friendly manner by the Lombard King. He represented to him the shortness and vanity of all temporal grandeur; he reminded him of the account which he had one day to give, for all the blood which he had shed, in order to gratify his ambition; and he threatened him with eternal damnation, if he did not speedily restore the four cities. The fears of Luitprand were so powerfully excited by the eloquence and threatening of the Pope, that he instantly declared, with an audible voice, "That the cities were no longer his; that they belonged to the Apostle Peter, and, therefore, that he delivered them to Zachary, his successor.' At the same time, he ordered the wealthy patrimony of the Roman Church, in the country of the Sabines, which the Lombards had seized thirty years before, to be forthwith restored; and with it the patrimonies of the Church in the territories of the Narni, of Osimo, of Ancona, and Palimartium.

The Roman Pontiff now acted in all respects like a temporal Prince, of whose enormous power history records the following shocking and remarkable instance. Charles Martel was succeeded in his office of Mayor of the Palace to Childeric III., by his son Pepin. In the exercise of that office he was possessed, in reality, of the royal power and authority; but, not content with this, he aspired to the titles and honours of majesty, and formed the design of dethroning his sovereign. For this purpose the states of the realm were assembled by Pepin, A. D. 751; and though they were devoted to the interests of this ambitious usurper, they gave it as their opinion, that the Bishop of Rome was previously to be consulted, whether the execution of such a project was lawful or not. In consequence of this, ambassadors were sent by Pepin to Zachary, the reigning Pontiff, with the following question: “Whether the divine law did not permit a valiant and warlike people to dethrone a pusillanimous and indolent monarch, who was incapable of discharging any of the functions of royalty, and to substitute in his place one more worthy to rule, and who had already rendered most important services to the state?" The situation of Zachary, who stood much in need of the aid of Pepin against the Greeks and Lombards, ren

dered his answer such as the usurper desired; who, in return, conferred on Zachary the domains of Ravenna, which could not have been secured from the degraded Childeric. Thus, by his spiritual authority, the Pope deposed a sovereign who had committed no crime; receiving from the usurper, in return, the temporal jurisdiction. When this favourable decision of the Roman Oracle was published in France, the unhappy Childeric was stripped of royalty without the least opposition; and Pepin, without the smallest resistance from any quarter, stepped into the throne of his master and his sovereign. This decision was solemnly confirmed by Stephen II.,* the successor of Zachary, who undertook a journey into France, in the year 754, in order to solicit assistance against the Lombards; and who, at the same time, dissolved the obligation of the oath of fidelity and allegiance which Pepin had sworn to Childeric, and violated by his usurpation in the year 751; and, to render his title to the crown as sacred as possible, Stephen anointed and crowned him, with his wife and two sons, and, by the authority of St. Peter, forbade the French lords, on pain of excommunication, to choose a King of another race. Thus did these two ambitious men support one another in their schemes of rapacity and injustice. The criminality of the Pope was, indeed, greatly aggravated by the pretence of religion. "It is you," said he, addressing Pepin, "whom God hath chosen from all eternity. For, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified."

This compliance of the Roman Pontiffs, proved an abundant source of opulence and credit to the Church. When Aistulphus, the successor of Luitprand, meditated the conquest of Rome and its territory, and formed the ambitious project of reducing all Italy under the yoke of the Lombards, the terrified Pontiff, Stephen II., addressed himself to his powerful patron and protector, Pepin, represented to him his

* This Stephen is sometimes called the THIRD of that name; as his predecessor, of that name, having died three days after his election, was never consecrated.

deplorable condition, and implored his assistance. The French Monarch embarked with zeal in the cause of the suppliant Pontiff; crossed the Alps, A. D. 754, with a numerous army; and, having twice defeated Aistulphus, obliged him, by a solemn treaty, to deliver up to the See of Rome the Exarchate of Ravenna, Pentapolis, and all the cities, castles, and territories, which he had seized in the Roman dukedom. Pepin then caused an instrument to be drawn up, signed by himself and his sons, by which he ceded for ever to the holy See, all the places thus yielded up by the Lombard King, including the Exarchate, which he had taken from the Emperor of Constantinople. He afterwards caused the instrument of donation, with the keys of all the cities, to be laid on the tomb of St. Peter, in Rome. Stephen thus became proprietor of the Exarchate and its dependencies; and, by adding rapacity to his rebellion, was established as a temporal Monarch! Thus was the sceptre added to the keys; the sovereignty to the priesthood; and thus were the Popes enriched with the spoils of the Lombard Kings, and of the Roman Emperors.

