Dating the baptism of Clovis: the bishop of Vienne vs the bishop of Tours

Abstract

This article reexamines the text and interpretation of three crucial passages in Avitus of Vienne’s Ep. 46, the only contemporary document attesting the baptism of Clovis, and one passage in Gregory of Tours’Decem Libri Historiarum. The following conclusions relative to the date and circumstances of the baptism can be drawn. A. Avitus addresses Clovis not as if he was a pagan convert, but as if he was a recent Arian sympathiser, possibly even a catechumen. 2. There is no allusion to Clovis's honorary consulship in Ep. 46, hence no terminus post quem of 508. 3. The populus adhue nuper captivus cannot be the Alamans or the newly‐converted Franks. Clovis's letter to the Bishops of Aquitaine and Avitus's known involvement in the ransoming of prisoners‐of‐war are adduced to suggest that the populus may most plausibly be identified with Catholic Gallo‐Roman captives taken in the Franco‐Visigothic war of 507. If this is right, it provides a terminus post quem, of 507 and suggests a baptism in Christmas 508. 4. Gregory of Tours’ account of the Alamannic war is reexamined, and the following conclusions reached: the account fuses a “Clotilde‐spool” and a “Constantinian‐spool;” the battle against the Alamanni must date to late 506 (evidence from Cassiodorus and Ennodius); but Gregory himself did not know when it took place in absolute terms, and his relative chronology may well be unreliable. Thus the date of the battle and the date of conversion can be uncoupled. The most probable terminus post quem remains the freeing of the populus captivus, probably after the war of 507. The article ends by reexamining the implications of Clovis's and Avitus's relationship and correspondence.