CHAPTER XXIII

FRANCE

No country presents a more instructive history in the line of our study than France. We here have a chance to observe the development and reconstruction of their institutions by a people substantially homogeneous, who have dwelt in the same state for more than two thousand years. The Frenchmen of today are the lineal descendants of the Gauls, Belgians and Iberians of the days of Caesar, with some admixture, it is true, of Roman and German blood, and some commingling of Northmen. The record of events from the time of the Roman invasion is perhaps more full and complete than that of any other country. Nowhere else can be found wider extremes or greater variety of political institutions and theories of government. All stages of social organization from that of the small semi-savage tribe to the vast empire, and from the absolute despotism to the commune, have been exhibited. Abject slavery has been followed by the theory at least of liberty, fraternity and equality. Since Rome fell, no other European country has exercised so profound an influence on the institutions of other states.

The earliest inhabitants of whom we have any accounts include Iberians, presumed to have been the earliest comers, the Gauls and their kinsmen the Belgians. The descendants of the Iberians still dwell on the slopes of the Pyrenees and are called Basques. They were short of stature, of dark complexion, resolute and tenacious in the defense of their homes, but without capacity for organization on a large scale. The Gauls of early days, like the French people of today, were bright, vivacious, brave and intelligent, but they too had made little progress in the organization of society. They dwelt in villages mainly, but had some walled towns. Caesar describes them as divided into factions, and mentions these factions as

extending into every clan and village. The ruling classes were divided into two distinct orders, the knights and warriors, whose only calling was war, and who substantially every year carried on strife with some neighbor, and the Druid priests, who were not only charged with the management of religious rites, but also were the judges and teachers of the people. Beneath these ruling classes were slaves in large numbers, constituting the bulk of the population. The authority of the Druids was very great, and the Roman church appears to have borrowed some of its forms from them. One method of enforcing their judgments was by excommunication and interdict, causing everyone to fly from the condemned person as a being accursed, and to whom they could give no aid without calling down the heaviest penalties on themselves. They sacrificed human beings to their gods, preferably criminals and enemies, but for want of these the innocent were taken, and religious enthusiasm induced some to voluntarily become victims. In their exemptions from military duty and from taxes the Druids enjoyed privileges similar to those of the later clergy. In the use of torture in their trials and of burning as a punishment they furnished precedents for the Inquisition, and they ranked the crime of resisting their authority, as the later church did that of heresy, the most deadly of all offenses. Yet Caesar praises the impartiality of their justice, and gives them credit with protecting the weak as well as the strong. They built no churches, but held their rites in the groves. Whether polygamy was practiced is not made very clear, but it seems that it was. Caesar says that at marriage the husband added to the wife's dowry an equal sum, and that the increase of the whole was kept by itself and belonged to the survivor on the death of one of them. The husband and father had the power of life and death over his wife and children. Funerals were conducted with great extravagance and ceremony, and with human sacrifices of slaves or dependents of rich nobles. The Gauls appear to have passed the stage of common tenure of land in Caesar's time, for he speaks of the Druids having power to decide questions of boundary. They were accustomed to the use of money, and in the useful arts were

considerably in advance of the Germans. The Belgians were more like the Germans, to whom they were nearer and more closely related, and with whom they were almost constantly at war. Some progress had been made in weaving and metal working. Confederations were sometimes formed by different tribes for defense against incursions from the east, but they were not inclined to unite for aggressive warfare.

The Greeks at an unknown date settled at Marsailles and established Masselia, which became an important trading port, and in 122 B.C. the Romans founded the town of Aquae Sextiae, now Aix, and spreading out over the adjacent country formed the province of Gallia Braccata, of which as a Roman municipium Narbonne was made the capital in 118 B.C. In the time of Caesar the Helvetians and German tribes were threatening to invade Gaul, and Caesar's first campaigns were against them, with the Gauls seeking his assistance and protection. Having overcome these enemies, Caesar proceeded to reduce Gaul to the Roman authority, and by 50 B.C. had accomplished the task. From Gaul as a basis he established his power over Rome. Roman institutions were well adapted to the tastes and needs of the Gauls, who soon became thoroughly Romanized. The work of organization was not completed in Caesar's time. In 27 B.C. Augustus established three new provinces, in addition to the old one, out of the territory conquered by Caesar, namely Aquitania in the southwest, Lugdunensis in the middle and Belgica in the north. The population of the country was mainly of the ancient stock, with whom Roman colonists freely mingled. Though there were some revolts after Caesar's time, they were soon suppressed. The Romans brought their system of agriculture, their laws and arts. They built cities, made roads, encouraged commerce and established social order.

