 CHAPTER XXXV. CONVERSION OF THE BARBARIANS TO CHRISTIANITY The indissoluble connection of civil and ecclesiastical affairs has compelled and encouraged me to relate the progress, the persecutions, the establishment, the divisions, the final triumph, and the gradual corruption of Christianity. I have purposely delayed the consideration of the two religious events, interesting in the study of human nature, and important in the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. First, the institution of the monastic life, and second, the conversion of the northern barbarians. Prosperity and peace introduced the distinction of the vulgar and the ascetic Christians. The loose and imperfect practice of religion satisfied the conscience of the multitude. The prince or magistrate, the soldier or merchant reconciled their fervent zeal and implicit faith with the exercise of their profession, the pursuit of their interest, and the indulgence of their passion. But the ascetics, who obeyed and abused the rigid precepts of the gospel, were inspired by the savage enthusiasm which represents man as a criminal, and God as a tyrant. They seriously renounced the business and the pleasures of the age, abjured the use of wine, flesh, and marriage, chastised their body, mortified their affections, and embraced a life of misery as the price of eternal happiness. In the reign of Constantine, the ascetics fled from a profane and degenerate world to perpetual solitude or religious society. Like the first Christians of Jerusalem, they resigned the use or property of their temporal possessions, established regular communities of the same sex, and a similar disposition, and assumed the name of hermits, monks, and anchorites, expressive of their lonely retreat in a natural or artificial desert. They soon acquired the respect of the world which they despised, and the loudest applause was bestowed on this divine philosophy which surpassed, without the aid of science or reason, the laborious virtues of the Grecian schools. The monks might indeed contend with the Stoics in contempt of fortune, pain, and death. The Pythagorean silence and submission were revived in their servile discipline, and they disdained, as firmly as the cynics themselves, all the forms and decencies of civil society. But the votaries of this divine philosophy aspired to imitate a purer and more perfect model. They trod in the footsteps of the prophets, who had retired to the desert, and they restored the devout and contemplative life, which had been instituted by the Asenians in Palestine and Egypt. The philosophic eye of Pliny had surveyed with astonishment a solitary people, who dwelt among the palm trees near the Dead Sea, who subsisted without money, who were propagated without women, and who derived from the disgust and repentance of mankind a perpetual supply of voluntary associates. Egypt, the fruitful parent of superstition, afforded the first example of monastic life. Antony, an illiterate youth of the lower parts of Thebes, distributed his patrimony, deserted his family and native home, and executed his monastic penance with original and intrepid fanaticism. After a long and painful novitiate among the tombs and in a ruined tower, he boldly advanced into the desert three days' journey to the eastward of the Nile, discovered a lonely spot which possessed the advantages of shade and water, and fixed his last residence on Mount Colson, near the Red Sea, where an ancient monastery still preserves the name and memory of the saint. The curious devotion of the Christians pursued him to the desert, and when he was obliged to appear at Alexandria, in the face of mankind he supported his fame with discretion and dignity. He enjoyed the friendship of Athanasius, whose doctrine he approved, and the Egyptian peasant respectfully declined a respectful invitation from the Emperor Constantine. The venerable patriarch, for Antony attained the age of 105 years, beheld the numerous progeny which had been formed by his example and his lessons. The prolific colonies of monks multiplied with rapid increase on the sands of Libya, upon the rocks of Thebes, and in the cities of the Nile. To the south of Alexandria, the mountain and adjacent desert of Nitria were peopled by five thousand anchorates, and the traveller may still investigate the ruin of fifty monasteries which were planted in that barren soil by the disciples of Antony. In the upper Thebes, the vacant island of Taban was occupied by Becomius, and fourteen hundred of his brethren. That holy abbot successively founded nine monasteries of men and one of women, and the festival of Easter sometimes collected fifty thousand religious persons who followed his angelic rule of discipline. The stately and populous city of Oxarencus, the seat of Christian orthodoxy, had devoted the temples, the public edifices, and even the ramparts to pious and charitable uses, and the bishop, who might preach in twelve churches, computed ten thousand females and twenty thousand males of the monastic profession. The Egyptians, who gloried in this marvelous revolution, were disposed to hope and to believe that the number of monks was equal to the remainder of the people, and posterity might repeat the saying, which had been formerly applied to the sacred animals of the same country, that in Egypt it was less difficult to find a god than a man. Athanasius introduced into Rome the knowledge and practice of the monastic life, and a school of this new philosophy was opened by the disciples of Antony, who accompanied their primate to the holy threshold of the Vatican. The strange and savage appearance of these Egyptians excited at first horror and contempt, and at length applause and zealous imitation. The senators, and more especially the matrons, transformed their palaces and villas into religious houses, and the narrow institution of six vestals was eclipsed by the frequent monasteries, which were seated on the ruins of ancient temples and in the midst of the Roman Forum. Enflamed by the example of Antony, a Syrian youth whose name was Hilarion, fixed his dreary abode on a sandy beach, between the sea and Amoris, about seven miles from Gaza. The austere penance in which he persisted forty-eight years diffused a similar enthusiasm, and the holy man was followed by a train of two or three thousand anchorites, whenever he visited the innumerable monasteries of Palestine. The fame of Basil is immortal in the monastic history of the East. With a mind that had tasted the learning and eloquence of Athens, with an ambition scarcely to be satisfied with the archbishopric of Caesarea, Basil retired to a savage solitude in Pontus, and dained for a while to give laws to the spiritual colonies which he profusely scattered along the coast of the Black Sea. In the West, Martin of Tours, a soldier, a hermit, a bishop, and a saint established the monasteries of Gaul. Two thousand of his disciples followed him to the grave, and his eloquent historian challenges the desert of Thebes to produce, in a more favorable climate, a champion of equal virtue. The progress of the monks was not less rapid or universal than that of Christianity itself. Every province, and at last every city of the Empire, was filled with their increasing multitudes, and the bleak and barren isles from Lorenz to Leperie, that rose out of the Tuscan Sea, were chosen by the anchorites for the place of their voluntary exile. An easy and perpetual intercourse by sea and land connected the provinces of the Roman world, and the life of Hilarion displays the facility with which an indigent hermit of Palestine might traverse Egypt, embark for Sicily, escape to Epirus, and finally settle in the island of Cyprus. The Latin Christians embraced the religious institutions of Rome. The pilgrims who visited Jerusalem eagerly copied in the most distant climates of the earth the faithful model of the monastic life. The disciples of Antony spread themselves beyond the tropic over the Christian Empire of Ethiopia. The monastery of Bancor in Flintshire, which contained above two thousand brethren, dispersed a numerous colony among the barbarians of Ireland, and Iona, one of the Hebrides, which was planted by the Irish monks, diffused over the northern regions a doubtful ray of science and superstition. These unhappy exiles from social life were impelled by the dark and implacable genius of superstition. Their mutual resolution was supported by the example of millions of either sects of every age and of every rank, and each proselyte who entered the gates of a monastery was persuaded that he trod the steep and thorny path of eternal happiness. But the operation of these religious motives was variously determined by the temper and situation of mankind. Reason might subdue or passion suspend their influence, but they acted most forcibly on the infirm minds of children and females. They were strengthened by secret remorse or accidental misfortune, and they might derive some aid from the temporal considerations of vanity or interest. It was naturally supposed that the pious and humble monks, who had renounced the world to accomplish the work of their salvation, were the best qualified for the spiritual government of the Christians. The reluctant hermit was torn from his cell, and seated amidst the acclamations of the people on the Episcopal throne, the monasteries of Egypt, Gaul, and the East supplied a regular succession of saints and bishops, and ambitions soon discovered the secret road which led to the possession of wealth and honor. The popular monks, whose reputation was connected with the fame and success of the order, assiduously labored to multiply the number of their fellow captives. They insinuated themselves into noble and opulent families, and the specious arts of flattery and seduction were employed to secure those proselytes who might bestow wealth or dignity on the monastic profession. The indignant father bewailed the loss, perhaps, of an only son. The credulous mate was betrayed by vanity to violate the laws of nature, and the matron aspired to imaginary perfection by renouncing the virtues of domestic life. Paula yielded to the persuasive eloquence of Jerome, and the profane title of Mother and Law of God tempted that illustrious widow to consecrate the virginity of her daughter Eustochium. By the advice and in the company of her spiritual guide, Paula abandoned Rome and her infant son, retired to the holy village of Bethlehem, founded a hospital in four monasteries and acquired by her alms and penance an eminent and conspicuous station in the Catholic Church. Such rare and illustrious penitence were celebrated as the glory and example of their age, but the monasteries were filled by a crowd of obscure and abject plebeians who gained in the cloister much more than they had sacrificed in the world. Peasant slaves and mechanics might escape from poverty and contempt to a safe and honourable profession, whose apparent hardships are mitigated by custom, by popular applause, and by the secret relaxation of discipline. The subjects of Rome whose persons and fortunes were made responsible for unequal and exorbitant tributes retired from the oppression of the imperial government, and the pusillanimous youth preferred the penance of a monastic to the dangers of a military life. The affrighted provincials of every rank who fled before barbarians found shelter and subsistence. Whole legions were buried in these religious sanctuaries, and the same cause which relieved the distress of individuals impaired the strength and fortitude of the empire. The monastic profession of the ancients was an act of voluntary devotion. The inconstant fanatic was threatened with the eternal vengeance of the God whom he deserted, but the doors of the monastery were still open for repentance. Those monks whose conscience was fortified by reason or passion were at liberty to resume the character of men and citizens, and even the spouses of Christ might accept the legal embraces of an earthly lover. The examples of scandal and the progress of superstitions suggested the propriety of more forcible restraints. After a sufficient trial the fidelity of the novice was secured by a solemn