le extraction, (natalibus... illustres,) and they possessed
large estates (latifundia) both in Auvergne and Burgundy. He was born in
the year 539, was consecrated bishop of Tours in 573, and died in 593
or 595, soon after he had terminated his history. See his life by
Odo, abbot of Clugny, (in tom. ii. p. 129-135,) and a new Life in the
Memoires de l'Academie, &c., tom. xxvi. p. 598-637.]

[Footnote 111: Decedente atque immo potius pereunte ab urbibus
Gallicanis liberalium cultura literarum, &c., (in praefat. in tom. ii.
p. 137,) is the complaint of Gregory himself, which he fully verifies by
his own work. His style is equally devoid of elegance and simplicity. In
a conspicuous station, he still remained a stranger to his own age and
country; and in a prolific work (the five last books contain ten years)
he has omitted almost every thing that posterity desires to learn. I
have tediously acquired, by a painful perusal, the right of pronouncing
this unfavorable sentence] We are now qualified to despise the opposite,
and, perhaps, artful, misrepresentations, which have softened, or
exaggerated, the oppression of the Romans of Gaul under the reign of the
Merovingians. The conquerors never promulgated any universal edict of
servitude, or confiscation; but a degenerate people, who excused their
weakness by the specious names of politeness and peace, was exposed
to the arms and laws of the ferocious Barbarians, who contemptuously
insulted their possessions, their freedom, and their safety. Their
personal injuries were partial and irregular; but the great body of the
Romans survived the revolution, and still preserved the property, and
privileges, of citizens. A large portion of their lands was exacted
for the use of the Franks: but they enjoyed the remainder, exempt from
tribute; [112] and the same irresistible violence which swept away the
arts and manufactures of Gaul, destroyed the elaborate and expensive
system of Imperial despotism. The Provincials must frequently deplore
the savage jurisprudence of the Salic or Ripuarian laws; but their
private life, in the important concerns of marriage, testaments,
or inheritance, was still regulated by the Theodosian Code; and a
discontented Roman might freely aspire, or descend, to the title and
character of a Barbarian. The honors of the state were accessible to
his ambition: the education and temper of the Romans more peculiarly
qualified them for the offices of civil government; an