Vase of Soissons

The Vase of Soissons was a semi-legendary sacred vase, presumably in precious metal or a a hardstone carving rather than a piece of pottery, though the material is not specified, that was owned by a church in the Domain of Soissons during Late Antiquity. The existence and the fate of the vase is known from Gregory of Tours (c. 538–594), a Gallo-Roman historian and bishopTexte de référence par Bruno Krusch : Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores Rerum Merovingicarum, I / 1, p. 72 . - Traduction française (très près du texte) par L. Halphen (Paris, 1963, et nombreuses rééditions), traduction (beaucoup plus fluide, mais excellente) dans : Tessier, Georges. Le Baptême de Clovis – Paris, 1964 (nouv. éd. 1996), p. 52. - La traduction de la collection Guizot , a trop mal vieilli pour être utilisable dans une discussion un peu serrée.. Because Gregory wrote about this vase more than a century after it was presumably destroyed, it is difficult (if not impossible) to separate myth and reality.

The fate of the Vase of Soissons

According to Gregory the vase was of marvelous size and beauty and was stolen (along with other holy ornaments) from a church in the pillage that followed the Battle of Soissons , a battle which the Franks led by their king Clovis I (who was at that time not yet Catholic) won.

Saint Remigius, the bishop of Reims sent messengers to Clovis,...
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