ntions. His relics
were afterwards translated into the great church which was built in
1148, under the invocation of the B. Virgin and St. Chad, which is now
the cathedral, and they remained them till the change of religion. See
Bede, l. 3, c. 28, l. 4, c. 2 and 3.

Footnotes:
1. The first bishop of the Mercians was Diuma, a Scot; the second,
Keollach, of the same nation: the third, Trumhere, who had been
abbot of Gethling in the kingdom of the Northumbrians: the fourth
Jaruruan.

ST. SIMPLICIUS, POPE, C.

HE was the ornament of the Roman clergy under SS. Leo and Hilarius, and
succeeded the latter in the pontificate in 497. He was raised by God to
comfort and support his church amidst the greatest storms. All the
provinces of the Western empire, out of Italy, were fallen into the
hands of barbarians, infected for the greatest part with idolatry or
Arianism. The ten last emperors, during twenty years, were rather
shadows of power than sovereigns, and in the eighth year of the
pontificate of Simplicius, Rome itself fell a prey to foreigners.
Salvian, a learned priest of Marseilles in 440, wrote an elegant book On
Divine Providence, in which he shows that these calamities were a just
chastisement of the sins of the Christians; saying, that if the Goths
were perfidious, and the Saxons cruel, they were however both remarkable
for their chastity; as the Franks were for humanity, though addicted to
lying: and that though these barbarians were impious, they had not so
perfect a knowledge of sin, nor consequently were so criminal as those
whom God chastised by them. The disorders of the Roman state paved the
way for this revolution. Excessive taxes were levied in the most
arbitrary ways. The governors oppressed the people at discretion, and
many were obliged to take shelter among the barbarians: for the Bagaude,
{499} Franks, Huns, Vandals, and Goths raised no taxes upon their
subjects: on which account nations once conquered by them were afraid of
falling again under the Roman yoke, preferring what was called slavery,
to the empty name of liberty. Italy, by oppressions and the ravages of
barbarians, was left almost a desert without inhabitants; and the
imperial armies consisted chiefly of barbarians, hired under the name of
auxiliaries, as the Suevi, Alans, Heruli, Goths, and others. Those soon
saw their masters were in their power. The Heruli demanded one third of
the lands of Italy, and, upon refusal, chose f