A devouring host of one hundred and twenty thousand Germans had

formerly passed the Rhine under the command of Ariovistus. One

third part of the fertile lands of the Sequani was appropriated

to their use; and the conqueror soon repeated his oppressive

demand of another third, for the accommodation of a new colony of

twenty-four thousand Barbarians, whom he had invited to share the

rich harvest of Gaul. 85 At the distance of five hundred years,

the Visigoths and Burgundians, who revenged the defeat of

Ariovistus, usurped the same unequal proportion of two thirds of

the subject lands. But this distribution, instead of spreading

over the province, may be reasonably confined to the peculiar

districts where the victorious people had been planted by their

own choice, or by the policy of their leader. In these districts,

each Barbarian was connected by the ties of hospitality with some

Roman provincial. To this unwelcome guest, the proprietor was

compelled to abandon two thirds of his patrimony, but the German,

a shepherd and a hunter, might sometimes content himself with a

spacious range of wood and pasture, and resign the smallest,

though most valuable, portion, to the toil of the industrious

husbandman. 86 The silence of ancient and authentic testimony has

encouraged an opinion, that the rapine of the Franks was not

moderated, or disguised, by the forms of a legal division; that

they dispersed themselves over the provinces of Gaul, without

order or control; and that each victorious robber, according to

his wants, his avarice, and his strength, measured with his sword

the extent of his new inheritance. At a distance from their

sovereign, the Barbarians might indeed be tempted to exercise

such arbitrary depredation; but the firm and artful policy of

Clovis must curb a licentious spirit, which would aggravate the

misery of the vanquished, whilst it corrupted the union and

discipline of the conquerors. 861 The memorable vase of Soissons

is a monument and a pledge of the regular distribution of the

Gallic spoils. It was the duty and the interest of Clovis to

provide rewards for a successful army, settlements for a numerous

people; without inflicting any wanton or superfluous injuries on

the loyal Catholics of Gaul. The ample fund, which he might

lawfully acquire, of the Imperial patrimony, vacant lands, and

Gothic usurpations, would diminish the cruel necessity of seizure

and confiscation, and the humble provincials would more patiently

acquiesce in the equal and regular distribution of their loss. 87

85 (return) [ Caesar de Bell. Gall. l. i. c. 31, in tom. i. p.

213.]

86 (return) [ The obscure hints of a division of lands

occasionally scattered in the laws of the Burgundians, (tit. liv.

No. 1, 2, in tom. iv. p. 271, 272,) and Visigoths, (l. x. tit. i.

No. 8, 9, 16, in tom. iv. p. 428, 429, 430,) are skillfully

explained by the president Montesquieu, (Esprit des Loix, l. xxx.

c. 7, 8, 9.) I shall only add, that among the Goths, the division

seems to have been ascertained by the judgment of the

neighborhood, that the Barbarians frequently usurped the

remaining third; and that the Romans might recover their right,

unless they were barred by a prescription of fifty years.]

861 (return) [ Sismondi (Hist des Francais, vol. i. p. 197)

observes, they were not a conquering people, who had emigrated

with their families, like the Goths or Burgundians. The women,

the children, the old, had not followed Clovis: they remained in

their ancient possessions on the Waal and the Rhine. The

adventurers alone had formed the invading force, and they always

considered themselves as an army, not as a colony. Hence their

laws retained no traces of the partition of the Roman properties.

It is curious to observe the recoil from the national vanity of

the French historians of the last century. M. Sismondi compares

the position of the Franks with regard to the conquered people

with that of the Dey of Algiers and his corsair troops to the

peaceful inhabitants of that province: M. Thierry (Lettres sur

l’Histoire de France, p. 117) with that of the Turks towards the

Raias or Phanariotes, the mass of the Greeks.—M.]

87 (return) [ It is singular enough that the president de

Montesquieu (Esprit des Loix, l. xxx. c. 7) and the Abbe de Mably

(Observations, tom i. p. 21, 22) agree in this strange

supposition of arbitrary and private rapine. The Count de

Boulainvilliers (Etat de la France, tom. i. p. 22, 23) shows a

strong understanding through a cloud of ignorance and prejudice.

Note: Sismondi supposes that the Barbarians, if a farm were

conveniently situated, would show no great respect for the laws

of property; but in general there would have been vacant land

enough for the lots assigned to old or worn-out warriors, (Hist.

des Francais, vol. i. p. 196.)—M.]

The wealth of the Merovingian princes consisted in their

extensive domain. After the conquest of Gaul, they still

delighted in the rustic simplicity of their ancestors; the cities

were abandoned to solitude and decay; and their coins, their

charters, and their synods, are still inscribed with the names of

the villas, or rural palaces, in which they successively resided.

One hundred and sixty of these palaces, a title which need not

excite any unseasonable ideas of art or luxury, were scattered

through the provinces of their kingdom; and if some might claim

the honors of a fortress, the far greater part could be esteemed

only in the light of profitable farms. The mansion of the

long-haired kings was surrounded with convenient yards and

stables, for the cattle and the poultry; the garden was planted

with useful vegetables; the various trades, the labors of

agriculture, and even the arts of hunting and fishing, were

exercised by servile hands for the emolument of the sovereign;

his magazines were filled with corn and wine, either for sale or

consumption; and the whole administration was conducted by the

strictest maxims of private economy. 88 This ample patrimony was

appropriated to supply the hospitable plenty of Clovis and his

successors; and to reward the fidelity of their brave companions

who, both in peace and war, were devoted to their personal

service. Instead of a horse, or a suit of armor, each companion,

according to his rank, or merit, or favor, was invested with a

benefice, the primitive name, and most simple form, of the feudal

possessions. These gifts might be resumed at the pleasure of the

sovereign; and his feeble prerogative derived some support from

the influence of his liberality. 881 But this dependent tenure

was gradually abolished 89 by the independent and rapacious

nobles of France, who established the perpetual property, and

hereditary succession, of their benefices; a revolution salutary

to the earth, which had been injured, or neglected, by its

precarious masters. 90 Besides these royal and beneficiary

estates, a large proportion had been assigned, in the division of

Gaul, of allodial and Salic lands: they were exempt from tribute,

and the Salic lands were equally shared among the male

descendants of the Franks. 91

88 (return) [ See the rustic edict, or rather code, of

Charlemagne, which contains seventy distinct and minute

regulations of that great monarch (in tom. v. p. 652-657.) He

requires an account of the horns and skins of the goats, allows

his fish to be sold, and carefully directs, that the larger

villas (Capitaneoe) shall maintain one hundred hens and thirty

geese; and the smaller (Mansionales) fifty hens and twelve geese.

Mabillon (de Re Diplomatica) has investigated the names, the

number, and the situation of the Merovingian villas.]

881 (return) [ The resumption of benefices at the pleasure of the

sovereign, (the general theory down to his time,) is ably

contested by Mr. Hallam; “for this resumption some delinquency

must be imputed to the vassal.” Middle Ages, vol. i. p. 162. The

reader will be interested by the singular analogies with the

beneficial and feudal system of Europe in a remote part of the

world, indicated by Col. Tod in his splendid work on Raja’sthan,

vol. ii p. 129, &c.—M.]

89 (return) [ From a passage of the Burgundian law (tit. i. No.

4, in tom. iv. p. 257) it is evident, that a deserving son might

expect to hold the lands which his father had received from the

royal bounty of Gundobald. The Burgundians would firmly maintain

their privilege, and their example might encourage the

Beneficiaries of France.]

90 (return) [ The revolutions of the benefices and fiefs are

clearly fixed by the Abbe de Mably. His accurate distinction of

times gives him a merit to which even Montesquieu is a stranger.]

91 (return) [ See the Salic law, (tit. lxii. in tom. iv. p. 156.)

The origin and nature of these Salic lands, which, in times of

ignorance, were perfectly understood, now perplex our most

learned and sagacious critics. * Note: No solution seems more

probable, than that the ancient lawgivers of the Salic Franks

prohibited females from inheriting the lands assigned to the

nation, upon its conquest of Gaul, both in compliance with their

ancient usages, and in order to secure the military service of

every proprietor. But lands subsequently acquired by purchase or

other means, though equally bound to the public defence, were

relieved from the severity of this rule, and presumed not to

belong to the class of Sallic. Hallam’s Middle Ages, vol. i. p.

145. Compare Sismondi, vol. i. p. 196.—M.]

In the bloody discord and silent decay of the Merovingian line, a

new order of tyrants arose in the provinces, who, under the

appellation of Seniors, or Lords, usurped a right to govern, and

a license to oppress, the subjects of their peculiar territory.

Their ambition might be checked by the hostile resistance of an

equal: but the laws were extinguished; and the sacrilegious

Barbarians, who dared to provoke the vengeance of a saint or

bishop, 92 would seldom respect the landmarks of a profane and

defenceless neighbor. The common or public rights of nature, such

as they had always been deemed by the Roman jurisprudence, 93

were severely restrained by the German conquerors, whose

amusement, or rather passion, was the exercise of hunting. The

vague dominion which Man has assumed over the wild inhabitants of

the earth, the air, and the waters, was confined to some

fortunate individuals of the human species. Gaul was again

overspread with woods; and the animals, who were reserved for the

use or pleasure of the lord, might ravage with impunity the

fields of his industrious vassals. The chase was the sacred

privilege of the nobles and their domestic servants. Plebeian

transgressors were legally chastised with stripes and

imprisonment; 94 but in an age which admitted a slight

composition for the life of a citizen, it was a capital crime to

destroy a stag or a wild bull within the precincts of the royal

forests. 95

92 (return) [ Many of the two hundred and six miracles of St.

Martin (Greg Turon. in Maxima Bibliotheca Patrum, tom. xi. p.

896-932) were repeatedly performed to punish sacrilege. Audite

haec omnes (exclaims the bishop of Tours) protestatem habentes,

after relating, how some horses ran mad, that had been turned

into a sacred meadow.]

93 (return) [ Heinec. Element. Jur. German. l. ii. p. 1, No. 8.]

94 (return) [ Jonas, bishop of Orleans, (A.D. 821-826. Cave,

Hist. Litteraria, p. 443,) censures the legal tyranny of the

nobles. Pro feris, quas cura hominum non aluit, sed Deus in

commune mortalibus ad utendum concessit, pauperes a potentioribus

spoliantur, flagellantur, ergastulis detruduntur, et multa alia

patiuntur. Hoc enim qui faciunt, lege mundi se facere juste posse

contendant. De Institutione Laicorum, l. ii. c. 23, apud

Thomassin, Discipline de l’Eglise, tom. iii. p. 1348.]

95 (return) [ On a mere suspicion, Chundo, a chamberlain of

Gontram, king of Burgundy, was stoned to death, (Greg. Turon. l.

x. c. 10, in tom. ii. p. 369.) John of Salisbury (Policrat. l. i.

c. 4) asserts the rights of nature, and exposes the cruel

practice of the twelfth century. See Heineccius, Elem. Jur. Germ.

l. ii. p. 1, No. 51-57.]

According to the maxims of ancient war, the conqueror became the

lawful master of the enemy whom he had subdued and spared: 96 and

the fruitful cause of personal slavery, which had been almost

suppressed by the peaceful sovereignty of Rome, was again revived

and multiplied by the perpetual hostilities of the independent

Barbarians. The Goth, the Burgundian, or the Frank, who returned

from a successful expedition, dragged after him a long train of

sheep, of oxen, and of human captives, whom he treated with the

same brutal contempt. The youths of an elegant form and an

ingenuous aspect were set apart for the domestic service; a

doubtful situation, which alternately exposed them to the

favorable or cruel impulse of passion. The useful mechanics and

servants (smiths, carpenters, tailors, shoemakers, cooks,

gardeners, dyers, and workmen in gold and silver, &c.) employed

their skill for the use, or profit, of their master. But the

Roman captives, who were destitute of art, but capable of labor,

were condemned, without regard to their former rank, to tend the

cattle and cultivate the lands of the Barbarians. The number of

the hereditary bondsmen, who were attached to the Gallic estates,

was continually increased by new supplies; and the servile

people, according to the situation and temper of their lords, was

sometimes raised by precarious indulgence, and more frequently

depressed by capricious despotism. 97 An absolute power of life

and death was exercised by these lords; and when they married

their daughters, a train of useful servants, chained on the

wagons to prevent their escape, was sent as a nuptial present

into a distant country. 98 The majesty of the Roman laws

protected the liberty of each citizen, against the rash effects

of his own distress or despair. But the subjects of the

Merovingian kings might alienate their personal freedom; and this

act of legal suicide, which was familiarly practised, is

expressed in terms most disgraceful and afflicting to the dignity

of human nature. 99 The example of the poor, who purchased life

by the sacrifice of all that can render life desirable, was

gradually imitated by the feeble and the devout, who, in times of

public disorder, pusillanimously crowded to shelter themselves

under the battlements of a powerful chief, and around the shrine

of a popular saint. Their submission was accepted by these

temporal or spiritual patrons; and the hasty transaction

irrecoverably fixed their own condition, and that of their latest

posterity. From the reign of Clovis, during five successive

centuries, the laws and manners of Gaul uniformly tended to

promote the increase, and to confirm the duration, of personal

servitude. Time and violence almost obliterated the intermediate

ranks of society; and left an obscure and narrow interval between

the noble and the slave. This arbitrary and recent division has

been transformed by pride and prejudice into a national

distinction, universally established by the arms and the laws of

the Merovingians. The nobles, who claimed their genuine or

fabulous descent from the independent and victorious Franks, have

asserted and abused the indefeasible right of conquest over a

prostrate crowd of slaves and plebeians, to whom they imputed the

imaginary disgrace of Gallic or Roman extraction.

