This behaviour of Deogratias was the more to his honour, because his own flock was suffering severely from the oppression of the Vandals, who, as we have already seen,[43] were Arians. Genseric treated the Catholics of Africa very tyrannically; his son and successor, Hunneric, was still more cruel to them; and, as long as the Vandals held possession of Africa, the persecution, in one shape or another, was carried on almost without ceasing.
The last emperor of the west, Augustulus, was put down in the year 476, and a barbarian prince named Odoacer became king of Italy.
NOTES
CHAPTER XXIV.
CONVERSION OF THE BARBARIANS—CHRISTIANITY IN BRITAIN.
As the old empire of Rome disappears, the modern kingdoms of Europe begin to come to view; and we may now look at the progress of the Gospel among the nations of the west.