of the Catholic arms, the Roman pontiff convened & synd of ninety-three bishops against the heresy of the Iconoclasts With their consent, he pronounced a general excommunication against all who by word or deed should attack the tradition of the fathers and the images of the saints: in this sentence the emperor was tacitly involved,40 but the vote of a last and hopeless remonstrance may seem to imply that the anathema was yet suspended over his guilty head. No sooner had they con. firmed their own safety, the worship of images, and the freedom of Rome and Italy, than the popes appear to have relaxed of their severity, and to have spared the relics of the Byzantine dominion. Their moderate councils delayed and prevented the election of a new emperor, and they exhorted the Italians not to separate from the body of the Roman monarchy. The exarch was permitted to reside within the walls of Ravenna, a captive rather than a master; and till the Imperial coronation of Charlemagne, the government of Rome and Italy was exercised in the name of the successors of Constantine.41

The liberty of Rome, which had been oppressed by the arms and arts of Augustus, was rescued, after seven hundred and fifty years of servitude, from the persecution of Leo the Isaurian. By the Cæsars, the triumphs of the consuls had been annihilated: in the decline and fall of the em pire, the god Terminus, the sacred boundary, had insensibly receded from the ocean, the Rhine, the Danube, and the Euphrates; and Rome was reduced to her ancient territory from Viterbo to Terracina, and from Narni to the mouth of the Tyber.42 When the kings were banished, the republic

40 Yet Leo was undoubtedly comprised in the si quis

num sacrarum.

destructor

...

imagiextiterit, sit extorris a corpore D. N. Jesu Christi vel totius ecclesiæ unitate. The canonists may decide whether the guilt or the name constitutes the excommunication; and the decision is of the last importance to their safety, since, according to the oracle (Gratian, Caus. xxiii. q. 5, c. 47, apud Spanheim, Hist. Imag. p. 112) homicidas non esse qui excommunicatos trucidant.

41 Compescuit tale consilium Pontifex, sperans conversionem principis, (Anastas. p. 156.) Sed ne desisterent ab amore et fide R. J. admonebat, (p. 157.) The popes style Leo and Constantine Copronymus, Imperatores et Domini, with the strange epithet of Piissimi. A famous Mosaic of the Lateran (A. D. 798) represents Christ, who delivers the keys to St. Peter and the banner to Constantine V. (Mutatori, Annali d'Italia, tom. vi. p. 337.)

43 I have traced the Roman duchy according to the maps, and the

reposed on the firm basis which had been founded by their wisdom and virtue. Their perpetual jurisdiction was divided between two annual magistrates: the senate continued to exercise the powers of administration and counsel; and the legislative authority was distributed in the assemblies of the people by a well-proportioned scale of property and service. Ignorant of the arts of luxury, the primitive Romans had improved the science of government and war: the will of the com munity was absolute the rights of individuals were sacred: one hundred and thirty thousand citizens were armed for defence or conquest; and a band of robbers and outlaws was moulded into a nation deserving of freedom and ambitious of glory.43 When the sovereignty of the Greek emperors was extinguished, the ruins of Rome presented the sad image of depopulation and decay: her slavery was a habit, her lib erty an accident; the effect of superstition, and the object of her own amazement and terror. The last vestige of the substance, or even the forms, of the constitution, was obliterated from the practice and memory of the Romans; and they were devoid of knowledge, or virtue, again to build the fabric of a commonwealth. Their scanty remnant, the offspring of slaves and strangers, was despicable in the eyes of the victorious Barbarians. As often as the Franks or Lombards expressed their most bitter contempt of a foe, they called him a Roman; “and in this name," says the bishop Liutprand, we include whatever is base, whatever is cowardly, whatever is perfidious, the extremes of avarice and luxury, and every vice that can prostitute the dignity of human naBy the necessity of their situation, the inhabitants

66

ture.

99 44 #

maps according to the excellent dissertation of father Beretti, (de Chorographia Italiæ Medii Evi, sect. xx. p. 216-232.) Yet I must nicely observe, that Viterbo is of Lombard foundation, (p. 211,) and that Terracina was usurped by the Greeks.

3 On the extent, population, &c., of the Roman kingdom, the reader may peruse, with pleasure, the Discours Preliminaire to the Republique Romaine of M. de Beaufort, (tom. i.,) who will not be accused of too much credulity for the early ages of Rome.

44 Quos (Romanos) nos, Longobardi scilicet, Saxones, Franci, Lotharingi, Bajoarii, Suevi, Burgundiones, tanto dedignamur ut inimicos

Yet this contumelious sentence, quoted by Robertson (Charles V. note 2) as well as Giboon, was applied by the angry bishop to the Byzan Ene Romans, whom, indeed, he admits to be the genuine descendants of Bomulus M.

of Rome were cast into the rough model of a republican gov ernment: they were compelled to elect some judges in peace, and some leaders in war the r.obles assembled to deliberate and their resolves could not be executed without the union and consent of the multitude. The style of the Roman senate and people was revived,45 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 grat itude, 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 appar ent on the most ancient coins.46 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 had redeemed from slavery.

In the quarrels of ancient Greece, the holy people of Elis enjoyed a perpetual peace, under the protection of Jupiter and in the exercise of the Olympic games.47 Happy would it have been for the Romans, if a similar privilege had guarded the patrimony of St. Peter from the calamities of

nostros commoti, nil aliud contumeliarum nisi Romane, dicamus: hoo solo, id est Romanorum nomine, quicquid ignobilitatis, quicquid timiditatis, quicquid avaritiæ, quicquid luxuriæ, quicquid mendacii, immo quicquid vitiorum est comprehendentes, (Liutprand, in Legat. Script. Ital. tom. ii. pars i. p. 481.) For the sins of Cato or Tully, Minos might have imposed as a fit penance the daily perusal of this barbarous passage.

46 Pipino 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, optiinates, &c., (Ducange, Gloss. Latin.)

4 See Muratori, Antiquit. Italiæ Medii Evi tom. ii. Dissertat. Kxvii. 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 Père Joubert (Science des Medailles, tom. ii. p. 42) explains by CONstantinopoli Officina B (secunda.)

47 See West's Dissertation on the Olympic Games, (Pindar. vol. ii. 32-36, edition in 12mo.,) and the judicious 1flections of Polybius (tom. i. 1. iv. p. 456, edit. Gronov.)

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 sys em 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 labors 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,48 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 fervor was the illusion, perhaps the artifice, of the moment; the sense of interest is strong and lasting; the love of arms and rapine was congenial to the Lombards; 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.49 The Greeks were less mindful of the service,

48 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.

49 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 Ra venns are mentioned by Paulus Diaconus, (de Gest. Langobard. 1. vi. c. 49, 54, in Script. Ital. tom. i. vars i. p. 506, 508;) but our chronolo gists, Pagi, Muratori, &c., cannot ascertain the date or circumstances

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 subdued by force or treachery,50 and this final conquest extinguished the series of the exarchs, who had reigned with a subordinate power since the time of Jus tinian 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 negotiations, till the popes had engaged the friendship of an ally and avenger beyond the Alps.51

In his distress, the first Gregory had implored the aid of the hero of the age, of Charles Martel, who governed the French monarchy with the humble 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 media tion. His son Pepin, the heir of his power and virtues, assumed the office of champion of the Roman church; and the zeal of the French prince appears to have been prompted

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

167.)

51 The Codex Carolinus is a collection of the epistles of the popes to Charles Martel, (whom they style 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. 76, &c.)

* Gregory I. had been dead above a century; read Gregory III. - FL