History of the World/History of the World (Bureau Development, Inc.)(1992).BIN/dp/0165/01654.txt

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$Pretitle{}
$Title{History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire
Part II.}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Gibbon, Edward}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{tom
clovis
footnote
ii
franks
de
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gaul
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$Date{1782 (Written), 1845 (Revised)}
$Log{}
Title:       History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire
Book:        Chapter XXXVIII: Reign Of Clovis.
Author:      Gibbon, Edward
Date:        1782 (Written), 1845 (Revised)

Part II.

     The allegiance of his brother was already seduced; and the obedience of
Godegesil, who joined the royal standard with the troops of Geneva, more
effectually promoted the success of the conspiracy.  While the Franks and
Burgundians contended with equal valor, his seasonable desertion decided the
event of the battle; and as Gundobald was faintly supported by the disaffected
Gauls, he yielded to the arms of Clovis, and hastily retreated from the field,
which appears to have been situate between Langres and Dijon.  He distrusted
the strength of Dijon, a quadrangular fortress, encompassed by two rivers, and
by a wall thirty feet high, and fifteen thick, with four gates, and
thirty-three towers: ^40 he abandoned to the pursuit of Clovis the important
cities of Lyons and Vienna; and Gundobald still fled with precipitation, till
he had reached Avignon, at the distance of two hundred and fifty miles from
the field of battle.  A long siege and an artful negotiation, admonished the
king of the Franks of the danger and difficulty of his enterprise.  He imposed
a tribute on the Burgundian prince, compelled him to pardon and reward his
brother's treachery, and proudly returned to his own dominions, with the
spoils and captives of the southern provinces.  This splendid triumph was soon
clouded by the intelligence, that Gundobald had violated his recent
obligations, and that the unfortunate Godegesil, who was left at Vienna with a
garrison of five thousand Franks, ^41 had been besieged, surprised, and
massacred by his inhuman brother.  Such an outrage might have exasperated the
patience of the most peaceful sovereign; yet the conqueror of Gaul dissembled
the injury, released the tribute, and accepted the alliance, and military
service, of the king of Burgundy.  Clovis no longer possessed those advantages
which had assured the success of the preceding war; and his rival, instructed
by adversity, had found new resources in the affections of his people.  The
Gauls or Romans applauded the mild and impartial laws of Gundobald, which
almost raised them to the same level with their conquerors.  The bishops were
reconciled, and flattered, by the hopes, which he artfully suggested, of his
approaching conversion; and though he eluded their accomplishment to the last
moment of his life, his moderation secured the peace, and suspended the ruin,
of the kingdom of Burgundy. ^42

[Footnote 40: Gregory of Tours (l. iii. c. 19, in tom. ii. p. 197) indulges
his genius, or rather describes some more eloquent writer, in the description
of Dijon; a castle, which already deserved the title of a city. It depended on
the bishops of Langres till the twelfth century, and afterwards became the
capital of the dukes of Burgundy Longuerue Description de la France, part i.
p. 280.]

[Footnote 41: The Epitomizer of Gregory of Tours (in tom. ii. p. 401) has
supplied this number of Franks; but he rashly supposes that they were cut in
pieces by Gundobald.  The prudent Burgundian spared the soldiers of Clovis,
and sent these captives to the king of the Visigoths, who settled them in the
territory of Thoulouse.]

[Footnote 42: In this Burgundian war I have followed Gregory of Tours, (l. ii.
c. 32, 33, in tom. ii. p. 178, 179,) whose narrative appears so incompatible
with that of Procopius, (de Bell. Goth. l. i. c. 12, in tom. ii. p. 31, 32,)
that some critics have supposed two different wars.  The Abbe Dubos (Hist.
Critique, &c., tom. ii. p. 126 - 162) has distinctly represented the causes
and the events.]