A long period of peace and rapid advancement in civilization followed. By 160 the Christian religion was introduced, and during the next hundred years it spread rapidly. The country was substantially exempt from inroads of foreign enemies for about three centuries. Under the empire Gaul played an important part. Antonius Pius was a native of

Gaul. In the last half of the third century Postumus established a Gaulic empire, which was continued by his successors Victorinus and Tetricus. In 236 the Alemanni, a German tribe unknown to the Romans, crossed the Rhine, but were driven back, and about the same time the Goths appeared on the Danube. During the next half century there were many incursions of Frank and Alemanni into Gaul, but no permanent conquest. By this time the imperial government had so ground the people of Gaul with taxation that they were thoroughly impoverished, and a notable uprising of peasants and slaves took place in 285, which spread over the north of Gaul and added to the miseries of the people. The title to the land was held by a few, and the work of tillage was mainly performed by slaves. The Gauls under Roman rule relied on the imperial government for protection, and when the period of disorder came, they were an easy prey to their more warlike neighbors across the Rhine, who, free from Roman domination, organized expeditions when conditions were favorable. Thus from 260 to 268 a band of Franks swept through Gaul into Spain and finally passed into Africa and disappeared. From this time forward there was more or less border warfare and incursions of Germanic tribes into Gaul, some of whom effected permanent settlements.

Early in the fifth century commenced that movement of people which put an end to Roman rule in Gaul. From 406 to 409 there was a deluge of invaders, who mercilessly killed the people and destroyed their property. Cities and towns, of which a great number had been built, were taken, pillaged and burned. In 412 the Visigoths and Burgundians established kingdoms in the south of Gaul. In 451 Attila and the Huns, who had become the terror of Europe, made their way into. Gaul and took Orleans. They were met by the combined forces of Romans, Gauls, Goths and Germanic tribes, defeated at Châlons in a great battle, and expelled from the country.

The Franks, from whom France takes its name, were mainly settled in the neighborhood of the lower Rhine, and were divided into the Salians and Ripuarians. Though prior kings. are named, their history is unimportant, and with Clovis king

of the Salian Franks of Tournay commences the Frankish Clovis was a fierce, cruel, cunning and unscrupulous barbarian, who did not hesitate to take the lives of all who stood in his way, often with his own hand, but he was successful in extending his power over nearly all Gaul. He married a Christian maid, Chlotilde, who, aided doubtless by other influences, converted him to Christianity. His warriors also were baptized, but neither he nor they took in much of Christian morality. He however became allied with the Christian clergy, who aided him in extending his power. The dynasty founded by Clovis derives its name from one of his ancestors, and is styled the Merovingian. With it the history of France as a nation begins. At his death Clovis left his kingdom divided among his four sons. He had acquired most of it by conquest, and he left it as an inheritance, divided according to the prevailing German custom among all his sons. They fought for the shares of each other, with the result that Clotaire got it all. At his death it was partitioned among his four sons and again united under Clotaire II. The Merovingians ruled from 511 to 752, and their history teaches little but the evils of despotic military rule. They were cruel, perfidious, debauched and many of the later ones almost idiotic. The pernicious principle of treating political power as property to pass by inheritance caused untold misery and misfortune to the people. No other dynasty illustrates so constantly and forcibly the evil consequences of passing political power from father to son without regard to capacity or merit. No other dynasty exhibits in more disgusting form the evils of despotic rule. Not kings only, but queens as well, displayed their cruelties and vices. The stories of Fredegonde and Brunechild are typical of a most cruel age and the execution of the latter, at the advanced age of eighty by tying her to the tail of an unbroken horse by the hair of her head, one arm and one foot, of the possibilities of kingly cruelty under Clotaire II. Murder and rapine lay at the foundation of the kingdom, and morality found little lodgment in the palace or the home of the great landlord. Christianity was for them merely the name of a superstition, and these coarse and brutal rulers.