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
continued hostility with their ferocious oppressors, afforded no time
for study nor cultivation of the arts. Clovis, however, during his reign
improved Paris, and was converted to christianity by St. Vedast.
Clotilda, his wife, and niece to Gondebaud, king of Burgundy, was
principally instrumental to the conversion of her husband. Indeed,
amidst their ferocity and barbarism some of the early Frank kings showed
much respect for religion and morality, as is proved by an ordonnance of
Childebert in the year 554; commanding his subjects to destroy wherever
they might be found all idols dedicated to the devil; also forbidding
all disorderly conduct committed in the nights of the eves of _fetes_,
such as Christmas and Easter, when singing, drinking, and other excesses
were committed; women were also ordered to discontinue going about the
country dancing on a Sunday, as it was a practice offensive to God. It
appears certainly very singular that a comparatively barbarous king in
the sixth century should prohibit dancing of a Sunday as a desecration
of the Sabbath, and that in the nineteenth century there should be more
dancing on a Sunday than on any other day in the week, at a period which
is arrived at the highest state of civilisation, and under the reign of
a most enlightened monarch. But although Clovis and Childebert displayed
much enthusiasm in the cause of christianity, their career was marked
with every cruelty incidental to conquest, as wherever they bore their
victorious arms, murder, rapine, and robbery stained their diabolical
course; but they thought that they expiated their crimes by building
churches. Hence Clovis in 508 founded the first erected in Paris
dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul, afterwards called St. Genevieve,
and on its site now stands the Pantheon. Childebert in 558 built the
church of St. Germain des Pres, which is still standing and much
frequented; it was at first called St. Vincent and St. Croix, and he
endowed it so richly with the treasures he had stolen from other
countries, that it was called the golden palace of St. Germain.
Chilperic imitating his predecessors, hoping to absolve himself of his
enormous crim