138 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xxxviii many, was propagated and established in all the monarchies of Europe, from Sicily to the Baltic. At the end of ten centuries, the reign of legal violence was not totally extinguished ; and the ineffectual censures of saints, of popes, and of synods may seem to prove that the influence of superstition is weakened by its unnatural alliance with reason and humanity. The tri- bunals were stained with the blood, perhaps, of innocent and respectable citizens ; the law, which now favours the rich, then yielded to the strong; and the old, the feeble, and the infirm were condemned either to renounce their fairest claims and possessions, to sustain the dangers of an unequal conflict, 89 or to trust the doubtful aid of a mercenary champion. This oppressive jurisprudence was imposed on the provincials of Gaul, who complained of any injuries in their persons and property. Whatever might be the strength or courage of in- dividuals, the victorious Barbarians excelled in the love and exercise of arms; and the vanquished Eoman was unjustly summoned to repeat, in his own person, the bloody contest which had been already decided against his country. 90 Divisions A devouring host of one hundred and twenty thousand the Bar- Germans had formerly passed the Ehine under the command of Ariovistus. One-third part of the fertile lands of the Sequani was appropriated to their use ; and the conqueror soon repeated his oppressive demand of another third, for the accommodation of a new colony of twenty-four thousand Barbarians, whom he had invited to share the rich harvest of Gaul. 91 At the distance of five hundred years, the Visigoths and Burgundians, who revenged the defeat of Ariovistus, usurped the same unequal proportion of two-thirds of the subject lands. But this distribu- tion, instead of spreading over the province, may be reasonably 89 " Accidit (says Agobard) ut non solum valentes viribus, sed etiam infirrni et senes lacessantur ad [certamen et] pugnam, etiam pro vilissimis rebus. Quibus foralibus certam inibus contingunt bornieidia injusta ; et crudeles ac perversi eventus judiciorum." Like a prudent rhetorician, he suppresses the legal privilege of hiring champions. 90 Montesquieu (Esprit des Loix, xxviii. c. 14), who understands why the judicial combat was admitted by the Burgundians, Eipuarians, Alemanni, Bavarians, Lombards, Thuringians, Frisons, and Saxons, is satisfied (and Agobard seems to countenance the assertion) that it was not allowed by the Salic law. Yet the same custom, at least in cases of treason, is mentioned by Ermoldus Nigellus (1. iii. 543, in torn. vi. p. 48), and the anonymous biographer of Lewis the Pious (c. 46, in torn, vi. p. 112), as the " mos antiquus Francorum, more Francis Bolito," &c, expressions too general to exclude the noblest of their tribes. 91 Caesar de Bell. Gall. 1. i. c. 31, in torn. i. p. 213.