     I am impatient to pursue the final ruin of that kingdom, which was
accomplished under the reign of Sigismond, the son of Gundobald.  The Catholic
Sigismond has acquired the honors of a saint and martyr; ^43 but the hands of
the royal saint were stained with the blood of his innocent son, whom he
inhumanly sacrificed to the pride and resentment of a step- mother.  He soon
discovered his error, and bewailed the irreparable loss. While Sigismond
embraced the corpse of the unfortunate youth, he received a severe admonition
from one of his attendants: "It is not his situation, O king!  it is thine
which deserves pity and lamentation." The reproaches of a guilty conscience
were alleviated, however, by his liberal donations to the monastery of
Agaunum, or St. Maurice, in Vallais; which he himself had founded in honor of
the imaginary martyrs of the Thebaean legion. ^44 A full chorus of perpetual
psalmody was instituted by the pious king; he assiduously practised the
austere devotion of the monks; and it was his humble prayer, that Heaven would
inflict in this world the punishment of his sins.  His prayer was heard: the
avengers were at hand: and the provinces of Burgundy were overwhelmed by an
army of victorious Franks. After the event of an unsuccessful battle,
Sigismond, who wished to protract his life that he might prolong his penance,
concealed himself in the desert in a religious habit, till he was discovered
and betrayed by his subjects, who solicited the favor of their new masters.
The captive monarch, with his wife and two children, was transported to
Orleans, and buried alive in a deep well, by the stern command of the sons of
Clovis; whose cruelty might derive some excuse from the maxims and examples of
their barbarous age.  Their ambition, which urged them to achieve the conquest
of Burgundy, was inflamed, or disguised, by filial piety: and Clotilda, whose
sanctity did not consist in the forgiveness of injuries, pressed them to
revenge her father's death on the family of his assassin. The rebellious
Burgundians (for they attempted to break their chains) were still permitted to
enjoy their national laws under the obligation of tribute and military
service; and the Merovingian princes peaceably reigned over a kingdom, whose
glory and greatness had been first overthrown by the arms of Clovis. ^45

[Footnote 43: See his life or legend, (in tom. iii. p. 402.) A martyr!  how
strangely has that word been distorted from its original sense of a common
witness.  St. Sigismond was remarkable for the cure of fevers]

[Footnote 44: Before the end of the fifth century, the church of St. Maurice,
and his Thebaean legion, had rendered Agaunum a place of devout pilgrimage.  A
promiscuous community of both sexes had introduced some deeds of darkness,
which were abolished (A.D. 515) by the regular monastery of Sigismond.  Within
fifty years, his angels of light made a nocturnal sally to murder their
bishop, and his clergy.  See in the Bibliotheque Raisonnee (tom. xxxvi. p. 435
- 438) the curious remarks of a learned librarian of Geneva.]

[Footnote 45: Marius, bishop of Avenche, (Chron. in tom. ii. p. 15,) has
marked the authentic dates, and Gregory of Tours (l. iii. c. 5, 6, in tom. ii.
p. 188, 189) has expressed the principal facts, of the life of Sigismond, and
the conquest of Burgundy.  Procopius (in tom. ii. p. 34) and Agathias (in tom.
ii. p. 49) show their remote and imperfect knowledge.]

     The first victory of Clovis had insulted the honor of the Goths.  They
viewed his rapid progress with jealousy and terror; and the youthful fame of
Alaric was oppressed by the more potent genius of his rival.  Some disputes
inevitably arose on the edge of their contiguous dominions; and after the
delays of fruitless negotiation, a personal interview of the two kings was
proposed and accepted.  The conference of Clovis and Alaric was held in a
small island of the Loire, near Amboise.  They embraced, familiarly conversed,
and feasted together; and separated with the warmest professions of peace and
brotherly love.  But their apparent confidence concealed a dark suspicion of
hostile and treacherous designs; and their mutual complaints solicited,
eluded, and disclaimed, a final arbitration. At Paris, which he already
considered as his royal seat, Clovis declared to an assembly of the princes
and warriors, the pretence, and the motive, of a Gothic war.  "It grieves me
to see that the Arians still possess the fairest portion of Gaul.  Let us
march against them with the aid of God; and, having vanquished the heretics,
we will possess and divide their fertile provinces." ^46 The Franks, who were
inspired by hereditary valor and recent zeal, applauded the generous design of
their monarch; expressed their resolution to conquer or die, since death and
conquest would be equally profitable; and solemnly protested that they would
never shave their beards till victory should absolve them from that
inconvenient vow. The enterprise was promoted by the public or private
exhortations of Clotilda.  She reminded her husband how effectually some pious
foundation would propitiate the Deity, and his servants: and the Christian
hero, darting his battle-axe with a skilful and nervous band, "There, (said
he,) on that spot where my Francisca, ^47 shall fall, will I erect a church in
honor of the holy apostles." This ostentatious piety confirmed and justified
the attachment of the Catholics, with whom he secretly corresponded; and their
devout wishes were gradually ripened into a formidable conspiracy.  The people
of Aquitain were alarmed by the indiscreet reproaches of their Gothic tyrants,
who justly accused them of preferring the dominion of the Franks: and their
zealous adherent Quintianus, bishop of Rodez, ^48 preached more forcibly in
his exile than in his diocese.  To resist these foreign and domestic enemies,
who were fortified by the alliance of the Burgundians, Alaric collected his
troops, far more numerous than the military powers of Clovis.  The Visigoths
resumed the exercise of arms, which they had neglected in a long and luxurious
peace; ^49 a select band of valiant and robust slaves attended their masters
to the field; ^50 and the cities of Gaul were compelled to furnish their
doubtful and reluctant aid.  Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, who reigned in
Italy, had labored to maintain the tranquillity of Gaul; and he assumed, or
affected, for that purpose, the impartial character of a mediator.  But the
sagacious monarch dreaded the rising empire of Clovis, and he was firmly
engaged to support the national and religious cause of the Goths.

