We can hardly wonder that this constant unrest made men despair of final peace. Avitus, Bishop of Vienne, writes to Aurelian in a pessimistic strain.[1361] The evils of the time, he thinks, are not really healed. At best they cannot be said to be more than kept within bounds, so that the peace which coyly appears is fictitious. The mind is lulled to rest with a false security only until there comes the recrudescence of a worse fear and the faltering sobs of grief. ‘Wherefore, my good friend, cease to hope for the end of our evils in the midst of fiery ills, and when a change comes and the storm has abated and the face of ever so small a calm shows itself, do not delight in the altered events; make use of them.’ The effect of this upon the social fabric, and so on education, is obvious. Even if, as Freeman thinks, the youth of Gaul were not much concerned in the defence of their country, which was left mainly to such allies as the Franks,[1362] education must have shared in the general disorganization of society. The material means of instruction was frequently removed by the impoverishment of families. Qui centum quondam terram vertebat aratris, aestuat ut geminos possit habere boves. vectus magnificas carpentis saepe per urbes, rus vacuum fessis aeger adit pedibus. ille decem celsis sulcans maria ante carinis nunc lembum exiguum scandit et ipse regit.[1363] The roads, which had promoted education by linking up towns and spreading civilization, were now (as we have seen) uncertain and unsafe. Centres, consequently, which had previously teemed with life, now became isolated, torpid, despairing. Schools and books were neglected. Maxima pars lapsis abiit iam mensibus anni quo scripta est versu pagina nulla tuo.[1364] The sum total of education was decreased materially by the slaughter of children: Quid pueri insontes? Quid commisere puellae nulla quibus dederat crimina vita brevis?[1365] Yet there is the spark which kept alive the flickering torch of learning in the dark ages, the interest in literature surviving material ruin. For, in spite of the crash of circumstances and although times are sad, there is a feeling that the mind, even when oppressed by misfortune, should keep unconquered its interest in education: Invictum deceat studiis servare vigorem. There is much of rude and rushing violence in this ‘barbarization’ of Gaul. One of the writers likened it to a flood, and as far as the time at which he wrote is concerned he was right. But, regarded as a whole, the process was gradual and persistent. Gaul became de-Romanized ‘not as a valley is ravaged by a torrent, but as the most solid substance is disorganized by the continual infiltration of a foreign substance’.[1366] So Rutilius says of Rome, referring to Stilicho’s German followers: Ipsa satellitibus pellitis Roma patebat, et captiva prius quam caperetur erat.[1367]