CHAPTER IV.

PERIOD II. SUPREMACY OF THE ROMAN CHURCH.

THE question concerning Images, which had long agitated both the Eastern and Western Churches, was, at this time, far from being put to rest, either at Rome, or Constantinople, but still gave occasion to the assembling of Council after Council; one Council annulling what the former had decreed. During the reign of the Emperor Constantine Copronymus, (who employed all his influence in abolishing and extirpating the worship of images,) a Synod was held at Constantinople, 754,

to determine the controversy. The fathers being met, to the number of three hundred and thirty, after considering the doctrine of Scripture, and the opinions of the Fathers, decreed that every image, of whatsoever materials, made and formed by the artist, should be cast out of the Christian Church as a strange and abominable thing; notwithstanding Paul I., who having succeeded his brother Stephen, was, at that time, Pope of Rome, sent a legate to Constantinople, to admonish the Emperor to restore the sacred images and statues to the Churches, threatening him with excommunication in case of refusal. But Copronymus treated his message with the contempt it deserved. On the decease of Paul I., A. D. 768, the Papal chair was filled for one year, by a person of the name of Constantine, who condemned the worship of images, and was therefore tumultuously deposed; and Stephen IV. substituted in his room, who was a furious defender of them. Stephen immediately assembled a Council in the Lateran Church, where the renowned Fathers abrogated all Constantine's Decrees, deposed all the Bishops that had been ordained by him, annulled all his Baptisms and Chrisms, and, as some historians relate, after having beat and used him with great indignity, made a fire in the Church and burnt him to death. After this, they annulled all the Decrees of the Synod of Constantinople, ordered the restoration of statues and images, and anathematized that execrable and pernicious Synod, giving this curious reason for the use of images; that if it was lawful for Emperors, and those who had deserved well of their country, to have their images erected, but not lawful to set up those of God, the condition of the immortal God would be worse than that of man.

Pepin, the great supporter of the Popedom, died in 768, and was succeeded by his son, Charlemagne, who confirmed his fathers donation of the Exarchate to Adrian I., the reigning Pontiff, with some considerable additions of territory. During the pontificate of this Bishop, the Lombards again invaded the provinces which had been granted by Pepin to the See of Rome. Charlemagne did not, however, permit them to resume their authority; he entered Italy with a powerful army, sub

dued the Lombards, assumed to himself the title of their King, and was crowned at Rome in the year 774. Additional donations to the Pope, and a confirmation of the grants bestowed by his father, were the fruits of this additional extent of dominion to Charlemagne. Several cities and provinces were ceded by him to the Roman See, under the specious pretext of atoning for his sins by munificence to the Church.

Thus the mystery of iniquity continued to work, until the reign of Irene, the Empress of Constantinople, and her son Constantine, about the close of this century. Irene was the profligate wife of Leo IV., who in 775, after the death of Constantine, was declared Emperor. Having strenuously exerted himself for the extirpation of idolatry out of the Christian Church, he was poisoned by his perfidious wife, who was a zealous supporter of image worship. Under Irene's influence and authority was convened, what is termed the seventh General Council, held at Nice, in 787; the number of Bishops present being about three hundred and fifty. They decreed "that holy images of the cross should be consecrated, and put on the sacred vessels and vestments, and upon walls and boards, in private houses and public ways. And especially that there should be erected images of the Lord God! our Saviour Jesus! and our blessed Lady, the Mother of God, of the venerable angels, and of all the saints; and that whoever should presume to think or teach otherwise, or to throw away any painted books, or the figure of the cross, or any image or picture, or any genuine relics of the martyrs, they should, if Bishops or Clergymen, be deposed, or if Monks or laymen, be excommunicated." Thus, very shortly after the seventh General Council had condemned the worship of images as idolatrous, was idolatry established by law, contrary to the express commands, and in contempt of the dreadful threatenings of the Eternal God.

Irene and Constantine approved and ratified these decrees, the result of which, was, that Idols and Images were erected in all the Churches, and those opposed to them were treated with great severity. And thus, by the intrigues of the Popes of Rome, iniquity was established by law, and the worship of Idols authorized and confirmed in the Catholic Church, though in express oppo