Christian King Clovis not Catholic?

Keenir

Banned
What if Clovis (King of the Franks) adopted Christianity, as he did in OTL...but he does not adopt the Catholic faith.

Would this change much?
 
You think the Greeks would get to him? Or that he would be a Heretic instead? Perhaps an Arian like the Vandals and Visigoths?
 
I think this could have an enormous impact. France was a key protector of the Papacy, if it were Arianist instead the movement could have survived persecution.
 

Philip

Donor
What if Clovis (King of the Franks) adopted Christianity, as he did in OTL...but he does not adopt the Catholic faith.

Would this change much?

If the Franks remain pagan, it could send them the way of the Visigoths. If they convert in the next generation, perhaps not much changes. I don't think it Catholicism was that instrumental in the Franks' rise -- other than a thinly veiled excuse for war.

Arianism makes perhaps the most sense.

Why? Because other Germanics were Arian?

I really see no reason he would choose Arianism -- what does he gain by it? Nicene Christianity or remaining pagan at least have some political benefit.

You think the Greeks would get to him?

The Greeks were Catholic too at the time.
 
If the Franks remain pagan, it could send them the way of the Visigoths. If they convert in the next generation, perhaps not much changes. I don't think it Catholicism was that instrumental in the Franks' rise -- other than a thinly veiled excuse for war.
Well, that and it made the conquered Roman christians more willing to accept his rule. If they refuse to accept the rule of a pagan, then the Frankish state might be less stable and hence more vulnerable.
 
Some historians question whether the tale of his baptism doesn't hide a longer period in which he vacillated between orthodoxy and Arianism. But if he went that way, it is still likely that a later generation will go Catholic. It worked that way with other dynasties, after all.

Though, of course, an Arian Frankish kingdom as protector of the true faith could be interesting. Extremely unlikely IMO, but interesting...
 
Top