Page:History of the Franks.djvu/43

THE FIRST BOOK ii pillar of cloud t3^ified our baptism, according to the words of the blessed Paul the apostle: "I would not, brethren, have you igno- rant that our fathers were all under the cloud and all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea." And the pillar of fire typified the holy Spirit. Now from the birth of Abraham to the going forth of the children of Israel from Egypt and the crossing of the Red Sea, which was in the eightieth year of Moses, there are reckoned four hundred and sixty-two years. [ii. The IsraeHtes spend forty years in the wilderness. 12. From the crossing of the Jordan to David. 13. Solomon. 14. Division of the kingdom into Judaea and Israel. 15. The cap- tivity. 16. From the captivity to the birth of Christ.] 17. In order not to seem to have knowledge of the Hebrew race alone ^ we shall tell what the remaining kingdoms were in the time of the IsraeHtes. In the time of Abraham Ninus ruled over the Assyrians ; Eorops over the Sitiones ; among the Egyptians it was the sixteenth government, which they call in their own tongue dynasty. In Moses' time Hved Trophas, seventh king of the Argives ; Cecrops, first in Attica ; Generis, who was overwhelmed in the Red Sea, twelfth among the Egyptians ; Agatadis, sixteenth among the Assyrians ; Maratis was ruler of the Sicionii. . . ? [18. Beginning of the Roman empire ; founding of Lyons, a city afterwards ennobled by the blood of martyrs. 19. Birth of Christ. 20. Christ's crucifixion. 21. Joseph is imprisoned and escapes mi- raculously . 2 2 . James fasts from the death of the Lord to the resur- rection. 23. The day of the Lord's resurrection is the first, not the seventh. 24. Pilate transmits an account of Christ to Tiberius. The end of Pilate and of Herod. 25. Peter and Paul are executed at Rome by order of Nero, who later kills himself. 26. The mar- tyrs, Stephen, James and Mark ; burning of Jerusalem by Vespasian ; death of John. 27. Persecution under Trajan. 28. The rise of heresy. Further persecutions. 29. The martyrs of Lyons. Iren- aeus, second bishop, converts the whole city. His death and that of " vast numbers," of whom Gregory knows of forty-eight.] ^ Gregory's purpose is not realized. 2 Jerome's Chronicle was the source for the history summarized here. It is clear that Gregory had not much sense of the historical perspective in spite of a list of names which might impress his audience. He passes directly from " Servius the sixth king of Rome " to Julius Caesar the founder of the empire.