360. Soon after this period, the same palace was inhabited by the Emperors Valentinian and Valens. It is supposed to have been built in the year 292, the evidence of which is tolerably well authenticated. Whatever errors might fall to the share of Julian, it is certain he rendered great service to Gaul, and particularly to Paris: he cleared the adjacent country entirely of a set of ferocious barbarians, who were eternally overrunning the different states of Gaul. But the Parisians were not long doomed to enjoy the quiet and prosperity which had been obtained for them by the equitable laws instituted by Julian. In 406, hordes of enemies suddenly appeared in all parts of Gaul, swarming in from different barbarous nations, in such numbers that they swept all before them for ten successive years, and about 465 the Franks succeeded in permanently establishing themselves in Gaul, and of course Paris shared the fate of the surrounding country; by them at length the Roman government was overthrown, and that which was substituted was far less equitable or calculated for the happiness of the people.
The Franks were a powerful maritime people, coming from the north-west of Germany, obtaining possession of the different towns which they met with in their course, until they arrived at Tournai, which was constituted their capital; and Childeric their king is reported to have laid siege to Paris, which resisted for several years; but dying in the year 481, he was succeeded by Clovis his son, who, at the head of a numerous army defeated the Roman governor Seyagrius, gained possession of his capital, and was styled the first King of Gaul. Many authors assert that Pharamond was the first monarch who reigned over the Gallic states, but Lidonius Appolinarus, who wrote only fifty years after the death of Pharamond persists that he and his three successors, who were all predecessors of Clovis, were only kings reigning over a portion of Gaul, and resigned their sovereignties at the retirement of the Romans. Clovis was celebrated as one of the greatest warriors of the period in which he lived; in the year 500 he slew Alaric King of the Visigoths in single combat in the plain of Vouillé, near Poitou, and afterwards several other petty kings, thereby adding considerably to his dominions. In 508 he fixed his residence in Paris, and died there in 511, and was buried in a church called St. Peter and St. Paul, since styled St. Genevieve. He was called the Most Christian King. The Pope having no confidence in the professions of any other monarch at that time, Clovis is synonymous with the name of Louis, as the latter was formerly written Llouis, the double l signifying in the Celtic language cl, and pronounced in that manner at present in Welsh, as Llandovery, Llandilo, etc., have the sound of Clandovery, Clandilo, etc., whilst the v in Clovis has in more modern times been transformed into a u, as in all old writings the u and the v had the same signification; hence it will be found that Clovis and Llouis are the same word. His government being divided amongst his four sons, Childebert received the portion in which Paris was situated, and was styled King of Paris, which was only retained by a few of his successors, who assumed that of King of Gaul, or of France. The power of the monarch at that period was much restrained, by a class of men called Leudes, Anstrutions, or faithful, being companions in arms of the king, and sharing with him whatever lands or booty might be gained by conquest. As a proof of the tenacity of these gentry as to an equitable division of the spoil, when Clovis had taken Rheims, he demanded as an act of grace from his companions in arms, that they would grant him a precious vase for which he had conceived a peculiar predilection; his request was accorded by his associates, except one, who gave the vase a violent blow with his hatchet, saying, "No, thou shalt not have any thing beyond what thy lot awards thee." Even under the dominion of the Romans there were dukes who had a certain number of troops or armed men in the district where they governed, and their power was arbitrary and they had counts under them who also had a certain number of men subjected to their orders; sometimes these nobles carried rapine, pillage and slaughter into each other's territories, when the government had devolved upon the Franks; and the king took no notice of their misdeeds, as long as they observed a certain fealty towards him, and in some instances they put aside the monarch if he acted in such a manner as to trench upon what they considered their privileges. A third power soon began to assume a high authority, which consisted of the bishops, who had greatly aided the Francs in their invasion of Gaul by their influence and intrigues, and obtained as reward considerable grants of lands and temporal power; and in their dioceses they exercised a sovereign will, and on account of their possessing some instruction they maintained a certain influence over the ignorant nobility who had in some degree a sort of superstitious awe of them, as they were regarded as the emissaries of saints. Under the Romans the Gauls were considered a moral people, having become Christians in consequence of the persevering endeavours of the missionary prelates, whilst churches were founded and a purity of faith disseminated; taught by the Romans, a love of the arts and sciences was engendered amongst the Gauls, and much talent was elicited from them, philosophy, physic, mathematics, jurisprudence, poetry, and above all eloquence, had their respective professors of no mean abilities from amongst the natives; one named Julius Florens is styled by Quintilian the Prince of Eloquence. In fact a brilliant era appeared as if beginning to dawn throughout the greater portion of Gaul, academies were establishing, learning was revered, when 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 fêtes, 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 Près, 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 crimes, in the year 606 founded the very interesting and curious church of St. Germain, opposite the Louvre, and still an object of admiration to the lover of antiquity. His wife Fredegonde, imagining no doubt by that act he had made his peace for the other world, thought that the sooner he went there the better, before he committed any farther sins, and had him assassinated that she might the more conveniently pursue her own course of iniquity; perhaps never was the page of history blackened by such a list of atrocities committed by woman as those perpetrated by her and her rival Queen Brunehault, who was ultimately tied to the tail of a wild horse and torn to pieces in 613. Paris, however, notwithstanding the wickedness, injustice, and cruelty of its rulers, continued to increase, and would no doubt have become a prosperous city, had it not been for the incursions of the Normands, who in the ninth century entered Paris, burnt some of the churches, and meeting with scarcely any resistance, made themselves masters of all they could find, whilst the Emperor Charles the Bald, at the head of an army, had the pusillanimity to treat with them, and finally to give them seven thousand pounds of silver to quit Paris, which was only an encouragement for them to return, which they did in a few years after, carrying devastation wherever they appeared, the poor citizens of Paris being obliged to save their lives by flight, leaving all their property to the mercy of the brigands. At length, the Parisians finding that there was no security either for themselves or their possessions,