353 
succeeding the fall of the Western Empire is, perhaps, the most 
frightful lecord of atrocious crimes that the world has ever 
known. The barbarians bad not vet nnbibed U,e precepts of 
Christianity, while they united the vices of savage and n f 
civ.hzed ife Therefore, murders, parrieides, fierce a”nd bloody 
J arS undertaken without any adequate provocation, adulteries^ 
divorces, acts of gross oppression and cruelty followed one 
another in terrible succession. There was scarcelv a single 
bieak m the dark uniformity of colouring spread over the whole 
pictuie of these times. Few characters in history display more 
Ciofi/i a ^°f auce > au(1 P erfid y combined, tlimi the famous 
Clows. let even his crimes are surpassed by those of the 
members of his family, and nowhere can we find heater 
monsters of iniquity than a Clotaire or a Chilperic, aFre'dd- 
gonde 01 a Biunehaut. Four hundred years passed away and 
even in the tenth century pious Christians; shocked at the 
violence and wickedness that reigned around them and had 
now continued to reign for centuries, believed that ’the world 
re mi ire ^of* t h e i r ” ^ ? d ' ?i' d that a just God ^tended to 
win 1 i generation the accumulated sins of the ages 
which had elapsed since Christ came to save the world Yet 
dark as that tenth century undoubtedly was, we can see that 
some influence had been at work which had Already produced a 
rh" i f] * or . tbe better. If we compare the a^e of 
Charles the Great with that of Clovis, we cannot fail to observe 
a marked improvement. A still more visible advance is to be 
found when we compare the age of the Great Charles with that 
the saintly Louis IX. Between the ninth century and the 
tion It ‘ toui!! 0l be S1>il;i r ° f l S ° Ciety ha<1 under 8 0n 6 a' revolu- 
warriors of the Gr , ndl ° ulous . to compare the chivalrous 
warriors of the Crusades, the saintly Tailored, the unselfish 
the nin' 1? ^ fearless . and devout Edward of England + 
f P' ous f bat unfortunate Louis himself, with the bloodth rstv 
SS y S atedEur °P efive or six centuries before 
«e.,e barbarians, bad tangbt 
restrained by “the milder otnius’ admits that Clovis was sometimes 
pages further on he assert^ +W Iu R ° me a . nd Chnstlanit y>” though four 
influence of the Gospel.” ' 1C was mcapable of feeling the mild 
EdwIrlTTn SehiSt temis'’ P He 90 ’ speak 1 s 1 of t 1 he religious character of 
a tfood son ■) plpmoG i • m ls g eaer ally acknowledged to have been 
a Smut°^S! Dt “ JUSt m ° narch ’ a maa of the sfcric test integrity, and 
