1500 Years Ago: The Struggle of the Franks

The decline of our forefathers' religion was not ushered in when Charlemagne defeated the Saxons. Rather, it began much earlier. The watershed event began exactly 1500 years ago when Chlodvig, King of the Franks, defeated the Roman general Syagrius at the Battle of Soissons in 486 C. I. Before this, the Franks, a teutonic tribe, had already a territory under control from the Rhine-mouth to the river Seine, where Paris was a border-city. Southwards was Gaul (Gallia) under Roman control, with a mixed population of Celts, Romans, Mediterraneans, Orientalics and here and there some Teutonie rulers (Goths, Burgunds) etc. And it had many different religions, mainly already Catholic or Arian Christianity, but also Celtic, Roman and Teutonic pagan religions were still there. A very special fact is, that in 451 the Mongolian Huns under their famous leader Attila were defeated on the Catalaunic Fields in North-East-Franee, near Chalons-sur-Marne, by a combined cooperating army of Teutons, Celts, Romans, etc. under a Roman general.

From 457 until 481 the Merowingian, Childericlo, ruled as king of the Salic Franks in Doornik (Tournay) in present day Belgium. He fought as an ally of the Romans against West-Goths, Saxons and Alemans. In 482 he was succeeded by his 15-year old son, Ludwig (also known as Chlodevech, Chlodvig, Chlovis, later Clovis). The ambitious youth immediately tried to extend his kingdom over all the Franks. Allied with the neighbouring Frankish king of Camerich (Cambray), Ragnachar, he conquered the other Frankish kings between the Maas and Schelde Rivers and armed the unified Salic Franks for an attack on the rump Roman Empire which, in what is today northern France, was ruled adeptly by the famed military commander Syagrius.

The chronicler Fredegar did not mince words on this event: "Chlodwig captured Syagrius, took over his empire and finally killed him with the sword." With that, following the Battle of Soissons some 1500 years ago, Roman power in the western part of the empire was extinguished. The victory was the first step of Chlodwig on his way from a small Frankish king to ruler over an occidental empire which, in hindsight was a milestone on Europe's path from the ancient world to the Middle Ages and gave Western Europe a new face.

The huge Roman empire had collapsed. It had opened the Orient, allowing all kinds of people of the Mediterranean to migrate all over, granting them even Civil Rights. At the same time, solid, respectable Roman families became aware that they would need a sufficiently large number of children if they wanted to co-exist with other peoples. Sadly, within a few generations, these old families died out - parallels to our present days can clearly be seen.

This hodge-podge of people now populating the Roman Empire was incapable of offering resistance against the Germanic nations pressing from the north. Despondency and despair were widespread; for many Romans, the desire to live was shaken. Many, such as Bishop Orientus of Aquitaine, thought the end of the world was at hand: "Tired, we all await the miserable end of the world and the last days are already upon us. All Gaul smolders like a funeral pile."

The young and rising Frankish king, Chlodwig, concerned himself little with the fuss about the end of the world. "He found great pleasure in the Burgundian princess Chrodechilde and took her as his wife", reported Gregory of Tours. Chlodwig was a heathen, his wife Chrodechilde, however, a Catholic Christian. She soon tried to convert him to the "correct belief". The heathen did not consider it important to impress upon his wife the religious views of his heathen folk. In typical Christian manner she cleverly won out: at the baptism of the first-born son she "decorated the Church so well that Chlodwig, who would not be converted by the preaching, would have his faith awakened by the festivities". Her son, however, drowned while being baptized, still wearing his white clothing. That made the king very angry and he scolded the queen in no uncertain terms, saying:"If the baby had been blessed in the name of my Gods, he would still be alive." But Chrodechilde was far too caught up in Christianity to fully appreciate the lesson of this event. Later she had her second son baptized. He also got some of the baptismal water in his lungs and became very sick but soon got well again.

Chlodwig found a political infrastructure in`Gaul established by the bishops.Although he remained ever faithful to his Heathen religion, it benefited him to serve this infrastructure, since it helped to stabilize his newly acquired kingdom. Nevertheless, his relations with the bishops did colour his thinking. Christianity had a kind of business ethic. Christians could "sin" and after saying a few prayers would be forgiven. Also, they could attempt to blackmail their god by promising to do something if he would grant a certain favour. This concept, that one gets something after a given price is paid, reflects the known business spirit of the old testament patriarchs.

