gradually rose out {42} of the Teutonic conquerors
the conquering power of one tribe, that of the Franks.

[Sidenote: The Church in Gaul.]

By the first ten years of the sixth century Gaul was united again,
under the rule of Chlodowech (Clovis), King of the Franks. Till well
on in the Middle Ages it was that title which the rulers of Gaul always
bore, "Rex Francorum," King of the Franks. France to-day still dates
her existence as a nation from the baptism of Clovis. It was that, his
admission into the Catholic Christianity of the Gauls over whom he
ruled, which enlisted on the side of the Frankish power all the culture
and civilisation which had never died out since the Roman days. Under
the fostering care of the Church it had survived. Brotherhood,
charity, compassion, unity, all the great ideas which the Church
cherished, were to work in long ages the transformation of the Frankish
kingship. And when Chlodowech became king under the blessing of the
Church, which had survived all through these centuries since it was
planted under the Romans, the fusion of races soon followed. The
French nation as we now know it is not merely Celtic, or Gaulish, but
Roman too, and lastly Frankish--that is, Teutonic.

[Sidenote: The baptism of Chlodowech, 496.]

The history of the baptism of Chlodowech is one of the most dramatic in
the annals of the early Middle Age. His wife, Chrotechild, was the
niece of the Burgundian king, and she was a devout Catholic. Slowly
she won her way to his heart. Never, said the chroniclers, did she
cease to persuade him that he should serve the true God; and when in
the crisis of a battle against the Alamanni he called her words to
mind, he vowed to {43} be baptised if Christ should give him the
victory. The legend adorns the historic fact that Chlodowech was
baptised by S. Remigius at Rheims, on Christmas Day, 496, and that some
three thousand of his warriors were baptised with him. "Bow thy neck,
O Sigambrian," said the prelate, "adore that which thou hast burned and
burn that which thou hast adored." Within a generation all races of
the Franks had followed the Frankish king.

[Sidenote: The dark days of the Merwings.]

The years that followed were full of growth. But for long the
Christianity which was nominally triumphant was imperfect indeed.
Chlodowech died in 511; his race went on ruling, Catholic in name but
very far from obedient to the Church's laws. The tale of their
succe