embraced the truth before the time of their incursion; CENT. V. and such, among others, was the case of the Goths. Others, after having erected their little kingdoms in the empire, embraced the Gospel, that they might thus live with more security amidst a people, who, in general, professed the Christian religion. It is, however, uncertain (and likely to continue so) at what time, and by whose ministry, the Vandals, Sueves, and Alans, were converted to Christianity. With respect to the Burgundians, who inhabited the banks of the Rhine, and thence passed into Gaul, we are informed, by Socrates, that they embraced the Gospel of their own accord, from a notion that Christ, or the God of the Romans, who had been represented to them as a most powerful being, would defend them against the rapines and incursions of the Huns. They afterwards sided with the Arian party, to which also the Vandals, Sueves, and Goths, were zealously attached. All these fierce and warlike nations considered a religion as excellent, in proportion to the success which crowned the arms of those who professed it; and, therefore, when they saw the Romans in possession of an empire much more extensive than that of any other people, they concluded that Christ, their God, was of all others the most worthy of religious homage.

V. It was the same principle, as well as the same of the views, that engaged Clovis, king of the Salii, a Franks. nation of the Franks, to embrace Christianity. This prince, whose signal valor was accompanied with barbarity, arrogance, and injustice, founded the kingdom of the Franks in Gaul, after having made himself master of a great part of that country, and meditated with remarkable eagerness and avidity the conquest of the whole. His conversion to the Christian religion is dated from the battle he fought with the

Socrat. lib. vii. cap. xxx. p. 371.

Beside the name of Clovis, this prince was also called Clodovæus, Hludovicus, Ludovicus, and Ludicin.

CENT. V. Alemans, in 496, at a village called Tolbiacum'; in which, when the Franks began to give ground, and their affairs seemed desperate, he implored the assistance of Christ (whom his queen Clotildis, daughter of the king of the Burgundians, had often represented to him, in vain, as the Son of the true God), and solemnly engaged himself, by a vow, to worship him as his God, if he would render him victorious over his enemies. Victory decided in favor of the Franks; and Clovis, faithful to his engagement, received baptism at Rheims m, toward the conclusion of the same year, after having been instructed by Remigius, bishop of that city, in the doctrines of Christianity' The example of the king had such a powerful effect upon the minds of his subjects, that three thousand of them immediately followed it, and were baptized with him. Many are of opinion, that the desire of extending his dominions principally contributed to render Clovis faithful to his engagement, though some influence may also be allowed to the zeal and exhortations of his queen Clotildis. Be that as it will, nothing is more certain than that his profession of Christianity was, in effect, of great use to him, both in confirming and enlarging his empire.

n

The miracles, which are said to have been wrought at the baptism of Clovis, are unworthy of the smallest degree of credit. Among others, the principal prodigy, that of the phial full of oil said to have been brought from heaven by a milk-white dove during the ceremony of baptism, is a fiction, or rather, per

Tolbiacum is thought to be the present Zulpick, which is about twelve miles from Cologne.

in See Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum, lib. ii. cap. xxx. xxxi.-Count Bunau's Historia Imperii Romano-Germanici, tom. i. p. 588.-Du Bos' Histoire Critique de la Monarchie Françoise, tom. ii. p. 340.

The epitomiser of the history of the Franks tells us, that Remigius having preached to Clovis, and those who had been baptized with him, a sermon on the passion of our Saviour, the king, in hearing him, could not forbear crying out, "If I "had been there with my Franks, that should not have hap"pened."

haps, an imposture; a pretended miracle contrived by artifice and fraud. Pious frauds of this nature were very frequently practised in Gaul and in Spain at this time, in order to captivate, with more facility, the minds of a rude and barbarous people, who were scarcely susceptible of a rational conviction.

The conversion of Clovis is looked upon by the learned as the origin of the titles of Most Christian King, and Eldest Son of the Church, which have been so long attributed to the kings of France P; for, if we except this prince, all the kings of those barbarous nations, who seised the Roman provinces, were either yet involved in the darkness of Paganism, or infected with the Arian heresy.

CENT. V.