96 (return) [ The custom of enslaving prisoners of war was

totally extinguished in the thirteenth century, by the prevailing

influence of Christianity; but it might be proved, from frequent

passages of Gregory of Tours, &c., that it was practised, without

censure, under the Merovingian race; and even Grotius himself,

(de Jure Belli et Pacis l. iii. c. 7,) as well as his commentator

Barbeyrac, have labored to reconcile it with the laws of nature

and reason.]

97 (return) [ The state, professions, &c., of the German,

Italian, and Gallic slaves, during the middle ages, are explained

by Heineccius, (Element Jur. Germ. l. i. No. 28-47,) Muratori,

(Dissertat. xiv. xv.,) Ducange, (Gloss. sub voce Servi,) and the

Abbe de Mably, (Observations, tom. ii. p. 3, &c., p. 237, &c.)

Note: Compare Hallam, vol. i. p. 216.—M.]

98 (return) [ Gregory of Tours (l. vi. c. 45, in tom. ii. p. 289)

relates a memorable example, in which Chilperic only abused the

private rights of a master. Many families which belonged to his

domus fiscales in the neighborhood of Paris, were forcibly sent

away into Spain.]

99 (return) [ Licentiam habeatis mihi qualemcunque volueritis

disciplinam ponere; vel venumdare, aut quod vobis placuerit de me

facere Marculf. Formul. l. ii. 28, in tom. iv. p. 497. The

Formula of Lindenbrogius, (p. 559,) and that of Anjou, (p. 565,)

are to the same effect Gregory of Tours (l. vii. c. 45, in tom.

ii. p. 311) speak of many person who sold themselves for bread,

in a great famine.]

The general state and revolutions of France, a name which was

imposed by the conquerors, may be illustrated by the particular

example of a province, a diocese, or a senatorial family.

Auvergne had formerly maintained a just preeminence among the

independent states and cities of Gaul. The brave and numerous

inhabitants displayed a singular trophy; the sword of Caesar

himself, which he had lost when he was repulsed before the walls

of Gergovia. 100 As the common offspring of Troy, they claimed a

fraternal alliance with the Romans; 101 and if each province had

imitated the courage and loyalty of Auvergne, the fall of the

Western empire might have been prevented or delayed. They firmly

maintained the fidelity which they had reluctantly sworn to the

Visigoths, out when their bravest nobles had fallen in the battle

of Poitiers, they accepted, without resistance, a victorious and

Catholic sovereign. This easy and valuable conquest was achieved

and possessed by Theodoric, the eldest son of Clovis: but the

remote province was separated from his Austrasian dominions, by

the intermediate kingdoms of Soissons, Paris, and Orleans, which

formed, after their father’s death, the inheritance of his three

brothers. The king of Paris, Childebert, was tempted by the

neighborhood and beauty of Auvergne. 102 The Upper country, which

rises towards the south into the mountains of the Cevennes,

presented a rich and various prospect of woods and pastures; the

sides of the hills were clothed with vines; and each eminence was

crowned with a villa or castle. In the Lower Auvergne, the River

Allier flows through the fair and spacious plain of Limagne; and

the inexhaustible fertility of the soil supplied, and still

supplies, without any interval of repose, the constant repetition

of the same harvests. 103 On the false report, that their lawful

sovereign had been slain in Germany, the city and diocese of

Auvergne were betrayed by the grandson of Sidonius Apollinaris.

Childebert enjoyed this clandestine victory; and the free

subjects of Theodoric threatened to desert his standard, if he

indulged his private resentment, while the nation was engaged in

the Burgundian war. But the Franks of Austrasia soon yielded to

the persuasive eloquence of their king. “Follow me,” said

Theodoric, “into Auvergne; I will lead you into a province, where

you may acquire gold, silver, slaves, cattle, and precious

apparel, to the full extent of your wishes. I repeat my promise;

I give you the people and their wealth as your prey; and you may

transport them at pleasure into your own country.” By the

execution of this promise, Theodoric justly forfeited the

allegiance of a people whom he devoted to destruction. His

troops, reenforced by the fiercest Barbarians of Germany, 104

spread desolation over the fruitful face of Auvergne; and two

places only, a strong castle and a holy shrine, were saved or

redeemed from their licentious fury. The castle of Meroliac 105

was seated on a lofty rock, which rose a hundred feet above the

surface of the plain; and a large reservoir of fresh water was

enclosed, with some arable lands, within the circle of its

fortifications. The Franks beheld with envy and despair this

impregnable fortress; but they surprised a party of fifty

stragglers; and, as they were oppressed by the number of their

captives, they fixed, at a trifling ransom, the alternative of

life or death for these wretched victims, whom the cruel

Barbarians were prepared to massacre on the refusal of the

garrison. Another detachment penetrated as far as Brivas, or

Brioude, where the inhabitants, with their valuable effects, had

taken refuge in the sanctuary of St. Julian. The doors of the

church resisted the assault; but a daring soldier entered through

a window of the choir, and opened a passage to his companions.

The clergy and people, the sacred and the profane spoils, were

rudely torn from the altar; and the sacrilegious division was

made at a small distance from the town of Brioude. But this act

of impiety was severely chastised by the devout son of Clovis. He

punished with death the most atrocious offenders; left their

secret accomplices to the vengeance of St. Julian; released the

captives; restored the plunder; and extended the rights of

sanctuary five miles round the sepulchre of the holy martyr. 106

100 (return) [ When Caesar saw it, he laughed, (Plutarch. in

Caesar. in tom. i. p. 409:) yet he relates his unsuccessful siege

of Gergovia with less frankness than we might expect from a great

man to whom victory was familiar. He acknowledges, however, that

in one attack he lost forty-six centurions and seven hundred men,

(de Bell. Gallico, l. vi. c. 44-53, in tom. i. p. 270-272.)]

101 (return) [ Audebant se quondam fatres Latio dicere, et

sanguine ab Iliaco populos computare, (Sidon. Apollinar. l. vii.

epist. 7, in tom i. p. 799.) I am not informed of the degrees and

circumstances of this fabulous pedigree.]

102 (return) [ Either the first, or second, partition among the

sons of Clovis, had given Berry to Childebert, (Greg. Turon. l.

iii. c. 12, in tom. ii. p. 192.) Velim (said he) Arvernam

Lemanem, quae tanta jocunditatis gratia refulgere dicitur, oculis

cernere, (l. iii. c. p. 191.) The face of the country was

concealed by a thick fog, when the king of Paris made his entry

into Clermen.]

103 (return) [ For the description of Auvergne, see Sidonius, (l.

iv. epist. 21, in tom. i. p. 703,) with the notes of Savaron and

Sirmond, (p. 279, and 51, of their respective editions.)

Boulainvilliers, (Etat de la France, tom. ii. p. 242-268,) and

the Abbe de la Longuerue, (Description de la France, part i. p.

132-139.)]

104 (return) [Furorem gentium, quae de ulteriore Rheni amnis

parte venerant, superare non poterat, (Greg. Turon. l. iv. c. 50,

in tom. ii. 229.) was the excuse of another king of Austrasia

(A.D. 574) for the ravages which his troops committed in the

neighborhood of Paris.]

105 (return) [ From the name and situation, the Benedictine

editors of Gregory of Tours (in tom. ii. p. 192) have fixed this

fortress at a place named Castel Merliac, two miles from Mauriac,

in the Upper Auvergne. In this description, I translate infra as

if I read intra; the two are perpetually confounded by Gregory,

or his transcribed and the sense must always decide.]

106 (return) [ See these revolutions, and wars, of Auvergne, in

Gregory of Tours, (l. ii. c. 37, in tom. ii. p. 183, and l. iii.

c. 9, 12, 13, p. 191, 192, de Miraculis St. Julian. c. 13, in

tom. ii. p. 466.) He frequently betrays his extraordinary

attention to his native country.]

Chapter XXXVIII: Reign Of Clovis.—Part IV.

Before the Austrasian army retreated from Auvergne, Theodoric

exacted some pledges of the future loyalty of a people, whose

just hatred could be restrained only by their fear. A select band

of noble youths, the sons of the principal senators, was

delivered to the conqueror, as the hostages of the faith of

Childebert, and of their countrymen. On the first rumor of war,

or conspiracy, these guiltless youths were reduced to a state of

servitude; and one of them, Attalus, 107 whose adventures are

more particularly related, kept his master’s horses in the

diocese of Treves. After a painful search, he was discovered, in

this unworthy occupation, by the emissaries of his grandfather,

Gregory bishop of Langres; but his offers of ransom were sternly

rejected by the avarice of the Barbarian, who required an

exorbitant sum of ten pounds of gold for the freedom of his noble

captive. His deliverance was effected by the hardy stratagem of

Leo, a slave belonging to the kitchens of the bishop of Langres.

108 An unknown agent easily introduced him into the same family.

The Barbarian purchased Leo for the price of twelve pieces of

gold; and was pleased to learn that he was deeply skilled in the

luxury of an episcopal table: “Next Sunday,” said the Frank, “I

shall invite my neighbors and kinsmen. Exert thy art, and force

them to confess, that they have never seen, or tasted, such an

entertainment, even in the king’s house.” Leo assured him, that

if he would provide a sufficient quantity of poultry, his wishes

should be satisfied. The master who already aspired to the merit

of elegant hospitality, assumed, as his own, the praise which the

voracious guests unanimously bestowed on his cook; and the

dexterous Leo insensibly acquired the trust and management of his

household. After the patient expectation of a whole year, he

cautiously whispered his design to Attalus, and exhorted him to

prepare for flight in the ensuing night. At the hour of midnight,

the intemperate guests retired from the table; and the Frank’s

son-in-law, whom Leo attended to his apartment with a nocturnal

potation, condescended to jest on the facility with which he

might betray his trust. The intrepid slave, after sustaining this

dangerous raillery, entered his master’s bedchamber; removed his

spear and shield; silently drew the fleetest horses from the

stable; unbarred the ponderous gates; and excited Attalus to save

his life and liberty by incessant diligence. Their apprehensions

urged them to leave their horses on the banks of the Meuse; 109

they swam the river, wandered three days in the adjacent forest,

and subsisted only by the accidental discovery of a wild

plum-tree. As they lay concealed in a dark thicket, they heard

the noise of horses; they were terrified by the angry countenance

of their master, and they anxiously listened to his declaration,

that, if he could seize the guilty fugitives, one of them he

would cut in pieces with his sword, and would expose the other on

a gibbet. A length, Attalus and his faithful Leo reached the

friendly habitation of a presbyter of Rheims, who recruited their

fainting strength with bread and wine, concealed them from the

search of their enemy, and safely conducted them beyond the

limits of the Austrasian kingdom, to the episcopal palace of

Langres. Gregory embraced his grandson with tears of joy,

gratefully delivered Leo, with his whole family, from the yoke of

servitude, and bestowed on him the property of a farm, where he

might end his days in happiness and freedom. Perhaps this

singular adventure, which is marked with so many circumstances of

truth and nature, was related by Attalus himself, to his cousin

or nephew, the first historian of the Franks. Gregory of Tours

110 was born about sixty years after the death of Sidonius

Apollinaris; and their situation was almost similar, since each

of them was a native of Auvergne, a senator, and a bishop. The

difference of their style and sentiments may, therefore, express

the decay of Gaul; and clearly ascertain how much, in so short a

space, the human mind had lost of its energy and refinement. 111

107 (return) [ The story of Attalus is related by Gregory of

Tours, (l. iii. c. 16, tom. ii. p. 193-195.) His editor, the P.

Ruinart, confounds this Attalus, who was a youth (puer) in the

year 532, with a friend of Silonius of the same name, who was

count of Autun, fifty or sixty years before. Such an error, which

cannot be imputed to ignorance, is excused, in some degree, by

its own magnitude.]

108 (return) [ This Gregory, the great grandfather of Gregory of

Tours, (in tom. ii. p. 197, 490,) lived ninety-two years; of

which he passed forty as count of Autun, and thirty-two as bishop

of Langres. According to the poet Fortunatus, he displayed equal

merit in these different stations. Nobilis antiqua decurrens

prole parentum, Nobilior gestis, nunc super astra manet. Arbiter

ante ferox, dein pius ipse sacerdos, Quos domuit judex, fovit

amore patris.]

109 (return) [ As M. de Valois, and the P. Ruinart, are

determined to change the Mosella of the text into Mosa, it

becomes me to acquiesce in the alteration. Yet, after some

examination of the topography. I could defend the common

reading.]

