propagated by the parents, for sin is of the soul, not the body. He sees difficulties in this doctrine,
but says that, since Scripture is silent, it cannot be necessary to salvation to arrive at a just view on
the matter. He therefore leaves it undecided.
It is strange that the last men of intellectual eminence before the dark ages were concerned, not
with saving civilization or expelling the barbarians or reforming the abuses of the administration,
but with preaching the merit of virginity and the damnation of unbaptized infants. Seeing that
these were the preoccupations that the Church handed on to the converted barbarians, it is no
wonder that the succeeding age surpassed almost all other fully historical periods in cruelty and
superstition.
CHAPTER V The Fifth and Sixth CenturiesTHE fifth century was that of the barbarian invasion and the fall of the Western Empire. After the
death of Augustine in 430, there was little philosophy; it was a century of destructive action,
which, however, largely determined the lines upon which Europe was to be developed. It was in
this century that the English invaded Britain, causing it to become England; it was also in this
century that the Frankish invasion turned Gaul into France, and that the Vandals invaded Spain,
giving their name to Andalusia. Saint Patrick, during the middle years of the century, converted
the Irish to Christianity. Throughout the Western World, rough Germanic kingdoms succeeded the
centralized bureaucracy of the Empire. The imperial post ceased, the great roads fell into decay,
war put an end to large-scale commerce, and life again became local both politically and
economically. Centralized authority was preserved only in the Church, and there with much
difficulty.
Of the Germanic tribes that invaded the Empire in the fifth century, the most important were the
Goths. They were pushed west-