Franks essay

The Franks and the Alamanni were pagans; the Burgundians and the Visigoth were arianists, but the original people of Gaul, converted to Christianity in IV century, belonged to the Catholic Church. At that time Christianity was already a great spiritual force, ruling all worldly affairs, and it was clear that a strong power could establish on the Roman ground only if the victorious minority would have single religion with a majority of losers.

Clovis I was the founder of the Carolingian Empire and very talented ruler and warrior. The representatives of the clergy welcomed him as a defender of the true religion, and Clovis did not refuse to take advantage of this fact. The most favorable thing was that Сlovis had the opportunity to choose between two forms of confession, prevailed at the time – Catholic and Arian. He did not hesitate to choose the first one, especially because Catholicism had already prevailed over Arian. The Franks were not particularly happy to change paganism to Christianity, parting with old gods, which, in their view, were not so bad and spoiled them during past decade by significant progress. But the king decided to make this step. This event had been made with more than a solemn atmosphere: the streets of the city were beautifully decorated; the church, where they prepared the font, was covered with white veil, and lighted with a lot of burning candles. The news of the baptism of Clovis spread throughout the Roman world and brought great joy and jubilation.

One of the chroniclers compares the church of that time with a gentle mother, who unwittingly yields to weakness of her single son, but she trusts, hopes, and believes.



Leave a Reply