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 492-3] 114 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xxxviii rebellious to the arms of Rome, acknowledged the sovereignty of the Merovingian kings, who graciously permitted them to enjoy their peculiar manners and institutions, under the government of official, and, at length, of hereditary, dukes. After the conquest of the Western provinces, the Franks alone maintained their ancient habitations beyond the Rhine. They gradually subdued and civilised the exhausted countries, as far as the Elbe and the mountains of Bohemia ; and the peace of Europe was secured by the obedience of Germany. 27 conversion Till the thirtieth year of his age, Clovis continued to a.d. 4% 9 ' worship the gods of his ancestors. 28 His disbelief, or rather disregard, of Christianity might encourage him to pillage with less remorse the churches of an hostile territory; but his subjects of G-aul enjoyed the free exercise of religious worship, and the bishops entertained a more favourable hope of the idolater than of the heretics. The Merovingian prince had con- ic, a.d. tracted a fortunate alliance with the fair Clotilda, the niece of the king of Burgundy, who, in the midst of an Arian court, was educated in the profession of the Catholic faith. It was her interest, as well as her duty, to achieve the conversion 29 of a Pagan husband ; and Clovis insensibly listened to the voice of love and religion. He consented (perhaps such terms had been previously stipulated) to the baptism of his eldest son ; and, though the sudden death of the infant excited some super- 27 Gregory of Tours (1. ii. 30, 37,£in torn, ii.ip. 176, 177, 182), the Gesta Fran- corum (in torn. ii. p. 551), and the epistle of Theodoric (Cassiodor. Variar. 1. ii. c. 41, in torn. iv. p. 4) represent the defeat of the Alemanni. Some of their tribes settled in Rhsetia, under the protection of Theodoric ; whose successors ceded the colony and their country to the grandson of Clovis. [This is probably the true view ; and we must prefer it to the theories that part of Alamannia remained inde- pendent, or was annexed by Theodoric the Ostrogoth. For his treatment of the fugitive Alamanni, see also Ennodius, Panegyricus, c. xv. p. 212, ed. Vogel.] The state of the Alemanni under the Merovingian kings may be seen in Mascou (Hist, of the Ancient Germans, xi. 8, &c. Annotation xxxvi.) and Guilliman (de Reb. Helvet. 1. ii. c. 10-12, p. 72-80). 2S Clotilda, or rather Gregory, supposes that Clovis worshipped the gods of Greece and Rome. The fact is incredible, and the mistake only shews how com- pletely, in less than a century, the national religion of the Franks had been abolished, and even forgotten. 29 Gregory of Tours relates the marriage and conversion of Clovis (1. ii. c. 28-31, in torn. ii. p. 175-178). Even Fredegarius, or the nameless Epitomizer (in torn. ii. p. 398-400), the author of the Gesta Francorum (in torn. ii. p. 548-552), and Aimoin himself (1. i. c. 13, in torn. iii. p. 37-40) may be heard without disdain. Tradition might long preserve some curious circumstances of these important transactions. [On these later accounts see Fauriel, Histoire de la Gaule M6ridionale, ii. 493 sqq., and Junghans, op. cit. p. 51-54.]