s furious and formidable;
the knowledge of his intentions might justify the most unfavorable
interpretation of his actions; and the Arians were reproached with the
frequent executions which stained the palace and the dominions of the
tyrant. Arms and ambition were, however, the ruling passions of the
monarch of the sea. But Hunneric, his inglorious son, who seemed
to inherit only his vices, tormented the Catholics with the same
unrelenting fury which had been fatal to his brother, his nephews,
and the friends and favorites of his father; and even to the Arian
patriarch, who was inhumanly burnt alive in the midst of Carthage.
The religious war was preceded and prepared by an insidious truce;
persecution was made the serious and important business of the Vandal
court; and the loathsome disease which hastened the death of Hunneric,
revenged the injuries, without contributing to the deliverance, of the
church. The throne of Africa was successively filled by the two nephews
of Hunneric; by Gundamund, who reigned about twelve, and by Thrasimund,
who governed the nation about twenty-seven, years. Their administration
was hostile and oppressive to the orthodox party. Gundamund appeared to
emulate, or even to surpass, the cruelty of his uncle; and, if at length
he relented, if he recalled the bishops, and restored the freedom of
Athanasian worship, a premature death intercepted the benefits of his
tardy clemency. His brother, Thrasimund, was the greatest and most
accomplished of the Vandal kings, whom he excelled in beauty, prudence,
and magnanimity of soul. But this magnanimous character was degraded
by his intolerant zeal and deceitful clemency. Instead of threats and
tortures, he employed the gentle, but efficacious, powers of seduction.
Wealth, dignity, and the royal favor, were the liberal rewards of
apostasy; the Catholics, who had violated the laws, might purchase
their pardon by the renunciation of their faith; and whenever
Thrasimund meditated any rigorous measure, he patiently waited till
the indiscretion of his adversaries furnished him with a specious
opportunity. Bigotry was his last sentiment in the hour of death; and he
exacted from his successor a solemn oath, that he would never tolerate
the sectaries of Athanasius. But his successor, Hilderic, the gentle son
of the savage Hunneric, preferred the duties of humanity and justice to
the vain obligation of an impious oath; and his accession was gloriously
marked by t