Ten years after his victory over Syagrius, Chlodwigs army almost suffered a total defeat at the hands of the Alemans. At that moment,Chlodwig, whose army had already begun to flee, called upon Christ and abandoned his old Gods, who had blessed him with so many victories. Gregory of Tours reported: "Chhodwwg spoke: 'Jesus Christ, Chrodechilde claims that you are the son of the living God. I implore you: Secure this victory for me over my enemies and I will then believe in you and be baptized in your name.' And as soon as he thus spoke, the Alemans turned and began to flee."

More than likely this is little more than a popular tale as we are accustomed to hear when a people tries to explain an ignoble event or declare it as harmless. It reveals the depths to which Christian writers would go, but it does not explain the change of religion for King Chlodwig. Probably Chlodwig believed that it would be politically wise for the sake of his Christian and Heathen populated kingdom, if he adopted the religion of his Roman enemies. He himself was a convinced Heathen. A year before his baptism he spoke against the spread of Christianity: "Your God is evidently a powerless being, and, what is worse, he is not related to the Gods." To a Germanic king, who traced his own lineage back to the Gods, the shabby background of the "son of man'' would make the belief in such a "God" a useless endeavour.

Chlodvig's policy, that started with peaceful co-existence, was doomed to failure, because of the fact that the Frankish victors gradually came to realize how strong the might of the church and the priests was. To expel or imprison the christian masses was simply impractical. Moreover equality, tolerance and religious freedom were guaranteed. The royal house was to set an example of how Heathens and Christians could live together in harmony. Chlodwig may have thought so, but the church had other ideas. The church had realized that with the inability to convert the Frankish farmers, they would have to convert the Frankish king who, because of his military exploits, was held in high esteem by the people. In the Roman Empire, Christians attacked it from below by inciting the people to revolt with promises of a "Redeemer". In the Germanic states, with their tradition of reverance and the lack of a proletariat, it was not possible to incite a rebellion. Thus the church's representatives chose to cleverly preach the oriental religion by taking advantage of whatever character weaknesses a Germanic prince may have had.

Chlodvig wanted to extend his empire.This was something the bishops knew. To`the south was the rich province of Burgundy and the Gothic ruled Aquitaine. The planned incursions could only succeed if the Catholic population and their bishops in those territories stood on the side of the Frankish rulers. The decisive discussions writh the king were led by Bishop Remigius. The price for the betrayal by the christians of their Burgundian and Gothic rulers would be the baptism of Chlodvig and his Franks.

Chlodvig was not stupid or silly, he was a clever and sly politician. First he tried' to keep and protect his religion by tolerance and co-existence. (Teutons and Romans were very liberal and had freedom of religion). When this was going wrong, he saw a possibility to gain more power, popularity and authority, etc., by becoming a Christian. Also by taking over the mainly used Gaulish language (later called French), which had its source in the Latin-Roman soldiers dialects. Moreover, in Italy Constantin the Great had already in 313 declared, with the "Edict of Milan" Christianity as a legal official religion. So that Chlodwig could receive the support and protection of Italy, the Pope and the Church, in his back.

This is what caused the ruler of the largest Frankish kingdom to forsake the faith of his fathers. It was the decision of cold calculation and of a man who was no longer truly free after he had given his hand to Christianity - something neither he nor most of all his subjects appreciated. The biggest difficulty was a desire of the people to keep as much of their former religion as possible: "The people, who follow me, do not want to forsake their Gods."

Chlodvig found himself in a difficult situation. The church was only too happy to help him with some kind of "miracle" which, of course, would have an even higher price. A "people's assembly" was called and the handpicked clique clapped in unison as the king agreed to be baptized. The scene was splendid! Cloaked in a white baptismal dress the king approached the baptismal font with 364 nobles. All the pomp, for which the church was known, was brought to the fore. Its effect on the christian world was pronounced. Chlodvig was now the darling of Yahweh and his saints and bishops, Christian jubilation could be heard all the way to Palestine and Rome.

