170 See the famous epistle of Julian to Arsacius, where he declares that it is shameful that “the Galileans” should support not only their own, but also the heathen poor; and also the comments of Sozomen, _Hist. eccl._ v. 16. 171 The conduct of the Christians, on the first of these occasions, is described by Pontius, _Vit. Cypriani_, ix. 19. St. Cyprian organised their efforts. On the Alexandrian famines and pestilences, see Eusebius, _H. E._ vii. 22; ix. 8. 172 The effects of this conquest have been well described by Sismondi, _Hist. de la Chute de l’Empire Romain_, tome i. pp. 258-260. Theodoric afterwards made some efforts to re-establish the distribution, but it never regained its former proportions. The pictures of the starvation and depopulation of Italy at this time are appalling. Some fearful facts on the subject are collected by Gibbon, _Decline and Fall_, ch. xxxvi.; Chateaubriand, vime _Disc._ 2de partie. _ 173 Cod. Theod._ ix. xl. 15-16. The first of these laws was made by Theodosius, A.D. 392; the second by Honorius, A.D. 398. 174 Cibrario, _Economica politica del Medio Evo_, lib. ii. cap. iii. The most remarkable of these saints was St. Julien l’Hospitalier, who having under a mistake killed his father and mother, as a penance became a ferryman of a great river, and having embarked on a very stormy and dangerous night at the voice of a traveller in distress, received Christ into his boat. His story is painted on a window of the thirteenth century, in Rouen Cathedral. See Langlois, _Essai historique sur la Peinture sur verre_, pp. 32-37. 175 The fact of leprosy being taken as the image of sin gave rise to some curious notions of its supernatural character, and to many legends of saints curing leprosy by baptism. See Maury, _Légendes pieuses du Moyen-Age_, pp. 64-65. 176 See on these hospitals Cibrario, _Econ. Politica del Medio Evo_, lib. iii. cap. ii. 177 Calmeil observes: “On a souvent constaté depuis un demi-siècle que la folie est sujette à prendre la teinte des croyances religieuses, des idées philosophiques ou superstitieuses, des préjugés sociaux qui ont cours, qui sont actuellement en vogue parmi les peuples ou les nations; que cette teinte varie dans un même pays suivant le caractère des événements relatifs à la politique extérieure, le caractère des événements civils, la nature des productions littéraires, des représentations théâtrales, suivant la tournure, la direction, le genre d’élan qu’y prennent l’industrie, les arts et les sciences.”—_De la Folie_, tome i. pp. 122-123. 178 Milman’s _History of Latin Christianity_, vol. vii. pp. 353, 354.