1 INTROD. like his Inconnexa, or pedantic stanzas like his Parentalia, are valuable only as curiosities of literature or for the historical facts they incidentally supply. Yet in trifles like these a virtuous and able man, of Christian faith and classic culture, frittered away his leisure, his powers, and his opportunities. We see him, as his own muse depicts him, dreamily watching the fisher lad who plies his craft on the banks of the river, inhaling the perfume of the surrounding rose gardens, and composing verses in which the concluding syllable of one line is echoed by the commencing syllable of the next. Eminently a trifler and unprescient of the future; while at his feet the murmuring Moselle steals on, by woods and vineyards and castled heights, to join the rapid Rhine, beyond which Nemesis is already forging the bolt of vengeance and retribution. Sidonius Apollinaris, b. 430; d. 489. It is not improbable that Ausonius, who had seen the Franks retreating before Gratian, may have died still cherishing the fond illusion that the empire would always be able to hold its own against the barbarians; but in the following century, the age of Sidonius Apollinaris, no such belief could any longer exist. The last of the gentleman bishops of the Roman age,' as he has been styled, Sidonius witnessed in strange conjunction the old learning, the new faith, and the pagan invader triumphing in Gaul. During the interval between his age and that of Ausonius the divergence between the Roman and the Christian tradition of learning becomes yet more strongly marked. Claudian, the last representative of the purely classical genius, who died at the commencement of the century, still preserved much of the antique spirit, but only by a process of self-isolation. 'His muse,' to quote the language of Ozanam, 'chanted her graceful strains out of hearing of the Ambrosian chant at 1 The facts advanced by Beugnot (Hist. de la Destruction du Paganisme, ii 76) to shew that Ausonius was of pagan belief have been disproved by Ampère (i 247-50); see also an article by G. Kaufmann, Rhetorenschulen und Klosterschulen; oder heidnische und christliche Cultur in Gallien während des 5. und 6. Jahrhunderts, in von Raumer's Historisches Taschenbuch, 1869, pp. 10, 11. 'Man hatte,' says Böcking in his edition of the Mosella, p. 43, statt der Frage, ob Ausonius Christ gewesen sei, eher die aufstellen sollen was für ein Christ Ausonius gewesen sei?' 6 Milan.' Sidonius, in turn, offers the last eminent example, INTROD. for a long period, of an attempted combination of classic and Christian culture.1 Circum stances of age with those Sidonius was a native of Lyons, where he was born about the year 430, of noble parents, the representatives of a family from which the illustrious house of the Polignacs claim to trace their pedigree. He was son-in-law of the emperor Avitus, to whom he addresses some of his most elaborate panegyrics-compositions which afford excellent illustration of the literary taste of the period. His connexions and high position, together with a certain similarity in his writings, at once suggest a comparison with Ausonius, but the difference in the circumstances of their times is allimportant. The age in which Sidonius lived was one in his age which the most sanguine and the most discerning observer compared might alike well have despaired of the future of civilisation. of that of In his earlier years, it is true, some rays of hope might still Ausonius. have seemed to linger over the prospect. The first efforts of his muse were called forth to commemorate the brief successes of Aëtius, as the 'liberator of the Loire;' and he listened, while yet a youth, to the tidings of the dread struggle at Chalons. But the Frank had already crossed the Rhine, to be driven back no more; and a few years later Sidonius witnessed the occupation of Clermont, afterwards the seat of his own episcopate, by the Gothic invader. In his maturer years he saw the insignia of imperial power transferred from Italy to Nova Roma, and the verses are still extant in which he plaintively concedes the inferiority of the western to the eastern capital. He died only four years before the Frankish advance under Clovis upon Soissons. That a writer whose lot was cast in such troublous times Triviality should have left behind little save elaborate panegyrics, of tone trifling extemporaneous verse, and letters which rarely vades his writings. 1 As regards Sidonius, the uncritical optimism of M. Chaix in his St. Sidoine Apollinaire et son siècle (2 v. 1866), and the hasty verdict of Niebuhr (Kleine Schriften, p. 325), are corrected by Kaufmann's criticisms: see Inaugural-Dissertation (Göttingen, 1864) and article in Schweizer Museum, 1865. See also observations of J. W. Loebell in his Gregor von Tours (ed. 1869), p. 300. с that per INTROD. bespeak a thoughtful mood will scarcely appear surprising to those who have noted the tendencies of literature at like periods. In their very triviality and frivolity of tone the writings of Sidonius attest the deep despondency that had taken possession of the age. From the stern realities around it is thus that the littérateur often seeks to find relief in the exercise of the inventive faculty. It is thus that Boccacio represents his circle of refugees from the plague-smitten city telling their wanton tales. So again the merciless warriors, Garcilaso and Mendoza, sought amusement, in the intervals of massacre and pillage, in the composition of madrigals and sonnets. The Almanac des Muses, of the terrible year '93, is said to be as replete with joke and witticism as any that went before or followed. We have, however, sufficient evidence that Sidonius was in no way insensible to the real significance of the events of his time. In a manner that he could hardly himself explain he would seem to have been forlornly conscious that the power and vitality of former times had departed. 