and perpetual vow, and his irrevocable engagement was ratified by the laws of church and state. A guilty fugitive was pursued, arrested, and restored to his perpetual prison, and the interposition of the magistrate oppressed the freedom and the merit which had alleviated in some degree the abject slavery of the monastic discipline. The actions of a monk, his words and even his thoughts were determined by an inflexible rule or a capricious superior. The slightest offenses were corrected by disgrace or confinement, extraordinary fasts or bloody flagellation, and disobedience, murmur or delay were ranked in the catalog of the most heinous sins. Blind submission to the commands of the abbot, however absurd or criminal they might seem, was the ruling principle, the first virtue of the Egyptian monks, and their patience was frequently exercised by the most extravagant trials. They were directed to remove an enormous walk, assiduously to water a barren staff that was planted in the ground till, at the end of three years it should vegetate and blossom like a tree, to walk into a fiery furnace, or to cast their infant into a deep pond, and several saints or madmen have been immortalized in monastic story by their thoughtless and fearless obedience. The freedom of the mind, the source of every generous and rational sentiment, was destroyed by the habits of credulity and submission, and the monk, contracting the vices of a slave, devoutly followed the faith and passion of his ecclesiastical tyrant. The peace of the Eastern Church was invaded by a swarm of fanatics, incapable of fear or reason or humanity, and the imperial troops acknowledged without shame that they were much less apprehensive of an encounter with the fiercest barbarians. Superstition has often framed and consecrated the fantastic garments of the monks, but their apparent singularity sometimes proceeds from their uniform attachment to a simple primitive model, which the revolutions of fashion have made ridiculous in the eyes of mankind. The father of the Benedictines expressly disclaims all idea of choice and merit, and soberly exhorts his disciples to adopt the coarse and convenient dress of the countries which they may inhabit. The monastic habits of the ancients varied with the climate and their mode of life, and they assumed with the same indifference the sheepskin of the Egyptian peasants or the cloak of Grecian philosophers. They allowed themselves the use of linen in Egypt, where it was a cheap and domestic manufacture, but in the West they rejected such as an expensive article of foreign luxury. It was the practice of the monks either to cut or shave their hair. They wrapped their heads in a cowl to escape the sight of profane objects. Their legs and feet were naked, except in extreme cold of winter, and their slow and feeble steps were supported by a long staff. The aspect of a genuine anchorage was horrid and disgusting. Every sensation that is offensive to man was thought acceptable to God. And the angelic rule of Tobin condemned the salutary custom of bathing the limbs in water and of anointing them with oil. The austere monks slept on the ground, on a hard mat, or a rough blanket, and the same bundle of palm leaves served them as a seat in the day and a pillow in the night. Their original cells were low, narrow huts built of the slightest materials which formed, by the regular distribution of the streets, a large and populous village, enclosing within the common wall a church, a hospital, perhaps a library, some necessary offices, a garden, and a fountain or reservoir of fresh water. Thirty or forty brethren composed a family of separate discipline and diet, and the great monasteries of Egypt consisted of thirty or forty families. End of Chapter 37, Part 1. Chapter 37, Part 2 of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume 3. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Kirsten Ferreri. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon. Volume 3, Chapter 37. Conversion of the Barbarians to Christianity. Part 2. Pleasure and guilt are synonymous terms in the language of the monks, and they discovered by experience that rigid fasts and abstemious diet are the most effectual preservatives against the impure desires of the flesh. The rules of abstinence which they imposed or practiced were not uniform or perpetual. The cheerful festival of the Pentecost was balanced by the extraordinary mortification of Lent. The fervor of new monasteries was insensibly relaxed, and the voracious appetite of the Gauls could not imitate the patient and temperate virtue of the Egyptians. The disciples of Antony and Pecomius were satisfied with their daily pittance, of twelve ounces of bread or rather biscuit, which they divided into two frugal pasts of the afternoon and of the evening. It was esteemed a merit, and almost a duty to abstain from the boiled vegetables which were provided for the refectory. But the extraordinary bounty of the abbot sometimes indulged them with the luxury of cheese, fruit, salad, and the small dried fish of the Nile. A more ample latitude of sea and river fish was gradually allowed or assumed, but the use of flesh was long confined to the sick, or travellers, and when it gradually prevailed in the less rigid monasteries of Europe, a singular distinction was introduced, as if birds, whether wild or domestic, had been less profane than the grosser animals of the field. Water was the pure and innocent beverage of the primitive monks, and the founder of the Benedictine's regrets the daily portion of half a pint of wine which had been extorted from him by the intemperance of the age. Such an allowance might easily be supplied by the vineyards of Italy, and his victorious disciples, who passed the Alps, the Rhine, and the Baltic, required in place of wine, an adequate compensation of strong beer or cider. The candidate who aspired to the virtue of evangelical poverty, abjured at his first entrance into a regular community the idea and even the name of all separate or exclusive possessions. The brethren were supported by their manual labor, and the duty of labor was strenuously recommended as a penance, as an exercise, and as the most laudable means of securing their daily subsistence. The garden and fields, which the industry of the monks had often rescued from the forest or the morris, were diligently cultivated by their hands. They performed without reluctance the menial offices of slaves and domestics, and the several trades that were necessary to provide their habits, their utensils, and their lodging were exercised within the precincts of the great monasteries. The monastic studies have tended for the most part to darken rather than to dispel the cloud of superstition. Yet the curiosity or zeal of some learned solitaries has cultivated the ecclesiastical and even the profane sciences, and posterity must gratefully acknowledge that the monuments of Greek and Roman literature have been preserved and multiplied by their indefatigable pens. The more humble industry of the monks, especially in Egypt, was contented with the silent, sedentary occupation of making wooden sandals, or of twisting leaves of the palm tree into mats and blankets. The superfluous stock which was not consumed in domestic use, supplied by trade the wants of the community, the boats of Taban, and the other monasteries of the base, descended the Nile as far as Alexandria, and in a Christian market, the sanctity of the workmen might enhance the intrinsic value of the work. But the necessity of manual labor was insensibly superseded. The novice was tempted to bestow his fortune on the saints in whose society he was resolved to spend the remainder of his life, and the pernicious indulgence of the laws permitted him to receive for their use any future accessions of legacy or inheritance. Melania contributed her plate, three hundred pounds weight of silver, and Paula contracted an immense debt for the relief of their favorite monks, who kindly imparted the merits of their prayers and penance to a rich and liberal sinner. Time continually increased, and accidents could seldom diminish the estates of the popular monasteries which spread over the adjacent country and cities, and in the first century of their institution the Infidel Zosimus had maliciously observed that for the benefit of the poor the Christian monks had reduced a great part of mankind to a state of beggary. As long as they maintained their original fervor, they approved themselves, however, the faithful and benevolent stewards of the charity which was entrusted to their care. But their discipline was corrupted by prosperity. They gradually assumed the pride of wealth, and at last indulged the luxury of expense. Their public luxury might be excused by the magnificence of religious worship, and the decent motive of erecting durable habitations for an immortal society. But every age of the Church has accused the licentiousness of the degenerate monks, who no longer remembered the object of their institution, embraced the vain and sensual pleasures of the world which they had renounced, and scandalously abused the riches which had been acquired by the austere virtues of their founders. Their natural dissent, from such painful and dangerous virtue to the common vices of humanity, will not perhaps excite much grief or indignation in the mind of a philosopher. The lives of the primitive monks were consumed in penance and solitude, undisturbed by the various occupations which filled the time, and exercised the faculties of reasonable active and social beings. Whenever they were permitted to step beyond the precincts of the monastery, two jealous companions were the mutual guards and spies of each other's actions, and after their return they were condemned to forget, or at least to suppress, whatever they had seen and heard in the world. Strangers who professed the orthodox faith were hospitably entertained in a separate apartment, but their dangerous conversation was restricted to some chosen elders of approved discretion and fidelity. Except in their presence the monastic slave might not receive the visits of his friends or kindred, and it was deemed highly meritorious if he afflicted a tender sister or an agent parent by the obstinate refusal of a word or look. The monks themselves passed their lives without personal attachments, among a crowd which had been formed by accident, and was detained in the same prison by force or prejudice. Recluse fanatics have few ideas or sentiments to communicate. A special license of the abbot regulated the time and duration of their familiar visits, and that their silent meals they were enveloped in their cowls, inaccessible and almost invisible to each other. Study is the resource of solitude, but education had not prepared and qualified for any liberal studies the mechanics and peasants who filled the monastic communities. They might work, but the vanity of spiritual perfection was tempted to disdain the exercise of manual labour, and the industry must be faint and languid which is not excited by the sense of personal interest. According to their faith and zeal, they might employ the day which they passed in their cells either in vocal or mental prayer. They assembled in the evening and they were awakened in the night for the public worship of the monastery. The precise moment was determined by the stars, which are seldom clouded in the serene sky of Egypt, and a rustic horn or trumpet, the signal of devotion twice interrupted the vast silence of the desert. Even sleep, the last refuge of the unhappy, was rigorously measured. The vacant hours of the monk heavily rolled along without business or pleasure, and before the close of each day he had repeatedly accused the tedious progress of the sun. In this comfortless state superstitions still pursued and tormented her wretched votaries. The repose which they had sought in the cloister was disturbed by atardy repentance, profane doubts, and guilty desires, and while they considered each natural impulse as an unpardonable sin, they perpetually trembled on the edge of a flaming and bottomless abyss. From the painful struggles of disease and despair, these unhappy