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 HERE BEGINS THE FIFTH BOOK WITH HAPPY AUSPICES. AMEN I am weary of relating the details of the civil wars that mightily plague the nation and kingdom of the Franks ; and the worst of it is that we see in them the beginning of that time of woe which the Lord foretold: '^ Father shall rise against son, son against father, brother against brother, kinsman against kinsman. '^ They should have been deterred by the examples of former kings who were slain by their enemies as soon as they were divided. How often has the very city of cities, the great capital of the whole earth, been laid low by civil war and again, when it ceased, has risen as if from the ground ! Would that you too, O kings, were engaged in battles like those in which your fathers struggled, that the heathen terrified by your union might be crushed by your strength ! Re- member how Clovis won your great victories, how he slew opposing kings, crushed wicked peoples and subdued their lands, and left to you complete and unchallenged dominion over them ! And when he did this he had neither silver nor gold such as you now have in your treasuries. What is your object ? What do you seek after ? What have you not in plenty?^ In your homes there are luxuries in abundance, in your storehouses wine, grain and oil abound, gold and silver are piled up in your treasuries. One thing you lack : without peace you have not the grace of God. Why does one take from another? Why does one desire what another has? I beg of you, beware of this saying of the apostle : ''But if ye bite antl devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another." Examine carefully the books of the ancients and you will see what civil wars beget. Read what Orosius writes of the Carthaginians, who says that after seven hundred years their city and country were ruined and adds: ''What preserved this city so long? Union. What destroyed it after such a period? Dis- 105