perous state of the Gothic church was soon afflicted by war and intestine discord, and the chieftains were divided by religion as well as by interest. Fritigern, the friend of the Romans, became the proselyte of Ulphilas; while the haughty soul of Athanaric disdained the yoke of the empire, and of the Gospel. The faith of the new converts was tried by the persecution which he excited. A waggon, bearing aloft the shapeless image of Thor, perhaps, or of Woden, was conducted in solemn procession through the streets of the camp; and the rebels, who refused to worship the god of their fathers, were immediately burnt, with their tents and families. The character of Ulphilas recommended him to the esteem of the Eastern court, where he twice appeared as the minister of peace; he pleaded the cause of the distressed Goths, who implored the protection of Valens; and the name of Moses was applied to this spiritual guide, who conducted his people, through the deep waters of the Danube, to the Land of Promise (76). The devout shepherds, who were attached to his person, and tractable to his voice, acquiesced in their settlement, at the foot of the Mæsian mountains, in a country of woodlands and pastures, which supported their flocks and herds, and enabled them to purchase the corn and wine of the more plentiful provinces. These harmless Barbarians multiplied, in obscure peace, and the profession of Christianity (77). Vandals, &c. embrace &c. Their fiercer brethren, the formidable Visigoths, universally The Goths, adopted the religion of the Romans, with whom they maintained a Burgundians, perpetual intercourse, of war, of friendship, or of conquest. In Christianity, their long and victorious march from the Danube to the Atlantic A. D. 400, ocean, they converted their allies; they educated the rising generation; and the devotion which reigned in the camp of Alaric, or the court of Toulouse, might edify, or disgrace, the palaces of Rome and Constantinople (78). During the same period, Christianity was embraced by almost all the Barbarians, who established their kingdoms on the ruins of the Western empire; the Burgundians in Gaul, the Suevi in Spain, the Vandals in Africa, the Ostrogoths in Pannonia, and the various bands of mercenaries, that raised Odoacer to the throne of Italy. The Franks and the Saxons still persevered in the errors of Paganism; but the Franks obtained the monarchy of Gaul by their submission to the example of Clovis; and (76) Philostorgius erroneously places this passage under the reign of Constantine; but I am much inclined to believe that it preceded the great emigration. (77) We are obliged to Jornandes (de Reb. Get. c. 51. p. 688.) for a short and lively picture of these lesser Goths. Gothi minores, populus immensus, cum suo Pontificè ipsoque primate Wulfila. The last words, if they are not mere tautology, imply some temporal jurisdiction. (78) At non ita Gothi non ita Vandali; malis licet doctoribus instituti, meliores tamen etiam in hac parte quam nostri. Salvian de Gubern. Dei, l. vii. p. 243. were reprinted at Upsal, 1763. M. Mai has since that time discovered further fragments, and other remains of Moso-Gothic literature, from a Pa limpsest at Milan. See Ulphile partium inedita- Motives of their faith. the Saxon conquerors of Britain were reclaimed from their savage superstition by the missionaries of Rome. These Barbarian proselytes displayed an ardent and successful zeal in the propagation of the faith. The Merovingian kings, and their successors, Charlemagne and the Othos, extended, by their laws and victories, the dominion of the cross. England produced the apostle of Germany; and the evangelic light was gradually diffused from the neighbourhood of the Rhine, to the nations of the Elbe, the Vistula, and the Baltic (79). The different motives which influenced the reason, or the pas―. sions, of the Barbarian converts, cannot easily be ascertained. They were often capricious and accidental; a dream, an omen, the report of a miracle, the example of some priest, or hero, the charms of a believing wife, and, above all, the fortunate event of a prayer, or vow, which, in a moment of a danger, they had addressed to the God of the Christians (80). The early prejudices of education were insensibly erased by the habits of frequent and familiar society; the moral precepts of the Gospel were protected by the extravagant virtues of the monks; and a spiritual theology was supported by the visible power of relics, and the pomp of religious worship. But the rational and ingenious mode of persuasion, which a Saxon bishop (81) suggested, to a popular saint, might sometimes be employed by the missionaries, who laboured for the conversion of infidels. Admit," says the sagacious disputant, "whatever they are pleased to assert of the fabulous, and carnal, "genealogy of their gods and goddesses, who are propagated from "each other. From this principle deduce their imperfect