victims were sometimes relieved by madness or death, and in the sixth century a hospital was founded at Jerusalem for a small portion of the austere penitents who were deprived of their senses. Their visions, before they attained this extreme and acknowledged term of frenzy, have afforded ample materials of supernatural history. It was their firm persuasion that the air which they breathed was peopled with invisible enemies, with innumerable demons who watched every occasion and assumed every form to terrify, and above all to tempt, their unguarded virtue. The imagination and even the senses were deceived by the illusions of distempered fanaticism, and the hermit, whose midnight prayer was oppressed by involuntary slumber, might easily confound the phantoms of horror or delight which had occupied his sleeping and his waking dreams. The monks were divided into two classes, the Knobites, who lived under a common and regular discipline, and the Anacorites, who indulged their unsocial, independent fanaticism. The most devout or the most ambitious of the spiritual brethren renounced the convent, as they had renounced the world. The fervent monasteries of Egypt, Palestine, and Syria were surrounded by Allora, a distinct circle of solitary cells, and the extravagant penance of hermits was stimulated by applause and emulation. They sunk under the painful weight of crosses and chains, and their emaciated limbs were confined by collars, bracelets, gauntlets, and greaves of massy and rigid iron. All superfluous encumbrance of dress they contemptuously cast away, and some savage saints of both sexes have been admired whose naked bodies were only covered by their long hair. They aspired to reduce themselves to the rude and miserable state in which the human brute is scarcely distinguishable above his kindred animals, and the numerous sects of Anacorites derived their name from their humble practice of grazing in the fields of Mesopotamia with the common herd. They often usurped the den of some wild beast whom they affected to resemble. They buried themselves in some gloomy cavern which art or nature had scooped out of the rock, and the marble quarries of Thebeas are still inscribed with the monuments of their penance. The most perfect hermits are supposed to have passed many days without food, many nights without sleep, and many years without speaking, and Glorious was the man, I abuse that name, who contrived any cell or seat of a peculiar construction which might expose him in the most inconvenient posture to the inclemency of the seasons. Among these heroes of the monastic life, the name and genius of Simeon Stylites have been immortalized by the singular invention of an aerial penance. At the age of thirteen the young Syrian deserted the profession of a shepherd and threw himself into an austere monastery. After a long and painful novitiate in which Simeon was repeatedly saved from pious suicide, he established his residence on a mountain about thirty or forty miles to the east of Antioch. Within the space of a mandra or circle of stones to which he had attached himself by a ponderous chain, he ascended a column which was successively raised from the height of nine to that of sixty feet from the ground. In this last and lofty station the Syrian anachoretes resisted the heat of thirty summers and the cold of as many winters. Habit and exercise instructed him to maintain his dangerous situation without fear or giddiness and successively to assume the different postures of devotion. He sometimes prayed in an erect attitude, with his outstretched arms in the figure of a cross, but his most familiar practice was that of bending his meager skeleton from the forehead to the feet, and a curious spectator, after numbering twelve hundred and forty-four repetitions, at length desisted from the endless account. The progress of an ulcer in his thigh might shorten, but it could not disturb the celestial life, and the patient hermit expired without descending from his column. A prince who should capriciously inflict such tortures would be deemed a tyrant, but it would surpass the power of a tyrant to implose a long and miserable existence on the reluctant victims of his cruelty. This voluntary martyrdom must have gradually destroyed the sensibility both of mind and body, nor can it be presumed that the fanatics who torment themselves are susceptible of any lively affection for the rest of mankind. A cruel, unfeeling temper has distinguished the monks of every age and country. Their stern indifference, which is seldom mollified by personal friendship, is inflamed by religious hatred, and their merciless zeal has strenuously administered the holy office of the inquisition. The monastic saints, who excite only the contempt and pity of a philosopher, were respected and almost adored by the prince and people. Successive crowds of pilgrims from Gaul and India saluted the divine pillar of Simeon. The tribes of Saracens disputed in arms the honor of his benediction. The queens of Arabia and Persia gratefully confessed his supernatural virtue, and the angelic hermit was consulted by the younger Theodosius, and the most important concerns of the church and state. His remains were transported from the mountain of Telenisa by a solemn procession of the patriarch, the master general of the east, six bishops, twenty-one counts or tribunes, and six thousand soldiers, and Antioch revered his bones as her glorious ornament and impregnable defense. The fame of the apostles and martyrs was gradually eclipsed by those recent and popular anachorists. The Christian world fell prostrate before their shrines, and the miracles ascribed to their relics exceeded, at least in number and duration, the spiritual exploits of their lives. But the golden legend of their lives was embellished by the artful credulity of their interested brethren, and a lineage was easily persuaded that the slightest caprice of an Egyptian or Assyrian monk had been sufficient to interrupt the eternal laws of the universe. The favorites of heaven were accustomed to cure inveterate diseases with a touch, a word or a distant message, and to expel the most obstinate demons from the souls or bodies which they possessed. They familiarly accosted, imperiously commanded, the lions and serpents of the desert, infused vegetation into a sapless trunk, suspended iron on the surface of the water, passed the Nile on the back of a quadile, and refreshed themselves in a fiery furnace. These extravagant tales, which display the fiction without the genius of poetry, have seriously affected the reason, the faith, and the morals of Christians. Their credulity debased and vitiated the faculties of the mind. They corrupted the evidence of history, and superstition gradually extinguished the hostile light of philosophy and science. Every mode of religious worship which had been practiced by the saints, every mysterious doctrine which they believed was fortified by the sanction of divine revelation, and all the manly virtues were oppressed by the servile and pusillanimous rink of the monks. If it be possible to measure the interval between the philosophic writings of Cicero and the sacred legend of Theodoret, between the character of Cato and that of Simeon, may appreciate the memorable revolution which was accomplished in Roman Empire within a period of five hundred years. The progress of Christianity has been marked by two glorious and decisive victories, over the learned and luxurious citizens of the Roman Empire, and over the warlike barbarians of Scythia and Germany, who subverted the Empire and embraced the religion of the Romans. The Goths were the foremost of these savage proselytes, and the nation was indebted for its conversion to a countryman, or at least to a subject worthy to be ranked among the inventors of useful arts, who have deserved the remembrance and gratitude of posterity. A great number of Roman Provincials had been led into captivity by the Gothic bands, who ravaged Asia in the time of Galeanus, and of these captives many were Christians, and several belonged to the ecclesiacal order. These involuntary missionaries dispersed as slaves in the villages of Dicea, successively labored for the salvation of their masters. The seeds which they planted of the evangelical doctrine were gradually propagated, and before the end of a century the pious work was achieved by the labors of Ophillus, whose ancestors had been transported beyond the Danube for a small town of Cappadocia. Ophillus, the bishop and apostle of the Goths, acquired their love and reverence by his blameless life and indefatigable zeal, and they received, with implicit confidence, the doctrines of truth and virtue which he preached and practiced. He executed the arduous task of translating the scriptures into their native tongue, a dialect of the German or Teutonic language, but he prudently suppressed the four books of kings, as they might tend to irritate the fierce and sanguinary spirit of the barbarians. The rude, imperfect idiom of soldiers and shepherds so ill-qualified to communicate any spiritual ideas was improved and modulated by his genius. And Ophillus, before he could frame his version, was obliged to compose a new alphabet of twenty-four letters, four of which he invented, to express the peculiar sounds that were unknown to the Greek and Latin pronunciation. But the prosperous state of the Gothic church was soon afflicted by war and intestine discord, and the chieftains were divided by religion as well as by interest. Frittern, the friend of the Romans, became the proselyte of Ophillus, while the haughty soul of Athenaric disdained the yoke of the empire and of the gospel. The faith of the new converts was trapped by the persecution which he excited. A wagon bearing aloft the shapeless image of Thor, perhaps, or of Woden, was conducted in solemn procession through the streets of the camp. And the rebels, who refused to worship the God of their fathers, were immediately burnt with their tents and families. The character of Ophillus recommended him to the esteem of the Eastern Court, where he twice appeared as a minister of peace. He pleaded the case of the distressed cause, who implored the protection of valens, and the name of Moses was applied to this spiritual guide conducted his people through the deep waters of the Danube, to the land of promise. The devout shepherds, who were attached to his person and tractable to his voice, acquiesced in their settlement, at the foot of the Macian mountains, in a country of woodlands and pastures, which supported their flocks and enabled them to purchase the corn and wine of the more plentiful provinces. These harmless barbarians multiplied in obscure peace and the profession Christianity. Their fiercer brethren, the formidable Visigoths, universally adopted the religion of the Romans, with whom they maintained a perpetual intercourse of war, of friendship, or of conquest. In their long and victorious march from the Danube to Atlantic Ocean, they converted their allies, they educated the rising generation, and the devotion which reigned in the camp of Alaric, or the court of Delos, might edify or disgrace the palaces of Rome and Constantinople. During the same period Christianity was raised by almost all the barbarians, who established their kingdoms on the ruins of the Western Empire, the Burgundians in Gaul, the Suavian Spain, the Vandals in Africa, and the Ostrogoths in Pannonia, and the various bands of mercenaries that raised Oa de Serre to the throne of Italy. The Franks and the Saxons still persevered in the errors of paganism, but the Franks obtained the monarchy of Gaul by their submission to the example of Clovis, and the Saxon conquerors of Britain were reclaimed from their savage superstition by the missionaries of Rome. These barbarian proselytes displayed an ardent and successful zeal in the propagation of the faith. The Merovingian kings and their successors, Charlemagne and the Othos, extended by their laws and victories the dominion of the cross. Anglain produced the apostle of Germany, and the evangelicalite was gradually diffused from the neighborhood of the Rhine to the nations of the Elbe, the