here
is an eloquent passage in {48} [Sidenote: The strength of the Catholic
faith among the Franks.] Mr. Hodgkin's _Italy and her Invaders_[6]
which I cannot forbear to quote. "In the previous generation both
Brunichildis and Galswintha had easily conformed to the Catholic faith
of their affianced husbands. Probably the councillors of Leovigild
expected that a mere child like Ingunthis would without difficulty make
the converse change from Catholicism back into Arianism. This was ever
the capital fault of the Arian statesmen, that, with all their
religious bitterness, they could not comprehend that the profession of
faith, which was hardly more than a fashion to most of themselves, was
a matter of life and death to their Catholic rivals. Here, for
instance, was their own princess, Brunichildis, reared in Arianism,
converted to the orthodox creed, clinging to it tenaciously through all
the perils and adversities of her own stormy career, and able to imbue
the child-bride, her daughter, with such an unyielding devotion to the
faith of Nicaea, that not one of all the formidable personages whom she
met in her new husband's home could avail to move her by one hair's
breadth towards 'the Arian pravity.'"

It was the strength of the Catholicism of those who were trained in it
and by it, seen in Spain and Gaul as well as in Italy, which drew the
Frankish churchmen naturally towards the great witnessing power of the
Roman bishop. The pontificate of Gregory the Great affords significant
illustrations of this influence.

From 595 the letters of S. Gregory show a continual interest in Gaul.
A good deal of it is personal, concerned with the management of papal
estates or with {49} the relations of particular persons towards the
pope himself. [Sidenote: Gregory the Great and Gaul.] But Gregory was
careful to assert a very special connection between Rome and the "lands
of the Gauls" in all ecclesiastical matters. The Roman Church was the
mother to whom they applied in time of need.[7] Gregory gave the
pallium to Vergilius, bishop of the ancient city of Arles, and with it
the position of papal vicar within the kingdoms of Burgundy, Austrasia,
and Aquitaine. He recognised the terrible laxity of the Gallican
Church: the clergy were negligent, simoniacal, vicious; laymen were
often consecrated to the episcopate. He gave counsel freely to the
kings: Childebert he warmly commended: Brunichild, whose tenacious
adherence to the Ca