But the Christian mind will further recognise, in the facts of this memorable case, the operations of one of the established laws of Divine Providence. The full punishment of individual men for their transgressions in this life, is reserved for a future state of being; but as nations in their collective capacity, will have no existence hereafter, the punishments of their sins is sure to be inflicted upon them sooner or later in the present world. The retributive justice of God is as clearly to be seen in the overthrow of Rome, as in the extirpation of the Canaanites, or the fall of Jerusalem.

SECTION III.

BARBARIANS.

THE Goths, the first of the barbarians who invaded Rome, were descended from one of those tribes whom Tacitus has described in his valuable treatise on the manners of the Germans. They were wandering hordes, neglecting agriculture, living upon the produce of the chase, and upon their prolific flocks and herds. Unlike the now effeminate Romans, they were hardy and robust. War was their business, conquest their delight, and the sword and buckler their choicest ornaments. Freedom was their birthright, and the power of their rulers was curbed by considerable limitations. In peace, their princes were bound to consult them on all affairs of government, and in war, it was left

to the soldier to choose the standard under which he would enlist: but once pledged to a particular chief, no dangers or allurements could induce him to desert. A spirit of fidelity and freedom mingled with their ferocious habits, and formed the national characteristic of this remarkable race. The lapse of some three centuries, intercourse with the Romans during the latter part of that period, and the professed adoption of the Arian form of Christianity, had no doubt, in some measure, modified the Gothic character; and if we are to admit the statement of Salvian, a writer of that period, it would further appear that the morals of the barbarians were of a higher tone than those of the empire. Still there can be no doubt that they retained much of their original fierce independence of character.*

We have already glanced at the spectacle of Rome invaded by the Goths under Alarie: but though that invasion was a fatal blow given to the city, and the empire, it did not complete their ruin. Rome was not built, nor could it be destroyed, in a day. Forty years after it had yielded to the Goths, it beheld another enemy approaching its gates, in the person of Attila, the chief of the Huns, a tribe preeminently barbarous and cruel, who had forsaken their encampments in Hungary, to seek victory and spoil in the fair and fruitful provinces of the south. Yet this powerful prince,

* See extracts from Salvian in "Ancient Christianity," vol. ii. 74.

moved by the persuasion of Leo, the bishop of Rome, and, perhaps, still more by costly gifts; by the prevalence of disease among his troops; and by the superstitious presentiments of his own mind, abandoned his design of entering Rome, and gave another respite to the doomed city.

Twenty-four years elapsed, and Odoacer, at the head of the Vandals who, with the Goths, seemed to have sprung from a common origin-again inspired terror in the enfeebled Romans, took the city, dethroned the last of the emperors-who was styled Romulus Augustus, as if in mockery of the proud associations connected with those two noble names-and caused himself to be proclaimed the king of Rome. But the empire cannot be said, even then, to have completely fallen; for the barbarian rulers held the government, in commission, under the imperial successors of Constantine, who occupied the throne of the east. Scenes of conflict and desolation followed in rapid succession: the wars of Totila with Belisarius fearfully ravaged the region of Italy, and left Rome a scene of ruins; but the establishment of the exarchate of Ravenna kept up some faint shadow of the empire of Constantine, till Charlemagne was crowned king of the Romans, when the last vestiges of that great commonwealth melted away for ever.

The ancient city of Rome was at once the type, and the centre of the civilisation of the old world. Her image was reflected in the great

cities which adorned the shores of the Mediterranean, and she spread her manners, arts, and luxury, over the far distant nations which she subdued. But her power being thoroughly despotic, and her civilisation corrupt at the core, the laws of Divine Providence rendered her overthrow inevitable; and in her fall were involved the dissolution of the forms, and the extinction of the spirit of ancient civilisation. It is probable that had Rome pursued a different course, the night of the middle ages would not have brooded over Europe; and that to her despotism and vices may be traced the origin, or the occasion, of those social evils which followed for so long a period. But that Divine and gracious Being, who maketh the wrath of man to praise him, and who turneth the shadow of death into the morning, has so controlled events, as to make those temporary evils subservient to lasting good. The Gothic invasion, as it were, melted down the forms of ancient society, and infused into the mass new elements of power, thus furnishing the materials for the civil and social polity of modern times. The progress of the change was gradual-the beneficial result could not spring forth at once in a finished and perfect state; it was developed, after the lapse of ages, like useful vegetation, clothing some rich and fruitful soil, which has been formed by gradual deposits in the bed of some ancient lake, or river, and left to yield its treasures when the waters have retired.

CHAPTER II.

THE CHURCH.

THIS was the leading element of civilisation, the most active power at work in society upon the dissolution of the Roman empire; and, indeed, throughout the whole of the dark ages, it exerted a pre-eminent share of influence on the social condition of Europe. The character of that influence will be unfolded in the present chapter.

SECTION I.

POLITICAL RELATIONS.

IT will be proper for us to glance at the relation which the church sustained to the state during that period. The adoption of the Christian religion by Constantine, and his interference in ecclesiastical matters, completely altered the position of the church in this respect. From having been an independent spiritual community, it became a sort of chartered

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