VISCOUNT VISIGOTHS. 



833 



the emperors, which was rendered an easier task 

 by the number of medals, and has been executed 

 by Mongez. Visconti's services were also sought in 

 foreign countries. Lord Worsley engaged him to 

 describe the collection of works of art which he had 

 procured in Greece ; and the description was pub- 

 lished at London, under the title // Museo Wor- 

 sleyano. Parliament also sent for him, to consult 

 on the purchase of the Elgin marbles; and he pre- 

 pared an excellent catalogue of those celebrated 

 antiques. Visconti died in 1818. Few inquirers 

 into antiquity have possessed such various and ex- 

 tensive knowledge of all departments illustrative 

 of its study. His complete works appeared at. 

 Milan, in 1824 seq., in Italian and French (Opere 

 tutte, divise in tre Classi : 1st division, 8 vols. ; 2d, 

 5 vols. ; and 3d, 8 vols.), with numerous engrav- 

 ings. 



VISCOUNT, in England; a title of nobility, 

 indicating a rank between an earl and a baron. 

 (See Earl, and Nobility.) The first viscounts in 

 England were created in the reign of Henry VI. ; 

 and they have never been numerous. 



VISHNU ; the second person of the Hindoo 

 trimourti, or trinity, consisting of Brama, the crea- 

 tor, Vishnu, the preserver, and Siva, the destroyer. 

 See Avatar, and Indian Mythology. 



VISIGOTHS. The powerful confederacy of 

 nations under the name of Goths, was, at an early 

 period, geographically divided into Ostrogoths, who 

 had their seats on the Pontus, and Fisigoths, who 

 inhabited Dacia. About the middle of the fourth 

 century, the two nations separated into distinct 

 political bodies. The Ostrogoths, weakened by 

 this separation, having submitted to the Huns, the 

 Visigoths fled to the mountains, and soon after ob- 

 tained from the Romans permission to settle in the 

 desolated Thrace. The relation of the nations to 

 each other was by this means essentially changed. 

 Under the name of allies, the Goths formed a chief 

 part of the Roman army ; but they became hostile 

 whenever the promises made them were violated ; 

 and scarcely was Theodosius dead, and the empire 

 divided, when the Visigoths, under Alaric, broke 

 forth upon Italy, and Rome fell, in 410, into the 

 power of the Visigoths. Alaric, had he not been 

 overtaken by death, when on the point of conquer- 

 ing Africa, would have founded a Germanic empire 

 in Italy. His brother-in-law Athaulf (Ataulphus), 

 who was placed at the head of the nation, aban- 

 doned Alaric's projects, and turned towards Gaul, 

 to make new conquests on both sides of the Py- 

 renees. He reached Barcelona, where he was 

 murdered, in 415 ; but his successors, in the midst 

 of perpetual conflicts with the previous occupants 

 and with the Romans, founded in the south of 

 France and in Spain the kingdom of the Visigoths. 

 The unnatural extension of this kingdom to the 

 north of the Pyrenees, where even the capital, and 

 the residence of the king, Toulouse, was situated, 

 while the Suevi still maintained their independence 

 on the Peninsula, was one of the causes of its in- 

 ternal weakness. Another cause was the difference 

 in the religious doctrines of the conquerors and the 

 conquered, the former professing the Arian doc- 

 trines (see Arians), which were detestable to the 

 Catholic descendants of the Roman settlers. This 

 circumstance gave rise to a strict separation be- 

 tween the Goths and Romans, and caused the Ca- 

 tholic clergy to become more firmly attached to each 

 other and to Rome. Notwithstanding this, and 

 notwithstanding the convulsions produced by fre- 



quent changes of government, and by factions, the 

 kingdom of the Visigoths, in the fifth century of 

 its existence, continued to extend itself even be- 

 yond the Pyrenees, and, by political regulations, 

 obtained internal consistency. Euric, the fifth king, 

 who, from 466 to 483, during the total decline of 

 the Roman empire, made great conquests in Spain 

 and Gaul, gave the Visigoths, who had previously 

 been governed by customary laws, written statutes, 

 which were extended by his successors, and reduced 

 to a system (see Lindenbrog's Codex Legum Anti- 

 quarum, and Cancla.ni's Sarbarorum Z,eyes Antiques), 

 which is the most complete of all the German 

 codes, and exhibits jurisprudence in a state of 

 great advancement. His successor, Alaric, gave 

 also to his Roman subjects in Gaul a system of 

 laws, which he caused to be compiled, by persons 

 well versed in jurisprudence, from the Theodosian 

 code, from the enactments of the later emperors, 

 and other sources, in order that the provinces might 

 retain their ancient laws, but that the obligatory 

 force of the law might proceed from his own au- 

 thority. This code was not abolished till about 

 the middle of the seventh century, till which time 

 the laws of the Visigoths and Romans continued 

 different. But the weakness of the Visigoths be- 

 came manifest as soon as they came in contact with 

 the Franks on the Loire, when the Catholic Clovis, 

 on pretence that it was unjust to let the heretic 

 Visigoths possess the fairest portion of Gaul, at- 

 tacked the peaceful Alaric, and defeated him at 

 Rougle, in 507. The Franks obtained possession, 

 without resistance, of most of the cities in south- 

 ern Gaul, and the kingdom of the Visigoths would 

 have been in great danger, had not Theodoric, king 

 of the Ostrogoths, undertaken its defence. While 

 guardian of the Visigothic prince, his grandson, he 

 embraced the favourable opportunity to make him- 

 self master of a part of the territories still belong- 

 ing to the Visigoths in southern Gaul ; and, after 

 a long separation of the two nations, there existed, 

 for a time, an intimate connexion of the Ostrogoths 

 and Visigoths. After his death, dissensions soon 

 arose among the Visigoths, and the pernicious in- 

 fluence of the difference of religion between the 

 Arian Visigoths and the Catholic provincials, who 

 were sometimes tolerated, and sometimes perse- 

 cuted, became more and more evident. The king- 

 dom of the Visigoths arose again with new energy, 

 under the bold and intelligent Leovigild (568 586), 

 who totally subdued the Suevi, improved the laws, 

 limited the power of the nobles, made Toledo the 

 royal residence, and tried to render the regal power 

 hereditary. His equally celebrated son, Reccared, 

 became a convert, in 589, to the Catholic faith ; 

 upon which the divisions of the people ceased, and 

 Goths and Spaniards became one nation. His con- 

 version had the most important influence on the 

 character of the government. Scarcely had the 

 Catholic faith become the established religion, when 

 the clergy, who had become accustomed, during 

 their former state of oppression, to adhere firmly 

 together, acquired a predominant influence, such as 

 they obtained in no other Germanic nation, and 

 constituted a hierarchy, totally independent of the 

 Roman papal authority. The Arian bishops had 

 lived quietly in their dioceses, and had no influence 

 on the public administration ; but the Catholic 

 bishops strove after an active participation in public 

 affairs, in order to render secure the authority 

 which their church had obtained. The grandees 

 of the kingdom, the secular public ministers and 

 3o 