Vistula, and the Baltic. CHAPTER 37 CONVERSION OF THE BARBERIANS TO CHRISTIANITY PART 3 The different motives which influenced the reason or the passions of the barbarian converts cannot easily be ascertained. They were often capricious and accidental. A dream, an omen, the report of a miracle, the example of some priest or hero, the charms of a believing wife, and above all, the fortunate event of a prayer or vow, which, in a moment of danger, they had addressed to the God of the Christians. The early prejudices of education were insensibly erased by the habits of frequent and familiar society. The moral precepts of the Gospels were protected by the extravagant virtues of the monks, and a spirit theology was supported by the visible power of relics, and the pomp of religious worship. But the rational and ingenious mode of persuasion, which a Saxon bishop suggested to a popular saint, might sometimes be employed by the missionaries, who labored for the conversion of infidels. Admit, says the sagacious disputant, whatever they are pleased to assert of the fabulous and carnal genealogy of their gods and goddesses who are propagated from each other. From this principle deduce their imperfect nature and human infirmities, the assurance that they were born, and the probability that they will die. At what time, by what means, from what cause were the eldest of the gods or goddess produced? Do they still continue, or have they ceased to propagate? If they have ceased, summon your antagonists to declare the reason of this strange alteration. If they still continue, the number of gods must become infinite, and shall we not risk, by the indiscreet worship of some impotent deity, to excite the riftment of his jealous superior? The visible heavens and earth, the whole system of the universe which may be conceived by the mind, is it created or eternal? If created, how or where could the gods themselves exist before creation? If eternal, how could they assume the empire of an independent and pre-existing world? Urge these arguments, with temper and moderation. Insinuate at seasonable intervals the truth and beauty of the Christian revelation, and endeavor to make the unbelievers ashamed without making them angry. This metaphysical reasoning, to refine perhaps for the barbarians of Germany, was fortified by the grosser weight of authority and popular consent. The advantage of temporal prosperity had deserted the pagan cause, and passed over to the service of Christianity. The Romans themselves, the most powerful and enlightened nation of the globe, had renounced their ancient superstition, and if the ruin of their empire seemed to accuse the efficacy of the new faith, the disgrace was already retrieved by the conversion of victorious Goths. The valiant and fortunate barbarians, who subdued the provinces of the West, successfully conceived and reflected the same edifying example. Before the age of Charlemagne, the Christian nations of Europe might exalt in the exclusive possession of the temperate climates of the fertile lands which produced corn, wine, and oil, while the savage idolaters and their helpless idols were confined to the extremities of the earth, the dark and frozen regions of the north. Christianity, which opened the gates of heaven to the barbarians, introduced an important change in their moral and political condition. They received at the same time the use of letters, so essential to a religion whose doctrines are contained in a sacred book, and while they studied the divine truth, their minds were insensibly enlarged by the distant view of history, of nature, of the arts, and of society. The version of the scriptures into their native tongue, which had facilitated their conversion, must excite among their clergy some curiosity to read the original text, to understand the sacred liturgy of the church, and to examine in the ranks of the Fathers the chain of ecclesiastical tradition. These spiritual gifts were preserved in the Greek and Latin languages, which concealed the inedible monuments of ancient learning. The immortal productions of Virgil, Cicero, and Livy, which were accessible to the Christian barbarians, maintained a silent intercourse between the reign of Augustus and the times of Clovis and Charlemagne. The emulation of mankind was encouraged by the remembrance of a more perfect state, and the flame of science was scarcely kept alive to warm and enlighten the mature age of the western world. In the most gupt state of Christianity, the barbarians might learn justice from the law, and mercy from the gospel, and if the knowledge of their duty was insufficient to guide their actions, or to regulate their passions, they were sometimes restrained by conscience, and frequently punished by remorse. But the direct authority of religion was less effectual than the Holy Communion, which united them with their Christian brethren in spirit friendship. The influence of these sentiments contributed to secure their fidelity in the servants or the ally of the Romans. To alleviate the horrors of the war, to moderate the insolence of conquest, and to preserve in the downfall of the empire a permanent respect for the name and institutions of Rome. In the days of paganism the priests of Gaul and Germany reigned over the people and controlled the jurisdiction of the magistrates, and the zealous proselytes transferred to an equal or more ample measure of devout obedience to the pontiffs of the Christian faith. The sacred character of the bishops was supported by their temporal possessions. They obtained an honorable seat in the legislative assemblies of soldiers and freemen, and it was their interest as well as their duty to mollify by peaceful councils the fierce spirit of the barbarians. The perpetual correspondence of the Latin clergy, the frequent pilgrimages to Roman Jerusalem, and the growing authority of popes cemented the union of the Christian Republic, and gradually produced the similar manners and common jurisprudence which have distinguished from the rest of mankind the independent and even hostile nations of modern Europe. But the operation of these causes was checked and retarded by the unfortunate accident which infused a deadly poison into the cup of salvation. Whatever might be the early sentiments of Ophillus, his connections with the empire and the church were formed during the reign of Arianism. The apostle of the Goths subscribed the creed of Remini, professed with freedom and perhaps with sincerity that the son was not equal or consubstantial to the father, communicated these errors to the clergy and the people, and infected the barbaric world with a heresy which the theodosius prescribed and extinguished among the Romans. The temper and understanding of the new proselytes were not adapted to physical subtleties, but they strenuously maintained what they had piously received as the pure and genuine doctrines of Christianity. The advantage of preaching and expounding the scriptures in the Teutonic language promoted the apostolic labors of Ophillus and his successors, and they ordained a competent number of bishops and presbyters for the instruction of the kindred tribes. The Ostrogoths, the Burgundians, the Suevian, the Vandals, who had listened to the eloquence of the Latin clergy preferred the more intelligible lessons of their domestic teachers. And Arianism was adopted as the national faith of the warlike converts, who were seated on the ruins of the Western empire. This irreconcilable difference of religion was a perpetual source of jealousy and hatred, and the reproach of barbarian was embittered by the more odious epithet of heretic. The heroes of the North, who had submitted with some reluctance to believe that all their ancestors were in hell, were astonished and exacerbated to learn that themselves had only changed the mode of their internal condemnation. Instead of the smooth applause which Christian kings are accustomed to expect from their royal prelates, the Orthodox bishops in their clergy were in a state of opposition to the Arian courts, and their indiscreet opposition frequently became criminal, and sometimes might be dangerous. The pulpit, that safe and sacred organ of sedition, resounded with the names of pharaoh and holophonies. The public discontent was inflamed by the hope or promise of glorious deliverance, and the seditious saints were tempted to promote the accomplishment of their own predictions. Notwithstanding these provocations, the Catholics of Gaul, Spain, and Italy enjoyed, under reign of the Arians, the free and peaceful exercise of their religion. Their haughty masters respected the zeal of numerous people, resolved to die at the foot of their altars, and the example of their devout constancy was admired and imitated by the barbarians themselves. The conquerors evaded, however, the disgraceful reproach or confession of fear by attributing their toleration to the liberal motives of reason and humanity. And while they affected the language, they imperceptibly imbibed the spirit of genuine Christianity. The peace of the Church was sometimes interrupted. The Catholics were indiscreet, the barbarians were impotent, and the partial acts of severity or injustice which had been recommended by the Aryan clergy were exaggerated by the Orthodox writers. The guilt of persecution may be imputed to Yorick, King of the Visigoths, who suspended the exercise of the ecclesiastical, or at least of Episcopal functions, and punished the popular bishops of aquitaine with imprisonment, exile, and confiscation. But the cruel and absurd enterprise of subduing the minds of a whole people was undertaken the vandals alone. Gensara himself, in his early youth, had renounced the Orthodox Communion, and the apostate could neither grant nor expect to sincere forgiveness. He was exasperated to find that the Africans, who had fled before him in the field, still presumed to dispute his will in synods and churches, and his ferocious mind was incapable of fear or of compassion. His Catholic subjects were oppressed by intolerant laws and arbitrary punishments. The language of Gensaraic was furious and formidable. The knowledge of his intentions might justify the most unfavorable interpretation of his actions, and the Arians were reproached with the frequent executions which stained the palace and the dominions of the tyrant. Arms and ambition were, however, the ruling passions of the mark of the sea. But Yorick, his inglorious son, who seemed to inherit only his vices, tempted Catholics with the same unrelenting fury which had been fatal to his brother, his nephews, and the friends and favorites of his father, and even to the Aryan patriarch, who was inhumanly burnt alive in the midst of Carthage. The religious war was preceded and prepared by an insidious truce. Persecution was made the serious and important business of Andalcourt, and loathsome disease which had hastened the death of Eunuch, revenged the injuries without contributing to the deliverance of the Church. The throne of Africa was successively filled by the two nephews of Eunuch, by Gundemund, who reigned about twelve, and by Thrasimund, who governed the nation about twenty-seven years. Their administration was hostile and oppressive to the orthodox party. Gundemund appeared to emulate or even to surpass the cruelty of Zankul, and if at length he relented, if he recalled the bishops, and restored the freedom of Athanasian worship, a premature death intercepted the benefits of his tardy clemency. His brother, Thrasimund, was the greatest and most accomplished of the vandal kings, whom he excelled in beauty, prudence, and magnanimity of soul. But this magnanimous character was degraded by his intolerant zeal and deceitful clemency. Instead of threats and tortures, he employed the gentle but efficacious powers of seduction. Wealth, dignity, and the royal favour were the liberal rewards of apostasy. The Catholics, who had violated the laws, might purchase their pardon by the renunciation of their faith. And whenever Thrasimund meditated any rigorous measure, he patiently waited till the indiscretion of his adversaries furnished him with a specious opportunity. Bigotry was his last sentiment in the hour of death, and he exacted from his successor a solemn oath that he would never tolerate the sectaries of Athanasius. But his successor, Hildaric, the gentle son of the savage Chunaric, preferred the duties of humanity and justice to the vain obligation of an impious oath, and his accession was gloriously marked by the restoration of peace and universal freedom. The throne of that virtuous though feeble monarch was usurped by his cousin Gelimer, a zealous Aryan, but the vandal kingdom, before he could enjoy or abuse his power, was subverted by the arms of Belisarius, and the Orthodox party retaliated the injuries which they had endured. The passionate declamations of the Catholics, the sole historians of this persecution, cannot afford any distinct series of causes and events, any impartial view of the characters or councils, but the most remarkable circumstances that deserve either credit or notice may be referred to the following heads. 