ever been congenial to its temper.]

[Footnote 121: Gregory of Tours (l. viii. c. 30, in tom. ii. p. 325,
326) relates, with much indifference, the crimes, the reproof, and the
apology. Nullus Regem metuit, nullus Ducem, nullus Comitem reveretur;
et si fortassis alicui ista displicent, et ea, pro longaevitate vitae
vestrae, emendare conatur, statim seditio in populo, statim tumultus
exoritur, et in tantum unusquisque contra seniorem saeva intentione
grassatur, ut vix se credat evadere, si tandem silere nequiverit.]

[Footnote 1211: This remarkable passage was published in 1779--M.]

The Visigoths had resigned to Clovis the greatest part of their Gallic
possessions; but their loss was amply compensated by the easy conquest,
and secure enjoyment, of the provinces of Spain. From the monarchy
of the Goths, which soon involved the Suevic kingdom of Gallicia, the
modern Spaniards still derive some national vanity; but the historian
of the Roman empire is neither invited, nor compelled, to pursue the
obscure and barren series of their annals. [122] The Goths of Spain were
separated from the rest of mankind by the lofty ridge of the Pyrenaean
mountains: their manners and institutions, as far as they were common to
the Germanic tribes, have been already explained. I have anticipated,
in the preceding chapter, the most important of their ecclesiastical
events, the fall of Arianism, and the persecution of the Jews; and it
only remains to observe some interesting circumstances which relate to
the civil and ecclesiastical constitution of the Spanish kingdom.

[Footnote 122: Spain, in these dark ages, has been peculiarly
unfortunate. The Franks had a Gregory of Tours; the Saxons, or Angles,
a Bede; the Lombards, a Paul Warnefrid, &c. But the history of the
Visigoths is contained in the short and imperfect Chronicles of Isidore
of Seville and John of Biclar] After their conversion from idolatry or
heresy, the Frank and the Visigoths were disposed to embrace, with
equal submission, the inherent evils and the accidental benefits, of
superstition. But the prelates of France, long before the extinction
of the Merovingian race, had degenerated into fighting and hunting
Barbarians. They disdained the use of synods; forgot the laws of
temperance and chastity; and preferred the indulgence of private
ambition and luxury to the general interest of the sacerdotal
profession. [123] The bishops of Spain respected themselves, and were
respected