passions of the clergy. Theodoret
l. iv. c. 37.]

[Footnote 84: The Arianism of the Goths has been imputed to the emperor
Valens: "Itaque justo Dei judicio ipsi eum vivum incenderunt, qui
propter eum etiam mortui, vitio erroris arsuri sunt." Orosius, l. vii.
c. 33, p. 554. This cruel sentence is confirmed by Tillemont, (Mem.
Eccles. tom. vi. p. 604-610,) who coolly observes, "un seul homme
entraina dans l'enfer un nombre infini de Septentrionaux, &c." Salvian
(de Gubern. Dei, l. v p. 150, 151) pities and excuses their involuntary
error.]

[Footnote 85: Orosius affirms, in the year 416, (l. vii. c. 41, p. 580,)
that the Churches of Christ (of the Catholics) were filled with Huns,
Suevi, Vandals, Burgundians.]

[Footnote 86: Radbod, king of the Frisons, was so much scandalized by
this rash declaration of a missionary, that he drew back his foot after
he had entered the baptismal font. See Fleury, Hist. Eccles. tom. ix p.
167.]

[Footnote 87: The epistles of Sidonius, bishop of Clermont, under the
Visigotha, and of Avitus, bishop of Vienna, under the Burgundians,
explain sometimes in dark hints, the general dispositions of the
Catholics. The history of Clovis and Theodoric will suggest some
particular facts]

[Footnote 88: Genseric confessed the resemblance, by the severity with
which he punished such indiscreet allusions. Victor Vitensis, l. 7, p.
10.]

The peace of the church was sometimes interrupted. The Catholics were
indiscreet, the Barbarians were impatient; and the partial acts of
severity or injustice, which had been recommended by the Arian clergy,
were exaggerated by the orthodox writers. The guilt of persecution may
be imputed to Euric, king of the Visigoths; who suspended the exercise
of ecclesiastical, or, at least, of episcopal functions; and punished
the popular bishops of Aquitain with imprisonment, exile, and
confiscation. [89] But the cruel and absurd enterprise of subduing the
minds of a whole people 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 wa