1. In the original law, which is still extant, Hildaric expressly declares, and the declaration appears to be correct, that he had faithfully transcribed the regulations and petties of the imperial edicts against the heretical congregations, the clergy, and the people who dissented from the established religion. If the rites of conscience had been understood, the Catholics must have condemned their past conduct or acquiesced in their actual suffering, but they still persisted to refuse the indulgence which they claimed. While they trembled under the lash of persecution, they praised the laudable severity of Hunaeric himself, who burnt or banished great numbers of mannequins, and they rejected with horror the ignominious compromise that the disciples of areas and of Athanasias should enjoy a reciprocal and similar toleration in the territories of the Romans and in those of the vandals. 2. The practice of a conference, which the Catholics had so frequently used to insult and punish their obstinate antagonists, was retorted against themselves. At the command of Hunaeric, four hundred and sixty-six Orthodox bishops assembled at Carthage, but when they were admitted into the Hall of Audience they had the mortification of beholding the Arian's Cirilla exalted on the patriarchal throne. The disputants were separated after the mutual and ordinary reproaches of noise and silence, of delay and precipitation, of military force, and of popular clamour. One martyr and one confessor were selected on the Catholic bishops. Twenty-eight escaped by flight, and eighty-eight by conformity. Forty-six were sent into Corsica to cut timber for the Royal Navy, and three hundred and two were banished to the different parts of Africa, exposed to the insults of their enemies, and carefully deprived of all temporal and spiritual comforts of life. The hardship of ten years exile must have reduced their numbers, and if they had complied with the law of Thrasamund, which prohibited any episcopal consecrations, the Orthodox Church of Africa must have expired with the lives of its actual members. They disobeyed, and their disobedience was punished by a second exile of two hundred and twenty bishops into Sardinia, where they languished fifteen years till the accession of the gracious Hildaric. The two islands were judiciously chosen by the malice of their Aryan tyrants. Seneca, from his own experience, has deplored and exaggerated the miserable state of Corsica, and the plenty of Sardinia was overbalanced by the unwholesome quality of the air. Three. The zeal of generic in his successors for the conversion of the Catholics must have rendered them still more jealous to guard the purity of the vandal faith. Before the churches were finally shut it was a crime to appear in barbarian dress, and those who presumed to neglect the royal mandate were rudely dragged backwards by their long hair. The Palatine officers, who refused to profess the religion of their priests, were ignominiously stripped of their honors and employments, banished to Sardinia and Sicily, or condemned to the servile labors of slaves and peasants in the fields of Utica. In the districts which had been particularly allotted to the vanuels, the exercise of the Catholic worship was more strictly prohibited, and severe penalties were denounced against the guilt both of the missionary and the proselyte. By these arts the faith of the barbarians was preserved, and their zeal was inflamed. They discharged with devout fury the office of spies, informers, and executors, and whenever their cavity took the field it was the favorite amusement of the march to defile the churches and to insult the clergy and satisfaction. The citizens who had been educated in the luxury of the Roman province were delivered with exquisite cruelty to the moors of the desert. A venerable train of bishops, presbyters, and deacons, with a faithful crowd of four thousand ninety-six persons, whose guilt is not precisely ascertained, were torn from their native homes by the command of Uneric. During the night they were confined like a herd of cattle amidst their own ordeur. During the day they pursued their march over the burning sands, and if they fainted under the heat and fatigue they were goaded or dragged along till they expired in the hands of their dormenters. The unhapp exiles when they reached the moors huts might excite the compassion of a people whose native humanity was neither improved by reason nor corrupted by fanaticism, but if they escaped the dangers they were condemned to share the distress of a savage life. Five. It is incumbent on the authors of persecution previously to reflect whether they determined to support in the last extreme. They excite the flame which they strive to extinguish, and it soon becomes necessary to chastise the contumacy as well as the crime of the offender. The fine which he is unable or unwilling to discharge exposes his person to the severity of the law, and his contempt of lighter penalties suggests the use and propriety of capital punishment. Through veil of fiction and declamation we may clearly perceive that the Catholics, more especially under the reign of Uneric, endured the most cruel and ignominious treatment. Respectable citizens, noble matrons, and consecrated versions were stripped naked and raised in the air by pulleys, with a weight suspended at their feet. In this painful attitude their naked bodies were torn with scourges, or burnt in the most tender parts with red hot plate fire. The amputation of the ears, the nose, the tongue, and the right hand was inflicted by the Aryans, and although the precise number cannot be defined, it is evident that many persons, among whom a bishop and a proconsul may be named, were entitled to the crown of martyrdom. The same honour has been ascribed to the memory of Count Sebastian, who professed the Nicene Creed with unshaken constancy, and Gensaric might detest as a heretic the brave and ambitious fugitive whom he dreaded as a rival. 6. A new mode of conversion, which might subdue the feeble and alarm the timorous, was employed by the Aryan ministers. They imposed, by fraud or violence, the rights of baptism, and punished the apostasy of the Catholics if they disclaimed this odious and profane ceremony, which scandalously violated the freedom of the will and the unity of the sacrament. The hostile sects had formerly allowed the validity of Ytuzbatim, and the innovations so fiercely maintained by the vandals, can imputed only to the example and advice of the Donatists. 7. The Aryan clergy surpassed in religious cruelty the king and his vandals, but were incapable of cultivating the spiritual vineyard which they were so desirous to possess. A patriarch might seat himself on the throne of Carthage. Some bishops in the principal cities might usurp the place of their rivals, but the smallness of their numbers and their ignorance of the Latin language disqualified the barbarians from the ecclesiastical ministry of a great church, and the Africans, after the loss of their Orthodox pastors, were deprived of the public exercise of Christianity. 8. The emperors were the natural protectors of the Homocian doctrine, and the faithful people of Africa, both as Romans and Catholics, preferred their lawful sovereignty to the usurpation of the barbarous heretics. During an interval of peace and friendship, Huneric restored the Cathedral of Carthage, at the intercession of Zeno, who reigned in the east and of Placidia, the daughter and relic of emperors, and the sister of the queen of the vandals. But this decent regard was of short duration, and the haughty tyrant displayed his contempt for the religion of the empire by studiously arranging the bloody images of persecution in all the principal streets through which the Roman ambassador must pass on his way to the palace. An oath was required from the bishops who were assembled at Carthage that they would support the succession of his son Hildarec, and that they would renounce all foreign or trans-marine correspondents. This engagement, consistent as it should seem with their moral and religious duties, was refused by the more sagacious members of the assembly. Their refusal faintly colored by the pretense that it is unlawful for a Christian to swear, provoked the suspicions of a jealous tyrant. CHAPTER 37 CONVERSION OF THE BARBERIANS TO CHRISTIANITY, PART IV The Catholics, oppressed by royal and military force, were far superior to their adversaries in numbers and learning. With the same weapons which the Greek and Latin fathers had already provided for the Aryan controversy, they repeatedly silenced or vanquished the fierce and illiterate successors of Ophillus. The consciousness of their own superiority might have raised them above the arts and passions of religious warfare. Yet instead of assuming such honorable pride, the Orthodox theologians were tempted by the assurance of impunity to compose fictions which must be stigmatized with the epithets of fraud and forgery. They ascribed their own polemical works to the most venerable names of Christian antiquity. The characters of Athanasius and Augustine were awkwardly personated by Vigilus and his disciples, and the famous creed, which so clearly expounds the mysteries of the Trinity and the Incarnation, is deduced with strong probability from this African school. Even the scriptures themselves were profaned by their rash and sacrilegious hands. The memorable text which asserts the unity of the three who bear witness in heaven is condemned by the universal silence of the Orthodox fathers, ancient versions, and authentic manuscripts. It was first alleged by the Catholic bishops whom Huneric summoned to the Conference of Carthage. An allegorical interpretation in the form perhaps of a marginal note invaded the text of the Latin Bibles, which were renewed and corrected in a dark period of ten centuries. After the invention of printing the editors of the Greek Testament yielded to their own prejudices, or those of the times, and the pious fraud which was embraced with equal zeal at Rome and at Geneva has been infinitely multiplied in every country and every language of modern Europe. The example of fraud must excite suspicion, and the specious miracles by which the African Catholics have defended the truth and justice of their cause may be ascribed, with more reason, to their own industry than to the visible protection of heaven. Yet the historian who views this religious conflict with an impartial eye may condescend to mention one pressure-natural event, which will edify the devout and surprise the incredulous. Tipasa, a maritime colony of Mauritania, sixteen miles to the east of Caesarea, had been distinguished in every age by the orthodox zeal of its inhabitants. They had braved the fury of the Donatis, they resisted or eluded the tyranny of the Arians. The town was deserted on the approach of an eretical bishop. Most of the inhabitants who could procure ships passed over to the coast of Spain, and the unhappy remnant, refusing all communion with the usurper, still presumed to hold their pious but illegal assemblies. Their disobedience exasperated the cruelty of Huniric. A military count was dispatched from Carthage to Tipasa. He collected the