f history]

[Footnote 140: See the xxxixth epistle of St. Ambrose, as it is quoted
by Muratori, sopra le Antichita Italiane, tom. i. Dissert. xxi. p. 354.]

[Footnote 141: Aemilia, Tuscia, ceteraeque provinciae in quibus hominum
propenullus exsistit. Gelasius, Epist. ad Andromachum, ap. Baronium,
Annal. Eccles. A.D. 496, No. 36.]

[Footnote 1411: Denina supposes that the Barbarians were compelled
by necessity to turn their attention to agriculture. Italy, either
imperfectly cultivated, or not at all, by the indolent or ruined
proprietors, not only could not furnish the imposts, on which the pay of
the soldiery depended, but not even a certain supply of the necessaries
of life. The neighboring countries were now occupied by warlike nations;
the supplies of corn from Africa were cut off; foreign commerce nearly
destroyed; they could not look for supplies beyond the limits of Italy,
throughout which the agriculture had been long in a state of progressive
but rapid depression. (Denina, Rev. d'Italia t. v. c. i.)--M.]

[Footnote 142: Verumque confitentibus, latifundia perdidere Italiam.
Plin. Hist. Natur. xviii. 7.]

[Footnote 143: Such are the topics of consolation, or rather of
patience, which Cicero (ad Familiares, lib. ix. Epist. 17) suggests to
his friend Papirius Paetus, under the military despotism of Caesar.
The argument, however, of "vivere pulcherrimum duxi," is more forcibly
addressed to a Roman philosopher, who possessed the free alternative of
life or death]

[Footnote 1431: Compare, on the desolation and change of property in
Italy, Manno des Ost-Gothischen Reiches, Part ii. p. 73, et seq.--M.]

Chapter XXXVII: Conversion Of The Barbarians To Christianity.--Part I.

Origin Progress, And Effects Of The Monastic Life.--
Conversion Of The Barbarians To Christianity And Arianism.--
Persecution Of The Vandals In Africa.--Extinction Of
Arianism Among The Barbarians.

The indissoluble connection of civil and ecclesiastical affairs has
compelled, and encouraged, me to relate the progress, the persecutions,
the establishment, the divisions, the final triumph, and the gradual
corruption, of Christianity. I have purposely delayed the consideration
of two religious events, interesting in the study of human nature,
and important in the decline and fall of the Roman empire. I. The
institution of the monastic life; [1] and, II. The conversion of the
northern Barbarians.

[Footnote 1: The