to bring about the subjection of the church, and to this
end sold bishoprics to the highest bidder, annulled the wills made in
favour of the bishoprics and abbeys, and sought to impose upon his
subjects a rationalistic conception of the Trinity. He pretended to some
literary culture, and was the author of some halting verse. He even
added letters to the Latin alphabet, and wished to have the MSS.
rewritten with the new characters. The wresting of Tours from Austrasia
and the seizure of ecclesiastical property provoked the bitter hatred of
Gregory of Tours, by whom Chilperic was stigmatized as the Nero and the
Herod of his time.

See Seresia, _L'Eglise et l'Etat sous les rois francs au VIe siecle_
(Ghent, 1888).

CHILPERIC II. (d. 720) was the son of Childeric II. He became king of
Neustria in 715, on which occasion he changed his name from Daniel to
Chilperic. At first he was a tool in the hands of Ragenfrid, the mayor
of the palace. Charles Martel, however, overthrew Ragenfrid, accepted
Chilperic as king of Neustria, and, on the death of Clotaire IV., set
him over the whole kingdom. The young king died soon afterwards.
(C. PF.)

CHILTERN HILLS, or THE CHILTERNS, a range of chalk hills in England,
extending through part of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire.
Running from S.W. to N.E., they form a well-marked escarpment
north-westward, while the south-eastern slope is long. The name of
Chilterns is applied to the hills between the Thames in the
neighbourhood of Goring and the headwaters of its tributary the Lea
between Dunstable and Hitchin, the crest line between these points being
about 55 m. in length. But these hills are part of a larger chalk
system, continuing the line of the White Horse Hills from Berkshire, and
themselves continued eastward by the East Anglian ridge. The greatest
elevation of the Chilterns is found in the centre from Watlington to
Tring, where heights from 800 to 850 ft. are frequent. Westward towards
the Thames gap the elevation falls away but little, but eastward the
East Anglian ridge does not often exceed 500 ft., though it continues
the northward escarpment across Hertfordshire. There are several passes
through the Chilterns, followed by main roads and railways converging on
London, which lies in the basin of which these hills form part of the
northern rim. The most remarkable passes are those near Tring, Wendover
and Prince's Risborough, the floors of which ar