CHA P. could not be executed without the union and con

XLIX.

Rome at

the Lom

sent of the multitude. The stile of the Roman senate and people was revived *, but the spirit was fled; and their new independence was disgraced by the tumultuous conflict of licentiousness and oppression. The want of laws could only be supplied by the influence of religion, and their foreign and domestic counsels were moderated by the authority of the bishop. His alms, his sermons, his correspondence with the kings and prelates of the West, his recent services, their gratitude, and oath, accustomed the Romans to consider him as the first magistrate or prince of the city. The Christian humility of the popes was not offended by the name of Dominus, or Lord; and their face and inscription are still apparent on the most ancient coins †. Their temporal dominion is now confirmed by the reverence of a thousand years; and their noblest title is the free choice of a people, whom they have redeemed from slavery.

In the quarrels of ancient Greece, the holy peotacked by ple of Elis enjoyed a perpetual peace, under the protection of Jupiter, and in the exercise of the Olympic

bards,

A. D. 730-752.

* Tipino regi Francorum, omnis senatus, atque universa populi generalitas a Deo servatæ Romanæ urbis. Codex Carolin. epist. 36. in Script. Ital. tom. iii. pars ii. p. 160. The names of senatus and senator were never totally extinct; (Dissert. Chorograph. p. 216, 217.) but in the middle ages they signified little more than nobiles optimates, &c. (Ducange. Gloss. Latin.)

+ See Muratori Antiquit. Italiæ Medii Ævi. tom. ii. Dissertat. xxvii. p. 548. On one of these coins we read Hadrianus Papa (A. D. 772.) on the reverse, Vict. DDNN. with the word CONOB, which the Pére Joubert (Science des Medailles, tom. ii. p. 42.) explains by CONstantinopoli Officina B (secunda.)

Olympic games *. Happy would it have been c HA P. for the Romans, if a similar privilege had guarded XLIX. the patrimony of St Peter from the calamities of war; if the Christians, who visited the holy threshold, would have sheathed their swords in the presence of the apostle and his successor. But this mystic circle could have been traced only by the wand of a legislator and a sage: This pacific system was incompatible with the zeal and ambition of the popes; the Romans were not addicted, like the inhabitants of Elis, to the innocent and placid labours of agriculture; and the Barbarians of Italy, though softened by the climate, were far below the Grecian states in the institutions of public and private life. A memorable example of repentance and piety was exhibited by Liutprand, king of the Lombards. In arms, at the gate of the Vatican, the conqueror listened to the voice of Gregory the second +, withdrew his troops, resigned his conquests, respectfully visited the church of St Peter, and after performing his devotions, offered his sword and dagger, his cuirass and mantle, his silver cross and his crown of gold, on the tomb of the apostle. But this religious fervour was the illusion, perhaps the artifice of the moment; the sense of interest is strong and lasting; the love of VOL. IX.

L

arms

* See West's Dissertation on the Olympic Games, (Pindar, vol. ii. p. 32-36. edition in 12mo,) and the judicious reflections of Polybius, (tom. i. l. iv. p. 466. edit. Gronov.)

†The speech of Gregory to the Lombard is finely composed by Sigonius, (de Regno Italiæ, 1. iii. Opera, tom. ii. p. 173.) who imitates the license and the spirit of Sallust or Livy.

CHA P. arms and rapine was congenial to the Lombards; XLIX. and both the prince and people were irresistibly

tempted by the disorders of Italy, the nakedness of Rome, and the unwarlike profession of her new chief. On the first edicts of the emperor, they declared themselves the champions of the holy images: Liutprand invaded the province of Romagna,which had already assumed that distinctive appellation; the Catholics of the Exarchate yielded without reluctance to his civil and military power; and a foreign enemy was introduced for the first time into the impregnable fortress of Ravenna. That city and fortress were speedily recovered by the active diligence and maritime forces of the Venetians; and those faithful subjects obeyed the exhortation of Gregory himself, in separating the personal guilt of Leo from the general cause of the Roman empire *. The Greeks were less mindful of the service, than the Lombards of the injury: The two nations, hostile in their faith, were reconciled in a dangerous and unnatural alliance; the king and the exarch marched to the conquest of Spoleto and Rome: The storm evaporated without effect, but the policy of Liutprand alarmed Italy with a vexatious alternative of hostility and truce. His successor Astolphus declared himself the equal enemy of the emperor and the pope: Ravenna