VI. Celestine, the Roman pontiff, sent Palladius of the Irish. into Ireland, to propagate the Christian religion among the rude inhabitants of that island. This first

The truth of this miracle has been denied by the learned John James Chiflet, in his book De Ampullâ Rhemensi, printed at Antwerp, in 1651; and it has been affirmed by Vertot, in the Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions et des Belles Lettres, tom. iv. p. 350. After a mature consideration of what has been alleged on both sides of the question, I can scarcely venture to deny the fact: I am therefore of opinion, that, in order to confirm and fix the wavering faith of this barbarian prince, Remigius had prepared his measures before-hand, and trained a pigeon, by great application and dexterity, in such a manner, that, during the baptism of Clovis, it descended from the roof of the church with a phial of oil. Among the records of this century, we find accounts of many such miracles. There is one circumstance, which obliges me to differ from Dr. Mosheim upon this point, and to look upon the story of the famous phial rather as a mere fiction, than as a pious fraud, or pretended miracle brought about by artifice; and that circumstance is, that Gregory of Tours, from whom we have a full account of the conversion and baptism of Clovis, and who, from his proximity to this time, may almost be called a contemporary writer, has not made the least mention of this famous miracle. This omission, in a writer whom the Roman catholics themselves consider as an over-credulous historian, amounts to a proof, that, in his time, this fable was not yet invented.

? See Gab. Daniel et De Camps, Dissert. de Titulo Regis Christianissimi, in the Journal des Sçavans for the year 1720, p. 243, 336, 404, 448.-Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xx. p. 466.

CENT. V. mission 9 was not attended with much fruit; nor did the success of Palladius bear any proportion to his laborious and pious endeavours. After his death, the same pontiff employed, in this mission, Succathus, a native of Scotland, whose name he changed into that of Patrick, and who arrived among the Irish in 432. The success of his ministry, and the number and importance of his pious exploits, stand upon record as undoubted proofs, not only of his resolution and patience, but also of his dexterity and address. Having attacked, with much more success than his predecessor, the errors and superstitions of that uncivilised people, and brought great numbers of them over to the Christian religion, he founded, in 472, the archbishopric of Armagh, which has ever since remained the metropolitan see of the Irish nation. Hence this famous missionary, though not the first who brought among that people the light of the Gospel, has yet been justly entitled the Apostle of the Irish, and the father of the Hibernian church, and is still generally acknowleged and revered in that honorable character.

The causes

VII. The causes and circumstances by which these of these con- different nations were were engaged to abandon the superstition of their ancestors, and to embrace the

versions.

From the fragments of the lives of some Irish bishops who are said to have converted many of their countrymen in the fourth century, archbishop Usher concludes, that Palladius was not the first bishop of Ireland (see his Antiquities of the British Church); but it has been evidently proved, among others by Bollandus, that these fragments are of no earlier date than the twelfth century, and are besides, for the most part, fabulous. Dr. Mosheim's opinion is farther confirmed by the authority of Prosper, which is decisive in this matter.

See the Acta Sanctor. tom. ii. Martii, p. 517, tom. iii. Februar. p. 131, 179; and the Hibernia Sacra of Sir James Ware, printed at Dublin in 1717. The latter published at London, in 1656, the Works of St. Patrick. Accounts of the synods, that were holden by this eminent missionary, are to be found in Wilkins' Concilia Magnæ Brit. et Hiberniæ, tom. i. With respect to the famous cave, called the Purgatory of St. Patrick, the reader may consult Le Brun, Histoire Critique des Pratiques superstitieuses, tom, iv. p. 34.

religion of Jesus, may be easily deduced from the CENT. v. facts we have related in the history of their conversion. It would, indeed, be an instance of the blindest and most perverse partiality, not to acknowlege, that the labors and zeal of great and eminent men contributed to this happy purpose, and were the means by which the darkness of many was turned into light. But, on the other hand, they must be very inattentive and superficial observers of things, who do not perceive that the fear of punishment, the prospect of honors and advantages, and the desire of obtaining succour against their enemies from the countenance of the Christians, or the miraculous influences of their religion, were the prevailing motives that induced the greatest part to renounce the service of their impotent gods.

How far these conversions were due to real miracles attending the ministry of the early preachers, is a matter extremely difficult to be determined; for, though I am persuaded that those pious men, who, in the midst of many dangers, and in the face of obstacles seemingly invincible, endeavoured to spread the light of Christianity among the barbarous nations, were sometimes accompanied with the more peculiar presence and succours of the Most Highs, yet I am equally convinced, that the greatest part of the prodigies, recorded in the histories of this age, are liable to the strongest suspicions of falsehood or imposture. The simplicity and ignorance of the generality in those times furnished the most favorable occasion for the exercise of fraud, and the impudence of impostors, in contriving false miracles, was artfully proportioned to the credulity of the vulgar, while the sagacious

There is a remarkable passage, relating to the miracles of this century, in the dialogue of Æneas Gazæus concerning the immortality of the soul, entitled Theophrastus. See the controversy concerning the time when miracles ceased in the church, that was carried on about the middle of the eighteenth century, on occasion of Dr. Middleton's Free Inquiry.

This is ingenuously confessed by the Benedictine monks in their Literary History of France, tom. ii. p. 33, and happily ex