The Franks who for 250 years had held a front against the Roman Empire extending from Köln to the mouth of the Rhine, suddenly had the rug pulled from under them by the betrayal of Chlodvig against the Gods. As always in such an event, the result was the spiritual decay of the formerly victorious people.

Here we should recall an exemplary heroic deed, which so well illustrates the desire to survive, a desire often exercised by the brave German soldiers of the last war (although these never made mutiny or plundered): In 276 CI a Frankish tribe on the Lower Rhine was defeated by the Roman Army and had to offer them a number of young men as soldiers. After their military tour was over, the soldiers were not allowed to return home, but had to serve as occupation troops in the Dardanelles. There they were supposed to settle down. With a passionate longing for their northern homeland, they befall Roman ships in the harbour and sailed them, Viking-style, into the horizon. They attacked Asia-Minor (Turkey), Greece, and the Sicilian town of Syracuse and also Carthago. Laden with booty, they sailed west to Gibraltar and up to the Atlantic coast through the Channel into the beloved North Sea.

Now, however, the Franks were Christians and the pan-Germanic idea, the idea which had propelled Hermann, Marbod, Civilis and, esyecially, Theoderich: the cooperation and making of unity with all related folks, was betrayed for all time.

Chlodvig did not fully comprehend the results of his baptism and his pact with the church. First of all, the Franks themselves had to feel the weight of the priests' hate for heathen things. It hurt the king very much as a portion of his nobility, angry at the betrayal, fled to the neighbouring kingdom of Ragnachar. He had also to watch how the church mercilessly exterminated the remainder of Heathendom in Chlodvig's empire.

On the other hand, the church did honour its side of the bargain: in the war against Burgundy the bishops quite openly deceived the Gothic kings of Burgundy and Aquitaine who had adopted the Arian heresy. The bishops opened the towm walls for the army of Chlodvig, pressing in from the North, thus guaranteeing his victory. As a price for the assistance, the bishops called the first Synod of Orleans where they agreed to a decisive persecution of Heathens.

With much bitterness, the king had to acknowledge, that it was very difficult to have peaceful co-existence of different peoples and religions. At age of 45, broken in spirit, he died. The way was open for the church to launch wholesale destruction of the Heathens.

Also the Arian Christianity gradually disappeared. With hindsight it is evident that Chlodvig made all the mistakes that are possible in dealing writh the alien oriental religion: He did not concern himself with order in his own family. In fact, he even took a Christian for his wife. Because he himself was tolerant, he in the beginning naively believed that the oriental religion also was tolerant. Instead of repulsing the christians, he made the mistake of working with them. He entered negotiations with them, without realizing that the Roman church always would use treachery to win over the Germanic power when they entered a pact with each other. By offering the christians the sacrifice of his betrayal of the Gods, he did not fully realize that he was passing a spiritual death sentence on his Franks, which had formed a ruling class over Gaul. All the errors and mistakes on religious affairs made by Chlodvig were repeated by other Germanic princes in succeeding centuries.

The baptism of Chlodvig was a milestone event in the history of Eurone. With this event the Germanic people living in Gaul had their loving feeling for their Gods broken for all times. The new religion acted like a spiritual barrier between the Franks and their forefathers. After the conversion, the Franks were gradually absorbed by the racial mixture of Celts, Syrians and Romans.

But everything has two sides, even christianity. At the time of Chlodvig, it was divided into two groups, Catholic and Arian. The Catholics were known as the "Ultras", while the Arians did not believe in the equality of Jesus with God the Father. This indicated that the Arians had reflected Germanic thought, the thinking of the former Heathens. Many Germanic tribes, which were converted to christianity, had joined the Arian religion, even though this new religion was bitterly fought against by the Catholics. To the Romans, the Germanic people were viewed as "cultureless barbarians". The Romans could see the power of the Germanic peoples, but could never appreciate all their other finer cultural achievements. That led to a rejection of Germanic peoples by the Romans. Because the Romans were Catholic and the christian Germanic peoples were converted to Arianism, the gulf between the Romans and the "Barbarians" widened as the Romans also condemned them for being heretics. The benefit of this was that it hindered the intermarriage of Romans and Germanics.

