g to, which appears in
"clay," "cleave" and other words. The original meaning would be either
that which clings to the body, or that which is pressed or "felted"
together. The regular plural of "cloth" was "clothes," which is now
confined in meaning to articles of clothing, garments, in which sense
the singular "cloth" is not now used. For that word, in its modern sense
of material, the plural "cloths" is used. This form dates from the
beginning of the 17th century, but the distinction in meaning between
"cloths" and "clothes" is a 19th-century one.

CLOTHIER, a manufacturer of cloth, or a dealer who sells either the
cloth or made-up clothing. In the United States the word formerly
applied only to those who dressed or fulled cloth during the process of
manufacture, but now it is used in the general sense, as above.

CLOTILDA, SAINT (d. 544), daughter of the Burgundian king Chilperic, and
wife of Clovis, king of the Franks. On the death of Gundioc, king of the
Burgundians, in 473, his sons Gundobald, Godegesil and Chilperic divided
his heritage between them; Chilperic apparently reigning at Lyons,
Gundobald at Vienne and Godegesil at Geneva. According to Gregory of
Tours, Chilperic was slain by Gundobald, his wife drowned, and of his
two daughters, Chrona took the veil and Clotilda was exiled. This
account, however, seems to have been a later invention. At Lyons an
epitaph has been discovered of a Burgundian queen, who died in 506, and
was most probably the mother of Clotilda. Clotilda was brought up in the
orthodox faith. Her uncle Gundobald was asked for her hand in marriage
by the Frankish king Clovis, who had just conquered northern Gaul, and
the marriage was celebrated about 493. On this event many romantic
stories, all more or less embroidered, are to be found in the works of
Gregory of Tours and the chronicler Fredegarius, and in the _Liber
historiae Francorum_. Clotilda did not rest until her husband had
abjured paganism and embraced the orthodox Christian faith (496). With
him she built at Paris the church of the Holy Apostles, afterwards known
as Ste Genevieve. After the death of Clovis in 511 she retired to the
abbey of St Martin at Tours. In 523 she incited her sons against her
uncle Gundobald and provoked the Burgundian war. In the following year
she tried in vain to protect the rights of her grandsons, the children
of Clodomer, against the claims of her sons Childebert I. and Clotaire
I., and w