[Footnote 46: Gregory of Tours (l. ii. c. 37, in tom. ii. p. 181) inserts the
short but persuasive speech of Clovis.  Valde moleste fero, quod hi Ariani
partem teneant Galliarum, (the author of the Gesta Francorum, in tom. ii. p.
553, adds the precious epithet of optimam,) camus cum Dei adjutorio, et,
superatis eis, redigamus terram in ditionem nostram.]

[Footnote 47: Tunc rex projecit a se in directum Bipennem suam quod est
Francisca, &c. (Gesta Franc. in tom. ii. p. 554.) The form and use of this
weapon are clearly described by Procopius, (in tom. ii. p. 37.) Examples of
its national appellation in Latin and French may be found in the Glossary of
Ducange, and the large Dictionnaire de Trevoux.]

[Footnote 48: It is singular enough that some important and authentic facts
should be found in a Life of Quintianus, composed in rhyme in the old Patois
of Rouergue, (Dubos, Hist. Critique, &c., tom. ii. p. 179.)]

[Footnote 49: Quamvis fortitudini vestrae confidentiam tribuat parentum ves
trorum innumerabilis multitudo; quamvis Attilam potentem reminiscamini
Visigotharum viribus inclinatum; tamen quia populorum ferocia corda longa pace
mollescunt, cavete subito in alean aleam mittere, quos constat tantis
temporibus exercitia non habere.  Such was the salutary, but fruitless, advice
of peace of reason, and of Theodoric, (Cassiodor. l. iii. ep. 2.)]

[Footnote 50: Montesquieu (Esprit des Loix, l. xv. c. 14) mentions and
approves the law of the Visigoths, (l. ix. tit. 2, in tom. iv. p. 425,) which
obliged all masters to arm, and send, or lead, into the field a tenth of their
slaves.]

     The accidental, or artificial, prodigies which adorned the expedition of
Clovis, were accepted by a superstitious age, as the manifest declaration of
the divine favor.  He marched from Paris; and as he proceeded with decent
reverence through the holy diocese of Tours, his anxiety tempted him to
consult the shrine of St. Martin, the sanctuary and the oracle of Gaul.  His
messengers were instructed to remark the words of the Psalm which should
happen to be chanted at the precise moment when they entered the church.
Those words most fortunately expressed the valor and victory of the champions
of Heaven, and the application was easily transferred to the new Joshua, the
new Gideon, who went forth to battle against the enemies of the Lord. ^51
Orleans secured to the Franks a bridge on the Loire; but, at the distance of
forty miles from Poitiers, their progress was intercepted by an extraordinary
swell of the River Vigenna or Vienne; and the opposite banks were covered by
the encampment of the Visigoths.  Delay must be always dangerous to
Barbarians, who consume the country through which they march; and had Clovis
possessed leisure and materials, it might have been impracticable to construct
a bridge, or to force a passage, in the face of a superior enemy.  But the
affectionate peasants who were impatient to welcome their deliverer, could
easily betray some unknown or unguarded ford: the merit of the discovery was
enhanced by the useful interposition of fraud or fiction; and a white hart, of
singular size and beauty, appeared to guide and animate the march of the
Catholic army.  The counsels of the Visigoths were irresolute and distracted.
A crowd of impatient warriors, presumptuous in their strength, and disdaining
to fly before the robbers of Germany, excited Alaric to assert in arms the
name and blood of the conquerors of Rome.  The advice of the graver chieftains
pressed him to elude the first ardor of the Franks; and to expect, in the
southern provinces of Gaul, the veteran and victorious Ostrogoths, whom the
king of Italy had already sent to his assistance.  The decisive moments were
wasted in idle deliberation the Goths too hastily abandoned, perhaps, an
advantageous post; and the opportunity of a secure retreat was lost by their
slow and disorderly motions.  After Clovis had passed the ford, as it is still
named, of the Hart, he advanced with bold and hasty steps to prevent the
escape of the enemy.  His nocturnal march was directed by a flaming meteor,
suspended in the air above the cathedral of Poitiers; and this signal, which
might be previously concerted with the orthodox successor of St. Hilary, was
compared to the column of fire that guided the Israelites in the desert.  At
the third hour of the day, about ten miles beyond Poitiers, Clovis overtook,
and instantly attacked, the Gothic army; whose defeat was already prepared by
terror and confusion. Yet they rallied in their extreme distress, and the
martial youths, who had clamorously demanded the battle, refused to survive
the ignominy of flight. The two kings encountered each other in single combat.
Alaric fell by the hand of his rival; and the victorious Frank was saved by
the goodness of his cuirass, and the vigor of his horse, from the spears of
two desperate Goths, who furiously rode against him to revenge the death of
their sovereign.  The vague expression of a mountain of the slain, serves to
indicate a cruel though indefinite slaughter; but Gregory has carefully
observed, that his valiant countryman Apollinaris, the son of Sidonius, lost
his life at the head of the nobles of Auvergne.  Perhaps these suspected
Catholics had been maliciously exposed to the blind assault of the enemy; and
perhaps the influence of religion was superseded by personal attachment or
military honor. ^52

