governed, and their power was arbitrary and they had counts under them
who also had a certain number of men subjected to their orders;
sometimes these nobles carried rapine, pillage and slaughter into each
other's territories, when the government had devolved upon the Franks;
and the king took no notice of their misdeeds, as long as they observed
a certain fealty towards him, and in some instances they put aside the
monarch if he acted in such a manner as to trench upon what they
considered their privileges. A third power soon began to assume a high
authority, which consisted of the bishops, who had greatly aided the
Francs in their invasion of Gaul by their influence and intrigues, and
obtained as reward considerable grants of lands and temporal power; and
in their dioceses they exercised a sovereign will, and on account of
their possessing some instruction they maintained a certain influence
over the ignorant nobility who had in some degree a sort of
superstitious awe of them, as they were regarded as the emissaries of
saints. Under the Romans the Gauls were considered a moral people,
having become Christians in consequence of the persevering endeavours of
the missionary prelates, whilst churches were founded and a purity of
faith disseminated; taught by the Romans, a love of the arts and
sciences was engendered amongst the Gauls, and much talent was elicited
from them, philosophy, physic, mathematics, jurisprudence, poetry, and
above all eloquence, had their respective professors of no mean
abilities from amongst the natives; one named Julius Florens is styled
by Quintilian the Prince of Eloquence. In fact a brilliant era appeared
as if beginning to dawn throughout the greater portion of Gaul,
academies were establishing, learning was revered, when suddenly every
spark of refinement and civilisation was banished, by the successful
aggression and permanent occupation of the country by hordes of
barbarians; the natives being obliged to have recourse to arms for their
defence against the common enemy, and the constant excitement of