 Later French legend held that a vial of oil, the Holy Ampulla, descended from Heaven to anoint Clovis I as King of the Franks following his conversion to Christianity in 493.The Visigoth Wamba is the earliest Catholic king known to have been anointed, although the practice apparently preceded him in Spain.The ceremony, which closely followed the rite described by the Old Testament., was performed in 672 by Quiricus, the archbishop of Toledo; It was apparently copied a year later when Flavius Paulus defected and joined the Septimanian rebels he had been tasked with quieting.