110 (return) [ The parents of Gregory (Gregorius Florentius

Georgius) were of noble extraction, (natalibus... illustres,) and

they possessed large estates (latifundia) both in Auvergne and

Burgundy. He was born in the year 539, was consecrated bishop of

Tours in 573, and died in 593 or 595, soon after he had

terminated his history. See his life by Odo, abbot of Clugny, (in

tom. ii. p. 129-135,) and a new Life in the Mémoires de

l’Academie, &c., tom. xxvi. p. 598-637.]

111 (return) [ Decedente atque immo potius pereunte ab urbibus

Gallicanis liberalium cultura literarum, &c., (in praefat. in

tom. ii. p. 137,) is the complaint of Gregory himself, which he

fully verifies by his own work. His style is equally devoid of

elegance and simplicity. In a conspicuous station, he still

remained a stranger to his own age and country; and in a prolific

work (the five last books contain ten years) he has omitted

almost every thing that posterity desires to learn. I have

tediously acquired, by a painful perusal, the right of

pronouncing this unfavorable sentence]

We are now qualified to despise the opposite, and, perhaps,

artful, misrepresentations, which have softened, or exaggerated,

the oppression of the Romans of Gaul under the reign of the

Merovingians. The conquerors never promulgated any universal

edict of servitude, or confiscation; but a degenerate people, who

excused their weakness by the specious names of politeness and

peace, was exposed to the arms and laws of the ferocious

Barbarians, who contemptuously insulted their possessions, their

freedom, and their safety. Their personal injuries were partial

and irregular; but the great body of the Romans survived the

revolution, and still preserved the property, and privileges, of

citizens. A large portion of their lands was exacted for the use

of the Franks: but they enjoyed the remainder, exempt from

tribute; 112 and the same irresistible violence which swept away

the arts and manufactures of Gaul, destroyed the elaborate and

expensive system of Imperial despotism. The Provincials must

frequently deplore the savage jurisprudence of the Salic or

Ripuarian laws; but their private life, in the important concerns

of marriage, testaments, or inheritance, was still regulated by

the Theodosian Code; and a discontented Roman might freely

aspire, or descend, to the title and character of a Barbarian.

The honors of the state were accessible to his ambition: the

education and temper of the Romans more peculiarly qualified them

for the offices of civil government; and, as soon as emulation

had rekindled their military ardor, they were permitted to march

in the ranks, or even at the head, of the victorious Germans. I

shall not attempt to enumerate the generals and magistrates,

whose names 113 attest the liberal policy of the Merovingians.

The supreme command of Burgundy, with the title of Patrician, was

successively intrusted to three Romans; and the last, and most

powerful, Mummolus, 114 who alternately saved and disturbed the

monarchy, had supplanted his father in the station of count of

Autun, and left a treasury of thirty talents of gold, and two

hundred and fifty talents of silver. The fierce and illiterate

Barbarians were excluded, during several generations, from the

dignities, and even from the orders, of the church. 115 The

clergy of Gaul consisted almost entirely of native provincials;

the haughty Franks fell at the feet of their subjects, who were

dignified with the episcopal character: and the power and riches

which had been lost in war, were insensibly recovered by

superstition. 116 In all temporal affairs, the Theodosian Code

was the universal law of the clergy; but the Barbaric

jurisprudence had liberally provided for their personal safety; a

sub-deacon was equivalent to two Franks; the antrustion, and

priest, were held in similar estimation: and the life of a bishop

was appreciated far above the common standard, at the price of

nine hundred pieces of gold. 117 The Romans communicated to their

conquerors the use of the Christian religion and Latin language;

118 but their language and their religion had alike degenerated

from the simple purity of the Augustan, and Apostolic age. The

progress of superstition and Barbarism was rapid and universal:

the worship of the saints concealed from vulgar eyes the God of

the Christians; and the rustic dialect of peasants and soldiers

was corrupted by a Teutonic idiom and pronunciation. Yet such

intercourse of sacred and social communion eradicated the

distinctions of birth and victory; and the nations of Gaul were

gradually confounded under the name and government of the Franks.

112 (return) [ The Abbe de Mably (tom. p. i. 247-267) has

diligently confirmed this opinion of the President de

Montesquieu, (Esprit des Loix, l. xxx. c. 13.)]

113 (return) [ See Dubos, Hist. Critique de la Monarchie

Francoise, tom. ii. l. vi. c. 9, 10. The French antiquarians

establish as a principle, that the Romans and Barbarians may be

distinguished by their names. Their names undoubtedly form a

reasonable presumption; yet in reading Gregory of Tours, I have

observed Gondulphus, of Senatorian, or Roman, extraction, (l. vi.

c. 11, in tom. ii. p. 273,) and Claudius, a Barbarian, (l. vii.

c. 29, p. 303.)]

114 (return) [ Eunius Mummolus is repeatedly mentioned by Gregory

of Tours, from the fourth (c. 42, p. 224) to the seventh (c. 40,

p. 310) book. The computation by talents is singular enough; but

if Gregory attached any meaning to that obsolete word, the

treasures of Mummolus must have exceeded 100,000 L. sterling.]

115 (return) [ See Fleury, Discours iii. sur l’Histoire

Ecclesiastique.]

116 (return) [ The bishop of Tours himself has recorded the

complaint of Chilperic, the grandson of Clovis. Ecce pauper

remansit Fiscus noster; ecce divitiae nostrae ad ecclesias sunt

translatae; nulli penitus nisi soli Episcopi regnant, (l. vi. c.

46, in tom. ii. p. 291.)]

117 (return) [ See the Ripuarian Code, (tit. xxxvi in tom. iv. p.

241.) The Salic law does not provide for the safety of the

clergy; and we might suppose, on the behalf of the more civilized

tribe, that they had not foreseen such an impious act as the

murder of a priest. Yet Praetextatus, archbishop of Rouen, was

assassinated by the order of Queen Fredegundis before the altar,

(Greg. Turon. l. viii. c. 31, in tom. ii. p. 326.)]

118 (return) [ M. Bonamy (Mem. de l’Academie des Inscriptions,

tom. xxiv. p. 582-670) has ascertained the Lingua Romana Rustica,

which, through the medium of the Romance, has gradually been

polished into the actual form of the French language. Under the

Carlovingian race, the kings and nobles of France still

understood the dialect of their German ancestors.]

The Franks, after they mingled with their Gallic subjects, might

have imparted the most valuable of human gifts, a spirit and

system of constitutional liberty. Under a king, hereditary, but

limited, the chiefs and counsellors might have debated at Paris,

in the palace of the Caesars: the adjacent field, where the

emperors reviewed their mercenary legions, would have admitted

the legislative assembly of freemen and warriors; and the rude

model, which had been sketched in the woods of Germany, 119 might

have been polished and improved by the civil wisdom of the

Romans. But the careless Barbarians, secure of their personal

independence, disdained the labor of government: the annual

assemblies of the month of March were silently abolished; and the

nation was separated, and almost dissolved, by the conquest of

Gaul. 120 The monarchy was left without any regular establishment

of justice, of arms, or of revenue. The successors of Clovis

wanted resolution to assume, or strength to exercise, the

legislative and executive powers, which the people had abdicated:

the royal prerogative was distinguished only by a more ample

privilege of rapine and murder; and the love of freedom, so often

invigorated and disgraced by private ambition, was reduced, among

the licentious Franks, to the contempt of order, and the desire

of impunity. Seventy-five years after the death of Clovis, his

grandson, Gontran, king of Burgundy, sent an army to invade the

Gothic possessions of Septimania, or Languedoc. The troops of

Burgundy, Berry, Auvergne, and the adjacent territories, were

excited by the hopes of spoil. They marched, without discipline,

under the banners of German, or Gallic, counts: their attack was

feeble and unsuccessful; but the friendly and hostile provinces

were desolated with indiscriminate rage. The cornfields, the

villages, the churches themselves, were consumed by fire: the

inhabitants were massacred, or dragged into captivity; and, in

the disorderly retreat, five thousand of these inhuman savages

were destroyed by hunger or intestine discord. When the pious

Gontran reproached the guilt or neglect of their leaders, and

threatened to inflict, not a legal sentence, but instant and

arbitrary execution, they accused the universal and incurable

corruption of the people. “No one,” they said, “any longer fears

or respects his king, his duke, or his count. Each man loves to

do evil, and freely indulges his criminal inclinations. The most

gentle correction provokes an immediate tumult, and the rash

magistrate, who presumes to censure or restrain his seditious

subjects, seldom escapes alive from their revenge.” 121 It has

been reserved for the same nation to expose, by their intemperate

vices, the most odious abuse of freedom; and to supply its loss

by the spirit of honor and humanity, which now alleviates and

dignifies their obedience to an absolute sovereign. 1211

119 (return) [ Ce beau systeme a ete trouve dans les bois.

Montesquieu, Esprit des Loix, l. xi. c. 6.]

120 (return) [ See the Abbe de Mably. Observations, &c., tom. i.

p. 34-56. It should seem that the institution of national

assemblies, which are with the French nation, has never been

congenial to its temper.]

121 (return) [ Gregory of Tours (l. viii. c. 30, in tom. ii. p.

325, 326) relates, with much indifference, the crimes, the

reproof, and the apology. Nullus Regem metuit, nullus Ducem,

nullus Comitem reveretur; et si fortassis alicui ista displicent,

et ea, pro longaevitate vitae vestrae, emendare conatur, statim

seditio in populo, statim tumultus exoritur, et in tantum

unusquisque contra seniorem saeva intentione grassatur, ut vix se

credat evadere, si tandem silere nequiverit.]

1211 (return) [ This remarkable passage was published in 1779—M.]

The Visigoths had resigned to Clovis the greatest part of their

Gallic possessions; but their loss was amply compensated by the

easy conquest, and secure enjoyment, of the provinces of Spain.

From the monarchy of the Goths, which soon involved the Suevic

kingdom of Gallicia, the modern Spaniards still derive some

national vanity; but the historian of the Roman empire is neither

invited, nor compelled, to pursue the obscure and barren series

of their annals. 122 The Goths of Spain were separated from the

rest of mankind by the lofty ridge of the Pyrenaean mountains:

their manners and institutions, as far as they were common to the

Germanic tribes, have been already explained. I have anticipated,

in the preceding chapter, the most important of their

ecclesiastical events, the fall of Arianism, and the persecution

of the Jews; and it only remains to observe some interesting

circumstances which relate to the civil and ecclesiastical

constitution of the Spanish kingdom.

122 (return) [ Spain, in these dark ages, has been peculiarly

unfortunate. The Franks had a Gregory of Tours; the Saxons, or

Angles, a Bede; the Lombards, a Paul Warnefrid, &c. But the

history of the Visigoths is contained in the short and imperfect

Chronicles of Isidore of Seville and John of Biclar]

After their conversion from idolatry or heresy, the Frank and the

Visigoths were disposed to embrace, with equal submission, the

inherent evils and the accidental benefits, of superstition. But

the prelates of France, long before the extinction of the

Merovingian race, had degenerated into fighting and hunting

Barbarians. They disdained the use of synods; forgot the laws of

temperance and chastity; and preferred the indulgence of private

ambition and luxury to the general interest of the sacerdotal

profession. 123 The bishops of Spain respected themselves, and

were respected by the public: their indissoluble union disguised

their vices, and confirmed their authority; and the regular

discipline of the church introduced peace, order, and stability,

into the government of the state. From the reign of Recared, the

first Catholic king, to that of Witiza, the immediate predecessor

of the unfortunate Roderic, sixteen national councils were

successively convened. The six metropolitans, Toledo, Seville,

Merida, Braga, Tarragona, and Narbonne, presided according to

their respective seniority; the assembly was composed of their

suffragan bishops, who appeared in person, or by their proxies;

and a place was assigned to the most holy, or opulent, of the

Spanish abbots. During the first three days of the convocation,

as long as they agitated the ecclesiastical question of doctrine

and discipline, the profane laity was excluded from their

debates; which were conducted, however, with decent solemnity.

But, on the morning of the fourth day, the doors were thrown open

for the entrance of the great officers of the palace, the dukes

and counts of the provinces, the judges of the cities, and the

Gothic nobles, and the decrees of Heaven were ratified by the

consent of the people.

The same rules were observed in the provincial assemblies, the

annual synods, which were empowered to hear complaints, and to

redress grievances; and a legal government was supported by the

prevailing influence of the Spanish clergy. The bishops, who, in

each revolution, were prepared to flatter the victorious, and to

insult the prostrate labored, with diligence and success, to

kindle the flames of persecution, and to exalt the mitre above

the crown. Yet the national councils of Toledo, in which the free

spirit of the Barbarians was tempered and guided by episcopal

policy, have established some prudent laws for the common benefit

of the king and people. The vacancy of the throne was supplied by

the choice of the bishops and palatines; and after the failure of

the line of Alaric, the regal dignity was still limited to the

pure and noble blood of the Goths. The clergy, who anointed their

lawful prince, always recommended, and sometimes practised, the

duty of allegiance; and the spiritual censures were denounced on

the heads of the impious subjects, who should resist his

authority, conspire against his life, or violate, by an indecent

union, the chastity even of his widow. But the monarch himself,

when he ascended the throne, was bound by a reciprocal oath to

God and his people, that he would faithfully execute this

important trust. The real or imaginary faults of his

administration were subject to the control of a powerful

aristocracy; and the bishops and palatines were guarded by a

fundamental privilege, that they should not be degraded,

imprisoned, tortured, nor punished with death, exile, or

confiscation, unless by the free and public judgment of their

peers. 124

123 (return) [ Such are the complaints of St. Boniface, the

apostle of Germany, and the reformer of Gaul, (in tom. iv. p.

