Some Well-Behaved Women Who Changed History (Part 2)
- Apr 24
- 2 min read
This is Part 2 of a two-part series. Part 1 discusses the popular feminist slogan, “Well-behaved women seldom make history,” and proposes a different lens through which to view the great achievements of women.
The first Western barbarian king to convert, far in advance of the rest, was Clovis I of the Franks, who was baptized as a Catholic on Christmas Day in the year 496. Our source, the historian Gregory of Tours, explains that Clovis had been a pagan idolator until his marriage to Clotilde, “an elegant young woman and clever for her years.” She was a Catholic of royal blood, and after bearing Clovis a son, she insisted on bringing him up as a Christian. When Clovis demurred, she pointed out to him the ineffectiveness of his pagan gods and the all-too-mortal depravity of Saturn and Jupiter. Ignoring his objections, she baptized the boy.
Presently she gave birth to a second son, whom she also baptized. The second son fell gravely ill, causing Clovis to crow at the failure of her God, but then, miraculously, God healed the boy. Clotilde continued to pray relentlessly for her husband, and eventually Clovis, caught in a losing battle with the Alemanni, decided to imitate Constantine and call upon the Christian God to save his army from certain destruction. The prayer to the Christian God seems to have worked: the Alemanni at once turned tail, giving Clovis the victory. Clotilde thereupon called in a Gallo-Roman holy man, Remigius, who not only baptized Clovis but three thousand of his warriors along with him. Remigius went on to become the “Apostle of the Franks,” founding six bishoprics. He was instrumental in making the Franks the first among the Germanic peoples to convert to Roman Catholicism…