'God,' he exclaims, 'gave strength in other measure to bygone generations.' He more than once betrays a melancholy presentiment that the very extinction of learning is approaching. In a letter to Arbogast, a resident in the Moselle district, he expresses his delight that in the noble heart of his correspondent the literary spirit, now dying out,' still finds refuge. As for himself, his muse, he elsewhere confesses, falters before the depressing influences of the time. 'How,' he asks, 'can I write six-feet hexameters when surrounded by seven-feet barbarians ?' Regarded as a bishop of the Church, there is much, it must be admitted, in Sidonius that harmonises but indifferently with either the primitive or the modern conception. His own theory of the office seems to have been rather that of a political chieftain than a spiritual guide, and his effusive admiration of the career of Apollonius of Tyana is certainly a singular and somewhat puzzling feature. He was evidently of opinion that classic culture might, in judicious hands, prove a valuable weapon of the Church We find 1 Ampère, ii 238. him, for example, writing to the semi-Pelagian bishop INTROD. Faustus in terms of almost fulsome flattery respecting a treatise on the materiality of the soul, which the bishop had composed in answer to Claudian Mamertus. Sidonius assures him that he has pressed pagan science and philosophy into the service of the Church, and has attacked the enemies of the faith with their own weapons.' It probably marks, however, the prevailing tendency to an opposite theory that he implicitly admits, in another passage, that the study of pagan literature, though permissible as a recreation in earlier life, is unbecoming in the ecclesiastic of mature years. 'Improve your opportunities, young men,' he exclaims, and take your fill of Horace and Cicero. When age comes upon you, you must turn your thoughts to things eternal, and leave the ancient pagans alone. Now, however, use your time!' had not ceeded in complete expres It is evident indeed that the influences which were to That result in a remodelling of the whole scheme of Christian edu- theory cation had not as yet come fully into operation. Sidonius yet suchimself speaks of the pleasure he had derived from reading finding a play of Terence with one of his sons, and comparing the Roman copy with the Greek original of Menander. In another sion in letter he reminds one of the friends of his youth, how he, the practice. latter, had been wont of old 'to assume the garb of the Greek sophist' when studying the categories of Aristotle, and alludes to the nets which Aristotle spreads by means of his syllogisms.' A third letter contains an interesting account of the library possessed by his friend Ferreol of Nismes. The volumes appear to have been divided into three divisions. Of these the first was set apart for the use of the women, and was exclusively composed of Christian literature. The second contained only pagan literature, and was open only to the men. The third, including books of both kinds, was accessible to both sexes. The library was also a rendezvous for literary and philosophic discussions. But, in fact, there can be little doubt that in the time of Sidonius, and even in 2 1 Chaix, ii 49-54; Kaufmann (see p. 16, note 1), p. 33. INTROD. the succeeding generation, the ancient culture still exercised considerable influence. The names of Ennodius, bishop of Pavia, the poet Constantius, St. Avitus, bishop of Vienne, St. Hilary of Arles, Felix, the rhetorician of Clermont, St. Remy himself, are all those of men educated in the imperial schools, and who either insensibly reflected, or still regarded with a favour they could but imperfectly disguise, the old Final over- rhetorical training. The decisive and final overthrow of these traditions in Gaul is to be referred to a twofold influencean influence from without, the Frankish invasion and conquest and an influence from within, the rise of the monastic schools under the rule put forth by Cassian. throw of the Roman or pagan traditions. The Frankish invasion and con quest. The It was far from mere hyperbole when one of the panegyrists of the fourth century represented his fellow countrymen as ever watching, with anxious eye, the waters of the Rhine-rejoicing when the broad current rolled in fuller volume, and trembling when it fell. For a long time it had seemed their tutelary guardian against Frankish invasion. But already in the fourth century the Frank had permanently crossed the barrier. In 398, Trèves, the metropolis of northern Gaul, had been burnt to the ground; and in 445 the conquest of Cambrai by Clodion, to which the arms of Aëtius offered but a temporary check, extended the domain of the Salian Franks to the Somme. At Chalons, Franks contended on either side; but in the year 486 came the memorable march of Clovis upon Soissons, and thenceforth the history of Gaul is for the greater, certainly for the most interesting, part that of another race. In almost every respect the characteristics of the conFrank and queror stand in striking contrast to the influences which had previously shaped the destinies of Gaul. the Gallo Roman He brought with compared. him none of that refined civilisation and speculative philosophy wherewith the Greek had stirred and humanised the great cities of the South. Lawless indeed he was not; but his Salic Code was at best but a rough and incoherent conception when compared with that imperial system which extorted his admiration in the subjugated land. In all the arts that minister to social enjoyment, in all the higher cul |