Catholics in the Forum, and in the presence of the whole province deprived the guilty of their right hands and their tongues. But the holy confessors continued to speak without tongues, and this miracle is attested by Victor, an African bishop who published a history of the persecution within two years after the event. If any one, says Victor, should doubt of the truth, let him repair to Constantinople, and listen to the clear and perfect language of Ristitutus, the subdeacon, one of these glorious sufferers who is now lodged in the palace of the Emperor Zeno, and is respected by the devout empress. At Constantinople we are astonished to find a cool, learned, and unexceptionable witness without interest and without passion. Anais of Gaza, a platonic philosopher, has accurately described his own observations on these African sufferers. I saw them myself. I heard them speak. I diligently inquired by what means such an articulate voice could be formed without any organ of speech. I used my eyes to examine the report of my ears. I opened their mouth and saw that the whole tongue had been completely torn away by the roots, an operation which the physicians generally supposed to be mortal. The testimony of Anais of Gaza might be confirmed by the superfluous evidence of the Emperor Justinian in a perpetual edict of Count Marcelinus in his Chronicle of the Times and of Pope Gregory I, who had resided at Constantinople as the minister of the Roman Pontiff. They all lived within the compass of a century, and they all appealed to their personal knowledge or the public notoriety for the truth of a miracle, which was repeated in several instances, displayed on the greatest theater of the world, and submitted during a series of years to the calm examination of the senses. This supernatural gift of the African confessors, who spoke without tongues, will command the assent of those and of those only who already believe that their language was pure and orthodox. But the stubborn mind of an infidel is guarded by secret incurable suspicion, and the Arian, or Sosinian, who has seriously rejected the doctrine of attrinity, will not be shaken by the most plausible evidence of an Athanasian miracle. The vandals in the Ostrogoths persevered in the profession of Arianism till the final ruin of the kingdoms, which they had founded in Africa and Italy. The barbarians of Gaul submitted to the Orthodox Dominion of the Franks, and Spain was restored to the Catholic Church by the voluntary conversion of the Visigoths. This salutary revolution was hastened by the example of a royal martyr, whom our calmer reason may style an ungrateful rebel. Leovagild, the Gothic monarch of Spain, deserved the respects of his enemies, and the love of his subjects. The Catholics enjoyed a free toleration, and his Arian synods attempted, without much success, to reconcile their scruples by abolishing the unpopular right of a second baptism. His eldest son, Hermenegild, who was invested by his father with the royal die-dem, and the fair principality of Petica, contracted an honorable and orthodox alliance with the Merovingian princess, the daughter of Sigiburt, king of Australgia, and of the famous Brunichild. The beauteous Ingundus, who was no more than thirteen years of age, was received, beloved, and persecuted in the Arian court of Toledo, and her religious constancy was alternately assaulted with blandishments and violence by Gios Vinta, the Gothic queen, who abused the double claim of maternal authority. Incensed by her resistance, Gios Vinta seized the Catholic princess by her long hair, inhumanly dashed her against the ground, kicked her till she was covered with blood, and at last gave orders that she should be stripped and thrown into a basin or fish pond. Love and honor might excite Hermenegild to resent this injurious treatment of his bride, and he was gradually persuaded that Ingundus suffered for the cause of divine truth. Her tender complaints and the weighty arguments of Leander, Archbishop of Seville, accompanied his conversion and the heir of the Gothic monarchy was initiated in the Nicene faith by the solemn rites of confirmation. The wrass youth, inflamed by zeal, and perhaps by ambition, was tempted to violate the duties of a son and a subject, and the Catholics of Spain, although they could not complain of persecution, applauded his pious rebellion against an heretical father. The civil war was protected by the long and obstinate sieges of Merida, Cordova, and Seville, which had strenuously espoused the party of Hermenegild. He invited the Orthodox barbarians, the Suevi, and the Franks to the destruction of his native land. He solicited the dangerous aid of the Romans, who possessed Africa and a part of the Spanish coast, and his holy ambassador, the Archbishop Leander, effectually negotiated in person with the Byzantine court. But the hopes of the Catholics were crushed by the active diligence of the monarch, who commanded the troops and treasures of Spain, and the guilty Hermenegild, after his vain attempts to resist her escape, was compelled to surrender himself into the hands of an incensed father. Leovagild was still mindful of that sacred character, and the rebel, despoiled of the regal ornaments, was still permitted in a decent exile to profess the Catholic religion. His repeated and unsuccessful treasons at length provoked the indignation of the Gothic king, and the sentence of death which he pronounced with apparent reluctance was privately executed in the Tower of Seville. The inflexible constancy with which he refused to accept the Aryan communion as the price of his safety may excuse the honors that had been paid to the memory of St. Hermenegild. His wife and infant son were detained by the Romans in ignomious captivity, and this domestic misfortune tarnished the glories of Leovagild, and embittered the last moments of his life. His son and successor, Recured, the first Catholic king of Spain, had imbibed the faith of his unfortunate brother, which he supported with more prudence and success. Instead of revolting against his father, Recured patiently expected the hour of his death. Instead of condemning his memory, he piously supposed that the dying monarch had abjured the errors of Aryanism and recommended to his son the conversion of the Gothic nation. To accomplish that salutary end, Recured convened an assembly of the Aryan clergy and nobles, declared himself a Catholic, and exhorted them to imitate the example of their prince. The laborious interpretation of doubtful tets, or the curious pursuit of metaphysical arguments, would have excited an endless controversy, and the monarch discreetly proposed to his illiterate audience two substantial and visible arguments—the testimony of earth and of heaven. The earth had submitted to the Nicene Synod. The Romans, the Barbarians, and the inhabitants of Spain unanimously professed the same Orthodox creed, and the Visigoths resisted, almost alone, the consent of the Christian world. A superstitious age was prepared to reverence, as the testimony of heaven, the preternatural cures, which were performed by the skill or virtue of the Catholic clergy, the baptismal fonts of Aset and Batica, which were spontaneously replenished every year on the vigil of Easter, and the miraculous shrine of Saint Martin of Tur, which had already converted the Suivic prince and the people of Galicia. The Catholic king encountered some difficulties on this important change of the national religion. A conspiracy, secretly fomented by the Queen Dowager, was formed against his life, and two counts excited a dangerous revolt in the Narbonese Gaul. But Rekered disarmed the conspirators, defeated the rebels, and executed severe justice, which the Aryans, in their turn, might brand with the reproach of persecution. Eight bishops, whose names betray their barbaric origin, abjured their errors, and all the books of Aryan theology were reduced to ashes, with the house in which they had been purposefully collected. The whole body of the Visigoths and Suivi were allured or driven into the pale of the Catholic communion. The faith, at least of the rising generation, was fervent and sincere, and the devout liberality of the barbarians enriched the churches and monasteries of Spain. Seventy bishops, assembled in the Council of Toledo, received the submission of their conquerors, and the zeal of the Spaniards improved the Nicene Creed by declaring the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son as well as from the Father, a weighty point of doctrine which produced, long afterwards, the schism of the Greek and Latin churches. The royal proselytite immediately saluted and consulted Pope Gregory, surnamed the Great, a learned and holy prelate whose reign was distinguished by the conversion of heretics and infidels. The ambassadors of Recreate respectfully ordered on the threshold of the Vatican his rich presence of gold and gems. They accepted as a lucrative exchange the hairs of St. John the Baptist, a cross which enclosed a small piece of the true wood, and a key that contained some particles of iron which had been scraped from the chains of St. Peter. The same Gregory, the spiritual conqueror of Britain, encouraged the pious Theodolinda, queen of the Lombards, to propagate the Nicene faith among the victorious savages, whose recent Christianity was polluted by the Arian heresy. Her devout laborers still left room for the industry and success of future missionaries, and many cities of Italy were still disputed by hostile bishops. But the cause of Arianism was gradually suppressed by the weight of truth, of interest and of example, and the controversy which Egypt had derived from the Platonic school was terminated after a war of three hundred years by the final conversion of the Lombards of Italy. The first missionaries who preached the Gospel to the barbarians appealed to the evidence of reason and claimed the benefit of toleration. But no sooner had they established their spiritual dominion than they exhorted the Christian kings to extirpate, without mercy, the remains of Roman or barbaric superstition. The successors of Clovis inflicted one hundred lashes on the peasants who refused to destroy their idols. The crime of sacrificing to the demons was punished by the Anglo-Saxon laws with the heavier penalties of imprisonment and confiscation, and even the wise Alfred adopted, as an indispensable duty, the extreme rigor of the Mosaic institutions. But the punishment and the crime were gradually abolished among a Christian people. The theological disputes of the schools were suspended by propitious ignorance, and the intolerance spirit which could find neither idolaters nor heretics was reduced to the persecution of the Jews. That exiled nation had founded some synagogues in the cities of Gaul, but Spain, since the time of Hadrian, was filled with their numerous colonies. The wealth which they accumulated by trade and the management of the finances invited the pious avarice of their masters, and they might be oppressed without danger, as they had lost the use and even the remembrance of arms. Cisabat, a Gothic king who reigned in the beginning of the seventh century, proceeded at once to the last extremes of persecution. Ninety thousand Jews were compelled to receive the sacrament of baptism. The fortunes of the obstinate invidels were confiscated, their bodies were tortured, and it seems doubtful whether they were permitted to abandon their native country. The excessive zeal of the Catholic king was moderated, even by the clergy of Spain, who solemnly pronounced an inconsistent sentence, that the sacraments should not be forcibly imposed, but that the Jews who had been baptized should be constrained for the honor of the church to persevere in the external practice of religion which they disbelieved and detested. Their frequent relapses provoked one of the successors of Cisabat to banish the whole nation from his dominions, and a council of Toledo published a decree that every Gothic king should swear to maintain this salutary edict. But the tyrants were unwilling to dismiss the victims whom they delighted to torture or to deprive themselves of the industrious