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chap, xxxviii] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 143 the situation and temper of their lords, was sometimes raised by precarious indulgence, and more frequently depressed by capricious despotism. 103 An absolute power of life and death was exercised by these lords ; and, when they married their daughters, a train of useful servants, chained on the waggons to prevent their escape, was sent as a nuptial present into a dis- tant country. 104 The majesty of the Eoman laws protected the liberty of each citizen, against the rash effects of his own distress or despair. But the subjects of the Merovingian kings might alienate their personal freedom; and this act of legal suicide, which was familiarly practised, is expressed in terms most disgraceful and afflicting to the dignity of human nature. 105 The example of the poor, who purchased life by the sacrifice of all that can render life desirable, was gradually imitated by the feeble and the devout, who, in times of public disorder, pusil- lanimously crowded to shelter themselves under the battlements of a powerful chief, and around the shrine of a popular saint. Their submission was accepted by these temporal, or spiritual, patrons ; and the hasty transaction irrecoverably fixed their own condition, and that of their latest posterity. From the reign of Clovis, during five successive centuries, the laws and manners of Gaul uniformly tended to promote the increase, and to con- firm the duration, of personal servitude. Time and violence almost obliterated the intermediate ranks of society, and left an obscure and narrow interval between the noble and the slave. This arbitrary and recent division has been transformed by pride and prejudice into a national distinction, universally established by the arms and the laws of the Merovingians. The nobles, who claimed their genuine, or fabulous, descent from the inde- pendent and victorious Franks, have asserted, and abused, the indefeasible right of conquest, over a prostrate crowd of slaves 103 The state, professions, &e. of the German, Italian, and Gallic slaves, during the middle ages, are explained by Heineccius (Element. Jur. Germ. 1. i. No. 28- 47), Muratori (Dissertat. xiv. xv.), Dueange (Gloss, sub voce Servi), and the Abbe de Mably (Observations, torn. ii. p. 3, &c. p. 237, &c). 104 Gregory of Tours (1. vi. c. 45, in torn. ii. p. 289) relates a memorable example, in which Chilperic only abused the private rights of a master. Many families, which belonged to his domus fiscales in the neighbourhood of Paris, were forcibly sent away into Spain. 105 Licentiam habeatis mihi qualemcunque volueritis disciplinam ponere ; vel venumdare, aut quod vobis placuerit de me facere. Marculf. Formul. 1. ii. 28, in torn. iv. p. 497. The Formula of Lindenbrogius (p. 559) and that of Anjou (p. 565) are to the same effect. Gregory of Tours (1. vii. c. 45, in torn. ii. p. 311) speaks of many persons who sold themselves for bread in a great famine.