ople was undertaken by the Vandals alone. Genseric himself,
in his early youth, had renounced the orthodox communion; and the
apostate could neither grant, nor expect, a sincere forgiveness. He was
exasperated to find that the Africans, who had fled before him in the
field, still presumed to dispute his will in synods and churches; and
his ferocious mind was incapable of fear or of compassion. His Catholic
subjects were oppressed by intolerant laws and arbitrary punishments.
The language of Genseric was furious and formidable; the knowledge of
his intentions might justify the most unfavorable interpretation of his
actions; and the Arians were reproached with the frequent executions
which stained the palace and the dominions of the tyrant. Arms and
ambition were, however, the ruling passions of the monarch of the sea.
But Hunneric, his inglorious son, who seemed to inherit only his vices,
tormented the Catholics with the same unrelenting fury which had been
fatal to his brother, his nephews, and the friends and favorites of his
father; and even to the Arian patriarch, who was inhumanly burnt alive
in the midst of Carthage. The religious war was preceded and prepared
by an insidious truce; persecution was made the serious and important
business of the Vandal court; and the loathsome disease which hastened
the death of Hunneric, revenged the injuries, without contributing to
the deliverance, of the church. The throne of Africa was successively
filled by the two nephews of Hunneric; by Gundamund, who reigned about
twelve, and by Thrasimund, who governed the nation about twenty-seven,
years. Their administration was hostile and oppressive to the orthodox
party. Gundamund appeared to emulate, or even to surpass, the cruelty
of his uncle; and, if at length he relented, if he recalled the bishops,
and restored the freedom of Athanasian worship, a premature death
intercepted the benefits of his tardy clemency. His brother, Thrasimund,
was the greatest and most accomplished of the Vandal kings, whom
he excelled in beauty, prudence, and magnanimity of soul. But this
magnanimous character was degraded by his intolerant zeal and deceitful
clemency. Instead of threats and tortures, he employed the gentle, but
efficacious, powers of seduction. Wealth, dignity, and the royal favor,
were the liberal rewards of apostasy; the Catholics, who had violated
the laws, might purchase their pardon by the renunciation of their
faith; and whenever T