XLIX. Final se popes It was after the Nicene synod, and under the c H a p. reign of the pious Irene, that the popes consummated the separation of Rome and Italy, by the translation of the empire to the less orthodox paration Charlemagne. They were compelled to chuse be- of the tween the rival nations: Religion was not the sole from the motive of their choice; and while they dissembled Eastern empire, the failings of their friends, they beheld, with re- A. D. luctance and suspicion, the Catholic virtues of 774-800. their foes. The difference of language and manners had perpetuated the enmity of the two capitals; and they were alienated from each other by the hostile opposition of seventy years. In that schism the Romans had tasted of freedom, and the popes of sovereignty: Their submission would have exposed them to the revenge of a jealous tyrant; and the revolution of Italy had betrayed the impotence, as well as the tyranny, of the Byzantine court. The Greek emperors had restored the images, but they had not restored the Calabrian estates and the Illyrian diocese †, which *Theophanes (p. 343.) specifies those of Sicily and Calabria, which yielded an annual rent of three talents and a half of gold, (perhaps 7000l. Sterling.) Liutprand more pompously enumerates the patrimonies of the Roman church in Greece, Judæa, Persia, Mesopotamia, Babylonia, Egypt, and Lybia, which were detained by the injustice of the Greek emperor. (Legat. ad Nicephorum, in Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. ii. pars i. p. 481.) The great diocese of the Eastern Illyricum, with Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily: (Thomassin, Discipline de l'Eglise, tom. i. p. 145.) by the confession of the Greeks, the patriarch of Constantinople had detached from Rome the metropolitans of Thessalonica, Athens, Corinth, Nicopolis, and Patra; (Luc. Holsten. Geograph. Sacra, p. 22.) and his spiritual conquests, extended to Naples and Amalphi. (Giannone Istoria Civile di Napoli, tom. i. p. 517-524. Pagi, A. D. 730, No. 11. XLIX. CHA P. which the Iconoclasts had torn away from the successors of St Peter; and pope Adrian threatens them with a sentence of excommunication unless they speedily abjure this practical heresy *. The Greeks were now orthodox, but their religion might be tainted by the breath of the reigning monarch: The Franks were now contumacious; but a discerning eye might discern their approaching conversion from the use, to the adoration, of images. The name of Charlemagne was stained by the polemic acrimony of his scribes; but the conqueror himself conformed, with the temper of a statesman, to the various practice of France and Italy. In his four pilgrimages or visits to the Vatican, he embraced the popes in the communion of friendship and piety; knelt before the tomb, and consequently before the image, of the apostle; and joined, without scruple, in all the prayers and processions of the Roman liturgy. Would prudence or gratitude allow the pontiffs to renounce their benefactor? Had they a right to alienate his gift of the Exarchate? Had they power to abolish his government of Rome? The title of patrician was below the merit and greatness of Charlemagne; and it was only by reviving the Western empire that they could pay their .... * In hoc ostenditur, quia ex uno capitulo ab errore reversis, in aliis duobus, in eodem (was it the same?) permaneant errore de diocesi S. R. E. seu de patrimoniis iterum increpantes commonemus, ut si ea restituere noluerit hereticum eum pro hujusmodi errore perseverantiâ decernemus; (Epist. Hadrian. Papæ ad Carolum Magnum, in Concil. tom. viii. p. 1598.) to which he adds a reason, most directly opposite to his conduct, that he preferred the salvation of souls and rule of faith to the goods of this transitory world. their obligations to secure their establishment. By c H A P. this decisive measure they would finally eradicate XLIX. the claims of the Greeks from the debasement of a provincial town, the majesty of Rome would be restored: the Latin Christians would be united under a supreme head, in their ancient metropolis; and the conquerors of the West would rẻceive their crown from the successors of St Peter. The Roman church would acquire a zealous and respectable advocate; and, under the shadow of the Carlovingian power, the bishop might exercise, with honour and safety, the government of the city *. tion of emperor Before the ruin of paganism in Rome, the com- Coronapetition for a wealthy bishopric had often been Charleproductive of tumult and bloodshed. The peo- magne as ple was less numerous, but the times were more of Rome savage, the prize more important, and the chair and of the of St Peter was