It had not been a kind mother to the
nations it had conquered--in war it had been cruel, and in peace it
had been selfish and stern. The lust of rule became stronger as its
arm became weaker. The degradation of slavery and the heavy hand of
the tax-gatherer were extending even to Wales. The barbarian invader
found the effeminate, luxurious empire an easy prey. In 410 Alaric
and his host of Goths appeared before the city of Rome itself; and a
horde of barbarians, thirsting for blood and spoil, surged into it.
The fall of the great city was a shock to the whole world; the end of
the world must be near, for how could it stand without Rome? Jerome
could hardly sob the strange news: "Rome, which enslaved the whole
world, has itself been taken."
Rome had taken the yoke of Christ; and many said that it fell because
it had spurned the gods that had given it victory. Three years after
Alaric had sacked it, Augustine wrote a book to prove that it was not
the city of God that had fallen; and that the heathen gods could
neither have built Rome in their love nor destroyed it in their
anger. He then describes the rise of the real "City of God," in the
midst of which is the God of justice and mercy, and "she shall not be
moved.
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