It is difficult, if not impossible, to follow with certainty the particular changes wrought in portions of the Roman Empire which were occupied by the Teutonic invaders. In general, lines of communication were interrupted, the foundations of new and independent nationalities were laid, and city life became less dominant. There was also an admixture of sturdy barbarian stock with native populations, though the latter seem in most cases to have gradually absorbed the conquerors. Roman forces put an end to Vandal dominion in Africa in 533. Neither Vandals nor Suevi were numerous enough in Spain to exert a greater influence than that of bands of roving plunderers, and the Spanish kingdom of the Visigoths fell before the Mohammedan invasion of 711. In Italy, also, Gothic power was broken in 533, and the Lombard kingdom which followed came to an end with Charlemagne’s conquest in 774. West Goths and Burgundians in Gaul were overcome by the Franks, who seem themselves to have lost little by little their distinctive national traits and been merged in the earlier Gallo-Roman population. The Normans of the tenth century met a similar fate. In the case of England, where the Teutonic element gained the ascendant, one would like to trace the British fondness for fox hunting, shooting, horse racing, yachting, rowing, games like football and cricket, lawn tennis and golf, and the falconry and archery of an earlier period, to the surviving influence of Anglo-Saxon, Danish, and Norman ancestors; but actual demonstration of any such connection could hardly be expected. BIBLIOGRAPHY. Edward Gibbon, “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” chapter nine (The State of Germany till the Invasion of the Barbarians, in the Time of the Emperor Decius). Francis B. Gummere, “Germanic Origins: A Study in Primitive Culture.” New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1892. Karl Weinhold, “Altnordisches Leben.” Berlin, Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1856. Paul B. Du Chaillu, “The Viking Age: The Early History, Manners, and Customs of the Ancestors of the English-speaking Nations, Illustrated from the Antiquities Discovered in Mounds, Cairns, and Bogs, as well as from the Ancient Sagas and Eddas.” New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1889. C. F. Kerry, “The Vikings in Western Christendom, A.D. 789 to A.D. 888.” London, T. Fisher Unwin, and New York, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1891. FOOTNOTES: [4] Caesar, the _Gallic War_, especially book six, chapters 21-28; Tacitus, _Germania_, published in 98 A.D. CHAPTER IV. ASCETICISM IN THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH. No sooner had the Teutonic tribes overrun Romanized Europe than they began to yield, in turn, to the proselyting activities of the young and lusty Christian Church. And with it came the doctrine of _asceticism_, which left its mark on education for a thousand years and more, and tended to counteract, in a measure, the invigorating effect of the barbarian strain.