[Footnote 51: This mode of divination, by accepting as an omen the first
sacred words, which in particular circumstances should be presented to the eye
or ear, was derived from the Pagans; and the Psalter, or Bible, was
substituted to the poems of Homer and Virgil.  From the fourth to the
fourteenth century, these sortes sanctorum, as they are styled, were
repeatedly condemned by the decrees of councils, and repeatedly practised by
kings, bishops, and saints.  See a curious dissertation of the Abbe du Resnel,
in the Memoires de l'Academie, tom. xix. p. 287 - 310]

[Footnote 52: After correcting the text, or excusing the mistake, of
Procopius, who places the defeat of Alaric near Carcassone, we may conclude,
from the evidence of Gregory, Fortunatus, and the author of the Gesta
Francorum, that the battle was fought in campo Vocladensi, on the banks of the
Clain, about ten miles to the south of Poitiers.  Clovis overtook and attacked
the Visigoths near Vivonne, and the victory was decided near a village still
named Champagne St. Hilaire.  See the Dissertations of the Abbe le Boeuf, tom.
i. p. 304 - 331.]

     Such is the empire of Fortune, (if we may still disguise our ignorance
under that popular name,) that it is almost equally difficult to foresee the
events of war, or to explain their various consequences.  A bloody and
complete victory has sometimes yielded no more than the possession of the
field and the loss of ten thousand men has sometimes been sufficient to
destroy, in a single day, the work of ages.  The decisive battle of Poitiers
was followed by the conquest of Aquitain.  Alaric had left behind him an
infant son, a bastard competitor, factious nobles, and a disloyal people; and
the remaining forces of the Goths were oppressed by the general consternation,
or opposed to each other in civil discord.  The victorious king of the Franks
proceeded without delay to the siege of Angouleme.  At the sound of his
trumpets the walls of the city imitated the example of Jericho, and instantly
fell to the ground; a splendid miracle, which may be reduced to the
supposition, that some clerical engineers had secretly undermined the
foundations of the rampart. ^53 At Bordeaux, which had submitted without
resistance, Clovis established his winter quarters; and his prudent economy
transported from Thoulouse the royal treasures, which were deposited in the
capital of the monarchy.  The conqueror penetrated as far as the confines of
Spain; ^54 restored the honors of the Catholic church; fixed in Aquitain a
colony of Franks; ^55 and delegated to his lieutenants the easy task of
subduing, or extirpating, the nation of the Visigoths.  But the Visigoths were
protected by the wise and powerful monarch of Italy.  While the balance was
still equal, Theodoric had perhaps delayed the march of the Ostrogoths; but
their strenuous efforts successfully resisted the ambition of Clovis; and the
army of the Franks, and their Burgundian allies, was compelled to raise the
siege of Arles, with the loss, as it is said, of thirty thousand men.  These
vicissitudes inclined the fierce spirit of Clovis to acquiesce in an
advantageous treaty of peace.  The Visigoths were suffered to retain the
possession of Septimania, a narrow tract of sea-coast, from the Rhone to the
Pyrenees; but the ample province of Aquitain, from those mountains to the
Loire, was indissolubly united to the kingdom of France. ^56

[Footnote 53: Angouleme is in the road from Poitiers to Bordeaux; and although
Gregory delays the siege, I can more readily believe that he confounded the
order of history, than that Clovis neglected the rules of war.]

