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 chap, xxxviii] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 119 valiant and ambitious prince had reduced the number of royal candidates by the death of two brothers, one of whom was the father of Clotilda ; 42 but his imperfect prudence still permitted Godegesil, the youngest of his brothers, to possess the dependent principality of Geneva. 43 The Arian monarch was justly alarmed by the satisfaction, and the hopes, which seemed to animate his clergy and people after the conversion of Clovis ; and Gundobald convened at Lyons an assembly of his bishops, to reconcile, if it were possible, their religious and political dis- contents. A vain conference was agitated between the two factions. The Arians upbraided the Catholics with the worship of three Gods ; the Catholics defended their cause by theological distinctions ; and the usual arguments, objections, and replies were reverberated with obstinate clamour, till the king revealed his secret apprehensions, by an abrupt but decisive question, which he addressed to the orthodox bishops: "If you truly profess the Christian religion, why do you not restrain the king of the Franks? He has declared war against me, and forms alliances with my enemies for my destruction. A sanguinary and covetous mind is not the symptom of a sincere conversion : let him shew his faith by his works." The answer of Avitus, bishop of Vienna, who spoke in the name of his brethren, was delivered with the voice and countenance of an angel : " We are ignorant of the motives and intentions of the king of the Franks ; but we are taught by scripture that the kingdoms which abandon the divine law are frequently subverted ; and that enemies will arise on every side against those who have made God their enemy. Return, with thy people, to the law of God, and he will give peace and security to thy dominions." The king of Burgundy, who was not prepared to accept the the Durance, was afterwards ceded to the Ostrogoths ; and the signatures of twenty-five bishops are supposed to represent the kingdom of Burgundy, a.d. 519 (Concil. Epaon. in torn. iv. p. 104, 105). Yet I would except Vindonissa. The bishop who lived under the Pagan Alemanni would naturally resort to the synods of the next Christian kingdom. Mascou (in his four first annotations) has ex- plained many circumstances relative to the Burgundian monarchy. [Marseilles and Aries seem to have been Burgundian in 499.] 42 Mascou (Hist, of the Germans, xi. 10), who very reasonably distrusts the testimony of Gregory of Tours, has produced a passage from Avitus (epist. v.) to prove that Gundobald affected to deplore the tragic event which his subjects affected to applaud. 43 [See Vita Epiphanii, in Bouquet, iii. 371, in Vogel, p. 106. The residence of Gundobad was Lyons.]