Thomas Andrew Archer

“ If French scholars are right in assigning Hilary's Vita Honorati to 430, Salvian, who is there called a priest, had probably already left Lyons for Marseilles, where he is known to have spent the last years of his life (Gennadius, ap. Migne, lviii. 1099) . It was probably from Marseilles that he wrote his first letter—presumably to Lerins—begging the community there to receive his kinsman, the son of a widow of Cologne, who had been reduced to poverty by the barbarian invasions. ”

“ Darker still were the iniquities of Carthage, surpassing even the unconcealed licentiousness of Gaul and Spain (iv. 5) ; and more fearful to Salvian than all else was it to hear men swear “by Christ” that they would commit a crime (iv. 15) . It would be the atheist’s strongest argument if God left such a state of society unpunished (iv. 12) —especially among Christians, whose sin, since they alone had the Scriptures, was worse than that of barbarians, even if equally wicked, would be (v. 2) . ”

“ It is their harshness and greed that drive the poor to join the Bagaudae and fly for shelter to the barbarian invaders (v. 5 and 6) . Everywhere the taxes are heaped upon the needy, while the rich, who have the apportioning of the impost, escape comparatively free (v. 7) . ”