fiercely disputed by the leading A.D. 800. ecclesiastics who aspired to the rank of sovereign. The reign of Adrian the first † surpasses the mea sure Fontanini considers the emperors as no more than the advocates of the church (advocatus et defensor S. R. E. See Ducange, Gloss. Lat. tom. i. p. 97.) His antagonist, Muratori, reduces the popes to be no more than the exarchs of the emperor. In the more equitable view of Mosheim (Institut. Hist. Eccles. p. 264, 265.) they held Rome under the empire as the most honourable species of fief or benefice-premuntur nocte caligi nosa! His merits and hopes are summed up in an epitaph of thirty-eight verses, of which Charlemagne declares himself the author. (Concil. tom. viii. p. 520. Post patrem lacrymans Carolus hæc carmina scripsi. Adrianus, Carolus, rex cgo, tuque pater. The poetry might be supplied by Alcuin; but the tears, the most glorious tribute, can only belong to Charlemagne. West. Dec. 25. XLIX. CHA P. sure of past or succeeding ages *; the walls of Rome, the sacred patrimony, the ruin of the Lombards and the friendship of Charlemagne, were the trophies of his fame: He secretly edified the throne of his successors, and displayed in a narrow space the virtues of a great prince. His memory was revered; but in the next election, a priest of the Lateran (Leo the third) was preferred to the nephew and the favourite of Adrian, whom he had promoted to the first dignities of the church. Their acquiescence or repentance disguised, above four years, the blackest intention of revenge, till the day of a procession, when a furious band of conspirators dispersed the unarmed multitude, and assaulted with blows and wounds the sacred person of the pope. But their enterprise on his life or liberty was disappointed, perhaps by their own confusion and remorse. Leo was left for dead on the ground; on his revival from the swoon, the effect of his loss of blood, he recovered his speech and sight; and this natural event was improved to the miraculous restoration of his eyes and tongue, of which he had been deprived, twice deprived, by the knife of the assassins t. From his * Every new pope is admonished-" Sancte Pater, non vi"debis annos Petri," twenty-five years. On the whole series the average is about eight years—a short hope for an ambitious cardinal. The assurance of Anastasisus (tom. iii. pars i. p. 197, 198.) is supported by the credulity of some French annalists; but Eginhard, and other writers of the same age, are more natural and sincere." Unus ei oculis paullulum est læsus," says John the deacon of Naples. (Vit. Episcop. Napol. in Scriptores Muratori, tom. i. pars ii. p. 312.) Thcodolphus, a contemporary bishop of Orleans, observes with prudence, (1. iii. carm. 3.) Reddita sunt? mirum est; mirum est auferre nequîsse, Est tamen in dubio, hinc mirer aut inde magis. his prison, he escaped to the Vatican; the duke c H A P. of Spoleto hastened to his rescue, Charlemagne XLIX. sympathised in his injury, and in his camp of Paderborn in Westphalia accepted or solicited a visit from the Roman pontiff. Leo repassed the Alps with a commission of counts and bishops, the guards of his safety, and the judges of his innocence; and it was not without reluctance, that the conqueror of the Saxons delayed till the ensuing year the personal discharge of this pious office. In his fourth and last pilgrimage, he was received at Rome with the due honours of king and patrician: Leo was permitted to purge himself by oath of the crimes imputed to his charge: His enemies were silenced, and the sacrilegious attempt against his life was punished by the mild and insufficient penalty of exile. On the festival of Christmas, the last year of the eighth century, Charlemagne appeared in the church of St Peter; and, to gratify the vanity of Rome, he had exchanged the simple dress of his country for the habit of a patrician *. After the celebration of the holy mysteries, Leo suddenly placed a precious crown on his head †, and the dome resounded *Twice, at the request of Hadrian and Leo, he appeared at Rome-longâ tunicâ et chlamyde amictus, et calceamentis quoque Romano more formatis. Eginhard (c. xxiii. p. 109-113.) describes, like Suetonius, the simplicity of his dress, so popular in the nation, that when Charles the Bald returned to France in a foreign habit, the patriotic dogs barked at the apostate. (Gaillard, Vie de Charlemagne, tom. iv. p. 109.) + See Anastasius (p. 199.) and Eginhard, (c. xxviii. p. 124 -128.) The unction is mentioned by Theophanes, (p. 399.) the oath by Sigonius, (from the Ordo Romanus,) and the pope's adoration more antiquorum principum, by the Annales Bertini, ani. (Script. Murator. tom. i. pars ii. p. 505.) |