[Footnote 54: Pyrenaeos montes usque Perpinianum subjecit, is the expression
of Rorico, which betrays his recent date; since Perpignan did not exist before
the tenth century, (Marca Hispanica, p. 458.) This florid and fabulous writer
(perhaps a monk of Amiens - see the Abbe le Boeuf, Mem. de l'Academie, tom.
xvii. p. 228-245) relates, in the allegorical character of a shepherd, the
general history of his countrymen the Franks; but his narrative ends with the
death of Clovis.]

[Footnote 55: The author of the Gesta Francorum positively affirms, that
Clovis fixed a body of Franks in the Saintonge and Bourdelois: and he is not
injudiciously followed by Rorico, electos milites, atque fortissimos, cum
parvulis, atque mulieribus.  Yet it should seem that they soon mingled with
the Romans of Aquitain, till Charlemagne introduced a more numerous and
powerful colony, (Dubos, Hist. Critique, tom. ii. p. 215.)]

[Footnote 56: In the composition of the Gothic war, I have used the following
materials, with due regard to their unequal value.  Four epistles from
Theodoric, king of Italy, (Cassiodor l. iii. epist. 1 - 4. in tom. iv p. 3 -
5;) Procopius, (de Bell. Goth. l. i. c 12, in tom. ii. p. 32, 33;) Gregory of
Tours, (l. ii. c. 35, 36, 37, in tom. ii. p. 181 - 183;) Jornandes, (de Reb.
Geticis, c. 58, in tom. ii. p. 28;) Fortunatas, (in Vit. St. Hilarii, in tom.
iii. p. 380;) Isidore, (in Chron. Goth. in tom. ii. p. 702;) the Epitome of
Gregory of Tours, (in tom. ii. p. 401;) the author of the Gesta Francorum, (in
tom. ii. p. 553 - 555;) the Fragments of Fredegarius, (in tom. ii. p. 463;)
Aimoin, (l. i. c. 20, in tom. iii. p. 41, 42,) and Rorico, (l. iv. in tom.
iii. p. 14 - 19.)]

     After the success of the Gothic war, Clovis accepted the honors of the
Roman consulship.  The emperor Anastasius ambitiously bestowed on the most
powerful rival of Theodoric the title and ensigns of that eminent dignity;
yet, from some unknown cause, the name of Clovis has not been inscribed in the
Fasti either of the East or West. ^57 On the solemn day, the monarch of Gaul,
placing a diadem on his head, was invested, in the church of St. Martin, with
a purple tunic and mantle.  From thence he proceeded on horseback to the
cathedral of Tours; and, as he passed through the streets, profusely
scattered, with his own hand, a donative of gold and silver to the joyful
multitude, who incessantly repeated their acclamations of Consul and Augustus.
The actual or legal authority of Clovis could not receive any new accessions
from the consular dignity.  It was a name, a shadow, an empty pageant; and if
the conqueror had been instructed to claim the ancient prerogatives of that
high office, they must have expired with the period of its annual duration.
But the Romans were disposed to revere, in the person of their master, that
antique title which the emperors condescended to assume: the Barbarian himself
seemed to contract a sacred obligation to respect the majesty of the republic;
and the successors of Theodosius, by soliciting his friendship, tacitly
forgave, and almost ratified, the usurpation of Gaul.

[Footnote 57: The Fasti of Italy would naturally reject a consul, the enemy of
their sovereign; but any ingenious hypothesis that might explain the silence
of Constantinople and Egypt, (the Chronicle of Marcellinus, and the Paschal,)
is overturned by the similar silence of Marius, bishop of Avenche, who
composed his Fasti in the kingdom of Burgundy.  If the evidence of Gregory of
Tours were less weighty and positive, (l. ii. c. 38, in tom. ii. p. 183,) I
could believe that Clovis, like Odoacer, received the lasting title and honors
of Patrician, (Pagi Critica, tom. ii. p. 474, 492.)]

