How the Church Understands and Upholds the Rights of Women, Third Article [pp. 366-380]

the Rights of WVoment.
When the French monarchy was in
its first military and elementary
stages, the young Frankish conqueror, the heathen Clovis, who had
just forced the ancient Gauls of the
province of Rheims to bow before
his power, found at the court of
Gondebaud, King of Burgundy, the
niece of that prince, Clotildis, a Christian maiden, renowned for her learning in matters of theology, and for
her undaunted stand against the
Arianismn of her uncle's court. St.
Gregory of Tours, says Ventura,*
represents her as evincing the most
varied and reliable knowledge of
Christianity, and especially of the questions at that time lately decided at the
Council of Nicaea. She knew equally
how to combat paganism on her husband's part and Arianism upon her
uncle's, and displayed all the self-possession of a great apologist, with the
theological science of a doctor of
the church. This was as early as the
year 493, not long after Clovis won
the great battle of Tolbiac against
the Alemanni, and became a Chlristian, according to his vow, made during the engagement, to the "Son of
the living God, thou whom Clotildis
worships." The queen then sent for
St. Remigius, the Bishop of Rheims,
to instruct and baptize her husband.
She instructed the women of her
court and fanmily herself, and showed
herself most zealous in the propaga tion of the faith. The ceremony of
baptism, and the anointing of the
king which followed it, were per formed, by the queen's care, with ex traordinary solemnity. She herself
walked in the procession between the
king's two sisters, the one formerly a
pagan, the other an Arian. The
first, the Princess Albofleda, re nounced the world and consecrated
her virginity to God, thus giving a
* Donna Cattolica, ii. p. 74.
first example to the numerous royal
maidens of France who have since
left the court for the cloister. - Clotildis so fired her husband's heart with
her holy enthusiasm that he built and
endowed the church of SS. Peter and
Paul in Paris, now called St. Genevieve in honor of the sainted shepherdess who, later on, shared with
Clotildis herself the title of patroness
of France. Clovis was afterwards
buried in this church. The Visigoths and Burgundians, who were
Arians, where shamed into less inhuman ways by the example and widespread influence of the victorious
Clovis and his Christian warriors;
the foundations of the great French
monarchy were laid by the evident
desire of the neighboring tribes to
coalesce with the Franks; the future
Catholic monarchy of Spain was consecrated by the heroic zeal and suffering of Clotildis the younger, the
only daughter of Clovis, married to
the Arian Amalaric, King of the Visigoths, in Spain, and the mitigation of
many lawless and still half-barbarianl
acts during the reigns of her sons
was successfully undertaken; so that it
may be said with truth of this period
of history that its chief glory was the
supremacy of woman. Clotildis died at
Tours, where for many years she had
lived in solitude and humility, entirely ignoring her high rank, and employing her influence over her sons
in exhortations to preserve the peace
of their respective kingdoms, to pro tect the poor, and to treat them as
brethren. But great as her services
to religion and civilization had
been, the church was not destined to
suffer by her death, for a long succes sion of imitators of her virtues took
her place from century to century,
and protected the interests of that
church whose champions cannot fail
her as long as principle and honor
exist in the world. Radegundes, the
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