Sources

You affirm that you and your predecessors have beenaccustomed to command us and ours; we utterly deny it. . . . The Roman Church encompasses and comprehends within herself, she being in herself the universal church, the mirror and model of that which she embraces within her bosom. Moreover, this vessel was shown to Peter alone, and he alone was commanded to kill and eat; as in like manner, after the resurrection, he alone of all the apostles received the divine command to draw to the shore the net full of fishes. And if unto us he committed that identical commission—which is verily and indeed so committed—to embrace in our paternal arms the whole flock of Christ, is it to be believed that we surrender to you any one of those sheep whom he hath given into our keeping?[285:1]

In 1054, the Pope excommunicated the patriarch and his whole Church for censuring the faith of Rome. The courtesy was solemnly returned by Constantinople against the Roman Church. Other eastern patriarchs adhered to the See of Constantinople and the rupture was complete. The sack of Constantinople by Latin Christians in the fourth crusade (thirteenth century) widened the breach. At the Council of Lyons, 1274, delegates of the Eastern Empire abjured the schism, by receiving the Nicene Creed with "filioque" in it and by swearing to conform to the Roman faith and to accept the supremacy of the Pope, but the eastern patriarchs refused to do so. When, in 1439 at the Council of Florence, the Eastern Emperor and churchmen signed a compact of reunion, they were induced to acknowledge the Pope as the "successor of Peter the chief of the apostles, and the vicar of Christ, the head of the whole Church, and father and teacher of all Christians,to whom plenary power was given by our Lord Jesus Christ to feed, rule, and govern the universal Church." Other differences were patched up. The Pope, for his part, agreed to induce the rulers of the West to go to the defence of the East against the Turks, but failed to make his promise good. The people of the East were sorely disappointed and forced the repudiation of the agreement. In 1453, however, Constantinople fell a prey to the Mohammedan Turks, and the strength of the Eastern Church was broken. In modern times, papal absolutism and eastern stagnation have prevented the reunion.[286:1]

In conclusion, the differences and resemblances between the Greek and Roman Churches to-day might be stated. The Greek Church rejects the filioque in the Latin creed; repudiates the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary (1854), and denies the infallibility of the Roman Pope (1870). All the clergy are "popes" in the Greek Church and the lower clergy are permitted to marry. The Greek Church gives and the Roman Church withholds the communion wine from the laity. The Greek Church uses leavened, and the Roman Church unleavened bread in the Eucharist. The Greek Church holds to the trine immersion in baptism, repetition of Holy Unction in illness, and infant communion. There is a difference in rites of worship, in language, in art, in architecture, and in the vestments employed. But both hold the fundamentals in the Nicene Creed; both accept all the doctrinal decrees of the seven œcumenical councils from 325 to 787; both practise image worship[286:2]; both acceptthe mediæval doctrine against which the Reformation protested; both believe in tradition and the Bible; both believe in the seven sacraments; both teach transubstantiation; both offer masses for the dead and the living; both sanction priestly absolution; both have three orders of ministry; both are episcopally organised on a hierarchical basis; both have rites and ceremonies that are identical, or at least similar. All things considered, therefore, it seems that the resemblances are far more striking than the differences.

From now on, interest in Church history centres in the Roman Church of western Europe. The undignified quarrel over images gave the Pope an occasion to declare his absolute independence of eastern imperial rule. That fact gave a new bent to the Roman Church, forced upon it a more genuine unity, compelled it to devote all its energies to the great problems in the West, and enabled it to attain its acme under Innocent III. in the thirteenth century. Had the unsatisfactory relationship with the Eastern Church not been severed the history of the mediæval Church in western Europe would have been very different. The separation must be regarded, therefore, as a factor of no small moment in that process. While the effective missionary efforts, having their source and purpose in Rome, were winning all western Europe to a recognition of the Pope's sovereignty, it was very essential that he should completely accomplish his independence of Constantinople so that he would have a free hand to work out the problems of the Western Church.

