ion; the German tribes that crossed the Rhine
plundered the Roman city of Argentorat and its temples. Nobody
knows whether from that time new inhabitants settled in the midst
of these ruins, or whether they served but as temporary abodes to
the hordes successively coming into Gaul.

It was only after the conquest of that extensive country by the
Franks that, about 510, Clovis had a church built at Argentorat,
no doubt on the spot where the Cathedral now stands. The
architecture of that church was as coarse and barbarous as the
spirit of those times; it was built of wood and supported by
earthen walls, extending from East to West; on this latter end
was the front-gate and before it a portico; besides the principal
nave it had two aisles; the western side opening into a yard that
served as a passage to the priest's house.

In proportion as the town, the name of which was by the Franks
changed into Strasburg, increased in importance and population,
the Merovegian kings granted greater favours to the church
founded by one of their predecessors. The valuable donations they
bestowed on the bishopric of Strasburg, enabled the inhabitants
to embellish and enlarge the Cathedral. In 675 Dagobert II
granted to bishop Arbogast the town of Ruffach with the castle of
Isenburg and a vaste domain that he freed from tax and royal
jurisdiction and which on that account was called superior
_Mundat_. A no less important gift was that from Count Rudhart,
who made over to the church of Strasburg, in 748, Ettenheim with
several neighbouring villages on the right bank of the Rhine.
Many other eminent personages of this country increased
successively by their liberality the wealth of the episcopal see.
A great advantage was granted by Charlemain in 775, which was to
exempt the subjects of the bishopric from all tolls and taxes
imposed upon the traders travelling through the empire. At that
time considerable sums had already been employed to adorn the
interior of the Cathedral. In the year 826, the abbot Ermold the
Black, living in exile at Strasburg, speaks with enthusiasm of
the _beautiful temple of the Virgin_ and of the other altars that
decorate it. This ecclesiastic, with great ardour changed the
metal of the antique statues he could yet find into sacred
vases; a bronze Hercules, two cubits high, alone escaped the
pursuit of his pious zeal; after preserving it several centuries
in the Cathedral, it was at last sold, and is now at Issy