94.) The fourscore years, which he deplores, of license and

corruption, would seem to insinuate that the Barbarians were

admitted into the clergy about the year 660.]

124 (return) [ The acts of the councils of Toledo are still the

most authentic records of the church and constitution of Spain.

The following passages are particularly important, (iii. 17, 18;

iv. 75; v. 2, 3, 4, 5, 8; vi. 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18; vii. 1;

xiii. 2 3 6.) I have found Mascou (Hist. of the Ancient Germans,

xv. 29, and Annotations, xxvi. and xxxiii.) and Ferreras (Hist.

Generale de l’Espagne, tom. ii.) very useful and accurate

guides.]

One of these legislative councils of Toledo examined and ratified

the code of laws which had been compiled by a succession of

Gothic kings, from the fierce Euric, to the devout Egica. As long

as the Visigoths themselves were satisfied with the rude customs

of their ancestors, they indulged their subjects of Aquitain and

Spain in the enjoyment of the Roman law. Their gradual

improvement in arts, in policy, and at length in religion,

encouraged them to imitate, and to supersede, these foreign

institutions; and to compose a code of civil and criminal

jurisprudence, for the use of a great and united people. The same

obligations, and the same privileges, were communicated to the

nations of the Spanish monarchy; and the conquerors, insensibly

renouncing the Teutonic idiom, submitted to the restraints of

equity, and exalted the Romans to the participation of freedom.

The merit of this impartial policy was enhanced by the situation

of Spain under the reign of the Visigoths. The provincials were

long separated from their Arian masters by the irreconcilable

difference of religion. After the conversion of Recared had

removed the prejudices of the Catholics, the coasts, both of the

Ocean and Mediterranean, were still possessed by the Eastern

emperors; who secretly excited a discontented people to reject

the yoke of the Barbarians, and to assert the name and dignity of

Roman citizens. The allegiance of doubtful subjects is indeed

most effectually secured by their own persuasion, that they

hazard more in a revolt, than they can hope to obtain by a

revolution; but it has appeared so natural to oppress those whom

we hate and fear, that the contrary system well deserves the

praise of wisdom and moderation. 125

125 (return) [ The Code of the Visigoths, regularly divided into

twelve books, has been correctly published by Dom Bouquet, (in

tom. iv. p. 273-460.) It has been treated by the President de

Montesquieu (Esprit des Loix, l. xxviii. c. 1) with excessive

severity. I dislike the style; I detest the superstition; but I

shall presume to think, that the civil jurisprudence displays a

more civilized and enlightened state of society, than that of the

Burgundians, or even of the Lombards.]

While the kingdom of the Franks and Visigoths were established in

Gaul and Spain, the Saxons achieved the conquest of Britain, the

third great diocese of the Praefecture of the West. Since Britain

was already separated from the Roman empire, I might, without

reproach, decline a story familiar to the most illiterate, and

obscure to the most learned, of my readers. The Saxons, who

excelled in the use of the oar, or the battle-axe, were ignorant

of the art which could alone perpetuate the fame of their

exploits; the Provincials, relapsing into barbarism, neglected to

describe the ruin of their country; and the doubtful tradition

was almost extinguished, before the missionaries of Rome restored

the light of science and Christianity. The declamations of

Gildas, the fragments, or fables, of Nennius, the obscure hints

of the Saxon laws and chronicles, and the ecclesiastical tales of

the venerable Bede, 126 have been illustrated by the diligence,

and sometimes embellished by the fancy, of succeeding writers,

whose works I am not ambitious either to censure or to

transcribe. 127 Yet the historian of the empire may be tempted to

pursue the revolutions of a Roman province, till it vanishes from

his sight; and an Englishman may curiously trace the

establishment of the Barbarians, from whom he derives his name,

his laws, and perhaps his origin.

126 (return) [ See Gildas de Excidio Britanniae, c. 11-25, p.

4-9, edit. Gale. Nennius, Hist. Britonum, c. 28, 35-65, p.

105-115, edit. Gale. Bede, Hist. Ecclesiast. Gentis Angloruml. i.

c. 12-16, p. 49-53. c. 22, p. 58, edit. Smith. Chron. Saxonicum,

p. 11-23, &c., edit. Gibson. The Anglo-Saxon laws were published

by Wilkins, London, 1731, in folio; and the Leges Wallicae, by

Wotton and Clarke, London, 1730, in folio.]

127 (return) [ The laborious Mr. Carte, and the ingenious Mr.

Whitaker, are the two modern writers to whom I am principally

indebted. The particular historian of Manchester embraces, under

that obscure title, a subject almost as extensive as the general

history of England. * Note: Add the Anglo-Saxon History of Mr. S.

Turner; and Sir F. Palgrave Sketch of the “Early History of

England.”—M.]

About forty years after the dissolution of the Roman government,

Vortigern appears to have obtained the supreme, though precarious

command of the princes and cities of Britain. That unfortunate

monarch has been almost unanimously condemned for the weak and

mischievous policy of inviting 128 a formidable stranger, to

repel the vexatious inroads of a domestic foe. His ambassadors

are despatched, by the gravest historians, to the coast of

Germany: they address a pathetic oration to the general assembly

of the Saxons, and those warlike Barbarians resolve to assist

with a fleet and army the suppliants of a distant and unknown

island. If Britain had indeed been unknown to the Saxons, the

measure of its calamities would have been less complete. But the

strength of the Roman government could not always guard the

maritime province against the pirates of Germany; the independent

and divided states were exposed to their attacks; and the Saxons

might sometimes join the Scots and the Picts, in a tacit, or

express, confederacy of rapine and destruction. Vortigern could

only balance the various perils, which assaulted on every side

his throne and his people; and his policy may deserve either

praise or excuse, if he preferred the alliance of those

Barbarians, whose naval power rendered them the most dangerous

enemies and the most serviceable allies. Hengist and Horsa, as

they ranged along the Eastern coast with three ships, were

engaged, by the promise of an ample stipend, to embrace the

defence of Britain; and their intrepid valor soon delivered the

country from the Caledonian invaders. The Isle of Thanet, a

secure and fertile district, was allotted for the residence of

these German auxiliaries, and they were supplied, according to

the treaty, with a plentiful allowance of clothing and

provisions. This favorable reception encouraged five thousand

warriors to embark with their families in seventeen vessels, and

the infant power of Hengist was fortified by this strong and

seasonable reenforcement. The crafty Barbarian suggested to

Vortigern the obvious advantage of fixing, in the neighborhood of

the Picts, a colony of faithful allies: a third fleet of forty

ships, under the command of his son and nephew, sailed from

Germany, ravaged the Orkneys, and disembarked a new army on the

coast of Northumberland, or Lothian, at the opposite extremity of

the devoted land. It was easy to foresee, but it was impossible

to prevent, the impending evils. The two nations were soon

divided and exasperated by mutual jealousies. The Saxons

magnified all that they had done and suffered in the cause of an

ungrateful people; while the Britons regretted the liberal

rewards which could not satisfy the avarice of those haughty

mercenaries. The causes of fear and hatred were inflamed into an

irreconcilable quarrel. The Saxons flew to arms; and if they

perpetrated a treacherous massacre during the security of a

feast, they destroyed the reciprocal confidence which sustains

the intercourse of peace and war. 129

128 (return) [ This invitation, which may derive some countenance

from the loose expressions of Gildas and Bede, is framed into a

regular story by Witikind, a Saxon monk of the tenth century,

(see Cousin, Hist. de l’Empire d’Occident, tom. ii. p. 356.)

Rapin, and even Hume, have too freely used this suspicious

evidence, without regarding the precise and probable testimony of

Tennius: Iterea venerunt tres Chinlae a exilio pulsoe, in quibus

erant Hors et Hengist.]

129 (return) [ Nennius imputes to the Saxons the murder of three

hundred British chiefs; a crime not unsuitable to their savage

manners. But we are not obliged to believe (see Jeffrey of

Monmouth, l. viii. c. 9-12) that Stonehenge is their monument,

which the giants had formerly transported from Africa to Ireland,

and which was removed to Britain by the order of Ambrosius, and

the art of Merlin. * Note: Sir f. Palgrave (Hist. of England, p.

36) is inclined to resolve the whole of these stories, as Niebuhr

the older Roman history, into poetry. To the editor they

appeared, in early youth, so essentially poetic, as to justify

the rash attempt to embody them in an Epic Poem, called Samor,

commenced at Eton, and finished before he had arrived at the

maturer taste of manhood.—M.]

Hengist, who boldly aspired to the conquest of Britain, exhorted

his countrymen to embrace the glorious opportunity: he painted in

lively colors the fertility of the soil, the wealth of the

cities, the pusillanimous temper of the natives, and the

convenient situation of a spacious solitary island, accessible on

all sides to the Saxon fleets. The successive colonies which

issued, in the period of a century, from the mouths of the Elbe,

the Weser, and the Rhine, were principally composed of three

valiant tribes or nations of Germany; the Jutes, the old Saxons,

and the Angles. The Jutes, who fought under the peculiar banner

of Hengist, assumed the merit of leading their countrymen in the

paths of glory, and of erecting, in Kent, the first independent

kingdom. The fame of the enterprise was attributed to the

primitive Saxons; and the common laws and language of the

conquerors are described by the national appellation of a people,

which, at the end of four hundred years, produced the first

monarchs of South Britain. The Angles were distinguished by their

numbers and their success; and they claimed the honor of fixing a

perpetual name on the country, of which they occupied the most

ample portion. The Barbarians, who followed the hopes of rapine

either on the land or sea, were insensibly blended with this

triple confederacy; the Frisians, who had been tempted by their

vicinity to the British shores, might balance, during a short

space, the strength and reputation of the native Saxons; the

Danes, the Prussians, the Rugians, are faintly described; and

some adventurous Huns, who had wandered as far as the Baltic,

might embark on board the German vessels, for the conquest of a

new world. 130 But this arduous achievement was not prepared or

executed by the union of national powers. Each intrepid

chieftain, according to the measure of his fame and fortunes,

assembled his followers; equipped a fleet of three, or perhaps of

sixty, vessels; chose the place of the attack; and conducted his

subsequent operations according to the events of the war, and the

dictates of his private interest. In the invasion of Britain many

heroes vanquished and fell; but only seven victorious leaders

assumed, or at least maintained, the title of kings. Seven

independent thrones, the Saxon Heptarchy, 1301 were founded by

the conquerors, and seven families, one of which has been

continued, by female succession, to our present sovereign,

derived their equal and sacred lineage from Woden, the god of

war. It has been pretended, that this republic of kings was

moderated by a general council and a supreme magistrate. But such

an artificial scheme of policy is repugnant to the rude and

turbulent spirit of the Saxons: their laws are silent; and their

imperfect annals afford only a dark and bloody prospect of

intestine discord. 131

130 (return) [ All these tribes are expressly enumerated by Bede,

(l. i. c. 15, p. 52, l. v. c. 9, p. 190;) and though I have

considered Mr. Whitaker’s remarks, (Hist. of Manchester, vol. ii.

p. 538-543,) I do not perceive the absurdity of supposing that

the Frisians, &c., were mingled with the Anglo-Saxons.]

1301 (return) [ This term (the Heptarchy) must be rejected

because an idea is conveyed thereby which is substantially wrong.

At no one period were there ever seven kingdoms independent of

each other. Palgrave, vol. i. p. 46. Mr. Sharon Turner has the

merit of having first confuted the popular notion on this

subject. Anglo-Saxon History, vol. i. p. 302.—M.]

131 (return) [ Bede has enumerated seven kings, two Saxons, a

Jute, and four Angles, who successively acquired in the heptarchy

an indefinite supremacy of power and renown. But their reign was

the effect, not of law, but of conquest; and he observes, in

similar terms, that one of them subdued the Isles of Man and

Anglesey; and that another imposed a tribute on the Scots and

Picts. (Hist. Eccles. l. ii. c. 5, p. 83.)]

A monk, who, in the profound ignorance of human life, has

presumed to exercise the office of historian, strangely

disfigures the state of Britain at the time of its separation

from the Western empire. Gildas 132 describes in florid language

the improvements of agriculture, the foreign trade which flowed

with every tide into the Thames and the Severn the solid and

lofty construction of public and private edifices; he accuses the

sinful luxury of the British people; of a people, according to

the same writer, ignorant of the most simple arts, and incapable,

without the aid of the Romans, of providing walls of stone, or

weapons of iron, for the defence of their native land. 133 Under

the long dominion of the emperors, Britain had been insensibly

moulded into the elegant and servile form of a Roman province,

whose safety was intrusted to a foreign power. The subjects of

Honorius contemplated their new freedom with surprise and terror;

they were left destitute of any civil or military constitution;

and their uncertain rulers wanted either skill, or courage, or

authority, to direct the public force against the common enemy.