nature, "and human infirmities, the assurance they were born, and the "probability that they will die. At what time, by what means, "from what cause, were the eldest of the gods or goddesses produced? "Do they still continue, or have they ceased, to propagate? If they have ceased, summon your antagonists to declare the reason "of this strange alteration. If they still continue, the number of "the gods must become infinite; and shall we not risk, by the in"discreet worship of some impotent deity, to excite the resentment "of his jealous superior? The visible heavens and earth, the whole system of the universe, which may be conceived by the mind, is it created or eternal? If created, how, or where, "could the gods themselves exist before creation? If eternal, how 66 66 (79) Mosheim has slightly sketched the progress of Christianity in the North, from the fourth to the fourteenth century. The subject would afford materials for an ecclesiastical, and even philosophical history. (80) To such a cause has Socrates (1. vii. c. 30.) ascribed the conversion of the Burgundians, whose Christian piety is celebrated by Orosius (1. vii. c. 19.). (84) See an original and curious epistle from Daniel, the first bishop of Winchester (Beda, Hist. Eccles. Anglorum, 1. v. c. 18: p. 203. edit. Smith), to St. Boniface, who preached the Gospel among the savages of Hesse and Thuringia. Epistol. Bonifacii, lxvii. in the Maxima Bibliotheca Patrum, tom. xiii. p. 93. "could they assume the empire of an independent and pre-existing their conversion. Christianity, which opened the gates of Heaven to the Barbarians, Effects of introduced an important change in their moral and political condition. They received, at the same time, the use of letters, so essential to a religion whose doctrines are contained in a sacred book; and while they studied the divine truth, their minds were insensibly enlarged by the distant view of history, of nature, of the arts, and of society. The version of the Scriptures into their native tongue, which had facilitated their conversion, must excite, among their clergy, some curiosity to read the original text, to understand the sacred liturgy of the church, and to examine, in the writings of the fathers, the chain of ecclesiastical tradition. These spiritual gifts were preserved in the Greek and Latin languages, which concealed the inestimable monuments of ancient learning. The immortal productions of Virgil, Cicero, and Livy, which were accessible to the Christian Barbarians, maintained a silent intercourse between the reign of Augustus and the times of Clovis and Charlemagne. The emulation of mankind was encouraged by the remembrance of a more perfect state; and the flame of science was secretly kept alive, to warm and enlighten the mature age of the Western world. In the most corrupt state of Christianity, the Barbarians might learn justice from the law, and mercy from the gospel; and if the knowledge of their duty was insufficient to guide " (82) The sword of Charlemagne added weight to the argument; but when Daniel wrote this epistle (A. D. 723), the Mahometans, who reigned from India to Spain, might have retorted it against the Christians. They are involved in heresy. their actions, or to regulate their passions, they were sometimes restrained by conscience, and frequently punished by remorse. But the direct authority of religion was less effectual than the holy communion, which united them with their Christian brethren in spiritual friendship. The influence of these sentiments contributed to secure their fidelity in the service, or the alliance, of the Romans, to alleviate the horrors of war, to moderate the insolence of conquest, and to preserve, in the downfal of the empire, a permanent respect for the name and institutions of Rome. In the days of Paganism, the priests of Gaul and Germany reigned over the people, and controlled the jurisdiction of the magistrates; and the zealous proselytes transferred an equal, or more ample, measure of devout obédience, to the pontiffs of the Christian faith. The sacred character of the bishops was supported by their temporal possessions; they obtained an honourable seat in the legislative assemblies of soldiers and freemen; and it was their interest, as well as their duty, to mollify, by peaceful counsels, the fierce spirit of the Barbarians. The perpetual correspondence of the Latin clergy, the frequent pilgrimages to Rome and Jerusalem, and the growing authority of the popes, cemented the union of the Christian republic, and gradually produced the similar manners, and common jurisprudence, which have distinguished, from the rest of mankind, the independent, and even hostile, nations of modern Europe. But the operation of these causes was checked and retarded by the Arian the unfortunate accident, which infused a deadly poison into the cup of Salvation. Whatever might be the early sentiments of Ulphilas, his connections with the