altars whose faultless humility merely recalled the rude shrines of their native forests. It is true that in many cases their nominal conversion had taken place before they had been made acquainted with the majesty of the Italian clergy; that, owing to the exertions of an Ulphilas, Christianity had been diffused among the Gothic hordes. long before they were tempted by the promised spoils of the South: but we are justified by all the records of the barbarian inroads in asserting that such conversions added rather to the glory of the Christian missionaries than to the security of the conquered lands; and that the truth was often preached to and received by the monarchs long before it had any effect on their people. The piety of Origen* had anticipated the period when the barbarians were universally to yield to the advance of the word of God, and to acknowledge the civilizing influences of Christianity; but he little foresaw that his vows were to be realized in the very centre of ancient cultivation, and that the barbarians and Scythians in whom he hoped to see the fruit of foreign missions were to be converted by the home exertions of the Italian clergy. We may, however, be persuaded that some faint respect for the faith of the conquered lurked in the breasts of the conquerors, from the vivid picture which Augustinet has

*

[Εἰ γὰρ, ὡς λέγει Κέλσος, τὸ αὐτό μοι ποιήσειαν ἅπαντες, δηλονότι καὶ οἱ βάρβαροι, τῷ λόγῳ τοῦ θεοῦ προσελθόντες, νομιμώτατοι ἔσονται καὶ ἡμερώτατοι, καὶ πᾶσα μὲν θρησκεία καταλυθήσεται, μόνη δὲ ἡ Χριστιανῶν κρατήσει· ἥτις καὶ μόνη ποτὲ κρατήσει, τοῦ λόγου ǎei tλelovas vepopμévov yvxás.] C. Celsum, viii. 68. [p. 423. ed. Spenc.] + De Civitate Dei, lib. 1. c. 1, &c.

drawn of the reverence with which the followers of Alaric drew back from the Christian shrines, and extended an unwonted clemency to all, believers and unbelievers alike, who clustered round the sacred altars.

In order fully to appreciate the effects produced on those rude tribes by the efforts of the propagators of the Gospel, we must compare their customs and statutes, not with the civilization of Imperial Rome, but with the habits of the same tribes in their native wilds, as far as we can be made acquainted with them by means of the scanty allusions or sketches of the Latin writers: or we may arrive at the same result by contrasting the first great flood of invaders, after they had undergone for a few years the operation of Christianity, with those who subsequently were urged on in the same direction and by similar causes. Adopting the former of these methods, we shall have on the one hand the lawlessness, carelessness of human life, and idolatry which, in spite of all declamation on the nobleness of unfettered man, are ever indicative of a state in which all the worst passions of our nature have unlimited scope; on the other hand, though it may be that some rude virtues have perished with their kindred defects, yet reverence for law and a higher tone of public and private morality attest the continuance of an intercourse with ancient civilization and the softening influence of a pure religion. And let it not be imagined that the progress of the barbarian tribes in the arts and ideas of a higher life is to be attributed to the action of secular teachers, or to any tradi

tional remnants of mere Pagan philosophy; for the long succession of the heathen schools had come to an end, and not only the theology but even the law and literature (such as it was) of the age was exclusively in clerical hands. Indeed it cannot surprise us that in that tempestuous scene all the arts and sciences should take shelter in monasteries and churches, the only harbours of refuge from the surrounding barbarism; for, in proportion as the numbers and ferocity of the invaders increased, so the spiritual and intellectual energies of the world tended to flock towards those more enduring institutions which afforded, not only defence against the enemy, but the most effectual means of repelling the advancing darkness, and shortening the reign of brute force by extending the benefits of a civilizing religion.

If, again, we would adopt the second of the two modes of comparison we have spoken of, and contrast the tribes of earlier with those of later civilization, we have only to turn to the descriptions of the Saxon enemies of Charlemagne, of the inhospitable tribes among whom Boniface laboured and perished', or of the countless bands of marauders, whom the plains of Sclavonia or the islands and peninsulas of the North sent forth to the desolation of more favoured lands. It is by instituting such a parallel as this that we can most satisfactorily ascertain the results of those clerical exertions by which

1 See the account (Vita S. Wunebaldi, cc. 12, 13. ap. Canis. Ant. Lect. ii. 129. ed. 1725) of the difficulties experienced at Heidenheim by Wunebald, brother of Boniface's coadjutor Willebald.

I

the perils of a recurrence to savage life were actually averted from the European lands. And although it is undeniably fitting that we give due weight to the numerous writers who have represented in such strong colours the clerical corruptions of a degenerate age, that we acknowledge the pernicious influences of that system of expiatory offerings and ceremonies by which the too complying or lucre-loving among the priesthood pacified the consciences of their rude disciples, and the avaricious spirit which directed so much of the plunder of suffering lands into the capacious coffers of the Church; yet the most zealous opponents of Romanizing tendencies can hardly assert these to have been the principal and primary results of the collision of idolatry and ignorance with true religion and learning. Indeed, had such been the case, the nations of Germany would have lost as much in moral rectitude as they gained in temporal power by their conquests; for not only was the Church the most active element of society when the Western Empire fell, but it was the only element which could be said to be animated by a living principle or by fixed motives of action. That great corporation continued to exercise all its former privileges when all political bodies had fallen into the last stage of hopeless inanition. Its members rose and ruled above all other dignitaries, alike in the Imperial Court and in the meanest municipality. In a word, it alone was swayed by the settled maxims of a wise tradition, it alone understood what it was to demand and obtain the subjection of the mind.

But the authority and immunities possessed by the priesthood under the Emperors were far below what they attained under the barbarian monarchs. The clergy under the Roman law had, it is true, possessed a full share of peculiar privileges, and as a corporate body they had enjoyed every favour which Imperial piety could suggest; but as individuals they were subject to the very same obligations and penalties as the laity. But with the German invaders was, as is well known, introduced into civilized Europe a new principle of jurisprudence, which asserted the strict nationality of judicial enactments, so that even the scattered members of each barbarian horde, whether Lombards, Burgundians, or Visigoths, could claim the right of being judged and punished according to the statutes of their ancestors1. This custom, which might at first sight have appeared perilous to the unity and stability of the clerical body, proved to be one of its main safeguards, and one of the principal sources of extended priestly influence. For the simple legislation of the invaders was utterly without means of supplying the numerous exigencies of hierarchical government, and the clergy, instead of being partitioned into as many separate churches as there were tribes in the European population, secured for themselves

1 The Life of St Leodger (c. 4. ap. Guizot, Coll. des Mém. ii. 331. Duchesne, Hist. Franc. Scrip. i. 602 c. Paris. 1636) mentions a demand made on King Childeric with reference to his three kingdoms, "ut uniuscujusque patriæ legem vel consuetudinem deberent sicut antiquitus judices conservare.”