Ch. 35. When Alarich, the king of the Goths, saw that King Chlodowech continually conquered the nations, he sent [pg 574] messengers to him saying: “If my brother wishes, it is also in my heart that we see each other, if God will.” Chlodowech was not opposed to this and came to him. They met on an island in the Loire, in the neighborhood of Amboise, in the territory of Tours, and spake and ate and drank together, promised mutual friendship, and parted in peace.
Ch. 36. But already many Gauls wished with all their heart to have the Franks for their masters. It therefore happened that Quintianus, bishop of Rhodez, was driven out of his city on account of this. For they said to him: “You wish that the rule of the Franks possessed this land.” And a few days after, when a dispute had arisen between him and the citizens, the rumor reached the Goths who dwelt in the city, for the citizens asserted that he wished to be subject to the rule of the Franks; and they took counsel and planned how they might kill him with the sword. When this was reported to the man of God, he rose by night, and with the most faithful of his servants left Rhodez and came to Arverne.…
Ch. 37. Thereupon King Chlodowech said to his men: “It is a great grief to me that these Arians possess a part of Gaul. Let us go forth with God's aid, conquer them, and bring this land into our power.” And since this speech pleased all, he marched with his army toward Poitiers, for there dwelt Alarich at that time.… King Chlodowech met the king of the Goths, Alarich, in the Campus Vocladensis [Vouillé or Voulon-sur-Clain] ten miles from Poitiers; and while the latter fought from afar, the former withstood in hand to hand combat. But since the Goths, in their fashion, took to flight, King Chlodowech at length with God's aid won the victory. He had on his side a son of Sigbert the Lame, whose name was Chloderich. The same Sigbert, ever since he fought with the Alemanni near Zulpich [in 496], had been wounded in the knee and limped. The king killed King Alarich and put the Goths to flight.… From this battle Amalrich, Alarich's son, fled to Spain, and by his ability obtained his father's kingdom. Chlodowech, however, sent [pg 575] his son Theuderic to Albi, Rhodez, and Arverne, and departing he subjugated those cities, from the borders of the Goths to the borders of the Burgundians, to the rule of his father. But Alarich reigned twenty-two years.
Chlodowech spent the winter in Bourdeaux, and carried away the entire treasure of Alarich from Toulouse, and he went to Angoulême. Such favor did the Lord show him that, when he looked on the walls, they fell of themselves. Thereupon when the Goths had been driven from the city he brought it under his rule. After the accomplishment of these victories he returned to Tours and dedicated many gifts to the holy Church of St. Martin.
Ch. 38. At that time he received from the Emperor Anastasius the title of consul, and in the Church of St. Martin he assumed the purple cloak and put on his head a diadem. He then mounted a horse and with his own hand scattered among the people who were present gold and silver in the greatest profusion, all the way from the door of the porch of the Church of St. Martin to the city gate. And from this day forward he was addressed as consul, or Augustus. From Tours Chlodowech went to Paris and made that the seat of his authority.[220]
(c) Third Council of Toledo, A. D. 589, Acts. Mansi, IX, 992.
This council is the most important event in the history of the Visigothic Church of Spain, marking the abandonment of Arianism by the ruling race of Spain and the formal acceptance of the doctrine of the Trinity or the Catholic faith and unity. The Suevi had accepted Catholicism more than thirty-five years before; see Synod of Braga, A. D. 563, in Hefele, § 285 (cf. also Hahn, § 176, who gives the text of the anathematisms in which, after a statement of the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity, the balance of the anathematisms are concerned with Priscillianism). Reccared, the Visigothic king (586-601), became a Catholic in 587, and held the council of 589 to effect the conversion of the nation to his new faith. For a letter of Gregory the Great on the conversion of Reccared, see PNF, ser. II, vol. XII, pt. 2. p. 87, and two from Gregory to Reccared himself (ibid., vol. XIII, pp. 16, 35). The creed, as professed at Toledo, is the first instance of the authorized use of the term "and the Son" in a creed in connection with the doctrine [pg 576] of the “procession of the Holy Spirit,” the form in which the so-called Nicene creed came to be used in the West, and the source of much dispute between the East and the West in the ninth century and ever since.
I. From the Speech of Reccared at the Opening of the Council.
I judge that you are not ignorant, most reverend priests [i.e., bishops] that I have called you into our presence for the restoration of ecclesiastical discipline; and because in time past the existence of heresy prevented throughout the entire Catholic Church the transaction of synodical business. God, who has been pleased by our action to remove the obstacle of the same heresy, warns us to set in order the ecclesiastical laws concerning church matters. Therefore let it be a matter of joy and gladness to you that the canonical order is being brought back to the lines of the times of our fathers, in the sight of God and to our glory.