Chap, xxxviii] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 117 need not be interpreted as the symptom of any permanent, or rational, scepticism. But earth, as well as heaven, rejoiced in the conversion of the Franks. On the memorable day when Clovis ascended from the baptismal font, he alone, in the Christian world, deserved the name and prerogatives of a Catholic king. The emperor Anastasius entertained some dangerous errors concerning the nature of the divine incar- nation ; and the Barbarians of Italy, Africa, Spain, and Gaul were involved in the Arian heresy. The eldest, or rather the only, son of the church was acknowledged by the clergy as their lawful sovereign, or glorious deliverer ; and the arms of Clovis were strenuously supported by the zeal and favour of the Catholic faction. 37 Under the Roman empire, the wealth and jurisdiction of submission the bishops, their sacred character, and perpetual orbce, their Armori- numerous dependents, popular eloquence, and provincial as- the Roman semblies had rendered them always respectable, and sometimes a.d. 497. &c. dangerous. Their influence was augmented with the progress of superstition, and the establishment of the French monarchy may, in some degree, be ascribed to the firm alliance of an hundred prelates, who reigned in the discontented, or independ- ent, cities of Gaul. The slight foundations of the Armorican republic had been repeatedly shaken, or overthrown ; 3S but the same people still guarded their domestic freedom ; asserted the dignity of the Roman name ; and bravely resisted the predatory inroads and regular attacks of Clovis, who laboured to extend his conquests from the Seine to the Loire. Their successful opposition introduced an equal and honourable union. The Franks esteemed the valour of the Armoricans, 39 and the the enchanted steed could not move from the stable till the price of his redemption had been doubled. This miracle provoked the king to exclaim, Vere B. Martinus est bonus in auxilio, sed carus in negotio (Gesta Francorum, in torn. ii. p. 554, 555). 37 See the epistle from pope Anastasius to the royal convert (in torn. iv. p. 50- 51). Avitus, bishop of Vienna, addressed Clovis on the same subject (p. 49), and many of the Latin bishops would assure him of their joy and attachment. 38 [Gibbon is reproducing Ka.Ta@a.vTas, the reading in the old texts of Procopius which rested on inferior Mss. ; the true reading of the best Mss. is fi€ra0apTas, " having changed," which appears in the new texts of Comparetti and Haury.] 39 Instead of the 'Ap/idpvxoi, an unknown people, who now appear in the text of Procopius, Hadrian de Valois has restored the proper name of the 'Kpix6pv%oi ; and this easy correction has been almost universally approved. [The best Mss. have 'ApfiSpvxoi, and we may hesitate to acquit Procopius of this corrupt form ; yet in Mss. of the 10th and 11th centuries /j. and £ are easily confounded.] Yet an
