e greatness of silent courage. Among the captives taken
from the south in war were often high-born women of great beauty and
purity of mind, and sometimes even bishops, who, true to their religious
principles, did not fail to exert a happy and a holy influence on the
tribes among whom their lot was cast. One after another the various
nations submitted: the Vandals and Gepidae in the fourth century; the
Goths somewhat earlier; the Franks at the end of the fifth; the Alemanni
and Lombards at the beginning of the sixth; the Bavarians, Hessians, and
Thuringians in the seventh and eighth. Of these, all embraced the Arian
form except the Franks, who were converted by the Catholic clergy. In
truth, however, these nations were only Christianized upon the surface,
their conversion being indicated by little more than their making the
sign of the cross. In all these movements women exercised an
extraordinary influence: thus Clotilda, the Queen of the Franks, brought
over to the faith her husband Clovis. Bertha, the Queen of Kent, and
Gisella, the Queen of Hungary, led the way in their respective
countries; and under similar influences were converted the Duke of
Poland and the Czar Jarislaus. To women Europe is thus greatly indebted,
though the forms of religion at the first were nothing more than the
creed and the Lord's prayer. It has been truly said that for these
conversions three conditions were necessary--a devout female of the
court, a national calamity, and a monk. As to the people, they seem to
have followed the example of their rulers in blind subserviency,
altogether careless as to what the required faith might be. The
conversion of the ruler is naively taken by historians as the conversion
of the whole people. As might be expected, a faith so lightly assumed at
the will or whim of the sovereign was often as lightly cast aside; thus
the Swedes, Bohemians, and Hungarians relapsed into idolatry.

[Sidenote: Conversion of England.]

Among such apostasies it is interesting to recall that of the
inhabitants of Britain, to whom Christianity was first introduced by the
Roman legions, and who might boast in Constantine the Great, and his
mother Helena, if they were really natives of that country, that they
had exercised no little influence on the religion of the world. The
biography of Pelagius shows with what acuteness theological doctrines
were considered in those remote regions; but, after the decline of Roman
affairs, this