The introduction of the Saxons betrayed their internal weakness,

and degraded the character both of the prince and people. Their

consternation magnified the danger; the want of union diminished

their resources; and the madness of civil factions was more

solicitous to accuse, than to remedy, the evils, which they

imputed to the misconduct of their adversaries.

Yet the Britons were not ignorant, they could not be ignorant, of

the manufacture or the use of arms; the successive and disorderly

attacks of the Saxons allowed them to recover from their

amazement, and the prosperous or adverse events of the war added

discipline and experience to their native valor.

132 (return) [ See Gildas de Excidio Britanniae, c. i. p. l.

edit. Gale.]

133 (return) [ Mr. Whitaker (Hist. of Manchester, vol. ii. p.

503, 516) has smartly exposed this glaring absurdity, which had

passed unnoticed by the general historians, as they were

hastening to more interesting and important events]

While the continent of Europe and Africa yielded, without

resistance, to the Barbarians, the British island, alone and

unaided, maintained a long, a vigorous, though an unsuccessful,

struggle, against the formidable pirates, who, almost at the same

instant, assaulted the Northern, the Eastern, and the Southern

coasts. The cities which had been fortified with skill, were

defended with resolution; the advantages of ground, hills,

forests, and morasses, were diligently improved by the

inhabitants; the conquest of each district was purchased with

blood; and the defeats of the Saxons are strongly attested by the

discreet silence of their annalist. Hengist might hope to achieve

the conquest of Britain; but his ambition, in an active reign of

thirty-five years, was confined to the possession of Kent; and

the numerous colony which he had planted in the North, was

extirpated by the sword of the Britons. The monarchy of the West

Saxons was laboriously founded by the persevering efforts of

three martial generations. The life of Cerdic, one of the bravest

of the children of Woden, was consumed in the conquest of

Hampshire, and the Isle of Wight; and the loss which he sustained

in the battle of Mount Badon, reduced him to a state of

inglorious repose. Kenric, his valiant son, advanced into

Wiltshire; besieged Salisbury, at that time seated on a

commanding eminence; and vanquished an army which advanced to the

relief of the city. In the subsequent battle of Marlborough, 134

his British enemies displayed their military science. Their

troops were formed in three lines; each line consisted of three

distinct bodies, and the cavalry, the archers, and the pikemen,

were distributed according to the principles of Roman tactics.

The Saxons charged in one weighty column, boldly encountered with

their shord swords the long lances of the Britons, and maintained

an equal conflict till the approach of night. Two decisive

victories, the death of three British kings, and the reduction of

Cirencester, Bath, and Gloucester, established the fame and power

of Ceaulin, the grandson of Cerdic, who carried his victorious

arms to the banks of the Severn.

134 (return) [ At Beran-birig, or Barbury-castle, near

Marlborough. The Saxon chronicle assigns the name and date.

Camden (Britannia, vol. i. p. 128) ascertains the place; and

Henry of Huntingdon (Scriptores pest Bedam, p. 314) relates the

circumstances of this battle. They are probable and

characteristic; and the historians of the twelfth century might

consult some materials that no longer exist.] After a war of a

hundred years, the independent Britons still occupied the whole

extent of the Western coast, from the wall of Antoninus to the

extreme promontory of Cornwall; and the principal cities of the

inland country still opposed the arms of the Barbarians.

Resistance became more languid, as the number and boldness of the

assailants continually increased. Winning their way by slow and

painful efforts, the Saxons, the Angles, and their various

confederates, advanced from the North, from the East, and from

the South, till their victorious banners were united in the

centre of the island. Beyond the Severn the Britons still

asserted their national freedom, which survived the heptarchy,

and even the monarchy, of the Saxons. The bravest warriors, who

preferred exile to slavery, found a secure refuge in the

mountains of Wales: the reluctant submission of Cornwall was

delayed for some ages; 135 and a band of fugitives acquired a

settlement in Gaul, by their own valor, or the liberality of the

Merovingian kings. 136 The Western angle of Armorica acquired the

new appellations of Cornwall, and the Lesser Britain; and the

vacant lands of the Osismii were filled by a strange people, who,

under the authority of their counts and bishops, preserved the

laws and language of their ancestors. To the feeble descendants

of Clovis and Charlemagne, the Britons of Armorica refused the

customary tribute, subdued the neighboring dioceses of Vannes,

Rennes, and Nantes, and formed a powerful, though vassal, state,

which has been united to the crown of France. 137

135 (return) [ Cornwall was finally subdued by Athelstan, (A.D.

927-941,) who planted an English colony at Exeter, and confined

the Britons beyond the River Tamar. See William of Malmsbury, l.

ii., in the Scriptores post Bedam, p. 50. The spirit of the

Cornish knights was degraded by servitude: and it should seem,

from the Romance of Sir Tristram, that their cowardice was almost

proverbial.]

136 (return) [ The establishment of the Britons in Gaul is proved

in the sixth century, by Procopius, Gregory of Tours, the second

council of Tours, (A.D. 567,) and the least suspicious of their

chronicles and lives of saints. The subscription of a bishop of

the Britons to the first council of Tours, (A.D. 461, or rather

481,) the army of Riothamus, and the loose declamation of Gildas,

(alii transmarinas petebant regiones, c. 25, p. 8,) may

countenance an emigration as early as the middle of the fifth

century. Beyond that era, the Britons of Armorica can be found

only in romance; and I am surprised that Mr. Whitaker (Genuine

History of the Britons, p. 214-221) should so faithfully

transcribe the gross ignorance of Carte, whose venial errors he

has so rigorously chastised.]

137 (return) [ The antiquities of Bretagne, which have been the

subject even of political controversy, are illustrated by Hadrian

Valesius, (Notitia Galliarum, sub voce Britannia Cismarina, p.

98-100.) M. D’Anville, (Notice de l’Ancienne Gaule, Corisopiti,

Curiosolites, Osismii, Vorganium, p. 248, 258, 508, 720, and

Etats de l’Europe, p. 76-80,) Longuerue, (Description de la

France, tom. i. p. 84-94,) and the Abbe de Vertot, (Hist.

Critique de l’Etablissement des Bretons dans les Gaules, 2 vols.

in 12 mo., Paris, 1720.) I may assume the merit of examining the

original evidence which they have produced. * Note: Compare

Gallet, Mémoires sur la Bretagne, and Daru, Histoire de Bretagne.

These authors appear to me to establish the point of the

independence of Bretagne at the time that the insular Britons

took refuge in their country, and that the greater part landed as

fugitives rather than as conquerors. I observe that M. Lappenberg

(Geschichte von England, vol. i. p. 56) supposes the settlement

of a military colony formed of British soldiers, (Milites

limitanei, laeti,) during the usurpation of Maximus, (381, 388,)

who gave their name and peculiar civilization to Bretagne. M.

Lappenberg expresses his surprise that Gibbon here rejects the

authority which he follows elsewhere.—M.]

Chapter XXXVIII: Reign Of Clovis.—Part V.

In a century of perpetual, or at least implacable, war, much

courage, and some skill, must have been exerted for the defence

of Britain. Yet if the memory of its champions is almost buried

in oblivion, we need not repine; since every age, however

destitute of science or virtue, sufficiently abounds with acts of

blood and military renown. The tomb of Vortimer, the son of

Vortigern, was erected on the margin of the sea-shore, as a

landmark formidable to the Saxons, whom he had thrice vanquished

in the fields of Kent. Ambrosius Aurelian was descended from a

noble family of Romans; 138 his modesty was equal to his valor,

and his valor, till the last fatal action, 139 was crowned with

splendid success. But every British name is effaced by the

illustrious name of Arthur, 140 the hereditary prince of the

Silures, in South Wales, and the elective king or general of the

nation. According to the most rational account, he defeated, in

twelve successive battles, the Angles of the North, and the

Saxons of the West; but the declining age of the hero was

imbittered by popular ingratitude and domestic misfortunes. The

events of his life are less interesting than the singular

revolutions of his fame. During a period of five hundred years

the tradition of his exploits was preserved, and rudely

embellished, by the obscure bards of Wales and Armorica, who were

odious to the Saxons, and unknown to the rest of mankind. The

pride and curiosity of the Norman conquerors prompted them to

inquire into the ancient history of Britain: they listened with

fond credulity to the tale of Arthur, and eagerly applauded the

merit of a prince who had triumphed over the Saxons, their common

enemies. His romance, transcribed in the Latin of Jeffrey of

Monmouth, and afterwards translated into the fashionable idiom of

the times, was enriched with the various, though incoherent,

ornaments which were familiar to the experience, the learning, or

the fancy, of the twelfth century. The progress of a Phrygian

colony, from the Tyber to the Thames, was easily ingrafted on the

fable of the Aeneid; and the royal ancestors of Arthur derived

their origin from Troy, and claimed their alliance with the

Caesars. His trophies were decorated with captive provinces and

Imperial titles; and his Danish victories avenged the recent

injuries of his country. The gallantry and superstition of the

British hero, his feasts and tournaments, and the memorable

institution of his Knights of the Round Table, were faithfully

copied from the reigning manners of chivalry; and the fabulous

exploits of Uther’s son appear less incredible than the

adventures which were achieved by the enterprising valor of the

Normans. Pilgrimage, and the holy wars, introduced into Europe

the specious miracles of Arabian magic. Fairies and giants,

flying dragons, and enchanted palaces, were blended with the more

simple fictions of the West; and the fate of Britain depended on

the art, or the predictions, of Merlin. Every nation embraced and

adorned the popular romance of Arthur, and the Knights of the

Round Table: their names were celebrated in Greece and Italy; and

the voluminous tales of Sir Lancelot and Sir Tristram were

devoutly studied by the princes and nobles, who disregarded the

genuine heroes and historians of antiquity. At length the light

of science and reason was rekindled; the talisman was broken; the

visionary fabric melted into air; and by a natural, though

unjust, reverse of the public opinion, the severity of the

present age is inclined to question the existence of Arthur. 141

138 (return) [ Bede, who in his chronicle (p. 28) places

Ambrosius under the reign of Zeno, (A.D. 474-491,) observes, that

his parents had been “purpura induti;” which he explains, in his

ecclesiastical history, by “regium nomen et insigne ferentibus,”

(l. i. c. 16, p. 53.) The expression of Nennius (c. 44, p. 110,

edit. Gale) is still more singular, “Unus de consulibus gentis

Romanicae est pater meus.”]

139 (return) [ By the unanimous, though doubtful, conjecture of

our antiquarians, Ambrosius is confounded with Natanleod, who

(A.D. 508) lost his own life, and five thousand of his subjects,

in a battle against Cerdic, the West Saxon, (Chron. Saxon. p. 17,

18.)]

140 (return) [ As I am a stranger to the Welsh bards, Myrdhin,

Llomarch, and Taliessin, my faith in the existence and exploits

of Arthur principally rests on the simple and circumstantial

testimony of Nennius. (Hist. Brit. c. 62, 63, p. 114.) Mr.

Whitaker, (Hist. of Manchester, vol. ii. p. 31-71) had framed an

interesting, and even probable, narrative of the wars of Arthur:

though it is impossible to allow the reality of the round table.

* Note: I presume that Gibbon means Llywarch Hen, or the

Aged.—The Elegies of this Welsh prince and bard have been

published by Mr. Owen; to whose works and in the Myvyrian

Archaeology, slumbers much curious information on the subject of

Welsh tradition and poetry. But the Welsh antiquarians have never

obtained a hearing from the public; they have had no Macpherson

to compensate for his corruption of their poetic legends by

forcing them into popularity.—See also Mr. Sharon Turner’s Essay

on the Welsh Bards.—M.]

141 (return) [ The progress of romance, and the state of

learning, in the middle ages, are illustrated by Mr. Thomas

Warton, with the taste of a poet, and the minute diligence of an

antiquarian. I have derived much instruction from the two learned

dissertations prefixed to the first volume of his History of

English Poetry. * Note: These valuable dissertations should not

now be read without the notes and preliminary essay of the late

editor, Mr. Price, which, in point of taste and fulness of

information, are worthy of accompanying and completing those of

Warton.—M.]

