CLOTAIRE II°

CLOTAIRE II° (Clothar, Lothaire, Lothar), ruler of the Merovingian kingdom of the Franks from 584 to 629. His rule, fully established in 613, was moderately successful, and was free from the civil wars which had marred the reigns of his father and uncles. Shortly after becoming confirmed as king, he called a Church council in Paris (Oct. 18, 614), the fifth to meet there, to obtain the support of the Church. Clotaire seems to have employed Jews as military and civilian officials. The practice was sufficiently commonplace for the council at Paris to decree that Jews were henceforth forbidden to exercise military or civil jurisdiction over Christians. It did not, however, interfere with the internal affairs of the Jewish community. The Church seemed to have had little faith that Clotaire would, in fact, ban these important officials from royal service, as is evidenced by the further decree that a Jew who retained a position which exercised power over Christians should forthwith be baptized with his family. Though Clotaire ratified the acts of the council, there is no evidence that he enforced them. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: K.J. Hefele and H. Leclercq, Histoire des conciles, 3 (1909); S. Katz, The Jews in the Visigothic and Frankish   Kingdoms of Spain and Gaul (1937); J.M. Wallace-Hadrill, The Long-Haired Kings (1962). (Bernard Bachrach)