empire and the church were formed during the reign of Arianism. The apostle of the Goths subscribed the creed of Rimini; professed with freedom, and perhaps with sincerity, that the SON was not equal, or consubstantial to the FATHER (83), communicated these errors to the clergy and people; and infected the Barbaric world with a heresy (84), which the great Theodosius proscribed and extinguished among the Romans. The temper and understanding of the new proselytes were not adapted to metaphysical subtleties; but they strenuously maintained, what they had piously received, as the pure and genuine doctrines of Christianity. The advantage of preaching and expounding the Scriptures in the Teutonic language promoted the apostolic labours of Ulphilas and his successors; and they ordained a competent (83) The opinions of Ulphilas and the Goths inclined to semi-Arianism, since they would not say that the Son was a creature, though they held communion with those who maintained that heresy. Their apostle represented the whole controversy as a question of trifling moment, which had been raised by the passions of the clergy. Theodoret, l. iv. c. 37. (84) The Arianism of the Goths has been imputed to the emperor Valens: "Itaque justo Dei judicio "ipsi eum vivum incenderunt, qui propter eum etiam mortui, vitio erroris arsuri sunt. Orosius, 1. vii. c. 33. p. 554. This cruel sentence is confirmed by Tillemont (Mém. Ecclés. tom. vi. p. 604– 610.), who coolly observes, " un seul homme entraîna dans l'enfer un nombre infini de Septentrionaux, &c. " Salvian (de Gubern. Dei, l. v. p. 150, 151.) pities and excuses their involuntary error. number of bishops and presbyters for the instruction of the kindred tribes. The Ostrogoths, the Burgundians, the Suevi, and the Vandals, who had listened to the eloquence of the Latin clergy (85), preferred the more intelligible lessons of their domestic teachers; and Arianism was adopted as the national faith of the warlike converts, who were seated on the ruins of the Western empire. This irreconcilable difference of religion was a perpetual source of jealousy and hatred; and the reproach of Barbarian was embittered by the more odious epithet of Heretic. The heroes of the North, who had submitted, with some reluctance, to believe that all their ancestors were in hell (86), were astonished and exasperated to learn, that they themselves had only changed the mode of their eternal condemnation. Instead of the smooth applause, which Christian kings are accustomed to expect from their royal prelates, the orthodox bishops and their clergy were in a state of opposition to the Arian courts; and their indiscreet opposition frequently became criminal, and might sometimes be dangerous (87). The pulpit, that safe and sacred organ of sedition, resounded with the names of Pharaoh and Holofernes (88); the public discontent was inflamed by the hope or promise of a glorious deliverance; and the seditious saints were tempted to promote the accomplishment of their own predictions. Notwithstanding these provocations, the Catholics of Gaul, Spain, and Italy, enjoyed, under the reign of the Arians, the free, and peaceful, exercise of their religion. Their haughty masters respected the zeal of a numerous people, resolved to die at the foot of their altars; and the example of their devout constancy was admired and imitated by the Barbarians themselves. The conquerors evaded, however, the disgraceful reproach, or confession, of fear, by attributing their toleration to the liberal motives of reason and humanity; and while they affected the language, they imperceptibly imbibed the spirit, of genuine Christianity. General toleration. Arian persecution of The peace of the church was sometimes interrupted. The Catholics were indiscreet, the Barbarians were impatient; and the the Vandals. partial acts of severity or injustice which had been recommended by the Arian clergy, were exaggerated by the orthodox writers. The guilt of persecution may be imputed to Euric, king of the Visigoths; who suspended the exercise of ecclesiastical, or, at least, of episcopal, functions; and punished the popular bishops of Aquitain (85) Orosius affirms, in the year 416 (l. vii. c. 41. p. 580.), that the churches of Christ (of the Catholics) were filled with Huns, Suevi, Vandals, Burgundians. (86) Radbod, king of the Frisons, was so much scandalised by this rash declaration of a missionary, that he drew back his foot after he had entered the baptismal font. See Fleury, Hist. Ecclés. tom. ix. p. 167. (87) The epistles of Sidonius, bishop of Clermont, under the Visigoths, and of Avitus, bishop of Vienna, under the Burgundians, explain, sometimes in dark hints, the general dispositions of the Catholics. The history of Clovis and Theodoric will suggest some particular facts. (88) Genseric confessed the resemblance, by the severity with which he punished such indiscreet allusions. Victor Vitensis, 1. 7. p. 10. |