iron taps were affixed. There were open-toed and open-backed shoes, and in the case of
heavier shoes or poor weather socks were worn.
Certain specialized garments were reserved for liturgical use. The tallit, the four-
cornered prayer-wrap, with the four requisite ziziot and large enough to cover “one’s head
and most of his body,” was worn by the precentor at the synagogue for nearly every
liturgical occasion and by all married men at morning prayers in synagogue or the home.
In some locales, it was worn by boys from the age of religious majority (age thirteen—
called Bar Mizvah) and in others by boys even below that age. Each morning, tefillin,
leather boxes containing verses from the Pentateuch (Exodus 13:1–6; Deuteronomy 6:4,
11:13–21) written by a Torah scribe, were bound by all males above the age of thirteen to
the upper arm by leather thongs, and around the forehead, for morning prayers, in
accordance with the rabbinic interpretation of Deuteronomy 6:8. Finally, there was the
special robe (sargenes or kittel), symbolic of humility and purity, which both echoed
components of the garments of the priests in the Jerusalem Temple and served as one of
the actual burial garments. This was worn by men at their weddings and thereafter on the
High Holi-days, at Passover, and for burial. There was no distinctive clerical dress,
although regional custom might dictate variations on the basic themes.
Marc M.Epstein
[See also: CLOTHING, COSTUME, AND FASHION; JEWS; MANUSCRIPTS,
HEBREW ILLUMINATED]
Metzger, Therese and Mendel. Jewish Life in the Middle Ages. New York: Alpine, 1982.
Rubens, Alfred. A History of Jewish Costume. New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1967.
Shereshevsky, Esra. Rashi, the Man and His World. New York: Sepher Hermon, 1982.
CLOVIS I
(ca. 466–511). The most important of the Merovingian kings, Clovis I was the unifier of
the Franks, the conqueror of most of Gaul, and the real founder of the kingdom of the
Franks under Merovingian rule. He was also the first Christian king of the Franks. He is
the possessor of a reputation for astonishing ruthlessness, brutality, and
unscrupulousness.
Upon the death of his father, Childeric I, in 482, Clovis succeeded as chieftain over
the group of Salian Franks settled around Tournai, in modern Belgium. He began his
conquests in 486 by defeating Syagrius, an independent ruler over northern Gaul. This
victory made Clovis the master of Gaul north of the Loire, the later Neustria, and he
transferred his capital to Soissons, accompanied by his Frankish entourage.
The chronology and sequence of events of most of the rest of Clovis’s reign are
unclear and highly debated. Essentially, he became the sole Frankish king by eliminating
the kings of other bands of Salian Franks through attack, treachery, and deceit. By similar
means, he also rose to mastery over the Ripuarian, or Rhineland, Franks. Through a series
of bitter and closely contested battles, he brought the Alemanni and Thuringians under
his authority as well.
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