slaves over whom they might exercise a lucrative oppression. The Jews still continued in Spain under the weight of the civil and ecclesiastical laws, which in the same country have been faithfully transcribed in the code of the Inquisition. The Gothic kings and bishops at length discovered that injuries will produce hatred, and that hatred will find the opportunity of revenge. A nation, the secret or professed enemies of Christianity, still multiplied in servitude and distress, and the intrigues of the Jews promoted the rapid success of the Arabian conquerors. As soon as the barbarians withdrew their powerful support, the unpopular heresy of Arius sunk into contempt and oblivion. But the Greeks still retained their subtle and laquacious disposition, the establishment of an obscure doctrine suggested new questions and new disputes, and it was always in the power of an ambitious prelate or a fanatic monk to violate the peace of the church and perhaps of the empire. The historian of the empire may overlook these disputes which were confined to the obscurity of schools and synods. The Manachians, who labored to reconcile the religions of Christ and Zoroaster, had secretly introduced themselves into the provinces, but these foreign sectaries were involved in the common disgrace of the Gnostics, and the imperial laws were executed by the public hatred. The rational opinions of the Pelagians were propagated from Britain to Rome, Africa and Palestine, and silently expired in a superstitious age. But the East was distracted by the Nestorian and Utikian controversies which attempted to explain the mystery of the incarnation and hastened the ruin of Christianity in her native land. These controversies were first agitated under the reign of the younger Theodosius, but their important consequences extend far beyond the limits of the present volume. The metaphysical chain of argument, the contests of ecclesiastical ambition, and their political influence on the decline of the Byzantine empire may afford an interesting and instructive series of history from the general councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon to the conquest of the East by the successors of Muhammad. End of Chapter 37, Part 4 Chapter 38, Part 1 of the Decline of Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume 3. This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Chapter 38. Rain and conversion of Clovis. His victories over the Alemani. Burgundians and Visigoths. Establishment of the French monarchy in Gaul. Laws of the Barbarians. State of the Romans. Visigoths of Spain. Conquest of Britain by the Saxons. The Gauls who impatiently supported the Roman yoke received a memorable lesson from one of the Latinates of Vespasian whose weighty sense has been refined and expressed by the genius of Tacitus. The protection of the Republic has delivered Gaul from internal discord and foreign invasions. By the loss of national independence, you have acquired the name and privileges of Roman citizens. You enjoy, in common with ourselves, the permanent benefits of civil government. And your remote situation is less exposed to the accidental mischiefs of tyranny. Instead of exercising the rights of conquest, we have been contented to impose such tributes as our requisite for your own preservation. Peace cannot be secured without armies and armies must be supported at the expense of the people. It is for your sake, not for our own, that we guard the barrier of the Rhine against the ferocious Germans who have so often attempted and who will always desire to exchange the solitude of their woods and morasses for the wealth and fertility of Gaul. The fall of Rome would be fatal to the provinces and you would be buried in the ruins of that mighty fabric which has been raised by the valor and wisdom of 800 years. Your imaginary freedom would be insulted and impressed by a savage master and the expulsion of the Romans would be seceded by the eternal hostilities of the barbarian conquerors. This salutary advice was accepted and this strange prediction was accomplished. In the space of 400 years the hearty Gauls who had encountered the arms of Caesar were imperceptively melted into the general mass of citizens and subjects. The Western Empire was dissolved and the Germans who had passed the Rhine fiercely contended for the possession of Gaul and excited the contempt or abhorrence of its peaceful and polished inhabitants. With that conscious pride, which the preeminence of knowledge and luxury seldom fails to inspire, they derided the hairy and gigantic savages of the North, their rustic manners, dissonant joy, voracious appetite, and their horrid appearance equally disgusting to the sight and to the smell. The liberal studies were still cultivated in the schools of Altun and Bordeaux and the language of Cicero and Virgil was familiar to the Gallic youth. Their ears were astonished by the harsh and unknown sounds of the Germanic dialect and they ingeniously lamented that the trembling muses fled from the harmony of a Burgundian liar. The Gauls were endowed with all the advantages of art and nature but as they wanted courage to defend them they were justly condemned to obey and even to flatter the victorious Barbarians by whose clemency they held the precarious fortunes and their lives. As soon as Odoraker had extinguished the Western Empire he sought the friendship of the most powerful of the Barbarians. The new sovereign of Italy resigned to Uric, king of the Visigoths, all the Roman conquests beyond the Alps and as far as the Rhine and the Ocean and the Senate might confirm this liberal gift with some ostentation of power and without any real loss of revenue or dominion. The lawful pretensions of Uric were justified by ambition and success and the Gothic nation might aspire under his command to the monarchy of Spain and Gaul. Arl and Marseille surrendered to his arms. He oppressed the freedom of Alvernia and the bishop condescended to purchase his recall from exile by a tribute of just but reluctant praise. Sidonius waited before the gates of the palace among a crowd of ambassadors and suppliants and their various business at the court of Bordeaux attested the power and the renown of the king of the Visigoths. The Heruli of the Distant Ocean who painted their naked bodies with its cerulean color implored his protection and the Saxons respected the maritime provinces of a prince who was destitute of any naval force. The tall Burgundians submitted to his authority nor did he restore the captive Franks till he had imposed on that fierce nation the terms of an unequal peace. The vandals of Africa cultivated his useful friendship and the Ostrogoths of Pannonia were supported by his powerful aid against the oppression of the neighboring Huns. The North, such are the lofty strains of the poet, was agitated or appeased by the nod of Uric. The great king of Persia consulted the Oracle of the West and the aged god of the Tiber was protected by the swelling genius of the Garon. The fortune of nations has often depended on accidents and France may ascribe her greatness to the premature death of the Gothic king at a time when his son Alleric was a helpless infant and his adversary Clovis an ambitious and valiant youth. While Childeric the father of Clovis lived in exile in Germany he was hospitably entertained by the queen as well as by the king of the Thuringians. After his restoration Bafina escaped from her husband's bed to the arms of her lover freely declaring that if she had known a man wiser stronger or more beautiful than Childeric that man should have been the object of her preference. Clovis was the offspring of this voluntary union and when he was no more than 15 years of age he succeeded by his father's death to the command of the Salian tribe. The narrow limits of his kingdom were confined to the island of the Batavians with the ancient diocese of Torne and Eras and at the baptism of Clovis the number of his warriors cannot exceed five thousand. The kindred tribes of the Franks who had seated themselves along the Belgic rivers the Shelt the Muse the Moselle and the Rhine were governed by their independent kings of the Merovingian race the equals the allies and sometimes the enemies of the Salic prince. But the Germans who obeyed in peace the hereditary jurisdiction of their chiefs were free to follow the standard of a popular and victorious general and the superior merit of Clovis attracted the respect and allegiance of the national confederacy. When he first took the field he had neither gold and silver in his coffers nor wine and corn in his magazines but he imitated the example of Caesar who in the same country had acquired wealth by the sword and purchased soldiers with the fruits of conquest. After each successful battle or expedition the spoils were accumulated in one calm and mass every warrior received his proportionable share and the royal prerogative submitted to the equal regulations of military law. The untamed spirit of the barbarians was taught to acknowledge the advantages of regular discipline. At the annual review of the month of March their arms were diligently inspected and when they traversed a peaceful territory they were prohibited from touching a blade of grass. The justice of Clovis was inexorable and his careless or disobedient soldiers were punished with instant death. It would be superfluous to praise the valor of a Frank but the valor of Clovis was directed by cool and consummate prudence. In all his transactions with mankind he calculated the weight of interest of passion and of opinion and his manners were sometimes adapted to the sanguinary measures of the Germans and sometimes moderated by the milder genius of Rome and Christianity. He was intercepted in the career of victory since he died in the 45th year of his age but he had already accomplished in a reign of 30 years the establishment of the French monarchy in Gaul. The first exploit of Clovis was the defeat of Cyagreus, the son of Aegidius and the public quarrel might on this occasion be inflamed by private resentment. The glory of the father still insulted the Merovingian race. The power of the son might excite the jealous ambition of the king of the Franks. Cyagreus inherited as a patrimonial estate the city and diocese of Soissons. The desolate remnant of the second Belgique, Rheem and Troya, Beauvais and Amiens would naturally submit to the Count or Patrician and after the dissolution of the Western Empire he might reign with the title or at least with the authority of King of the Romans. As a Roman he had been educated in the liberal studies of rhetoric and jurisprudence but he was engaged by accident and policy in the familiar use of the dramatic idiom. The independent barbarians resorted to the tribunal of a stranger who possessed the singular talent of explaining in their native tongue the dictates of reason and equity. The diligence and affability of their judge rendered him popular. The impartial wisdom of his decrees obtained their voluntary obedience and the reign of Cyagreus over the Franks and Burgundians seemed to revive the original institution of civil society. In the midst of these peaceful occupations Cyagreus received and boldly accepted the hostile defiance of Clovis who challenged his rival in the spirit and almost in the language of Chivori to appoint the day in the field of battle. In the time of Caesar Soissons would have poured forth a body of 50,000 horse and such an army might have been plentifully supplied with shields, curasses and military engines from the three arsenals or manufacturers of the city. But the courage and the numbers of the Gallic youth were long since exhausted and the loose bands of volunteers or mercenaries who marched under the standard of Cyagreus were incapable of contending with the national valor of the Franks. It would be ungenerous without some more accurate knowledge of his strength and resources to condemn the rapid flight of Cyagreus who escaped after the loss of a battle to the distant court of Toulouse. The feeble minority of Alaric could not assist or protect an unfortunate fugitive. The pusillanimous Goths were intimidated by the menaces of Clovis