While the theology of the Arians was declared a heresy at the First Council of Nicea in AD, the missionary work of the bishop Ulfilas converted the pagan Goths to Arian Christianity in the 4th century. The king's Catholic baptism was of immense importance in the subsequent history of Western and Central Europe in general, for Clovis expanded his dominion over almost all of Gaul. His [Clovis's] conversion to the Roman Catholic form of Christianity served to set him apart from the other Germanic kings of his time, such as those of the Visigoths and the Vandals , who had converted from pagan beliefs to Arian Christianity.
His embrace of the Roman Catholic faith may have also gained him the support of the Catholic Gallo-Roman aristocracy in his later campaign against the Visigoths, which drove them from southern Gaul in and resulted in a great many of his people converting to Catholicism Production place Made in: France.
Museum number , Production place Published in: Innsbruck. Production place Published in: Antwerp city. Production place Published in: Rome city. Production place Published in: Paris France. Museum number ,U. His policy toward the Church was essentially one of overlordship tempered with consideration for ecclesiastical needs and privileges.
In the latter years of his reign, Clovis devoted much energy to the promulgation and codification of the Lex Salica Salic Law , the customary unwritten laws of the Franks, and thus he provided jurisdictional unity for his kingdom. Clovis died at Paris on Nov. The most important source for the life of Clovis and the character of Merovingian Gaul is the History of the Franks by Gregory of Tours, written between and and available in several English translations.
The best modern descriptions of the life and times of Clovis are The Cambridge Medieval History, vol. All rights reserved.
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