children of all those who had seconded, or who
had not disclosed, their fictitious conspiracies. Some of the noblest
regulations of Roman jurisprudence have been suffered to expire; but
this edict, a convenient and forcible engine of ministerial tyranny,
was carefully inserted in the codes of Theodosius and Justinian; and the
same maxims have been revived in modern ages, to protect the electors of
Germany, and the cardinals of the church of Rome. [20]

[Footnote 18: See the Theodosian Code, l. ix. tit. 14, ad legem
Corneliam de Sicariis, leg. 3, and the Code of Justinian, l. ix. tit.
viii, viii. ad legem Juliam de Majestate, leg. 5. The alteration of
the title, from murder to treason, was an improvement of the subtle
Tribonian. Godefroy, in a formal dissertation, which he has inserted in
his Commentary, illustrates this law of Arcadius, and explains all the
difficult passages which had been perverted by the jurisconsults of the
darker ages. See tom. iii. p. 88-111.]

[Footnote 19: Bartolus understands a simple and naked consciousness,
without any sign of approbation or concurrence. For this opinion, says
Baldus, he is now roasting in hell. For my own part, continues the
discreet Heineccius, (Element. Jur. Civil l. iv. p. 411,) I must
approve the theory of Bartolus; but in practice I should incline to the
sentiments of Baldus. Yet Bartolus was gravely quoted by the lawyers of
Cardinal Richelieu; and Eutropius was indirectly guilty of the murder of
the virtuous De Thou.]

[Footnote 20: Godefroy, tom. iii. p. 89. It is, however, suspected,
that this law, so repugnant to the maxims of Germanic freedom, has been
surreptitiously added to the golden bull.] Yet these sanguinary laws,
which spread terror among a disarmed and dispirited people, were of too
weak a texture to restrain the bold enterprise of Tribigild [21] the
Ostrogoth. The colony of that warlike nation, which had been planted
by Theodosius in one of the most fertile districts of Phrygia, [22]
impatiently compared the slow returns of laborious husbandry with
the successful rapine and liberal rewards of Alaric; and their leader
resented, as a personal affront, his own ungracious reception in the
palace of Constantinople. A soft and wealthy province, in the heart of
the empire, was astonished by the sound of war; and the faithful vassal
who had been disregarded or oppressed, was again respected, as soon
as he resumed the hostile character of a Barbarian. The vineya