while his army, composed of men of every race and tribe, without any national tie, and enervated by a long sojourn in the luxurious peninsula, was unable to defend the country against invasion. Although professing the Arian doctrines, he tolerated orthodox believers; he strictly enforced the laws; caused ancient institutions to be respected; reestablished the consulate; and, by promoting agriculture, endeavoured to obviate those frequent famines which devastated the cities of Italy,— a necessary consequence of their entire reliance on supplies from Africa and Egypt. After reigning fourteen years, he was attacked by Theodoric the Ostrogoth, and being three times defeated, was driven into Ravenna, where he was blockaded nearly three years. He was at last compelled to surrender, but his rival, not very scrupulous about his plighted word, caused him and his faithful companions to be massacred in the midst of a banquet, 493.

REFLECTIONS.-With the banishment of Augustulus, A. D. 476, ended the Roman empire, 1228 years from its foundation. Its decline was the necessary consequence of its immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principles of decay, which were to be found in the licentiousness of the soldiery, the weakness of the government, and the irruptions of the barbarians. The Queen of Nations fell by the hands of a tribe unknown, even by name, in the days of her pride. Her fall made no noise; it was the last sigh of a victim expiring under a tedious and incurable malady. Her monarchy was no more than a name. Britain was independent; in Gaul a few provinces only remained faithful; Goths and Suevi disputed Spain; the Vandals governed Africa; Italy was crowded with foreign legions; and Germany was daily sending forth her swarms to prey on the riches of the West.

The history of the world took another form. Christianity became the dominant religion, threatened indeed for a time by the furious invasion of Islam. No mighty empire now threw its shadow over the whole world; the monarchies were limited in extent and power; feudalism gave rise to a new order of ideas and feelings; and the usurpations of ecclesiastical authority, while they promoted peace and encouraged the arts, stifled that freedom of thought which is the birthright of every reasonable being.

365, Allemanni invade Gaul.

402, Goths invade Italy, under Alaric.

409, Suevi, Vandals, Alani, and other barbarians invade Spain. 419, Burgundians settled in Gaul.

449, Saxons invade Britain.

451, Huns, under Attila, invade Gaul and Italy.

The prophet Daniel, about 550 B. C. foretold the destruction of the Roman empire, and its division into ten kingdoms. Machiavelli, a most unprejudiced authority, gives us the following list:-1. Huns (Hungary) A. D. 356.-2. Ostrogoths (Mosia, Italy) 377.-3. Visigoths (Pannonia) 378.-4. Franks (Gaul) 407.

-5. Vandals (Africa) 407-6. Suevi (Spain) 407.-7. Burgundians (Burgundy) 407.-8. Heruli (Italy) 476.-9. Saxons (Britain) 476.-10. Longobards (Danube) 483; (in Lombardy) 526.

VENICE.

The destructive campaigns of Attila laid the foundation of one of the most commercial and enterprising cities of the Middle Ages. The inhabitants of the Roman province of Venetia, of which the principal cities were Aquileia and Padua, fled from the swords of the Huns, 452, and found an asylum in the midst of the Adriatic islands, on a point named Rialto. The danger over, many continued to inhabit the spot, which, for a long period, was ruled by consuls nominated at Padua. In 709, the Rialto and the adjoining isles began to be governed by their own magistrates; they became independent of the Paduan authorities, and considered themselves a republic. This is the epoch of their first doge, Anafesto, a tribune of the people elected by the citizens. Heraclea was the seat of this republic until the death of their third president. Consult: Daru's Venice.-Sketches of Venetian History, in the Family Library.

GAUL.

Gaul was inhabited in remote antiquity by two nations:-the Gauls from the north of Europe, who filled the country as far as the mountains of Auvergne; and the Aquitanians, from the south, by way of Spain, who lived between the Pyrenees and the Garonne. At a very early period the Ligurians from Spain occupied the district from the Pyrenees to the mouth of the Arno. A Grecian colony of Phocæans settled near the mouths of the Rhone, and founded the city of Marseilles. About 600 B. c., the Cymri, driven by other tribes from the shores of the Black Sea, advanced along the Danube, crossed the Rhine, and forcibly established themselves in that part of Gaul which lies between the Loire and the Seine. This invasion was the cause of the irruption of the Gauls into Italy, where they established themselves in what was afterwards named Gallia Cisalpina. The great Julius formed the whole country into an integral part of the empire, from which period it shared the destinies of Rome.