Resistance, if it cannot avert, must increase the miseries of

conquest; and conquest has never appeared more dreadful and

destructive than in the hands of the Saxons; who hated the valor

of their enemies, disdained the faith of treaties, and violated,

without remorse, the most sacred objects of the Christian

worship. The fields of battle might be traced, almost in every

district, by monuments of bones; the fragments of falling towers

were stained with blood; the last of the Britons, without

distinction of age or sex, was massacred, 142 in the ruins of

Anderida; 143 and the repetition of such calamities was frequent

and familiar under the Saxon heptarchy. The arts and religion,

the laws and language, which the Romans had so carefully planted

in Britain, were extirpated by their barbarous successors. After

the destruction of the principal churches, the bishops, who had

declined the crown of martyrdom, retired with the holy relics

into Wales and Armorica; the remains of their flocks were left

destitute of any spiritual food; the practice, and even the

remembrance, of Christianity were abolished; and the British

clergy might obtain some comfort from the damnation of the

idolatrous strangers. The kings of France maintained the

privileges of their Roman subjects; but the ferocious Saxons

trampled on the laws of Rome, and of the emperors. The

proceedings of civil and criminal jurisdiction, the titles of

honor, the forms of office, the ranks of society, and even the

domestic rights of marriage, testament, and inheritance, were

finally suppressed; and the indiscriminate crowd of noble and

plebeian slaves was governed by the traditionary customs, which

had been coarsely framed for the shepherds and pirates of

Germany. The language of science, of business, and of

conversation, which had been introduced by the Romans, was lost

in the general desolation. A sufficient number of Latin or Celtic

words might be assumed by the Germans, to express their new wants

and ideas; 144 but those illiterate Pagans preserved and

established the use of their national dialect. 145 Almost every

name, conspicuous either in the church or state, reveals its

Teutonic origin; 146 and the geography of England was universally

inscribed with foreign characters and appellations. The example

of a revolution, so rapid and so complete, may not easily be

found; but it will excite a probable suspicion, that the arts of

Rome were less deeply rooted in Britain than in Gaul or Spain;

and that the native rudeness of the country and its inhabitants

was covered by a thin varnish of Italian manners.

142 (return) [ Hoc anno (490) Aella et Cissa obsederunt

Andredes-Ceaster; et interfecerunt omnes qui id incoluerunt; adeo

ut ne unus Brito ibi superstes fuerit, (Chron. Saxon. p. 15;) an

expression more dreadful in its simplicity, than all the vague

and tedious lamentations of the British Jeremiah.]

143 (return) [ Andredes-Ceaster, or Anderida, is placed by Camden

(Britannia, vol. i. p. 258) at Newenden, in the marshy grounds of

Kent, which might be formerly covered by the sea, and on the edge

of the great forest (Anderida) which overspread so large a

portion of Hampshire and Sussex.]

144 (return) [ Dr. Johnson affirms, that few English words are of

British extraction. Mr. Whitaker, who understands the British

language, has discovered more than three thousand, and actually

produces a long and various catalogue, (vol. ii. p. 235-329.) It

is possible, indeed, that many of these words may have been

imported from the Latin or Saxon into the native idiom of

Britain. * Note: Dr. Prichard’s very curious researches, which

connect the Celtic, as well as the Teutonic languages with the

Indo-European class, make it still more difficult to decide

between the Celtic or Teutonic origin of English words.—See

Prichard on the Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations Oxford,

1831.—M.]

145 (return) [ In the beginning of the seventh century, the

Franks and the Anglo-Saxons mutually understood each other’s

language, which was derived from the same Teutonic root, (Bede,

l. i. c. 25, p. 60.)]

146 (return) [ After the first generation of Italian, or

Scottish, missionaries, the dignities of the church were filled

with Saxon proselytes.]

This strange alteration has persuaded historians, and even

philosophers, that the provincials of Britain were totally

exterminated; and that the vacant land was again peopled by the

perpetual influx, and rapid increase, of the German colonies.

Three hundred thousand Saxons are said to have obeyed the summons

of Hengist; 147 the entire emigation of the Angles was attested,

in the age of Bede, by the solitude of their native country; 148

and our experience has shown the free propagation of the human

race, if they are cast on a fruitful wilderness, where their

steps are unconfined, and their subsistence is plentiful. The

Saxon kingdoms displayed the face of recent discovery and

cultivation; the towns were small, the villages were distant; the

husbandry was languid and unskilful; four sheep were equivalent

to an acre of the best land; 149 an ample space of wood and

morass was resigned to the vague dominion of nature; and the

modern bishopric of Durham, the whole territory from the Tyne to

the Tees, had returned to its primitive state of a savage and

solitary forest. 150 Such imperfect population might have been

supplied, in some generations, by the English colonies; but

neither reason nor facts can justify the unnatural supposition,

that the Saxons of Britain remained alone in the desert which

they had subdued. After the sanguinary Barbarians had secured

their dominion, and gratified their revenge, it was their

interest to preserve the peasants as well as the cattle, of the

unresisting country. In each successive revolution, the patient

herd becomes the property of its new masters; and the salutary

compact of food and labor is silently ratified by their mutual

necessities. Wilfrid, the apostle of Sussex, 151 accepted from

his royal convert the gift of the peninsula of Selsey, near

Chichester, with the persons and property of its inhabitants, who

then amounted to eighty-seven families. He released them at once

from spiritual and temporal bondage; and two hundred and fifty

slaves of both sexes were baptized by their indulgent master. The

kingdom of Sussex, which spread from the sea to the Thames,

contained seven thousand families; twelve hundred were ascribed

to the Isle of Wight; and, if we multiply this vague computation,

it may seem probable, that England was cultivated by a million of

servants, or villains, who were attached to the estates of their

arbitrary landlords. The indigent Barbarians were often tempted

to sell their children, or themselves into perpetual, and even

foreign, bondage; 152 yet the special exemptions which were

granted to national slaves, 153 sufficiently declare that they

were much less numerous than the strangers and captives, who had

lost their liberty, or changed their masters, by the accidents of

war. When time and religion had mitigated the fierce spirit of

the Anglo-Saxons, the laws encouraged the frequent practice of

manumission; and their subjects, of Welsh or Cambrian extraction,

assumed the respectable station of inferior freemen, possessed of

lands, and entitled to the rights of civil society. 154 Such

gentle treatment might secure the allegiance of a fierce people,

who had been recently subdued on the confines of Wales and

Cornwall. The sage Ina, the legislator of Wessex, united the two

nations in the bands of domestic alliance; and four British lords

of Somersetshire may be honorably distinguished in the court of a

Saxon monarch. 155

147 (return) [ Carte’s History of England, vol. i. p. 195. He

quotes the British historians; but I much fear, that Jeffrey of

Monmouth (l. vi. c. 15) is his only witness.]

148 (return) [ Bede, Hist. Ecclesiast. l. i. c. 15, p. 52. The

fact is probable, and well attested: yet such was the loose

intermixture of the German tribes, that we find, in a subsequent

period, the law of the Angli and Warini of Germany, (Lindenbrog.

Codex, p. 479-486.)]

149 (return) [ See Dr. Henry’s useful and laborious History of

Great Britain, vol. ii. p. 388.]

150 (return) [ Quicquid (says John of Tinemouth) inter Tynam et

Tesam fluvios extitit, sola eremi vastitudo tunc temporis fuit,

et idcirco nullius ditioni servivit, eo quod sola indomitorum et

sylvestrium animalium spelunca et habitatio fuit, (apud Carte,

vol. i. p. 195.) From bishop Nicholson (English Historical

Library, p. 65, 98) I understand that fair copies of John of

Tinemouth’s ample collections are preserved in the libraries of

Oxford, Lambeth, &c.]

151 (return) [ See the mission of Wilfrid, &c., in Bede, Hist.

Eccles. l. iv. c. 13, 16, p. 155, 156, 159.]

152 (return) [ From the concurrent testimony of Bede (l. ii. c.

1, p. 78) and William of Malmsbury, (l. iii. p. 102,) it appears,

that the Anglo-Saxons, from the first to the last age, persisted

in this unnatural practice. Their youths were publicly sold in

the market of Rome.]

153 (return) [ According to the laws of Ina, they could not be

lawfully sold beyond the seas.]

154 (return) [ The life of a Wallus, or Cambricus, homo, who

possessed a hyde of land, is fixed at 120 shillings, by the same

laws (of Ina, tit. xxxii. in Leg. Anglo-Saxon. p. 20) which

allowed 200 shillings for a free Saxon, 1200 for a Thane, (see

likewise Leg. Anglo-Saxon. p. 71.) We may observe, that these

legislators, the West Saxons and Mercians, continued their

British conquests after they became Christians. The laws of the

four kings of Kent do not condescend to notice the existence of

any subject Britons.]

155 (return) [ See Carte’s Hist. of England, vol. i. p. 278.]

The independent Britons appear to have relapsed into the state of

original barbarism, from whence they had been imperfectly

reclaimed. Separated by their enemies from the rest of mankind,

they soon became an object of scandal and abhorrence to the

Catholic world. 156 Christianity was still professed in the

mountains of Wales; but the rude schismatics, in the form of the

clerical tonsure, and in the day of the celebration of Easter,

obstinately resisted the imperious mandates of the Roman

pontiffs. The use of the Latin language was insensibly abolished,

and the Britons were deprived of the art and learning which Italy

communicated to her Saxon proselytes. In Wales and Armorica, the

Celtic tongue, the native idiom of the West, was preserved and

propagated; and the Bards, who had been the companions of the

Druids, were still protected, in the sixteenth century, by the

laws of Elizabeth. Their chief, a respectable officer of the

courts of Pengwern, or Aberfraw, or Caermarthen, accompanied the

king’s servants to war: the monarchy of the Britons, which he

sung in the front of battle, excited their courage, and justified

their depredations; and the songster claimed for his legitimate

prize the fairest heifer of the spoil. His subordinate ministers,

the masters and disciples of vocal and instrumental music,

visited, in their respective circuits, the royal, the noble, and

the plebeian houses; and the public poverty, almost exhausted by

the clergy, was oppressed by the importunate demands of the

bards. Their rank and merit were ascertained by solemn trials,

and the strong belief of supernatural inspiration exalted the

fancy of the poet, and of his audience. 157 The last retreats of

Celtic freedom, the extreme territories of Gaul and Britain, were

less adapted to agriculture than to pasturage: the wealth of the

Britons consisted in their flocks and herds; milk and flesh were

their ordinary food; and bread was sometimes esteemed, or

rejected, as a foreign luxury. Liberty had peopled the mountains

of Wales and the morasses of Armorica; but their populousness has

been maliciously ascribed to the loose practice of polygamy; and

the houses of these licentious barbarians have been supposed to

contain ten wives, and perhaps fifty children. 158 Their

disposition was rash and choleric; they were bold in action and

in speech; 159 and as they were ignorant of the arts of peace,

they alternately indulged their passions in foreign and domestic

war. The cavalry of Armorica, the spearmen of Gwent, and the

archers of Merioneth, were equally formidable; but their poverty

could seldom procure either shields or helmets; and the

inconvenient weight would have retarded the speed and agility of

their desultory operations. One of the greatest of the English

monarchs was requested to satisfy the curiosity of a Greek

emperor concerning the state of Britain; and Henry II. could

assert, from his personal experience, that Wales was inhabited by

a race of naked warriors, who encountered, without fear, the

defensive armor of their enemies. 160

156 (return) [ At the conclusion of his history, (A.D. 731,) Bede

describes the ecclesiastical state of the island, and censures

the implacable, though impotent, hatred of the Britons against

the English nation, and the Catholic church, (l. v. c. 23, p.

219.)]

157 (return) [ Mr. Pennant’s Tour in Wales (p. 426-449) has

furnished me with a curious and interesting account of the Welsh

bards. In the year 1568, a session was held at Caerwys by the

special command of Queen Elizabeth, and regular degrees in vocal

and instrumental music were conferred on fifty-five minstrels.

The prize (a silver harp) was adjudged by the Mostyn family.]

158 (return) [ Regio longe lateque diffusa, milite, magis quam

credibile sit, referta. Partibus equidem in illis miles unus

quinquaginta generat, sortitus more barbaro denas aut amplius

uxores. This reproach of William of Poitiers (in the Historians

of France, tom. xi. p. 88) is disclaimed by the Benedictine

editors.]

159 (return) [ Giraldus Cambrensis confines this gift of bold and

ready eloquence to the Romans, the French, and the Britons. The

malicious Welshman insinuates that the English taciturnity might

possibly be the effect of their servitude under the Normans.]

160 (return) [ The picture of Welsh and Armorican manners is

drawn from Giraldus, (Descript. Cambriae, c. 6-15, inter Script.

Camden. p. 886-891,) and the authors quoted by the Abbe de

Vertot, (Hist. Critique tom. ii. p. 259-266.)]

