The introduction of Christianity took place at a very early date, which would in part account for the ecclesiastical prominence which the province had in the Middle Ages, and even in later times. We are told that even as early as the year A.D. 472 St. Severinus, whilst journeying through Noricum, with which country Salzburg had been incorporated by the Romans, found numerous Christian churches and minsters established. A relic of these times still exists set in the perpendicular walls of the Mönchsberg, where high up, with some of its windows overshadowed by creepers and trees, is a very small church built into the mountain itself; reached by a dark, steep flight of steps cut in the rock, worn by the feet of countless generations, and leading to a cavern where stands an altar and a small cross. According, at least, to tradition this was the hiding-place to which the early Christians amongst the Roman inhabitants retired for security when celebrating the offices of the new faith. And it is here that St. Maximus is said to have suffered martyrdom. From the effects of the troublous days which at last came to most outposts of Roman civilization Salzburg did not escape. Soon the hordes of Huns and Goths and others belonging to various Germanic tribes swept across and over the province as they did the land of Tyrol, and the town was sacked and burned, and the inhabitants put to the sword or led away into captivity. Thus in 477 the flourishing Roman settlement was literally wiped out by the Keruli under their leader, Odoaker, and of it few traces remained save some tesselated pavements, household utensils, and ornaments which ages afterwards from time to time have been uncovered. [Sidenote: THE RISE OF SALZBURG]