Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/119

 OF THE KOMAN EMPIRE 99 of their family, the protection of their lands, and the revenge of their injuries ; and, like the conquerors of a larger size, they were too apt to transgress the privilege of defensive war. The powers of the mind and body were hardened by the presence of danger and the necessity of resolution ; the same spirit re- fused to desert a friend and to forgive an enemy ; and, instead of sleeping under the guardian care of the magistrate, they proudly disdained the authority of the laws. In the days of feudal anarchy, the instruments of agriculture and art were converted into the weapons of bloodshed : the peaceful occupa- tions of civil and ecclesiastical society were abolished or cor- rupted ; and the bishop who exchanged his mitre for an helmet was more forcibly urged by the manners of the times than by the obligation of his tenure.*^ The love of freedom and of ai*ms was felt, with conscious Their char, pride, by the Franks themselves, and is observed by the Greeks taotica with some degree of amazement and terror. " The Franks," says the emperor Constantine, "are bold and valiant to the verge of temerity ; and their dauntless spirit is supported by the contempt of danger and death. In the field and in close onset, they press to the front, and rush headlong against the enemy, without deigning to compute either his numbers or their own. Their ranks are formed by the firm connexions of consanguinity and friendship ; and their martial deeds are prompted by the desire of saving or revenging their dearest companions. In their eyes a retreat is a shameful flight, and flight is indelible infamy." '■"' A nation endowed with such high and intrepid spirit must have been secure of victory, if these advantages had not been counterbalanced by many weighty defects. The decay of their naval power left the Greeks and Saracens in possession of the sea, for every purpose of annoyance and supply. In the age which preceded the institution of knighthood, the Franks were rude and unskilful "•^ On this subject of ecclesiastical and beneficiary discipline, Father Thomassin (torn. iii. 1. i. c. 40, 45, 46, 47) may be usefully consulted. A general law of Char- lemagne exempted the bishops from personal service ; but the opposite practice, which prevailed from the i.xth to the xvth century, is countenanced by the example or silence of saints and doctors. . . . You justify your cowardice by the holy canons, says Rutherius of Verona ; the canons likewise forbid you to whore, and yet — — "^In the xviiith chapter of his Tactics, the emperor Leo has fairly stated the military vices and virtues of the Franks (whom Meursius ridiculously translates by Oalli) and the Lombards, or Langobards. See likewise the xxvith Dissertation of Muratori de Antiquitatibus Italias medii JE..