Note 75 — SAINTE-GENEVIÈVE (LE PANTHÉON).
Reading edition
The finding of the statue of Clovis was the reward of well-doing. The Cardinal de la Rochefoucault, desiring to honour the old king and the founder of the abbey, set up a fine marble image in the place of the old stone one "mangé et difformé d'antiquité" This the Revolution destroyed; but the old stone statue, which was shunted to the crypt, was found later on, and sent to S. Denis—an illustration of the exaltation of the humble; in this case, a clumsy gentleman with long hair, with his feet upon a feeble-looking lion. Although not contemporary with Clovis, the work and design prove it to be not later than the 12th century. A Latin epitaph once accompanied the statue in its old resting-place:
HIC EST illustrissimus rex Ludovicus qui et Clodoveus ante baptismum est dictus Francorum rex quintus sed verus christianus qui ab Anastasio imperatore consul et Augustus est creatus Hunc sanctus Remigius baptisavit et in baptismate ejus angelus ampullam sacri chrismatis detulit Vi Aquitania arianos expulit et totam illam terram usque ad montes Pirenaeos subjugavit Huic per Viennam fluvium cervus miræ magnitudinis viam ostendit Post quem rex ac milites vadum transierunt et in ejus adventu muri Angolismae civitatis corruerunt Alamanniam Tornigiam et Burgundiam tributarias fecit et terram adjacentem transivit Parisiis sedem regni constituit ecclesiam istam fundavit in honore apostolorum Petri et Pauli monitis sanctissimae et non satis commendandae Clotildis uxoris suae et beatae Genovefae quam sanctus Remigius dedicavit in qua post laudabilia opera Rex sepultus est A quatuor filiis suis regibus Theodorico Clodomiro Childeberto et Clotario Anno Domini V. XIII regni sui XXX.