In the fifth century, with the rest of the Western Empire, Gaul suffered from the ravages of the Northern barbarians. In 406, the Suevi, Vandals, and Alani ravaged it; and in 412, after the death of Alaric, his successor Ataulphus led the Visigoths along the coast of the Mediterranean into Spain. Aquitaine and all the country between the Loire and the Pyrenees formed one kingdom, with Toulouse for its capital. Besides this people, at the end of the reign of Honorius we find two others firmly established in Gaul. The Burgundians, of Teutonic origin, from the banks of the Oder and the Vistula, were first settled near the head of the Maine; but about the year 414, they occupied Alsace and the western parts of Switzerland. Another Teutonic race, the Franks, had emigrated from the Lower Rhine and the Weser, and in 358 were allowed by Julian to settle in Toxandria (Brabant), where for a time they became the guardians of the Rhine, and the defenders of Gaul. Pharamond, son of Marcomir, an unknown and perhaps fabulous prince, has no title to be regarded as the founder of the French monarchy. This honour belongs rather to Clodion, who crossed the Rhine and made incursions as far as the banks of the Somme, where he was defeated by Etius.* On his decease, a prince of his family,

* Clodion wore long hair, a mark of distinction introduced from Germany; hence the race of long haired monarchs. Meroveus is said not to have been a son of Clodion.Thierry's Letters.

named Meroveus, was raised on the buckler by the Salian Franks in 448, and gave his name to the first or Merovingian line of kings. His son Childeric, at first expelled for his debauchery, was afterwards recalled by the warriors of his tribe, who, during his banishment, had recog nised the authority of Ægidius, the Roman governor of Celtic Gaul. Childeric made war on the Visigoths on the banks of the Loire, while the Ripuarian Franks were forming settlements at Cologne. From his adulterous marriage with Basine, wife of the King of the Thuringians, was descended Chlodwig or Clovis, the real conqueror of Gaul.

BRITAIN.

SAXON INVASION.-The Caledonians, celebrated in the wars of Agricola, A. D. 85, disappear, and their place is supplied by the Picts and Scots. The former are supposed to be the Caledonians under a new name, and were of Scandinavian descent. The latter came from Ireland, then called Scotia, and appear to be a division of the Celtic Cotti, whose language, if it remain that of the Vaudois in the Cottian Alps, was related to the vernacular Irish and Scotch. The barriers which the Romans had built to check the incursions of these fierce tribes, proved unavailing in the feebleness of the empire; but when the Britons were left to themselves, 408, instead of sinking in unmanly despair, they took arms against their enemies, and drove the Picts from their cities. They had thrown off their foreign yoke and declared their independence, before Honorius sent letters to the respective states exhorting them to protect themselves. Britain was never after this subject to the power of the emperors. The whole southern part of the island during the Roman domination appears to have been divided into thirty-three districts, which were all continued after 410, although each city (civitas) claimed and exercised an independent jurisdiction. Vortigern, the pendragon-head-king-united some of these communities, and anxious to confirm his contested authority, called to his aid a band of predatory Saxons who had landed in the south of England, 449. Hengist was entirely successful in his battles against the Picts and Scots; but to complete his conquest it was necessary to have an armed force always ready to meet these barbarians. Such soldiers were easily found among his countrymen, who, at his invitation, came over in great numbers. A disagreement which ensued between them and their employers occasioned a long and sanguinary strife, which terminated in the foundation of the Saxon kingdom of Kent, 455. The strangers, each day reinforced by new adventurers, continued their hostile incursions; but so firmly were they opposed, that Ella could not establish himself as a ruler in Sussex before 491. The entire conquest of the southern part of the island was not completed until 586.

Consult: Turner's History of the Anglo-Saxons.

THE CHURCH.

The history of the Church during this century embraces two important subjects:-the commencement of Monastic Institutions and the Conversion of the Barbarians.

I. MONACHISM originated in the East, the land of contemplation and indolence, where an absurd antagonism was raised between the soul and

