[Footnote 488: U.R. Burke, _History of Spain_, Hume's ed. i. 115. The special explanation of the Visgothic decadence is held by this historian to lie (1) in the elective character of the monarchy, which left the king powerless to check the extortions of the nobles who degraded and enfeebled the common people, and (2) in the ascendency of the Church.] [Footnote 489: Burke, as cited, i. 119.] [Footnote 490: Cp. Prof. Paul Vinogradoff, _Villainage in England_, 1892, pp. 10-11, 17.] [Footnote 491: Guizot (_Hist. de la Civ. en France_, i, 2e leçon) has an extraordinary passage to the effect that while German and English civilisation was German _in origin_, that of France is _romaine dès ses premiers pas_. As if there had not been a primary Gallic society as well as a Germanic. If Mommsen be right, the Galli before their conquest were much more advanced in civilisation than the Germani. In point of fact, the Celtæ of Southern France had commercial contact with the Greeks before they had any with the Romans. And in the very passage under notice, Guizot goes on to say that the life and institutions of _northern_ France had been essentially _Germanic_. The theorem is hopelessly confused. The plain facts are that German "civilisation" came from Italy and Romanised Gaul, albeit later, as fully as did that of Gaul from Italy.] [Footnote 492: Cp. Prof. Butler, _The Lombard Communes_, 1906, pp. 23, 28-30.] [Footnote 493: Poole, _Illustrations_, as cited, p. 11.] [Footnote 494: For a pleasing attempt to retain the credit for Teutonism, on the score that German invaders had "determined the character of the population" in the region of Paris, where the new architecture arose, see Dr. E. Richard's _History of German Civilisation_, New York, 1911, pp. 203-4. It is not explained at what stage the German responsibility for French evolution ceased.] [Footnote 495: Burke, as cited, i, 118. On the "Gothic mania," cp. Michelet, _Hist. de France_, vii--_Renaissance_: Introd. § 10 and note in App.] [Footnote 496: Sismondi, _Fall of the Roman Empire_, as cited, i, 35, 172, 238.] [Footnote 497: Gibbon, ch. 36, _end_.] [Footnote 498: Above, pp. 188.] [Footnote 499: Citations in Gibbon, ch. 36; Bohn ed. iv, 105. For a somewhat fuller sketch than Gibbon's see Manso, _Geschichte des ost-gothischen Reiches in Italien_, 1824, §§ 73-79. Cp. Spalding, _Italy_, i, 398-400. It is possible that Gelasius and Ambrose were thinking mainly of the disappearance of the landowners, and were overlooking the serfs. Deserted villas would give the effect of desolation while the mass of the common people remained.] [Footnote 500: Sismondi, _Fall_, i, 236. Cp. Gibbon, ch. 43; Bohn ed. iv, 536.] [Footnote 501: Sismondi, _Fall_, i, 240; Gibbon, ch. 45, ed. cited, v. 116-18.] [Footnote 502: Gibbon, as cited, v, 118.] [Footnote 503: Sismondi, _Fall_, i, 241. The movement, as Sismondi notes, extended to Spain, to Africa, to Illyria, and to Gaul.]