Border incidents, looting, and punitive raids multiplied between the Alemanni and Ripuarian Franks, but in 496 Sigebert suffered a real invasion and called on Clovis for help.

Gregory of Tours records Clovis's prayer in chapter II of the History of the Franks: "O Jesus Christ, you who as Clotilde tells me are the son of the Living God, you who give succor to those who are in danger, and victory to those accorded who hope in Thee, I seek the glory of devotion with your assistance: If you give me victory over these enemies, and if I experience the miracles that the people committed to your name say they have had, I believe in you, and I will be baptized in your name.

Gregory of Tours was the first to have mentioned the element that has shaped subsequent interpretations of Tolbiac as climactic in European history: Clovis is said to have attributed his success to a vow that he had made: if he won, he would convert to the religion of the Christian God who had aided him.

A surviving letter from Avitus of Vienne, congratulating Clovis on his baptism, makes no mention of the supposed recent battlefield conversion.

[4] Historia Francorum ii.30-31 directly affirms a parallel Gregory establishes with the conversion of Constantine the Great before the Battle of Milvian Bridge: At last a war arose with the Alamanni, in which he was driven by necessity to confess what before he had of his free will denied.

And he stopped the fighting, and after encouraging his men, retired in peace and told the queen how he had had merit to win the victory by calling on the name of Christ.

[5] Then the queen asked saint Remi, bishop of Rheims, to summon Clovis secretly, urging him to introduce the king to the word of salvation.

And the bishop sent for him secretly and began to urge him to believe in the true God, maker of heaven and earth, and to cease worshipping idols, which could help neither themselves nor any one else.

But the king said: "I gladly hear you, most holy father; but there remains one thing: the people who follow me cannot endure to abandon their gods; but I shall go and speak to them according to your words."

The squares were shaded with tapestried canopies, the churches adorned with white curtains, the baptistery set in order, the aroma of incense spread, candles of fragrant odor burned brightly, and the whole shrine of the baptistery was filled with a divine fragrance: and the Lord gave such grace to those who stood by that they thought they were placed amid the odors of paradise.

In addition, it allowed Clovis to undertake conquests and crusades to Christianise his new territories or expunge Arianism, considered heretics by the clergy.

[7] The date of 506 also follows Gregory's chronology, which places the death of Clovis' father, Childeric I, around the same time as that of St. Perpetuus, who died in 491.

Between the lines, Theoderic made it clear that he would thereby lay claim to the disputed area of Rhaetia and would use the Alamanni as a means of exerting pressure against Clovis if he did not recognize his supremacy there.