By the revolution of Britain, the limits of science, as well as

of empire, were contracted. The dark cloud, which had been

cleared by the Phoenician discoveries, and finally dispelled by

the arms of Caesar, again settled on the shores of the Atlantic,

and a Roman province was again lost among the fabulous Islands of

the Ocean. One hundred and fifty years after the reign of

Honorius, the gravest historian of the times 161 describes the

wonders of a remote isle, whose eastern and western parts are

divided by an antique wall, the boundary of life and death, or,

more properly, of truth and fiction. The east is a fair country,

inhabited by a civilized people: the air is healthy, the waters

are pure and plentiful, and the earth yields her regular and

fruitful increase. In the west, beyond the wall, the air is

infectious and mortal; the ground is covered with serpents; and

this dreary solitude is the region of departed spirits, who are

transported from the opposite shores in substantial boats, and by

living rowers. Some families of fishermen, the subjects of the

Franks, are excused from tribute, in consideration of the

mysterious office which is performed by these Charons of the

ocean. Each in his turn is summoned, at the hour of midnight, to

hear the voices, and even the names, of the ghosts: he is

sensible of their weight, and he feels himself impelled by an

unknown, but irresistible power. After this dream of fancy, we

read with astonishment, that the name of this island is Brittia;

that it lies in the ocean, against the mouth of the Rhine, and

less than thirty miles from the continent; that it is possessed

by three nations, the Frisians, the Angles, and the Britons; and

that some Angles had appeared at Constantinople, in the train of

the French ambassadors. From these ambassadors Procopius might be

informed of a singular, though not improbable, adventure, which

announces the spirit, rather than the delicacy, of an English

heroine. She had been betrothed to Radiger, king of the Varni, a

tribe of Germans who touched the ocean and the Rhine; but the

perfidious lover was tempted, by motives of policy, to prefer his

father’s widow, the sister of Theodebert, king of the Franks. 162

The forsaken princess of the Angles, instead of bewailing,

revenged her disgrace. Her warlike subjects are said to have been

ignorant of the use, and even of the form, of a horse; but she

boldly sailed from Britain to the mouth of the Rhine, with a

fleet of four hundred ships, and an army of one hundred thousand

men. After the loss of a battle, the captive Radiger implored the

mercy of his victorious bride, who generously pardoned his

offence, dismissed her rival, and compelled the king of the Varni

to discharge with honor and fidelity the duties of a husband. 163

This gallant exploit appears to be the last naval enterprise of

the Anglo-Saxons. The arts of navigation, by which they acquired

the empire of Britain and of the sea, were soon neglected by the

indolent Barbarians, who supinely renounced all the commercial

advantages of their insular situation. Seven independent kingdoms

were agitated by perpetual discord; and the British world was

seldom connected, either in peace or war, with the nations of the

Continent. 164

161 (return) [ See Procopius de Bell. Gothic. l. iv. c. 20, p.

620-625. The Greek historian is himself so confounded by the

wonders which he relates, that he weakly attempts to distinguish

the islands of Britia and Britain, which he has identified by so

many inseparable circumstances.]

162 (return) [ Theodebert, grandson of Clovis, and king of

Austrasia, was the most powerful and warlike prince of the age;

and this remarkable adventure may be placed between the years 534

and 547, the extreme terms of his reign. His sister Theudechildis

retired to Sens, where she founded monasteries, and distributed

alms, (see the notes of the Benedictine editors, in tom. ii. p.

216.) If we may credit the praises of Fortunatus, (l. vi. carm.

5, in tom. ii. p. 507,) Radiger was deprived of a most valuable

wife.]

163 (return) [ Perhaps she was the sister of one of the princes

or chiefs of the Angles, who landed in 527, and the following

years, between the Humber and the Thames, and gradually founded

the kingdoms of East Anglia and Mercia. The English writers are

ignorant of her name and existence: but Procopius may have

suggested to Mr. Rowe the character and situation of Rodogune in

the tragedy of the Royal Convert.]

164 (return) [ In the copious history of Gregory of Tours, we

cannot find any traces of hostile or friendly intercourse between

France and England except in the marriage of the daughter of

Caribert, king of Paris, quam regis cujusdam in Cantia filius

matrimonio copulavit, (l. ix. c. 28, in tom. ii. p. 348.) The

bishop of Tours ended his history and his life almost immediately

before the conversion of Kent.]

I have now accomplished the laborious narrative of the decline

and fall of the Roman empire, from the fortunate age of Trajan

and the Antonines, to its total extinction in the West, about

five centuries after the Christian era. At that unhappy period,

the Saxons fiercely struggled with the natives for the possession

of Britain: Gaul and Spain were divided between the powerful

monarchies of the Franks and Visigoths, and the dependent

kingdoms of the Suevi and Burgundians: Africa was exposed to the

cruel persecution of the Vandals, and the savage insults of the

Moors: Rome and Italy, as far as the banks of the Danube, were

afflicted by an army of Barbarian mercenaries, whose lawless

tyranny was succeeded by the reign of Theodoric the Ostrogoth.

All the subjects of the empire, who, by the use of the Latin

language, more particularly deserved the name and privileges of

Romans, were oppressed by the disgrace and calamities of foreign

conquest; and the victorious nations of Germany established a new

system of manners and government in the western countries of

Europe. The majesty of Rome was faintly represented by the

princes of Constantinople, the feeble and imaginary successors of

Augustus. Yet they continued to reign over the East, from the

Danube to the Nile and Tigris; the Gothic and Vandal kingdoms of

Italy and Africa were subverted by the arms of Justinian; and the

history of the Greek emperors may still afford a long series of

instructive lessons, and interesting revolutions.

Chapter XXXVIII: Reign Of Clovis.—Part VI.

General Observations On The Fall Of The Roman Empire In The West.

The Greeks, after their country had been reduced into a province,

imputed the triumphs of Rome, not to the merit, but to the

fortune, of the republic. The inconstant goddess, who so blindly

distributes and resumes her favors, had now consented (such was

the language of envious flattery) to resign her wings, to descend

from her globe, and to fix her firm and immutable throne on the

banks of the Tyber. 1000 A wiser Greek, who has composed, with a

philosophic spirit, the memorable history of his own times,

deprived his countrymen of this vain and delusive comfort, by

opening to their view the deep foundations of the greatness of

Rome. 2000 The fidelity of the citizens to each other, and to the

state, was confirmed by the habits of education, and the

prejudices of religion. Honor, as well as virtue, was the

principle of the republic; the ambitious citizens labored to

deserve the solemn glories of a triumph; and the ardor of the

Roman youth was kindled into active emulation, as often as they

beheld the domestic images of their ancestors. 3000 The temperate

struggles of the patricians and plebeians had finally established

the firm and equal balance of the constitution; which united the

freedom of popular assemblies, with the authority and wisdom of a

senate, and the executive powers of a regal magistrate. When the

consul displayed the standard of the republic, each citizen bound

himself, by the obligation of an oath, to draw his sword in the

cause of his country, till he had discharged the sacred duty by a

military service of ten years. This wise institution continually

poured into the field the rising generations of freemen and

soldiers; and their numbers were reenforced by the warlike and

populous states of Italy, who, after a brave resistance, had

yielded to the valor and embraced the alliance, of the Romans.

The sage historian, who excited the virtue of the younger Scipio,

and beheld the ruin of Carthage, 4000 has accurately described

their military system; their levies, arms, exercises,

subordination, marches, encampments; and the invincible legion,

superior in active strength to the Macedonian phalanx of Philip

and Alexander. From these institutions of peace and war Polybius

has deduced the spirit and success of a people, incapable of

fear, and impatient of repose. The ambitious design of conquest,

which might have been defeated by the seasonable conspiracy of

mankind, was attempted and achieved; and the perpetual violation

of justice was maintained by the political virtues of prudence

and courage. The arms of the republic, sometimes vanquished in

battle, always victorious in war, advanced with rapid steps to

the Euphrates, the Danube, the Rhine, and the Ocean; and the

images of gold, or silver, or brass, that might serve to

represent the nations and their kings, were successively broken

by the iron monarchy of Rome. 5000

1000 (return) [ Such are the figurative expressions of Plutarch,

(Opera, tom. ii. p. 318, edit. Wechel,) to whom, on the faith of

his son Lamprias, (Fabricius, Bibliot. Graec. tom. iii. p. 341,)

I shall boldly impute the malicious declamation. The same

opinions had prevailed among the Greeks two hundred and fifty

years before Plutarch; and to confute them is the professed

intention of Polybius, (Hist. l. i. p. 90, edit. Gronov. Amstel.

1670.)]

2000 (return) [ See the inestimable remains of the sixth book of

Polybius, and many other parts of his general history,

particularly a digression in the seventeenth book, in which he

compares the phalanx and the legion.]

3000 (return) [ Sallust, de Bell. Jugurthin. c. 4. Such were the

generous professions of P. Scipio and Q. Maximus. The Latin

historian had read and most probably transcribes, Polybius, their

contemporary and friend.]

4000 (return) [ While Carthage was in flames, Scipio repeated two

lines of the Iliad, which express the destruction of Troy,

acknowledging to Polybius, his friend and preceptor, (Polyb. in

Excerpt. de Virtut. et Vit. tom. ii. p. 1455-1465,) that while he

recollected the vicissitudes of human affairs, he inwardly

applied them to the future calamities of Rome, (Appian. in

Libycis, p. 136, edit. Toll.)]

5000 (return) [ See Daniel, ii. 31-40. “And the fourth kingdom

shall be strong as iron; forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and

subdueth all things.” The remainder of the prophecy (the mixture

of iron and clay) was accomplished, according to St. Jerom, in

his own time. Sicut enim in principio nihil Romano Imperio

fortius et durius, ita in fine rerum nihil imbecillius; quum et

in bellis civilibus et adversus diversas nationes, aliarum

gentium barbararum auxilio indigemus, (Opera, tom. v. p. 572.)]

The rise of a city, which swelled into an empire, may deserve, as

a singular prodigy, the reflection of a philosophic mind. But the

decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of

immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principle of decay;

the causes of destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest;

and as soon as time or accident had removed the artificial

supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its

own weight. The story of its ruin is simple and obvious; and

instead of inquiring why the Roman empire was destroyed, we

should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long. The

victorious legions, who, in distant wars, acquired the vices of

strangers and mercenaries, first oppressed the freedom of the

republic, and afterwards violated the majesty of the purple. The

emperors, anxious for their personal safety and the public peace,

were reduced to the base expedient of corrupting the discipline

which rendered them alike formidable to their sovereign and to

the enemy; the vigor of the military government was relaxed, and

finally dissolved, by the partial institutions of Constantine;

and the Roman world was overwhelmed by a deluge of Barbarians.

The decay of Rome has been frequently ascribed to the translation

of the seat of empire; but this History has already shown, that

the powers of government were divided, rather than removed. The

throne of Constantinople was erected in the East; while the West

was still possessed by a series of emperors who held their

residence in Italy, and claimed their equal inheritance of the

legions and provinces. This dangerous novelty impaired the

strength, and fomented the vices, of a double reign: the

instruments of an oppressive and arbitrary system were

multiplied; and a vain emulation of luxury, not of merit, was

introduced and supported between the degenerate successors of

Theodosius. Extreme distress, which unites the virtue of a free

people, imbitters the factions of a declining monarchy. The

hostile favorites of Arcadius and Honorius betrayed the republic

to its common enemies; and the Byzantine court beheld with

indifference, perhaps with pleasure, the disgrace of Rome, the

misfortunes of Italy, and the loss of the West. Under the

succeeding reigns, the alliance of the two empires was restored;

but the aid of the Oriental Romans was tardy, doubtful, and

ineffectual; and the national schism of the Greeks and Latins was

enlarged by the perpetual difference of language and manners, of

interests, and even of religion. Yet the salutary event approved

in some measure the judgment of Constantine. During a long period

of decay, his impregnable city repelled the victorious armies of

Barbarians, protected the wealth of Asia, and commanded, both in

peace and war, the important straits which connect the Euxine and

Mediterranean Seas. The foundation of Constantinople more

essentially contributed to the preservation of the East, than to

the ruin of the West.

As the happiness of a future life is the great object of

religion, we may hear without surprise or scandal, that the

introduction or at least the abuse, of Christianity had some

influence on the decline and fall of the Roman empire. The clergy

successfully preached the doctrines of patience and

pusillanimity: the active virtues of society were discouraged;

and the last remains of military spirit were buried in the

cloister: a large portion of public and private wealth was

consecrated to the specious demands of charity and devotion; and

the soldiers’ pay was lavished on the useless multitudes of both

sexes, who could only plead the merits of abstinence and

chastity. 511 Faith, zeal, curiosity, and the more earthly

passions of malice and ambition, kindled the flame of theological

discord; the church, and even the state, were distracted by

religious factions, whose conflicts were sometimes bloody, and

always implacable; the attention of the emperors was diverted

from camps to synods; the Roman world was oppressed by a new

species of tyranny; and the persecuted sects became the secret

enemies of their country. Yet party spirit, however pernicious or

absurd, is a principle of union as well as of dissension. The

bishops, from eighteen hundred pulpits, inculcated the duty of

passive obedience to a lawful and orthodox sovereign; their

frequent assemblies, and perpetual correspondence, maintained the

communion of distant churches; and the benevolent temper of the

gospel was strengthened, though confined, by the spiritual

alliance of the Catholics. The sacred indolence of the monks was

devoutly embraced by a servile and effeminate age; but if

superstition had not afforded a decent retreat, the same vices

would have tempted the unworthy Romans to desert, from baser

motives, the standard of the republic. Religious precepts are

easily obeyed, which indulge and sanctify the natural

inclinations of their votaries; but the pure and genuine

influence of Christianity may be traced in its beneficial, though

imperfect, effects on the Barbarian proselytes of the North. If

the decline of the Roman empire was hastened by the conversion of

Constantine, his victorious religion broke the violence of the

fall, and mollified the ferocious temper of the conquerors.

511 (return) [ It might be a curious speculation, how far the

purer morals of the genuine and more active Christians may have

compensated, in the population of the Roman empire, for the

secession of such numbers into inactive and unproductive

celibacy.—M.]

