The question between Catholic orthodoxy and Arianism was, at that time, a vital question for Christianity in its entirety, and St. Athanasius was not wrong in attributing to it supreme importance.  It may be presumed that the Catholic clergy, the bishop of Rheims, or the bishop of Langres, were no strangers to the repeated praises which turned the thoughts of the Frankish king towards the Burgundian princess, and the idea of their marriage once set afloat, the Catholics, priesthood or laity, labored undoubtedly to push it forward, whilst the Burgundian Arians exerted themselves to prevent it.  Thus there took place, between opposing influences, religious and national, a most animated struggle.  No astonishment can be felt, then, at the obstacles the marriage encountered, at the complications mingled with it, and at the indirect means employed on both sides to cause its success or failure.  The account of Fredegaire is but a picture of this struggle and its incidents, a little amplified or altered by imagination or the credulity of the period; but the essential features of the picture, the disguise of Aurelian, the hurry of Clotilde, the prudent recollection of Aridius, Gondebaud’s alternations of fear and violence, and Clotilde’s vindictive passion when she is once out of danger, there is nothing in all this out of keeping with the manners of the time or the position of the actors.  Let it be added that Aurelian and Aridius are real personages who are met with elsewhere in history, and whose parts as played on the occasion of Clotilde’s marriage are in harmony with the other traces that remain of their lives.

[Illustration:  BATTLE OF TOLBIACUM——­144]

The consequences of the marriage justified before long the importance which had on all sides been attached to it.  Clotilde had a son; she was anxious to have him baptized, and urged her husband to consent.  “The gods you worship,” said she, “are nought, and can do nought for themselves or others; they are of wood, or stone, or metal.”  Clovis resisted, saying, “It is by the command of our gods that all things are created and brought forth.  It is plain that your God hath no power; there is no proof even that He is of the race of the gods.”  But Clotilde prevailed; and she had her son baptized solemnly, hoping that the striking nature of the ceremony might win to the faith the father whom her words and prayers had been powerless to touch.  The child soon died, and Clovis bitterly reproached the queen, saying, “Had the child been dedicated to my gods he would be alive; he was baptized in the name of your God, and he could not live.”  Clotilde defended her God and prayed.  She had a second son, who was also baptized, and fell sick.  “It cannot be otherwise with him than with his brother,” said Clovis; “baptized in the name of your Christ, he is going to die.”  But the child was cured, and lived; and Clovis was pacified and less incredulous of Christ.  An event then came to pass which affected him still more