FOOTNOTES:

[265:1]Tozer,The Ch. and the East. Emp., 172.

[267:1]Herodotus, bk. 1, 132; Strabo, 732.

[267:2]Schoemann,Griech. Alterthümer, ii., 197; see Alex.,Strom., i., ch. 5, § 28; ch. ii., § 77.

[267:3]Preller,Roman Mythology, i.; Plutarch,Numa, c. 8; Aug.,City of God, iv., ch. 31.

[267:4]Grimm,Teutonic Myth., i., 104.

[267:5]Ex. 20:4, 5; 25:18-20; 26:1; 32:4; 36:35; Deut. 4:15-18; 5:8, 9; 32:17; Gen. 31:19; Judg., 17:5; 18:30; Hos. 3:4; Zach. 10:2; 2 Kings 13:24; 1 Sam. 19:13, 16; Lev. 17:7; Ps. 106:37; 1 Kings 6:23, 32, 35; Isa. 40:44; 30:22; Joseph.,Antiq.xv., 8, 12; xviii., 3, 1.

[267:6]Joseph.,Antiq., xv., ch. 8, § 1-2;Jewish Wars, i., ch. 33, § 2-3.

[267:7]Against Celsus, iv., 31.

[268:1]Rev. 15:2.

[268:2]Her.i., ch. 25, 6; Aug.,Her.ch. 7.

[268:3]Northcote and Brownlow,Roma Sotteranæ; Northcote,Epitaphs of the Catacombs.

[268:4]Hefele, i., 151.

[269:1]De Pud., 7, 10.

[269:2]De Cor. Mil., c. iii.;Ad. Uxor., ii., 5.

[269:3]Paed., iii., 11, § 59.

[269:4]Euseb.,Eccl. Hist., ix., 9.

[269:5]Euseb.,Life of Const., iii., 49.

[269:6]Sozomen,Eccl. Hist., i., 8.

[271:1]See Book iv., Letter 30.

[271:2]Comm. on Ezek., ix., 4.

[272:1]Contra Judae. et Gentil., § 9; see Neander, ii., 286.

[272:2]Euseb.,Life of Const., iii., 49.

[272:3]Kugler,Handbook of Painting.

[272:4]Smith and Cheetham, art. on "Images," p. 816ff.

[273:1]Imper. Decr. de Cultu Imag., 618, ed., Goldast, Frankf., 1608.

[273:2]Greg. of Tours,Mirac., i., 22, 23;Apol.in Act 4,Conc. Nic., ii.; Labb. vii., 240.

[273:3]Apol.inAct 4,Conc. Nic., ii.; Labb., vii., 237.

[274:1]Book ix., Letter 52.

[274:2]Epist. ad eund., ix., 9. SeeEp., vii., 111.

[274:3]On Holy Images, ii., 747.

[275:1]Adv. Her., i., c. 25, § 6.

[275:2]De Spect., c. 23;Adv. Herm., c. 1;De Idolatr., c. 4.

[275:3]Pratrept., c. 4, § 62;Strom., vii., c. 5, § 28.

[275:4]Adv. Celsus, iv., § 31; viii., § 17.

[275:5]Octav., c. 9.

[275:6]Instit., ii., c. 2;Epit., c. 25.

[275:7]Adv. Gent., iii.

[276:1]Can. 36; Mansi, ii., 264. SeeHefele, i., 151.

[276:2]Dict. of Christian Biog., 198; Mansi, xiii., 313.

[276:3]De Fide et Symbolo, c. 7.

[276:4]Migne, ii., 517-527.

[276:5]Kurtz, i., 364.

[276:6]Fleury, l., xxx., 18.

[276:7]Ib., l., xxx., 39. See Smith and Cheetham, art "Images."

[276:8]Bk. xi., Ep. 13. Read Neander, iii., 199 ff.

