History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 3

Edward Gibbon · 1782 (written); 1845 (revised)

passage 393 of 469 · Chapter XXVII: Civil Wars, Reign Of Theodosius.—Part I. > Chapter XXXVII: Conversion Of The Barbarians To (4/9)

in brief

The passage continues that religious conflict was sometimes interrupted: it highlights persecution under Euric of the Visigoths and especially Vandals under Genseric and Hunneric, followed by rulers’ varying oppression of Catholics in Africa.

85 (return) [ Orosius affirms, in the year 416, (l. vii. c. 41, p. 580,) that the Churches of Christ (of the Catholics) were filled with Huns, Suevi, Vandals, Burgundians.]

86 (return) [ Radbod, king of the Frisons, was so much scandalized by this rash declaration of a missionary, that he drew back his foot after he had entered the baptismal font. See Fleury, Hist. Eccles. tom. ix p. 167.]

87 (return) [ The epistles of Sidonius, bishop of Clermont, under the Visigotha, and of Avitus, bishop of Vienna, under the Burgundians, explain sometimes in dark hints, the general dispositions of the Catholics. The history of Clovis and Theodoric will suggest some particular facts]

88 (return) [ Genseric confessed the resemblance, by the severity with which he punished such indiscreet allusions. Victor Vitensis, l. 7, p. 10.]

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topics: empire and the rule of provinces · faction, party, and civil strife · religious persecution and toleration

History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 3 · Edward Gibbon · 1782–1845