An Universal History, Tr. [By J.C. Prichard]. (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: country might not be betrayed by any man to the enemy, and that the son of a duke might never levy war against his father. As it was designed to alienate the people from bloodshed, the greater number of penalties consisted of pecuniary mulcts. Lastly, as the terrors and ordinances of religion were indispensable for the forming of manners, it was enacted, that he who neglected to attend public worship on the sabbath-day should be condemned to slavery. The bishops enjoyed the same dignity as counts. Thirty-five of the former, (for their number was considerable as long as the duties of the function were more regarded than the splendour and power attached to it), seventy-seven of the latter, and thirty-three dukes, were assembled with other freemen for the enactment of these regulations. . ., SECTION V. THE KINGDOM OF THE FRANKS. Among the enterprising warriors of this age, the Franks were the most prosperous, as far as prosperity consists in victories and the possession of power. We saw them in the third century pass over, as a military confederation, from the wastes and swamps of lower Germany into Gaul, where, at the fall of the western empire, they afforded protection to many cities. When Rome was stripped of her dominion, the lieutenants in Gaul acknowledged the nominal sway of the Constantinopolitan emperor, but the nations of the west received no assistance in their difficulties. At this era Clovis, descended from a race of former chieftains, who had established themselves in the low countries, and bad gradually extended their dominion as far as Paris, having attained the age of Alexander at the commencement of the Persian war, won a victory over the Roman lieu- The author calls him Chlodwig, but he is recognized by English readers under the name of Clovis ten...