Chapter XXXVIII: Reign Of Clovis.—Part II

The allegiance of his brother was already seduced; and the
obedience of Godegisel, who joined the royal standard with the
troops of Geneva, more effectually promoted the success of the
conspiracy. While the Franks and Burgundians contended with equal
valor, his seasonable desertion decided the event of the battle;
and as Gundobald was faintly supported by the disaffected Gauls,
he yielded to the arms of Clovis, and hastily retreated from the
field, which appears to have been situate between Langres and
Dijon. He distrusted the strength of Dijon, a quadrangular
fortress, encompassed by two rivers, and by a wall thirty feet
high, and fifteen thick, with four gates, and thirty-three
towers: 40 he abandoned to the pursuit of Clovis the important
cities of Lyons and Vienna; and Gundobald still fled with
precipitation, till he had reached Avignon, at the distance of
two hundred and fifty miles from the field of battle.

A long siege and an artful negotiation, admonished the king of
the Franks of the danger and difficulty of his enterprise. He
imposed a tribute on the Burgundian prince, compelled him to
pardon and reward his brother’s treachery, and proudly returned
to his own dominions, with the spoils and captives of the
southern provinces. This splendid triumph was soon clouded by the
intelligence, that Gundobald had violated his recent obligations,
and that the unfortunate Godegisel, who was left at Vienna with a
garrison of five thousand Franks, 41 had been besieged,
surprised, and massacred by his inhuman brother. Such an outrage
might have exasperated the patience of the most peaceful
sovereign; yet the conqueror of Gaul dissembled the injury,
released the tribute, and accepted the alliance, and military
service, of the king of Burgundy. Clovis no longer possessed
those advantages which had assured the success of the preceding
war; and his rival, instructed by adversity, had found new
resources in the affections of his people. The Gauls or Romans
applauded the mild and impartial laws of Gundobald, which almost
raised them to the same level with their conquerors. The bishops
were reconciled, and flattered, by the hopes, which he artfully
suggested, of his approaching conversion; and though he eluded
their accomplishment to the last moment of his life, his
moderation secured the peace, and suspended the ruin, of the
kingdom of Burgundy. 42

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The rudest, or the most servile, condition of human society, is
regulated, however, by some fixed and general rules. When Tacitus
surveyed the primitive simplicity of the Germans, he discovered
some permanent maxims, or customs, of public and private life,
which were preserved by faithful tradition till the introduction
of the art of writing, and of the Latin tongue. 65 Before the
election of the Merovingian kings, the most powerful tribe, or
nation, of the Franks, appointed four venerable chieftains to
compose the Salic laws; 66 and their labors were examined and
approved in three successive assemblies of the people. After the
baptism of Clovis, he reformed several articles that appeared
incompatible with Christianity: the Salic law was again amended
by his sons; and at length, under the reign of Dagobert, the code
was revised and promulgated in its actual form, one hundred years
after the establishment of the French monarchy. Within the same
period, the customs of the Ripuarians were transcribed and
published; and Charlemagne himself, the legislator of his age and
country, had accurately studied the two national laws, which
still prevailed among the Franks. 67 The same care was extended
to their vassals; and the rude institutions of the Alemanni and
Bavarians were diligently compiled and ratified by the supreme
authority of the Merovingian kings. The Visigoths and
Burgundians, whose conquests in Gaul preceded those of the
Franks, showed less impatience to attain one of the principal
benefits of civilized society. Euric was the first of the Gothic
princes who expressed, in writing, the manners and customs of his
people; and the composition of the Burgundian laws was a measure
of policy rather than of justice; to alleviate the yoke, and
regain the affections, of their Gallic subjects. 68 Thus, by a
singular coincidence, the Germans framed their artless
institutions, at a time when the elaborate system of Roman
jurisprudence was finally consummated. In the Salic laws, and the
Pandects of Justinian, we may compare the first rudiments, and
the full maturity, of civil wisdom; and whatever prejudices may
be suggested in favor of Barbarism, our calmer reflections will
ascribe to the Romans the superior advantages, not only of
science and reason, but of humanity and justice. Yet the laws 681
of the Barbarians were adapted to their wants and desires, their
occupations and their capacity; and they all contributed to
preserve the peace, and promote the improvement, of the society
for whose use they were originally established. The Merovingians,
instead of imposing a uniform rule of conduct on their various
subjects, permitted each people, and each family, of their
empire, freely to enjoy their domestic institutions; 69 nor were
the Romans excluded from the common benefits of this legal
toleration. 70 The children embraced the law of their parents,
the wife that of her husband, the freedman that of his patron;
and in all causes where the parties were of different nations,
the plaintiff or accuser was obliged to follow the tribunal of
the defendant, who may always plead a judicial presumption of
right, or innocence. A more ample latitude was allowed, if every
citizen, in the presence of the judge, might declare the law
under which he desired to live, and the national society to which
he chose to belong. Such an indulgence would abolish the partial
distinctions of victory: and the Roman provincials might
patiently acquiesce in the hardships of their condition; since it
depended on themselves to assume the privilege, if they dared to
assert the character, of free and warlike Barbarians. 71