     Twenty-five years after the death of Clovis this important concession was
more formally declared, in a treaty between his sons and the emperor
Justinian.  The Ostrogoths of Italy, unable to defend their distant
acquisitions, had resigned to the Franks the cities of Arles and Marseilles;
of Arles, still adorned with the seat of a Praetorian praefect, and of
Marseilles, enriched by the advantages of trade and navigation. ^58 This
transaction was confirmed by the Imperial authority; and Justinian, generously
yielding to the Franks the sovereignty of the countries beyond the Alps, which
they already possessed, absolved the provincials from their allegiance; and
established on a more lawful, though not more solid, foundation, the throne of
the Merovingians. ^59 From that era they enjoyed the right of celebrating at
Arles the games of the circus; and by a singular privilege, which was denied
even to the Persian monarch, the gold coin, impressed with their name and
image, obtained a legal currency in the empire. ^60 A Greek historian of that
age has praised the private and public virtues of the Franks, with a partial
enthusiasm, which cannot be sufficiently justified by their domestic annals.
^61 He celebrates their politeness and urbanity, their regular government, and
orthodox religion; and boldly asserts, that these Barbarians could be
distinguished only by their dress and language from the subjects of Rome.
Perhaps the Franks already displayed the social disposition, and lively
graces, which, in every age, have disguised their vices, and sometimes
concealed their intrinsic merit.  Perhaps Agathias, and the Greeks, were
dazzled by the rapid progress of their arms, and the splendor of their empire.
Since the conquest of Burgundy, Gaul, except the Gothic province of
Septimania, was subject, in its whole extent, to the sons of Clovis.  They had
extinguished the German kingdom of Thuringia, and their vague dominion
penetrated beyond the Rhine, into the heart of their native forests.  The
Alemanni, and Bavarians, who had occupied the Roman provinces of Rhaetia and
Noricum, to the south of the Danube, confessed themselves the humble vassals
of the Franks; and the feeble barrier of the Alps was incapable of resisting
their ambition.  When the last survivor of the sons of Clovis united the
inheritance and conquests of the Merovingians, his kingdom extended far beyond
the limits of modern France.  Yet modern France, such has been the progress of
arts and policy, far surpasses, in wealth, populousness, and power, the
spacious but savage realms of Clotaire or Dagobert. ^62

[Footnote 58: Under the Merovingian kings, Marseilles still imported from the
East paper, wine, oil, linen, silk, precious stones, spices, &c.  The Gauls,
or Franks, traded to Syria, and the Syrians were established in Gaul.  See M.
de Guignes, Mem. de l'Academie, tom. xxxvii. p. 471 - 475.]

[Footnote 59: This strong declaration of Procopius (de Bell. Gothic. l. iii.
cap. 33, in tom. ii. p. 41) would almost suffice to justify the Abbe Dubos.]

[Footnote 60: The Franks, who probably used the mints of Treves, Lyons, and
Arles, imitated the coinage of the Roman emperors of seventy-two solidi, or
pieces, to the pound of gold.  But as the Franks established only a decuple
proportion of gold and silver, ten shillings will be a sufficient valuation of
their solidus of gold.  It was the common standard of the Barbaric fines, and
contained forty denarii, or silver three pences.  Twelve of these denarii made
a solidus, or shilling, the twentieth part of the ponderal and numeral livre,
or pound of silver, which has been so strangely reduced in modern France.  See
La Blanc, Traite Historique des Monnoyes de France, p. 36 - 43, &c.]

[Footnote 61: Agathias, in tom. ii. p. 47.  Gregory of Tours exhibits a very
different picture.  Perhaps it would not be easy, within the same historical
space, to find more vice and less virtue.  We are continually shocked by the
union of savage and corrupt manners.]

[Footnote 62: M. de Foncemagne has traced, in a correct and elegant
dissertation, (Mem. de l'Academie, tom. viii. p. 505-528,) the extent and
limits of the French monarchy.]

     The Franks, or French, are the only people of Europe who can deduce a
perpetual succession from the conquerors of the Western empire.  But their
conquest of Gaul was followed by ten centuries of anarchy and ignorance. On
the revival of learning, the students, who had been formed in the schools of
Athens and Rome, disdained their Barbarian ancestors; and a long period
elapsed before patient labor could provide the requisite materials to satisfy,
or rather to excite, the curiosity of more enlightened times. ^63 At length
the eye of criticism and philosophy was directed to the antiquities of France;
but even philosophers have been tainted by the contagion of prejudice and
passion.  The most extreme and exclusive systems, of the personal servitude of
the Gauls, or of their voluntary and equal alliance with the Franks, have been
rashly conceived, and obstinately defended; and the intemperate disputants
have accused each other of conspiring against the prerogative of the crown,
the dignity of the nobles, or the freedom of the people.  Yet the sharp
conflict has usefully exercised the adverse powers of learning and genius; and
each antagonist, alternately vanquished and victorious has extirpated some
ancient errors, and established some interesting truths.  An impartial
stranger, instructed by their discoveries, their disputes, and even their
faults, may describe, from the same original materials, the state of the Roman
provincials, after Gaul had submitted to the arms and laws of the Merovingian
kings. ^64

[Footnote 63: The Abbe Dubos (Histoire Critique, tom. i. p. 29 - 36) has truly
and agreeably represented the slow progress of these studies; and he observes,
that Gregory of Tours was only once printed before the year 1560. According to
the complaint of Heineccius, (Opera, tom. iii. Sylloge, iii. p. 248, &c.,)
Germany received with indifference and contempt the codes of Barbaric laws,
which were published by Heroldus, Lindenbrogius, &c.  At present those laws,
(as far as they relate to Gaul,) the history of Gregory of Tours, and all the
monuments of the Merovingian race, appear in a pure and perfect state, in the
first four volumes of the Historians of France.]

