this passage. The name of Clovis does not appear in the consular Fasti, but in the prologue to the Lex Salia he is entitled "proconsul" (Sybel, Jahrb. d. Alt. in Rheinl. iv. p. 86). Again, the chlamys and the diadem are the insignia of the patriciate. Hence it has been assumed by many that what was conferred on Clovis was the proconsulate and the patriciate (Valesius, i. 299; Richter, pp. 40, 41; Junghans, pp. 126‒128). On the contrary, Waitz (ii. 59‒61) and others (e.g. Pétigny, ii. 533; and Bornhak, pp. 234, 235), adhering to the exact words of Gregory, maintain that it was the title of consul that was conferred on Clovis. The significance of the event itself is plain. Anastasius saw the value to the empire of the Frankish power as a counterpoise to the Ostrogothic. Clovis willingly accepted any title of honour by which he obtained a quasi-legal title in the eyes of his Roman subjects (cf. Hallam, Middle Ages, vol. i. note 3 on c. i.).
The well-known story of the vase of Soissons (Greg. ii. 27) not only shews how ill Clovis brooked the liberty and equality of the other Frankish chiefs, but reveals the most unfavourable side of his character—his deceitfulness. "Dolus," however, if on the right side, is seldom an attribute of blame with the mediaeval chroniclers. The most discreditable deeds of this character attributed to Clovis are the machinations by which he subjected the other Frankish chiefs originally his equals, and brought about the unification of the Frankish empire. Thus he suggested the murder of his father to Sigebert, king of the Ripuarian Franks, and when the deed was done, himself took possession of the kingdom (Greg. ii. 40). King Chararich was first imprisoned, and then put to death (ib. 41; cf. c. 27 clam feriri, of Syagrius), and likewise king Rachnachar of Cambrai and his two brothers (ib. 42).
Early in 511 Clovis summoned a council of 32 bishops to Orleans (see Decrees ap. Sirmondi, Conc. Gall. i. 177). Before the close of the year he died at the age of 45, and was buried at Paris in the church of the Apostles (afterwards St. Geneviève's) which he and Clotilda had built. He left four sons, Theodoric the eldest (illegitimate); Clodomir, Childebert, and Lothar, by Clotilda.
The only first-class original authority for the reign of Clovis is Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum, ii. 27‒43, contained in the collections of Duchesne, vol. i.; and Bouquet, Recueil des Historiens, etc., vol. ii. (in the 3rd vol. of Bouquet are extracts from the lives of the saints relating to this reign. On the authority of Gregory see Löbell, Gregor von Tours and seine Zeit, pp. 320 ff.; Monod, in the Bibliothèque de l’Ecole des hautes Etudes, part viii. (1872); and Wattenbach, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter (3rd ed. 1873), vol. i. pp. 76‒83. The best monograph on the subject of Clovis is Junghans, Geschichte der Frankischen Könige Childerich and Chlodovech (Göttingen, 1857). Cf. also G. Kurth, Hist. Poét. des Méroving. (Paris 1893); Prou, La Gaule Méroving. On the constitution of the kingdom of Clovis and its constitutional history, see Waitz, Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte, ii. pp. 51‒71; and G. Richter, Annalen d. Deutschen Geschichte im Mittelalter, i. pp. 27‒32 (1873).
Coelestinus, commonly called Celestine, 42nd bp. of Rome, succeeded Boniface I. on Sunday, Sept. 10, 422, without any delay or contest. He was of Roman birth, the son of Priscus. In early life he had visited Milan during the episcopate of St. Ambrose. While deacon to Innocent, he had written a cordial letter to St. Augustine, who returned a suitable reply (Aug. Ep. 192). Soon after his accession to the see of Rome, Celestine received a letter from Augustine (Ep. 209) on the case of one Antony, bp. of Fussala, 40 miles from Hippo, who had gravely misconducted himself in his office, been compelled by a synod of bishops to leave Fussala, and had afterwards applied to Boniface for restoration. Augustine entreated Celestine not to impose on the people of Fussala, by aid of secular power, a prelate so unworthy. After this, the African bishops resolved no longer to allow appeals to Rome from their country; and when Celestine, apparently in 426, wrote to them in behalf of the priest Apiarius, a general council of Africa sent a reply begging Celestine to observe the Nicene rule (can. 5) and not receive to communion those excommunicated by them. The African church thus claimed its right to decide its own causes. They pointed out that the Nicene council had ordered that all causes should be decided where they arose; nor could anyone "believe that our God will inspire a single individual with justice, and deny it to a large number of bishops sitting in council." That persons should be sent from Rome to decide causes in Africa had been "ordained by no synod"; and they had proved to Celestine's predecessor, by authentic copies of Nicene canons, that such a claim was wholly baseless (Cod. Can. Eccl. Afric. ad. fin.; Galland, Bibl. Patr. ix. 289).
Celestine was zealous against Pelagianism, and constrained Coelestius, the companion of Pelagius, to leave Italy.
The affairs of eastern Illyricum occupied the attention of Celestine, as of his predecessors. This civil "diocese" was attached, politically, to the eastern empire; but the see of Rome had kept a hold over its churches by committing a sort of vicarial authority to the see of Thessalonica, which was its head. Thus Damasus is said to have made the bps. of Thessalonica his representatives. See Fleury, b. xviii. c. 22. Le Quien, Or. Christ. ii. 9, thinks this an over-statement; but at any rate, he observes, Siricius (who succeeded Damasus), and afterwards Innocent, gave a delegated authority to Anysius of Thessalonica. In A.D. 421 a collision took place between the Roman bp. Boniface and Theodosius II., who "claimed the power of transferring to the bp. of Constantinople that superintendence over the bps. of Illyricum" which Rome had entrusted to Thessalonica (Fleury, xxiv. 31). But Theodosius appears to have yielded the point; and Celestine having already "interposed" in behalf of an Illyrian bishop named Felix, who was "in peril of being crushed by factious accusers," afterwards wrote (Cel. Ep. 3) to Perigenes of Corinth and eight other prelates of eastern Illyricum, asserting his right, as successor of St. Peter, to a general oversight ("necessitatem de omnibus tractandi"), and directing his