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

66 (return) [ Latin appears to have been the original language of
the Salic law. It was probably composed in the beginning of the
fifth century, before the era (A.D. 421) of the real or fabulous
Pharamond. The preface mentions the four cantons which produced
the four legislators; and many provinces, Franconia, Saxony,
Hanover, Brabant, &c., have claimed them as their own. See an
excellent Dissertation of Heinecties de Lege Salica, tom. iii.
Sylloge iii. p. 247-267. * Note: The relative antiquity of the
two copies of the Salic law has been contested with great
learning and ingenuity. The work of M. Wiarda, History and
Explanation of the Salic Law, Bremen, 1808, asserts that what is
called the Lex Antiqua, or Vetustior in which many German words
are mingled with the Latin, has no claim to superior antiquity,
and may be suspected to be more modern. M. Wiarda has been
opposed by M. Fuer bach, who maintains the higher age of the
“ancient” Code, which has been greatly corrupted by the
transcribers. See Guizot, Cours de l’Histoire Moderne, vol. i.
sect. 9: and the preface to the useful republication of five of
the different texts of the Salic law, with that of the Ripuarian
in parallel columns. By E. A. I. Laspeyres, Halle, 1833.—M.]

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

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

69 (return) [ The Ripuarian law declares, and defines, this
indulgence in favor of the plaintiff, (tit. xxxi. in tom. iv. p.
240;) and the same toleration is understood, or expressed, in all
the codes, except that of the Visigoths of Spain. Tanta
diversitas legum (says Agobard in the ninth century) quanta non
solum in regionibus, aut civitatibus, sed etiam in multis domibus
habetur. Nam plerumque contingit ut simul eant aut sedeant
quinque homines, et nullus eorum communem legem cum altero
habeat, (in tom. vi. p. 356.) He foolishly proposes to introduce
a uniformity of law, as well as of faith. * Note: It is the
object of the important work of M. Savigny, Geschichte des
Romisches Rechts in Mittelalter, to show the perpetuity of the
Roman law from the 5th to the 12th century.—M.]

681 (return) [ The most complete collection of these codes is in
the “Barbarorum leges antiquae,” by P. Canciani, 5 vols. folio,
Venice, 1781-9.—M.]

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

71 (return) [ This liberty of choice has been aptly deduced
(Esprit des Loix, l. xxviii. 2) from the constitution of Lothaire
I. (Leg. Langobard. l. ii. tit. lvii. in Codex Lindenbrog. p.
664;) though the example is too recent and partial. From a
various reading in the Salic law, (tit. xliv. not. xlv.) the Abbe
de Mably (tom. i. p. 290-293) has conjectured, that, at first, a
Barbarian only, and afterwards any man, (consequently a Roman,)
might live according to the law of the Franks. I am sorry to
offend this ingenious conjecture by observing, that the stricter
sense (Barbarum) is expressed in the reformed copy of
Charlemagne; which is confirmed by the Royal and Wolfenbuttle
MSS. The looser interpretation (hominem) is authorized only by
the MS. of Fulda, from from whence Heroldus published his
edition. See the four original texts of the Salic law in tom. iv.
p. 147, 173, 196, 220. * Note: Gibbon appears to have doubted the
evidence on which this “liberty of choice” rested. His doubts
have been confirmed by the researches of M. Savigny, who has not
only confuted but traced with convincing sagacity the origin and
progress of this error. As a general principle, though liable to
some exceptions, each lived according to his native law. Romische
Recht. vol. i. p. 123-138—M. * Note: This constitution of
Lothaire at first related only to the duchy of Rome; it
afterwards found its way into the Lombard code. Savigny. p.
138.—M.]