[Footnote 64: In the space of [about] thirty years (1728-1765) this
interesting subject has been agitated by the free spirit of the count de
Boulainvilliers, (Memoires Historiques sur l'Etat de la France, particularly
tom. i. p. 15 - 49;) the learned ingenuity of the Abbe Dubos, (Histoire
Critique de l'Etablissement de la Monarchie Francoise dans les Gaules, 2 vols.
in 4to;) the comprehensive genius of the president de Montesquieu, (Esprit des
Loix, particularly l. xxviii. xxx. xxxi.;) and the good sense and diligence of
the Abbe de Mably, (Observations sur l'Histoire de France, 2 vols. 12mo.)]

     The rudest, or the most servile, condition of human society, is
regulated, however, by some fixed and general rules.  When Tacitus surveyed
the primitive simplicity of the Germans, he discovered some permanent maxims,
or customs, of public and private life, which were preserved by faithful
tradition till the introduction of the art of writing, and of the Latin
tongue. ^65 Before the election of the Merovingian kings, the most powerful
tribe, or nation, of the Franks, appointed four venerable chieftains to
compose the Salic laws; ^66 and their labors were examined and approved in
three successive assemblies of the people.  After the baptism of Clovis, he
reformed several articles that appeared incompatible with Christianity: the
Salic law was again amended by his sons; and at length, under the reign of
Dagobert, the code was revised and promulgated in its actual form, one hundred
years after the establishment of the French monarchy.  Within the same period,
the customs of the Ripuarians were transcribed and published; and Charlemagne
himself, the legislator of his age and country, had accurately studied the two
national laws, which still prevailed among the Franks. ^67 The same care was
extended to their vassals; and the rude institutions of the Alemanni and
Bavarians were diligently compiled and ratified by the supreme authority of
the Merovingian kings.  The Visigoths and Burgundians, whose conquests in Gaul
preceded those of the Franks, showed less impatience to attain one of the
principal benefits of civilized society.  Euric was the first of the Gothic
princes who expressed, in writing, the manners and customs of his people; and
the composition of the Burgundian laws was a measure of policy rather than of
justice; to alleviate the yoke, and regain the affections, of their Gallic
subjects. ^68 Thus, by a singular coincidence, the Germans framed their
artless institutions, at a time when the elaborate system of Roman
jurisprudence was finally consummated.  In the Salic laws, and the Pandects of
Justinian, we may compare the first rudiments, and the full maturity, of civil
wisdom; and whatever prejudices may be suggested in favor of Barbarism, our
calmer reflections will ascribe to the Romans the superior advantages, not
only of science and reason, but of humanity and justice. Yet the laws ^* of
the Barbarians were adapted to their wants and desires, their occupations and
their capacity; and they all contributed to preserve the peace, and promote
the improvement, of the society for whose use they were originally
established.  The Merovingians, instead of imposing a uniform rule of conduct
on their various subjects, permitted each people, and each family, of their
empire, freely to enjoy their domestic institutions; ^69 nor were the Romans
excluded from the common benefits of this legal toleration. ^70 The children
embraced the law of their parents, the wife that of her husband, the freedman
that of his patron; and in all causes where the parties were of different
nations, the plaintiff or accuser was obliged to follow the tribunal of the
defendant, who may always plead a judicial presumption of right, or innocence.
A more ample latitude was allowed, if every citizen, in the presence of the
judge, might declare the law under which he desired to live, and the national
society to which he chose to belong.  Such an indulgence would abolish the
partial distinctions of victory: and the Roman provincials might patiently
acquiesce in the hardships of their condition; since it depended on themselves
to assume the privilege, if they dared to assert the character, of free and
warlike Barbarians. ^71

[Footnote 65: I have derived much instruction from two learned works of
Heineccius, the History, and the Elements, of the Germanic law.  In a
judicious preface to the Elements, he considers, and tries to excuse the
defects of that barbarous jurisprudence.]