was

* The Venetian historians, John Sagorninus, (Chron. Venet. p. 13.) and the doge Andrew Dandolo, (Scriptores Rer. Ital. tom. xii. p. 135.) have preserved this epistle of Gregory. The loss and recovery of Ravenna are mentioned by Paulus Diaconus, (de Gest. Langobard. 1. vi. c. 49. 54. in Script. Ital. tom. pars i. p. 506. 508.) but our chronologists, Pagi, Muratori,

i.

&c. cannot ascertain the date or circumstances.

was subdued by force or treachery*, and this final c H A P. conquest extinguished the series of the exarchs, XLIX. who had reigned with a subordinate power since the time of Justinian, and the ruin of the Gothic kingdom. Rome was summoned to acknowledge the victorious Lombard as her lawful sovereign; the annual tribute of a piece of gold was fixed as the ransom of each citizen, and the sword of destruction was unsheathed to exact the penalty of her disobedience. The Romans hesitated; they entreated; they complained; and the threatening Barbarians were checked by arms and negociations, till the popes had engaged the friendship of an ally and avenger beyond the Alps †.

verance

In his distress, the first Gregory had implored Her delithe aid of the hero of the age, of Charles Martel, by Pepin, who governed the French monarchy with the hum- A. D. 754. ble title of mayor or duke; and who, by his signal victory over the Saracens, had saved his country, and perhaps Europe, from the Mahometan yoke. The ambassadors of the pope were received by Charles with decent reverence; but the greatness of his occupations, and the shortness of his life, prevented his interference in the affairs of Italy, except by a friendly and ineffectual mediation. His son Pepin, the heir of his power and virtues, assumed

L 2

The option will depend on the various readings of the MSS. of Anastasius-deceperat, or decerpserat. (Script. Ital. tom. iii. pars i. p. 167.)

†The Codex Carolinus is a collection of the epistles of the Popes to Charles Martel, (whom they stile Subregulus,) Pepin and Charlemagne, as far as the year 791, when it was formed by the last of these princes. His original and authentic MS. (Bibliothecæ Cubicularis) is now in the Imperial library of Vienna, and has been published by Lambecius and Muratori. (Script. Rerum Ital. tom. iii. pars ii. p. 75, &c.)

CHA P. assumed the office of champion of the Roman XLIX. church; and the zeal of the French prince appears

to have been prompted by the love of glory and religion. But the danger was on the banks of the Tiber, the succour on those of the Seine; and our sympathy is cold to the relation of distant misery. Amidst the tears of the city, Stephen the third embraced the generous resolution of visiting in person the courts of Lombardy and France, to deprecate the injustice of his enemy, or to excite the pity and indignation of his friend. After soothing the public despair by litanies and orations, he undertook this laborious journey with the ambassadors of the French monarch and the Greek emperor. The king of the Lombards was inexorable; but his threats could not silence the complaints, nor retard the speed of the Roman pontiff, who traversed the Pennine Alps, reposed in the abbey of St.Maurice, and hastened to grasp the right-hand of his protector, a hand which was never lifted in vain, either in war or friendship. Stephen was entertained as the visible successor of the apostle; at the next assembly, the field of March or of May, his injuries were exposed to a devout and warlike nation, and he repassed the Alps, not as a suppliant, but as a conqueror, at the head of a French army, which was led by the king in person. The Lombards, after a weak resistance, obtained an ignominious peace, and swore to restore the possessions, and to respect the sanctity, of the Roman church. But no sooner was Astolphus delivered from the presence of the French arms, than he forgot his promise and resented his disgrace. Rome was again encompassed by his arms; and

Stephen,