logne and other residences, he became sole
king of all the Frankish tribes. He died in 511.

Clovis was the true founder of the Frankish monarchy. He reigned over
the Salian Franks by hereditary right; over the other Frankish tribes by
reason of his kinship with their kings and by the choice of the
warriors, who raised him on the shield; and he governed the Gallo-Romans
by right of conquest. He had the Salic law drawn up, doubtless between
the years 486 and 507; and seems to have been represented in the cities
by a new functionary, the _graf_, _comes_, or count. He owed his success
in great measure to his alliance with the church. He took the property
of the church under his protection, and in 511 convoked a council at
Orleans, the canons of which have come down to us. But while protecting
the church, he maintained his authority over it. He intervened in the
nomination of bishops, and at the council of Orleans it was decided that
no one, save a son of a priest, could be ordained clerk without the
king's order or the permission of the count.

The chief source for the life of Clovis is the _Historia Francorum_
(bk. ii.) of Gregory of Tours, but it must be used with caution. Among
modern works, see W. Junghans, _Die Geschichte der frankischen Konige
Childerich und Clodovech_ (Gottingen, 1857); F. Dahn, _Urgeschichte
der germanischen und romanischen Volker_, vol. iii. (Berlin, 1883); W.
Schultze, _Deutsche Geschichte v. d. Urzeit bis zu den Karolingern_,
vol. ii. (Stuttgart, 1896); G. Kurth, _Clovis_ (2nd ed., Paris, 1901).
(C. PF.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] The story is as follows. The vase had been taken from a church by
a Frankish soldier after the battle of Soissons, and the bishop had
requested Clovis that it might be restored. But the soldier who had
taken it refused to give it up, and broke it into fragments with his
_francisca_, or battle-axe. Some time afterwards, when Clovis was
reviewing his troops, he singled out the soldier who had broken the
vase, upbraided him for the neglect of his arms, and dashed his
_francisca_ to the ground. As the man stooped to pick it up, the king
clove his skull with the words: "Thus didst thou serve the vase of
Soissons."

CLOWN (derived by Fuller, in his _Worthies_, from Lat. _colonus_, a
husbandman; but apparently connected with "clod" and with similar forms
in Teutonic and Scandinavian languages), a rustic, boorish per