[Footnote 66: Latin appears to have been the original language of the Salic
law.  It was probably composed in the beginning of the fifth century, before
the era (A.D. 421) of the real or fabulous Pharamond.  The preface mentions
the four cantons which produced the four legislators; and many provinces,
Franconia, Saxony, Hanover, Brabant, &c., have claimed them as their own.  See
an excellent Dissertation of Heinecties de Lege Salica, tom. iii. Sylloge iii.
p. 247 - 267.

     Note: The relative antiquity of the two copies of the Salic law has been
contested with great learning and ingenuity.  The work of M. Wiarda, History
and Explanation of the Salic Law, Bremen, 1808, asserts that what is called
the Lex Antiqua, or Vetustior in which many German words are mingled with the
Latin, has no claim to superior antiquity, and may be suspected to be more
modern.  M. Wiarda has been opposed by M. Fuer bach, who maintains the higher
age of the "ancient" Code, which has been greatly corrupted by the
transcribers.  See Guizot, Cours de l'Histoire Moderne, vol. i. sect. 9: and
the preface to the useful republication of five of the different texts of the
Salic law, with that of the Ripuarian in parallel columns.  By E. A. I.
Laspeyres, Halle, 1833. - M.]

[Footnote 67: Eginhard, in Vit. Caroli Magni, c. 29, in tom. v. p. 100.  By
these two laws, most critics understand the Salic and the Ripuarian.  The
former extended from the Carbonarian forest to the Loire, (tom. iv. p. 151,)
and the latter might be obeyed from the same forest to the Rhine, (tom. iv. p.
222.)]

[Footnote 68: Consult the ancient and modern prefaces of the several codes, in
the fourth volume of the Historians of France.  The original prologue to the
Salic law expresses (though in a foreign dialect) the genuine spirit of the
Franks more forcibly than the ten books of Gregory of Tours.]

[Footnote 69: The Ripuarian law declares, and defines, this indulgence in
favor of the plaintiff, (tit. xxxi. in tom. iv. p. 240;) and the same
toleration is understood, or expressed, in all the codes, except that of the
Visigoths of Spain.  Tanta diversitas legum (says Agobard in the ninth
century) quanta non solum in regionibus, aut civitatibus, sed etiam in multis
domibus habetur.  Nam plerumque contingit ut simul eant aut sedeant quinque
homines, et nullus eorum communem legem cum altero habeat, (in tom. vi. p.
356.) He foolishly proposes to introduce a uniformity of law, as well as of
faith.

     Note: It is the object of the important work of M. Savigny, Geschichte
des Romisches Rechts in Mittelalter, to show the perpetuity of the Roman law
from the 5th to the 12th century. - M.]

[Footnote *: The most complete collection of these codes is in the "Barbarorum
leges antiquae," by P. Canciani, 5 vols. folio, Venice, 1781-9. - M.]

[Footnote 70: Inter Romanos negotia causarum Romanis legibus praecipimus
terminari.  Such are the words of a general constitution promulgated by
Clotaire, the son of Clovis, the sole monarch of the Franks (in tom. iv. p.
116) about the year 560.]

[Footnote 71: This liberty of choice has been aptly deduced (Esprit des Loix,
l. xxviii. 2) from the constitution of Lothaire I. (Leg. Langobard. l. ii.
tit. lvii. in Codex Lindenbrog. p. 664;) though the example is too recent and
partial.  From a various reading in the Salic law, (tit. xliv. not. xlv.) the
Abbe de Mably (tom. i. p. 290 - 293) has conjectured, that, at first, a
Barbarian only, and afterwards any man, (consequently a Roman,) might live
according to the law of the Franks.  I am sorry to offend this ingenious
conjecture by observing, that the stricter sense (Barbarum) is expressed in
the reformed copy of Charlemagne; which is confirmed by the Royal and
Wolfenbuttle MSS.  The looser interpretation (hominem) is authorized only by
the MS. of Fulda, from from whence Heroldus published his edition.  See the
four original texts of the Salic law in tom. iv. p. 147, 173, 196, 220.

     Note: Gibbon appears to have doubted the evidence on which this "liberty
of choice" rested.  His doubts have been confirmed by the researches of M.
Savigny, who has not only confuted but traced with convincing sagacity the
origin and progress of this error.  As a general principle, though liable to
some exceptions, each lived according to his native law.  Romische Recht. vol.
i. p. 123 - 138 - M.]

     Note: This constitution of Lothaire at first related only to the duchy of
Rome; it afterwards found its way into the Lombard code. Savigny. p. 138. -
M.]