mperor of the west, Augustulus, was put down in the year 476,
and a barbarian prince named Odoacer became king of Italy.

CHAPTER XXIV.

CONVERSION OF THE BARBARIANS--CHRISTIANITY IN BRITAIN.

As the old empire of Rome disappears, the modern kingdoms of Europe
begin to come to view; and we may now look at the progress of the Gospel
among the nations of the west.

The barbarians who got possession of France, Spain, South Germany, and
other parts of the empire, were soon converted to a sort of
Christianity; but, unfortunately, it was not the true Catholic faith. I
have told you[44] that Ulfilas, "the Moses of the Goths," led his people
into the errors of Arianism. As it was from the Goths that the
missionaries generally went forth to convert the other northern nations,
these nations, too, for the most part, became Arians; while some of
them, after having been converted by Catholics, afterwards fell into
Arianism. It is curious to observe how opposite the course of conversion
was among these nations to what it had been in earlier times. In the
Roman empire, the Gospel worked its way up from the poor and simple
people who were the first to believe it, until the emperor himself
became at length a convert. But among the nations which now overran the
western empire, the missionaries usually began by making a convert of
the prince; when the prince was converted, his subjects followed him to
the font; and if he changed from Catholicism to Arianism, or from
Arianism to Catholicism, the people did the same. In the course of time,
all the nations which had professed Arianism, were brought over to the
true faith. The last who held out were the Goths in Spain, who gave up
their errors at a great council which was held at Toledo in 589; and the
Lombards, in the north of Italy, who were converted in the early part of
the following century.

[44] Page 93.

Our own island was little troubled by Arianism, and St. Athanasius bears
witness to the firmness of the British bishops in the right faith. But
Pelagius, as we have seen,[45] was himself a Briton; and, although he
did not himself try to spread his errors here, one of his followers,
named Agricola, brought them into Britain, and did a great deal of
mischief (A.D. 429). The Britons had been long under the power of the
Romans; but, as the empire grew weaker, the Romans found that they could
not afford to keep up an army here; and they had given up Britain in
the year 409.