‘_Enfin_,’ concludes Carlo Degrassalio of Carcassonne, ‘_ces trois fleurs-de-lis d’or sont sur un écu d’azur, parceque, de même que Dieu, le roi des rois, la puissance des puissances, a en quelque sorte pour écu le bleu firmament, resplendissant d’astres d’or; de même le roi de France, fils aîné de l’Eglise, porte pour la plus grande gloire du Christ, l’écu le plus noble, écu sur lequel les lis d’or brillent comme les astres sur un ciel serein._’[173] Tradition says that the first appearance of the fleur-de-lys upon this earth was at the baptism of King Clovis. King Clovis was married to Clotilda, a Christian Princess of Burgundy, and her prayers having obtained the victory for France at a critical moment, he in gratitude became a Christian also. On the occasion of his baptism by Saint Rémi an angel presented him with three heavenly lilies. In the Bedford Missal,[174] presented to Henry VI when he was crowned King of France, the legend is illustrated in miniature. The angel is shown receiving the three lilies in Heaven. He descends to earth and carries them to Saint Rémi, who reverently receives them in a napkin and gives them to Queen Clotilda. Lower down in the picture Clotilda presents the emblazoned shield bearing the three fleurs-de-lys to her husband. This legend might seem disproved by the decoration of fleurs-de-lys, which was already upon the great brazen bowl now in the Louvre, known as the Font of King Clovis, had not recent archæological investigation discovered the origin of the bowl to be neither Frankish nor Christian, and the fleurs-de-lys prove merely that the vessel was designed for royal use. The confusion of the fleur-de-lys with the lily of Heaven and the flower of the Virgin gave it a semi-religious value, which excused its intrusion into the decoration of churches and church furniture. Sometimes it was used entirely heraldically, as the indication of the giver of a gift. It is used heraldically upon the silver shrine of Saint Simeon at Zara, the gift of Louis the Great and his wife, Elizabeth, where the fleur-de-lys of the coat of arms is repeated throughout the entire decoration. Heraldically, yet with some sense of the right placing of the flower which emblemizes purity, were the fleurs-de-lys embroidered with the word _amor_ upon the tiny shoes of the _Virgin de los Reyes_. The figure, which is still in Seville Cathedral, was a gift from Saint Louis of France to his brother saint, Ferdinand of Spain.