-
4 Vitiges. 3.
- 5 Idobaldus. 1.
- 6 Ardaricus. 1.
- 7 Totilus. 11.
- 8 Teyus, the last King of the Gothes in Italy, who being vanquished by Narses in the
fourth year of his Reign, An. 567. submitted himself to the Eastern Emperours;
after which time the Gothes and the Italians mingled in bloud and language became one
Nation.
But the miseries of Italie, and those Western parts were not so 〈…〉〈…〉. No sooner had God
freed them from the rod of his visitations which he had layd upo•• ••hem in the times of Per∣secutions
formerly remembred, and given them peace within their dwellings, but they became
divided into schisms and factions; and after wallowed in those sins which a continuall surfeit
of prosperity hath commonly attending on it. Insomuch that devout Salvian, who lived much
about these times, complains of that high hand of wickedness, wherewith they did provoke
the patience of Almighty God; the lives of Christians being grown so deplorably wicked,
that they became a scandall to the Faith and Gospel. In nobis patitur Christus opprobrium, in
nobis patitur lex Christiana maledictum, saith that godly Bishop. So that their sins being ripe
for vengeance, God sent the barbarous Nations as his Executioners, to execute his divine justice
on impenitent men; and made them sensible, though Heathens, that it was Gods work they
did, and not their own, in laying such afflictions on these Western parts. Ipsi fatebantur non
suum esse quod facerent, agi enim se & perurgeri divino jussu, as the said godly Bishop doth in∣form
us of them. On this impulsion the Vandals did acknowledge that they first wasted Spain,
and then harried Africk: And on the same did Attila the Hun insert into his Royall Titles the
stile of Malleus Orbis, and Flagellum Dei, acknowledging thereby his own apprehension of some
speciall and extraordinary calling to this publick service. Nay as Jornandes doth report, some
of these barbarous people did not stick to say, that they were put on this imployment by some
Heavenly visions, which did direct them to the work which they were to do. In prosecution
of the which, in less time than the compass of 80 years, this very Ita••ie (though antiently the
strength and seat of that Empire) was seven times brought almost unto desolation, by the Fire
and Sword of the Barbarians, viz. First by Alarick King of the Gothes, who sacked Rome, Naples,
&c. 2 By Attila King of the Hunnes, who razed Florence, wasted Lombardy, and not without much
difficulty was diverted from the spoil of Rome, by the intercession of Pope Leo. 3 By Gensericus
King of the Vandals, who also had the sackage of Rome it self. 4 By B••orgus King of the Alani,
in the time of the Emperor Maioranus. 5 By Odoacer King of the Heruli, who drove Augustus
the last Western Emperor out of his estate, and twice in thirteen years layd the Country desolate.
6 By Theodorick King of the Gothes, called in by Zeno Emperour of Constantinople to expel Odoa∣cer
and the Heruli: And 7 by Gundebald King of the Burgundians, who having ransacked all
Lombardy, returned home again leaving possession to the Gothes. As for these Gothes, being the
first and last of those barbarous Nations who had any thing to do in the spoil of Italie, after
they had reigned here under eight of their Kings, for the space of 72 years, they were at last
subdued by Belisarius and Narses, two of the bravest Souldiers that had ever served the Eastern
Emperours; and Italie united once more to the Empire in the time of Justinian. But Narses ha∣ving
governed Italie about 17 years, and being after such good service most despightfully used by
Sophia (never the wiser for her name) the wife of the Emperor Justinus, abandoned the Country
to the Lombards: For the Empress envying his glories, not only did procure to have him re∣called
from his Government, but sent him word, That she would make the Eunuch (for such he
was) come home and spin among her maids. To which the discontented man returned this Answer,
That he would spin her such a Web, as neither she nor any of her maids should ever be able to unweave;
and thereupon he opened the passages of the Country to Alboinus King of the Lombards, then
possessed of Pannonia, who comming into Italie with their Wives and Children, possessed them∣selves
of all that Country which antiently was inhabited by the Cisalpine Galls, calling it by
their own names Longobardia, now corruptly Lombardy. Nor staid he there, but made himself
master of the Countries lying on the Adriatick, as far as to the borders of Apulia; and for the
better Government of his new Dominions, erected the four famous Dukedoms, 1 of Friuli at
the entrance of Italie, for the admission of more aids if occasion were, or the keeping out of new
Invaders 2 of Turlu, at th foot of the Alpes against the French, 3 of Benevent, in Abruzzo, a
Province of the Realm of Naples, against the incursions of the Greeks, then possessed of Apu∣lia,
and the other Eastern parts of that Kingdom: and 4 of Spoleto in the midst of Italie to sup∣press
the Natives; leaving the whole, and hopes of more unto his Successors.