the body; the mortification of the one being supposed to contribute to the purity of the other. The Jews had their Essenes and Therapeuta, who lived apart from other men, and aspired by the most rigorous practices to attain a superhuman perfection. They abstained from wine, flesh, and marriage, and renounced all business. Egypt, "the fruitful parent of superstition," afforded the earliest example of monastic life. Paul of Thebes, about A. D. 250, fleeing from the persecution of Decius, retired to a cavern, in which he passed the greater portion of his life, supporting himself on dates, with palm-leaves for his only garment. Thirty years after him another Egyptian, St. Anthony, lived also in the desert; but around his hut were grouped, at a little distance, other cabins, in which a number of ascetics dwelt in obedience to his authority. He thus became the father of the monastic life. This new passion for solitude was disregarded in the Western Churches until Athanasius went to Rome, in the year 340, to solicit the aid of the bishop in his contest with the Arians. The disciples of Anthony soon spread themselves over the Christian world, and before the end of the century a monastery in Flintshire contained above 2000 members. The same discipline was introduced into Syria by his immediate followers, and at a somewhat later period into the solitudes of Pontus, by St. Basil, while St. Martin was establishing in Gaul the first cenobitical community. The rule of the Egyptian monks was brought into Provence at the beginning of the fifth century, by St. Honoratus and St. Cassianus, who founded two establishments, one at Lerins, the other at Marseilles, whence issued many learned apostles of the faith and monastic life, among whom was St. Patrick, the founder of similar colonies in Ireland. These various communities of the West followed each its own rule until that of the Benedictines was received throughout the whole Latin church. The rapid progress of this system may perhaps be attributed to enthusiasm, sympathy, and ambition. Chrysostom presumed that none but monks could be saved, and to these terrors of the church were added those of the barbarians. The emperors, especially Valens, attempted to support the obligations of public and private duties, but such feeble barriers as they opposed were soon swept away by the torrent of superstition. Freedom of mind was destroyed by credulity and submission; and the monks, contracting the habits of slaves, followed the faith and passions of their ecclesiastical tyrants. Their dress, habitations, and manners were equally filthy and disgusting. Athanasius boasts of Anthony's deep horror at clean water, with which his feet never came in contact, except from dire necessity. Simeon, who died in 451, is immortalized by his penance of thirty years on the summit of a lofty column, whence he gained the name of Stylites. These monastic saints boasted of their miraculous powers; they pretended to cure inveterate diseases with a touch, to tame the beasts of the forest, to suspend the course of nature, and even to raise men from the dead. The discipline of the Greek Church, which consisted of four fundamental articles,-solitude, manual labour, fasting, and prayer, was formed by St. Basil. It was long before the follies of the haircloth and flagellation were introduced.

II. THE CONVERSION OF THE BARBARIANS offers a more pleasing picture than that which we have just been contemplating. Ülphilas, the apostle of the Goths, translated the Scriptures into their native tongue,

about the year 360.* At the commencement of the fifth century Christianity was embraced by almost all the barbarians in the Roman empire. The Franks obtained Gaul by their submission to the example of Clovis, 496; and the Saxons were converted by Roman missionaries, although the gospel had been introduced into Britain in the second century. These proselytes displayed an ardent zeal in the propagation of the true faith, and England had the honour of producing the apostle of Germany. An immediate change was effected in the moral condition of these nations. The horrors of war were alleviated; the insolence of conquest was moderated; and the institutions of Rome, religious and political, were respected.

Evangelical truth had been already preached to the Indians, and a bishop governed the Christians of St. Thomas on the spice-bearing shores of Malabar. A church was founded in Ceylon, and missionaries followed in the steps of the caravans even to China and the extremities of Asia. The Abyssinians, an Arabian colony, were drawn from their barbarism by similar means.

Rapin observes, that in the fifth century Christianity was debased by a vast number of human inventions: the simplicity of its government and discipline was reduced to a system of clerical power; and its worship was polluted with ceremonies borrowed from the heathen.

APPENDIX TO PART FIRST.

History of Literature.

THE invasion of the South of Europe by the barbarians of the North, the great event which separates ancient and modern times, interrupted the downward course of Greek and Roman civilisation. In the East, the Byzantine emperors still protected their declining literature; in the West, its few relics were received and fostered in the bosom of the church. It is this decline and ruin of learning which composes the entire literary history of the fifth and three following centuries.

I. ALEXANDRIAN SCHOOL. In despite of its numerous aberrations, this school rendered the most valuable services to learning, by preserving and explaining the masterpieces of ancient literature, and by endeavouring to reconcile the various systems of philosophy. Alexandria, situated at a point where Europe, Asia, and Africa unite, became the focus of all doctrines, and its academy the mental emporium of the world. Ammonius Saccas, originally a porter, about 220, founded the Eclectic school of the New Platonists, which united the different systems of the Socratic school, in order to ally them with the fantastic mysteries of the East,-a bold endeavour to terminate the disputes of the Greek philosophers. Plotinus of Lycopolis, d. 270, Jamblichus of Chalcis, and Porphyry of Tyre, about 300, added to the splendour of the reformed school; and as they announced their design of propping up the falling altars of polytheism, they naturally became the antagonists of the Christian fathers.

When the Neo-Platonic school in Rome, as well as that of Alexandria, was shut up by order of Constantine in 324, secret societies were formed throughout the provinces, and, until 353, flourished principally in Asia Minor. Here

Ulphilas had been compelled to embrace Arianism in order to engage the favour of Valens. He is said to have invented the Gothic characters, and his precious MS. in letters of gold and silver is preserved, under the name of Codex Argenteus, in the library of Upsala.