and the Roman king after a short confinement was delivered into the hands of the executioner. The Belgian cities surrendered to the king of the Franks and his dominions were enlarged to the east by the ample diocese of Tongra which Clovis subdued in the tenth year of his reign. The name of the Alamani has been absurdly derived from their imaginary settlements on the banks of the Le Mans Lake. That fortunate district from the lake to Avinch and Mount Jura was occupied by the Burgundians. The northern parts of Helvetia had indeed been subdued by the ferocious Alamani who destroyed with their own hands the fruit of their conquest. A province improved and adorned by the arts of Rome was again reduced to a savage wilderness and some vestige of the stately Vindanissa may still be discovered in the fertile and populous valley of the Arar. From the source of the Rhine to his conflicts with the Maine and the Moselle the formidable swarms of the Alamani commanded either side of the river by the right of ancient possession or recent victory. They spread themselves into Gaul over the modern provinces of Alsace and Lorraine and their bold invasion of the Kingdom of Cologne summoned the Salic Prince to the defense of his Vipurian allies. Clovis encountered the invaders of Gaul and the Plain of Tobiak about 24 miles from Cologne and the two fiercest nations of Germany were mutually animated by the memory of past exploits and the prospect of future greatness. The Franks after an obstinate struggle gave way and the Alamani raising a shout of victory impetuously pressed the retreat but the battle was restored by the Valor, the Conduct and perhaps by the Piety of Clovis and the event of the bloody day decided forever the alternative of empire or servitude. The last king of the Alamani was slain in the field and his people were slaughtered and pursued till they threw down their arms and yielded to the mercy of the Conqueror. Without discipline it was impossible for them to rally. They had contemptuously demolished the walls and fortifications which might have protected their distress and they were followed into the heart of their forests by an enemy not less active or intrepid than themselves. The great Theodoric congratulated the victory of Clovis whose sister, Albu Fletta, the king of Italy, had lately married but he mildly interceded with his brother in favor of the supplements and fugitives who implored his protection. The Gallic territories which were possessed by the Alamani became the prize of their Conqueror and the haughty nation, invincible or rebellious to the arms of Rome, acknowledged the sovereignty of the Merovingian kings who graciously permitted them to enjoy their peculiar manners and institutions under the government of official and at length of hereditary dukes. After the conquest of the western provinces the Franks alone maintained their ancient habitations beyond the Rhine. They gradually subdued and civilized the exhaustive countries as far as the Elbe and the mountains of Bohemia and the peace of Europe was secured by the obedience of Germany. Till the 30th year of his age Clovis continued to worship the gods of his ancestors. His disbelief or rather disregard of Christianity might encourage him to pillage with less remorse the churches of an hostile territory. But his subjects of Gall enjoyed the free exercise of religious worship and the bishops entertained a more favorable hope of the Eldalator than of the heretics. The Merovingian prince had contracted a fortunate alliance with the fair Clotilda the niece of the king of the Burgundy who in the midst of an Aryan court was educated in the profession of the Catholic faith. It was her interest as well as her duty to achieve the conversion of a pagan husband and Clovis insensibly elicited the voice of love and religion. He consented perhaps such terms have been previously stipulated to the baptism of his eldest son and though the sudden death of the infant excited some superstitious fears he was persuaded a second time to repeat the dangerous experiment. In the distress of the battle of Tolbiac, Clovis loudly invoked the god of Clotilda and of the Christians and the victory disposed him to hear with respectful gratitude the eloquent Remigius the bishop of Reem who forcefully displayed the temporal and spiritual advantages of his conversion. The king declared himself satisfied of the truth of the Catholic faith and the political reasons which might have suspended his public professions were removed by the devout or loyal acclamations of the Franks who showed themselves alike prepared to follow their heroic leader to the field of battle or to the baptismal font. The important ceremony was performed in the cathedral of Reem with every circumstance a magnificence and solemnity which could impress an awful sense of religion on the minds of its rude proselytites. The new Constantine was immediately baptized with three thousand of his warlike subjects and their example was imitated by the remainder of the gentle barbarians who in obedience to the victorious prelate adored the cross which they had burnt and burnt the idols which they had formally adored. The mind of Clovis was susceptible of transient fervor. He was exasperated by the pathetic tale of the passion and death of Christ and instead of weighing the salutary consequences of that mysterious sacrifice he exclaimed with indiscreet fury, had I been present at the head of my valiant Franks I would have avenged his injuries. But the savage conqueror of Gaul was incapable of examining the proofs of a religion which depends on the laborious investigation of historic evidence and speculative theology. He was still more incapable of feeling the mild influence of the gospel which persuades and purifies the heart of a genuine convert. His ambitious reign was a perpetual violation of moral and Christian duties. His hands were stained with blood and peace as well as in war and as soon as Clovis had dismissed a Synod of the Galican Church he calmly assassinated all the princes of the Merovingian race. Yet the king of the Franks might sincerely worship the Christian God as a being more excellent and powerful than his national deities and the signal deliverance and victory of Tobiak encouraged Clovis to confide in the future protection of the Lord of Hosts. Martin the most popular of the saints had filled the western world with the fame of those miracles which were incessantly performed at his holy sepulchre of tour. His visible or invisible aid promoted the cause of a liberal and orthodox prince and the profane remark of Clovis himself that Saint Martin was an expensive friend need not be interpreted as a symptom of any permanent or rational skepticism but earth as well as heaven rejoiced in the conversion of the Franks. On the memorable day which Clovis ascended from the baptismal font he alone in the Christian world deserved the name and prerogatives of a Catholic king. The emperor Anastasius entertained some dangerous heirs concerning the nature of the divine incarnation. In the barbarians of Africa, Italy, Spain, and Gaul were involved in the Aryan heresy. The eldest or rather the only son of the church was acknowledged by the clergy as their lawful sovereign or glorious deliverer and the arms of Clovis were strenuously supported by the zeal in favor of the Catholic faction. Under the Roman Empire the wealth and jurisdiction of the bishops their sacred character and perpetual office their numerous dependents popular eloquence and provincial assemblies had rendered them always respectable and sometimes dangerous. Their influence was augmented with the progress of superstition and the establishment of the French monarchy may in some degree be ascribed to the firm alliance of a hundred prelates who reigned in the discontented or independent cities of Gaul. The slight foundations of the Amorican republic had been repeatedly shaken or overthrown but the same people still guarded their domestic freedom asserted the dignity of the Roman name and bravely resisted the predatory inroads and regular attacks of Clovis who labored to extend his conquests from the sane to the lower. Their successful opposition introduced an equal and honorable union. The Franks esteemed the valor of the Amoricans and the Amoricans were reconciled by the religion of the Franks. The military force which had been stationed for the defense of Gaul consisted of 100 different bands of cavalry or infantry and these troops while they assumed the title and privileges of Roman soldiers were renewed by an assassin supply of the barbarian youth. The extreme fortifications and scattered fragments of the empire were still defended by their hopeless courage but their retreat was intercepted and their communication was impracticable. They were abandoned by the Greek princes of Constantinople and they piously disclaimed all connections with the Aryan usurpers of Gaul. They accepted without shame or reluctance the generous capitulation which was proposed by a Catholic hero and this spurious or legitimate progeny of the Roman legions were distinguished in the succeeding age by their arms their insigns and their peculiar dress and institutions. But the national strength was increased by these powerful and voluntary assessions and the neighboring kingdoms dreaded the numbers as well as the spirit of the Franks. The reduction of the northern provinces of Gaul instead of being decided by the chance of a single battle appears to have been slowly affected by the gradual operation of war and treaty and Clovis acquired each object of his ambition by such efforts or such concessions as were adequate to its real value. His savage character and the virtues of Henry IV suggest the most opposite ideas of human nature yet some resemblance may be found in the situation of two princes who conquered France by their valor their policy and the merits of a seasonable conversion. The kingdom of the Burgundians which was defined by the course of two Gallic rivers the Saint and the Rhône extended from the forest of Vos to the Alps and the Sea of Marseille. The scepter was in the hands of Gundobald. That valiant and ambitious prince had reduced the number of royal candidates by the death of two brothers one of whom was the father of Clotilde but his imperfect prudence still permitted Gadesgill the youngest of his brothers to possess the dependent principality of Geneva. The Aryan monarch was justly alarmed by the satisfaction and the hopes which seemed to animate his clergy and people after the conversion of Clovis and Gundobald convened at Lyon an assembly of his bishops to reconcile if it were possible the religious and political discontents. A vain conference was agitated between the two factions. The Aryans upgraded the Catholics for the worship of three gods. The Catholics defended their cause by theological distinctions and the usual arguments objections and replies were reverberated with obstinate clamor till the king revealed his secret apprehensions by an abrupt but decisive question which he addressed to the orthodox bishops. If you truly profess the Christian religion why do you not restrain the king of the Franks? He has declared war against me and forms alliances with my enemies for my destruction. A sanguinary and covetous mind is not the symptom of a sincere conversion. Let him show his faith by his works. The answer of Avitus, Bishop of Vienne, who spoke in the name of his brethren was delivered with the voice and countenance of an angel. We are ignorant of the motives and intentions of the king of the Franks but we are taught by scripture that the kingdoms which abandon the divine law are frequently subverted and that the enemies will arise on every side against those who have made God their enemy. Return with thy people to the law of God and he will give peace and security to thy dominions. The king of Burgundy, who was not prepared to accept the condition which the Catholics considered as essential to the treaty, delayed and dismissed the ecclesiastical conference after reproaching his bishops that Clovis, their friend in proselytite, had privately attempted the allegiance of his brother. End of chapter 38 part 1