Vigilantius was scouted as a heretic by all orthodox, lucre-loving
clerics. He is the forerunner of a long line of protesters against the
ever-growing strength and superstition of the Church.


CENTURY VI.


The darkness deepens as we proceed. Christianity spread among the
barbarous tribes of the East and West, but "it must, however, be
acknowledged, that of these conversions, the greatest part were owing to
the liberality of the Christian princes, or to the fear of punishment,
rather than to the force of argument or to the love of truth. In Gaul,
the Jews were compelled by Childeric to receive the ordinance of
baptism; and the same despotic method of converting was practised in
Spain" (p. 141). "They required nothing of these barbarous people that
was difficult to be performed, or that laid any remarkable restraint
upon their appetites and passions. The principal injunctions they
imposed upon these rude proselytes were that they should get by heart
certain summaries of doctrine, and to pay the images of Christ and the
saints the same religious services which they had formerly offered to
the statues of the gods" (p. 142). Libraries were formed in many of the
monasteries, and schools were opened, but apparently only for those who
intended to enter the monastic life; these, however, did not flourish,
for many bishops showed "bitter aversion" towards "every sort of
learning and erudition, which they considered as pernicious to the
progress of piety" (p. 144). "Greek literature was almost everywhere
neglected.... Philosophy fared still worse than literature; for it was
entirely banished from all the seminaries which were under the
inspection and government of the ecclesiastical order" (Ibid). The