[4] [“_Matres quoque necatis vel actis per se natorum suorum sint pastæ corporibus_,” according to old Idatius,[i] but this statement always accompanies stories of famine.] [5] [The etymology of this name has been disputed, some claiming with Casiri[k] and Gibbon[l] that it comes from the Arabic Hondalusia, “the region of the West”; but Condé,[m] Hume,[d] Burke[j] and the general majority prefer the Vandalusian theory.] [6] Of course the death of Gunderic was the work of the offended saint. He was struck dead on the threshold, says one account; he died after securing the plunder, says another. Both agree that he was carried away by the devil. Idatius[i] says: “_Gundericus Rex Vandalorum, capta Hispali, cum impie elatus manus in ecclesiam civitatis ipsius extendisset, mox Dei judicio dæmone correptus, interiit._” [7] Jordanes[y] extends the reign of Torismond to more than three years; the authority of the bishop Idatius[i], who was a contemporary, is to be preferred. From the same prelate the death of the king appears not to have been wholly unprovoked: he had probably meditated as much towards his brothers, who seem to have acted from self-defence. “_Thorismo rex Gothorum spirans hostilia in Theodorico et Frederico patribus jugulatur_,” are the meagre words of Idiatus. Of this catastrophe Jordanes[y] gives a different account. [8] [This has been called a “fifth century crusade” and “the first religious war of Europe.”] [9] [The single combat between Alaric and Clovis, the miraculous fall of the walls of Angoulême, and other circumstances related by Gregory of Tours[n] render his authority in these wars of little weight in any case, unless supported by other testimony, as that of Procopius[o] and St. Isidore.[p] Burke[j] calls this battle “the foundation of the Frankish Kingdom of France and the origin of the Gothic Kingdom of Spain.”] [10] See Mariana[q] and above all, Masdeu,[r] who base their defence on the praises bestowed on the princess by her contemporaries, as Gregory of Tours,[n] and on the silence of contemporary writers as to the crimes reported to have been committed by her. Both charity and chivalry would induce us to take part with the Spanish historians in favour of a lady, did they not attempt to conceal her real frailties (of crimes she was probably guiltless), and raise a weak, in some respects an imprudent woman into a saint. That she was undeserving the severe censures of Baronius[x] is more than probable; but we must agree with Montesquieu[f] that the queen, daughter, sister, and mother of so many kings would never have been permitted to sustain the torments she did, had she not forfeited, in some way or other, the favour of a whole nation. [11] Ermenigild was not canonised until the pontificate of Sixtus V, towards the close of the sixteenth century. One of his bones is preserved as a holy relic in the church of Saragossa.