Because the Germanic conquerors were numerically a minority to the native populations, the newly created Germanic country, founded on the carcass of the Roman Empire, was subject to the whims of the general population. Since the people did not desire cooperation, the Germanic principalities all could eventually be destroyed - except for Chlodvig ..but at what a price!

Chlodvig's Frankish Empire remained free of religious conflicts. Because of political reasons he let himself be baptized as a Catholic rather than an Arian, also did his nobles. That was accepted by the population and the result was a mingling of the blood of the christianized Franks wlith that of the romanised population of Gaul (Gallia), a mixture of Celts, Romans and Orientalics, etc., an intermingling that led to the collapse of the old original Nordic religion. The newly established nation, now almost entirely Catholic, evolved into the supreme christian power of Europe. Its first "major common deed" was the persecution of the Celtic Druids and their religion. "They are all christians, indeed solid Catholic.Our holidays, priests and even local governmental forms are inherited by them and for a barbarian people, they appeared quite civilized. The only thing that separates them from us is their barbaric clothing and their unique language", remarked the East Roman jurist, Agathia, about the residents of Chlodvig's empire. The religious concepts of our forefathers were firm and steady. They drew inspiration from nature and reflected dynamism and growth. Life, death, birth and passing alternated with each other. In this way, Thor, God of Bar and Fertility, for examnle, had great significance among our forefathers some 2500 years ago as he did 1300 years ago among our still-surviving Heathen Germanics...and is of great importance to those of us who today honour the old religious philosophy with equal fervour as our ancestors.

Some 1500 years ago the decline of our forefathers' religion occurred among a large segment of our people. The christian, the Dark Ages began. But the wheel of history continues to turn although slowly. In Europe of today, Christianity lies buried under a mound of money and power which it had accumulated over the centuries. The accumulation of such tremendous wealth is a spiritual notion that was alien to our forefathers. Christianity, with such primitive notions, like a kind of cannibalism which consumes the body and blood of its "master", is now trying to convert the coloured peoples of the world. By the end of this century 2/3rds of all christians will be living in the coloured hemisphere. Our kind of people, however, remembers the "old" and yet very "modern" religion of our Gods, because in this age it is strongly evident that all of Nature is interconnected and should be honoured.

The religious collapse of 1500 years ago did not mean the end of the spiritual Germanic world. The Edda tells us that: "A new sun rose out of the flood, no wolf threatens creation, because Wider, Odin's stepson, had killed the Fenriswolf with his feet and avenged the father. Even Baldur returns again. A new heaven arched itself and new life sprouted in Midgard. Two human children, Lief and Liefthrasir, life and vitality, rise from a deathlike slumber. A new race of mortals is born."

Dr.Wielant Hopfner

NOTE: The Nobles and their soldiers of Chlodvig became distributed over conquered Gaul and became a small ruling class, as so to say, governors, districtcommissioners, police etc, with titles as Dukes, Counts, Marquises, Knights etc. The main part of this later called 'french' Nobility, kept its race mainly pure Nordic, even during all ages even in such a way that in the French Revolution (1789-1799), the in fact first communist revolution, the scum in the streets of Paris ca.lled every man or woman with blond hair and blue eyes, an aristocrate and that was enough to be killed. Our original religion disappeared, the germanic Frankish language disappeared and became 'french' and all Rune-writings disappeared, were destroyed as being "work of the devil". But the Frankish Empire was growing and growing, in size and in strength. In 732 Charles Martell defeated in Poitiers (Central France) the black islamitic North-Africans , called Moors (see Mauretania, Marocco) and drove them back south of the Pyrenees, where they stayed ageslong.

Todays stupid West-European governments are letting them to come in now as 'guest-workers' etc. The Franks used Christianity for their imperialism and abt. 800 Charles Allemagne had an Empire including North-Italy, parts of Spain, the Netherlands, nearly whole Gernany, Austria and Switzerland. After him this Eipire gradually collapsed.

Christianity was brought by 'fire and sword'!

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