Chap, xxxvii] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 99 able suspicion ; and the Arian, or Socinian, who has seriously rejected the doctrine of the Trinity, will not be shaken by the most plausible evidence of an Athanasian miracle. The Vandals and the Ostrogoths persevered in the prof es- The ruin of sion of Arianism till the final ruin of the kingdoms which they amongW had founded in Africa and Italy. The Barbarians of Gaul ian r s . a a.d. submitted to the orthodox dominion of the Franks ; and Spain was restored to the Catholic church by the voluntary conversion of the Visigoths. This salutary revolution 12S was hastened by the example of Revolt and a royal martyr, whom our calmer reason may style an ungrate- dom'of ful rebel. Leovigild, the Gothic monarch of Spain, deserved j^fdhf 116 " the respect of his enemies, and the love of his subjects : the A.D ftl 577-584 Catholics enjoyed a free toleration, and his Arian synods at- tempted, without much success, to reconcile their scruples by abolishing the unpopular rite of a second baptism. His eldest son Hermenegild, who was invested by his father with the royal diadem, and the fair principality of Baetica, contracted an honourable and orthodox alliance with a Merovingian princess, the daughter of Sigibert, king of Austrasia, and of the famous Brunechild. The beauteous Ingundis, who was no more than thirteen years of age, was received, beloved, and persecuted in the Arian court of Toledo ; and her religious constancy was alternately assaulted with blandishments and violence by Goisvintha, the Gothic queen, who abused the double claim of maternal authority. 129 Incensed by her resist- ance, Goisvintha seized the Catholic princess by her long hair, inhumanly dashed her against the ground, kicked her till she was covered with blood, and at last gave orders that she should be stripped, and thrown into a bason, or fish-pond. 130 Love and honour might excite Hermenegild to resent this injurious 128 See the two general historians of Spain, Mariana (Hist, de Eebus Hispanias, torn. i. 1. v. c. 12-15, p. 182-194) and Ferreras (French translation, torn. ii. p. 206- 247). Mariana almost forgets that he is a Jesuit, to assume the style and spirit of a Roman classic. Ferreras, an industrious compiler, reviews his facts and rectifies his chronology. 129 Goisvintha successively married two kings of the Visigoths : Athanagild, to whom she bore Brunechild, the mother of Ingundis ; and Leovigild, whose two sons, Hermenegild and Recared, were the issue of a former marriage. 130 Iraeundise furore succensa, adprehensam per comam capitis puellam in terram conlidit, et diu calcibus verberatam, ac sanguine cruentatam, jussit exspoliari, et piscinaa immergi. Greg. Turon. 1. v. c. 39, in torn. ii. p. 255. Gregory is one of our best originals for this portion of history.