This awful revolution may be usefully applied to the instruction

of the present age. It is the duty of a patriot to prefer and

promote the exclusive interest and glory of his native country:

but a philosopher may be permitted to enlarge his views, and to

consider Europe as one great republic whose various inhabitants

have obtained almost the same level of politeness and

cultivation. The balance of power will continue to fluctuate, and

the prosperity of our own, or the neighboring kingdoms, may be

alternately exalted or depressed; but these partial events cannot

essentially injure our general state of happiness, the system of

arts, and laws, and manners, which so advantageously distinguish,

above the rest of mankind, the Europeans and their colonies. The

savage nations of the globe are the common enemies of civilized

society; and we may inquire, with anxious curiosity, whether

Europe is still threatened with a repetition of those calamities,

which formerly oppressed the arms and institutions of Rome.

Perhaps the same reflections will illustrate the fall of that

mighty empire, and explain the probable causes of our actual

security.

I. The Romans were ignorant of the extent of their danger, and

the number of their enemies. Beyond the Rhine and Danube, the

Northern countries of Europe and Asia were filled with

innumerable tribes of hunters and shepherds, poor, voracious, and

turbulent; bold in arms, and impatient to ravish the fruits of

industry. The Barbarian world was agitated by the rapid impulse

of war; and the peace of Gaul or Italy was shaken by the distant

revolutions of China. The Huns, who fled before a victorious

enemy, directed their march towards the West; and the torrent was

swelled by the gradual accession of captives and allies. The

flying tribes who yielded to the Huns assumed in their turn the

spirit of conquest; the endless column of Barbarians pressed on

the Roman empire with accumulated weight; and, if the foremost

were destroyed, the vacant space was instantly replenished by new

assailants. Such formidable emigrations can no longer issue from

the North; and the long repose, which has been imputed to the

decrease of population, is the happy consequence of the progress

of arts and agriculture. Instead of some rude villages, thinly

scattered among its woods and morasses, Germany now produces a

list of two thousand three hundred walled towns: the Christian

kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden, and Poland, have been successively

established; and the Hanse merchants, with the Teutonic knights,

have extended their colonies along the coast of the Baltic, as

far as the Gulf of Finland. From the Gulf of Finland to the

Eastern Ocean, Russia now assumes the form of a powerful and

civilized empire. The plough, the loom, and the forge, are

introduced on the banks of the Volga, the Oby, and the Lena; and

the fiercest of the Tartar hordes have been taught to tremble and

obey. The reign of independent Barbarism is now contracted to a

narrow span; and the remnant of Calmucks or Uzbecks, whose forces

may be almost numbered, cannot seriously excite the apprehensions

of the great republic of Europe. 6000 Yet this apparent security

should not tempt us to forget, that new enemies, and unknown

dangers, may possibly arise from some obscure people, scarcely

visible in the map of the world, The Arabs or Saracens, who

spread their conquests from India to Spain, had languished in

poverty and contempt, till Mahomet breathed into those savage

bodies the soul of enthusiasm.

6000 (return) [ The French and English editors of the

Genealogical History of the Tartars have subjoined a curious,

though imperfect, description, of their present state. We might

question the independence of the Calmucks, or Eluths, since they

have been recently vanquished by the Chinese, who, in the year

1759, subdued the Lesser Bucharia, and advanced into the country

of Badakshan, near the source of the Oxus, (Mémoires sur les

Chinois, tom. i. p. 325-400.) But these conquests are precarious,

nor will I venture to insure the safety of the Chinese empire.]

II. The empire of Rome was firmly established by the singular and

perfect coalition of its members. The subject nations, resigning

the hope, and even the wish, of independence, embraced the

character of Roman citizens; and the provinces of the West were

reluctantly torn by the Barbarians from the bosom of their mother

country. 7000 But this union was purchased by the loss of

national freedom and military spirit; and the servile provinces,

destitute of life and motion, expected their safety from the

mercenary troops and governors, who were directed by the orders

of a distant court. The happiness of a hundred millions depended

on the personal merit of one or two men, perhaps children, whose

minds were corrupted by education, luxury, and despotic power.

The deepest wounds were inflicted on the empire during the

minorities of the sons and grandsons of Theodosius; and, after

those incapable princes seemed to attain the age of manhood, they

abandoned the church to the bishops, the state to the eunuchs,

and the provinces to the Barbarians. Europe is now divided into

twelve powerful, though unequal kingdoms, three respectable

commonwealths, and a variety of smaller, though independent,

states: the chances of royal and ministerial talents are

multiplied, at least, with the number of its rulers; and a

Julian, or Semiramis, may reign in the North, while Arcadius and

Honorius again slumber on the thrones of the South. The abuses of

tyranny are restrained by the mutual influence of fear and shame;

republics have acquired order and stability; monarchies have

imbibed the principles of freedom, or, at least, of moderation;

and some sense of honor and justice is introduced into the most

defective constitutions by the general manners of the times. In

peace, the progress of knowledge and industry is accelerated by

the emulation of so many active rivals: in war, the European

forces are exercised by temperate and undecisive contests. If a

savage conqueror should issue from the deserts of Tartary, he

must repeatedly vanquish the robust peasants of Russia, the

numerous armies of Germany, the gallant nobles of France, and the

intrepid freemen of Britain; who, perhaps, might confederate for

their common defence. Should the victorious Barbarians carry

slavery and desolation as far as the Atlantic Ocean, ten thousand

vessels would transport beyond their pursuit the remains of

civilized society; and Europe would revive and flourish in the

American world, which is already filled with her colonies and

institutions. 8000

7000 (return) [ The prudent reader will determine how far this

general proposition is weakened by the revolt of the Isaurians,

the independence of Britain and Armorica, the Moorish tribes, or

the Bagaudae of Gaul and Spain, (vol. i. p. 328, vol. iii. p.

315, vol. iii. p. 372, 480.)]

8000 (return) [ America now contains about six millions of

European blood and descent; and their numbers, at least in the

North, are continually increasing. Whatever may be the changes of

their political situation, they must preserve the manners of

Europe; and we may reflect with some pleasure, that the English

language will probably be diffused ever an immense and populous

continent.]

III. Cold, poverty, and a life of danger and fatigue, fortify the

strength and courage of Barbarians. In every age they have

oppressed the polite and peaceful nations of China, India, and

Persia, who neglected, and still neglect, to counterbalance these

natural powers by the resources of military art. The warlike

states of antiquity, Greece, Macedonia, and Rome, educated a race

of soldiers; exercised their bodies, disciplined their courage,

multiplied their forces by regular evolutions, and converted the

iron, which they possessed, into strong and serviceable weapons.

But this superiority insensibly declined with their laws and

manners; and the feeble policy of Constantine and his successors

armed and instructed, for the ruin of the empire, the rude valor

of the Barbarian mercenaries. The military art has been changed

by the invention of gunpowder; which enables man to command the

two most powerful agents of nature, air and fire. Mathematics,

chemistry, mechanics, architecture, have been applied to the

service of war; and the adverse parties oppose to each other the

most elaborate modes of attack and of defence. Historians may

indignantly observe, that the preparations of a siege would found

and maintain a flourishing colony; 9000 yet we cannot be

displeased, that the subversion of a city should be a work of

cost and difficulty; or that an industrious people should be

protected by those arts, which survive and supply the decay of

military virtue. Cannon and fortifications now form an

impregnable barrier against the Tartar horse; and Europe is

secure from any future irruptions of Barbarians; since, before

they can conquer, they must cease to be barbarous. Their gradual

advances in the science of war would always be accompanied, as we

may learn from the example of Russia, with a proportionable

improvement in the arts of peace and civil policy; and they

themselves must deserve a place among the polished nations whom

they subdue.

9000 (return) [ On avoit fait venir (for the siege of Turin) 140

pieces de canon; et il est a remarquer que chaque gros canon

monte revient a environ ecus: il y avoit 100,000 boulets; 106,000

cartouches d’une facon, et 300,000 d’une autre; 21,000 bombes;

27,700 grenades, 15,000 sacs a terre, 30,000 instruments pour la

pionnage; 1,200,000 livres de poudre. Ajoutez a ces munitions, le

plomb, le fer, et le fer-blanc, les cordages, tout ce qui sert

aux mineurs, le souphre, le salpetre, les outils de toute espece.

Il est certain que les frais de tous ces preparatifs de

destruction suffiroient pour fonder et pour faire fleurir la plus

aombreuse colonie. Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XIV. c. xx. in his

Works. tom. xi. p. 391.]

Should these speculations be found doubtful or fallacious, there

still remains a more humble source of comfort and hope. The

discoveries of ancient and modern navigators, and the domestic

history, or tradition, of the most enlightened nations, represent

the human savage, naked both in body and mind and destitute of

laws, of arts, of ideas, and almost of language. 1001 From this

abject condition, perhaps the primitive and universal state of

man, he has gradually arisen to command the animals, to fertilize

the earth, to traverse the ocean and to measure the heavens. His

progress in the improvement and exercise of his mental and

corporeal faculties 1101 has been irregular and various;

infinitely slow in the beginning, and increasing by degrees with

redoubled velocity: ages of laborious ascent have been followed

by a moment of rapid downfall; and the several climates of the

globe have felt the vicissitudes of light and darkness. Yet the

experience of four thousand years should enlarge our hopes, and

diminish our apprehensions: we cannot determine to what height

the human species may aspire in their advances towards

perfection; but it may safely be presumed, that no people, unless

the face of nature is changed, will relapse into their original

barbarism. The improvements of society may be viewed under a

threefold aspect. 1. The poet or philosopher illustrates his age

and country by the efforts of a single mind; but those superior

powers of reason or fancy are rare and spontaneous productions;

and the genius of Homer, or Cicero, or Newton, would excite less

admiration, if they could be created by the will of a prince, or

the lessons of a preceptor. 2. The benefits of law and policy, of

trade and manufactures, of arts and sciences, are more solid and

permanent: and many individuals may be qualified, by education

and discipline, to promote, in their respective stations, the

interest of the community. But this general order is the effect

of skill and labor; and the complex machinery may be decayed by

time, or injured by violence.

3. Fortunately for mankind, the more useful, or, at least, more

necessary arts, can be performed without superior talents, or

national subordination: without the powers of one, or the union

of many. Each village, each family, each individual, must always

possess both ability and inclination to perpetuate the use of

fire 1201 and of metals; the propagation and service of domestic

animals; the methods of hunting and fishing; the rudiments of

navigation; the imperfect cultivation of corn, or other nutritive

grain; and the simple practice of the mechanic trades. Private

genius and public industry may be extirpated; but these hardy

plants survive the tempest, and strike an everlasting root into

the most unfavorable soil. The splendid days of Augustus and

Trajan were eclipsed by a cloud of ignorance; and the Barbarians

subverted the laws and palaces of Rome. But the scythe, the

invention or emblem of Saturn, 1302 still continued annually to

mow the harvests of Italy; and the human feasts of the

Laestrigons 1401 have never been renewed on the coast of

Campania.

1001 (return) [ It would be an easy, though tedious, task, to

produce the authorities of poets, philosophers, and historians. I

shall therefore content myself with appealing to the decisive and

authentic testimony of Diodorus Siculus, (tom. i. l. i. p. 11,

12, l. iii. p. 184, &c., edit. Wesseling.) The Icthyophagi, who

in his time wandered along the shores of the Red Sea, can only be

compared to the natives of New Holland, (Dampier’s Voyages, vol.

i. p. 464-469.) Fancy, or perhaps reason, may still suppose an

extreme and absolute state of nature far below the level of these

savages, who had acquired some arts and instruments.]

1101 (return) [ See the learned and rational work of the

president Goguet, de l’Origine des Loix, des Arts, et des

Sciences. He traces from facts, or conjectures, (tom. i. p.

147-337, edit. 12mo.,) the first and most difficult steps of

human invention.]

1201 (return) [ It is certain, however strange, that many nations

have been ignorant of the use of fire. Even the ingenious natives

of Otaheite, who are destitute of metals, have not invented any

earthen vessels capable of sustaining the action of fire, and of

communicating the heat to the liquids which they contain.]

1302 (return) [ Plutarch. Quaest. Rom. in tom. ii. p. 275.

Macrob. Saturnal. l. i. c. 8, p. 152, edit. London. The arrival

of Saturn (of his religious worship) in a ship, may indicate,

that the savage coast of Latium was first discovered and

civilized by the Phoenicians.]

1401 (return) [ In the ninth and tenth books of the Odyssey,

Homer has embellished the tales of fearful and credulous sailors,

who transformed the cannibals of Italy and Sicily into monstrous

giants.]

Since the first discovery of the arts, war, commerce, and

religious zeal have diffused, among the savages of the Old and

New World, these inestimable gifts: they have been successively

propagated; they can never be lost. We may therefore acquiesce in

the pleasing conclusion, that every age of the world has

increased, and still increases, the real wealth, the happiness,

the knowledge, and perhaps the virtue, of the human race. 1501

1501 (return) [ The merit of discovery has too often been stained

with avarice, cruelty, and fanaticism; and the intercourse of

nations has produced the communication of disease and prejudice.

A singular exception is due to the virtue of our own times and

country. The five great voyages, successively undertaken by the

command of his present Majesty, were inspired by the pure and

generous love of science and of mankind. The same prince,

adapting his benefactions to the different stages of society, has

founded his school of painting in his capital; and has introduced

into the islands of the South Sea the vegetables and animals most

useful to human life.]