nd, perhaps, artful,
misrepresentations, which have softened, or exaggerated, the oppression
of the Romans of Gaul under the reign of the Merovingians. The
conquerors never promulgated any _universal_ edict of servitude, or
confiscation; but a degenerate people, who excused their weakness by the
specious names of politeness and peace, was exposed to the arms and
laws of the ferocious Barbarians, who contemptuously insulted their
possessions, their freedom, and their safety. Their personal injuries
were partial and irregular; but the great body of the Romans survived
the revolution, and still preserved the property, and privileges, of
citizens. A large portion of their lands was exacted for the use of the
Franks: but they enjoyed the remainder, exempt from tribute; and the
same irresistible violence which swept away the arts and manufactures
of Gaul, destroyed the elaborate and expensive system of Imperial
despotism. The Provincials must frequently deplore the savage
jurisprudence of the Salic or Ripuarian laws; but their private life,
in the important concerns of marriage, testaments, or inheritance, was
still regulated by the Theodosian Code; and a discontented Roman might
freely aspire, or descend, to the title and character of a Barbarian.
The honors of the state were accessible to his ambition: the education
and temper of the Romans more peculiarly qualified them for the offices
of civil government; and, as soon as emulation had rekindled their
military ardor, they were permitted to march in the ranks, or even at
the head, of the victorious Germans. I shall not attempt to enumerate
the generals and magistrates, whose names attest the liberal policy of
the Merovingians. The supreme command of Burgundy, with the title of
Patrician, was successively intrusted to three Romans; and the last,
and most powerful, Mummolus, who alternately saved and disturbed the
monarchy, had supplanted his father in the station of count of Autun,
and left a treasury of thirty talents of gold, and two hundred and fifty
talents of silver. The fierce and illiterate Barbarians were excluded,
during several generations, from the dignities, and even from the
orders, of the church. The clergy of Gaul consisted almost entirely
of native provincials; the haughty Franks fell at the feet of their
subjects, who were dignified with the episcopal character: and the power
and riches which had been lost in war, were insensibly recovered by
superstition. In