel. Upon seeing Gundobad flee, Clovis sent an ultimatum that Gundobad would offer an annual tribute or Clovis would do whatever he wanted to Gundobad (II.32). This subjected Gundobad to Clovis. Gundobad would then convert to Catholicism after seeing his brother Godigisel defeated by Clovis and his Arian bishop killed (II.33-34). St. Avitus would be the one to receive Gundobad into the faith and St. Gregory lavishes praise on the works of this bishop. "I find it hard to go on seeing these Arians occupy a part of Gaul" (II.37), Clovis declared and he invaded them and drove them out with the help of God. While marching through Poitiers, he ordered that nothing be taken from the land except food and water. One of his men took hay from a poor man. When Clovis found out about the theft, he took his axe and he split the soldier's head open with it. Clovis defeated Alaric II on the battlefield of Vouillé. The Emperor Anastasius would grant Clovis a consulship (II.38). Clovis came to Tours when Licinius succeeded Eustochius (II.39) When Clovis was in Paris, he reached out to Chloderic, the son of Sigibert in the East Frankish region, saying that if his father died, he would have his alliance. Chloderic had his father assassinated. Clovis came to Cologne to show that Chloderic had misinterpreted his words and punished Chloderic for his treacheries, splitting his head open with an axe. The people subjected themselves to Clovis afterward.  "God submitted the enemies of Clovis to his dominion and increased his power, for he walked before him with an upright heart and did what was pleasing in his sight." (II.40) Clovis also defeated Chararic and subdued the rebellion of his relatives Ragnachar and Ricchar, killing both of them with his axe. (II.41-42) Clovis died on November 27, 511 A.D. and was buried in the church of the Holy Apostles (now St. Genievieve) in Paris. Clotilda had built this church. She served as a religios at the church of St. Martin of Tours the rest of her life, occasionally visiting Paris (II.43). "She was remarkable for her great modesty and loving kindness."