[277:1]These images were mosaics, frescoes, and movable flat icons like those found in the East to-day. It is very unlikely that statues were used in this early period.

[277:2]Finlay, i., 387; ii., 27-29.

[277:3]In 722 he ordered the Jews and Montanists to be baptised by force.

[278:1]Hefele, iii., 376.

[278:2]Neander, iii., 213.

[279:1]Mansi, xii., 267.

[279:2]Thatcher and McNeal,A Source Book for Mediæval History, No. 41;Dict. of Christ. Biog., art. on Leo III.; Mansi, xii., 960.

[279:3]Mansi, xii., 959;Hefele, iii., 389-404. Milman quotes this letter as the first, ii., bk. 4, ch. 7.

[279:4]Orat., ii., § 10.

[279:5]Finlay, ii., 36.

[280:1]Thatcher and McNeal, No. 42.

[280:2]Ibid., No. 43.

[281:1]The Greek Church regards this as the seventh œcumenical council. Finlay, ii., 57.

[281:2]Hefele, iii., 421.

[282:1]Neander, iii., 228;Hefele, iii., 460, 549; Schlosser, 279.

[282:2]Mansi, xiii., 378;Hefele, iii., 486.

[282:3]Session xxv., Dec., 1563; Schaff,Creeds, ii. SeeCath. Encyc.

[283:1]See Smith and Cheetham, art. on "Images," for brief extracts in English; Mombert, ch. 12.

[283:2]Schaff, iv., § 104; Neander, iii., 233;Gieseler, ii., 66;Hefele, iii., 694.

[283:3]Gieseler, ii., 67; Hardwick, 78.

[283:4]Mansi, xiv., 415;Hefele, iv., 41.

[283:5]Schaff, iv., § 105.

[284:1]See Greenwood,Cathedra Petri, iii., 348-423; Milman, bk. v., ch. 4; Neander, iii., 553-586;Gieseler, ii., 216. The Sources are given in Mansi, xvi., and Hardouin, v.-vi.

[285:1]This remarkable letter is given in full in Baronius, ed. by Pagi, ann. 867, note to § 4. Parts are translated in Greenwood,Cathedra Petri, iii., 364-371.

[286:1]Howard,Schism between the Orthodox and West. Churches, Lond., 1802.

[286:2]The Eastern Church uses only the "icon," a flat representation.

Outline: I.—Church and state before Constantine. II.—Church and state from Constantine to 476. III.—Period of the Ostrogothic rule (476-532). IV.—Reunion of Italy with the Eastern Empire. V.—Alliance between the Papacy and the Franks. VI.—Restoration of the Empire in the West in 800. VII.—Effect of the rise of national states on the Church. VIII.—Sources.

By the theory of the Roman constitution, the Emperor was not only an autocrat in all political matters, but was also the Pontifex Maximus of religions[289:1]; consequently, all foreign religions must conform to the constitution or else perish as illegal. The political philosophy of early Christianity in reference to the Roman Empire was not very clearly defined. Jesus taught charity and love, gave the Golden Rule as the law of life, but apparently was indifferent as to civil government. He took no part in political discussions; said "My kingdom is not of this world"; disparaged worldly power and wealth, and advised the rich young man: "Sell all thou hast and give it to the poor." He did recognise the duty of tribute to the state, however, saying "Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's," but did little more. The Apostles continued the teachings of Jesus,emphasised equality and brotherhood; organised the Church on a communistic, democratic basis; and were likewise indifferent to wealth and property. They too, recognised the state and its essential institutions. Slaves were told to obey their masters.[290:1]Paul was very particular to explain the obligation of Christians to the state and said: "Let every soul be subjected unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God."[290:2]He advised the payment of taxes as a just requisition.[290:3]And he himself, when arrested for disturbing the peace, appealed to Rome.[290:4]Peter likewise advised Christians to obey "every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake; whether it be to the king as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him."[290:5]

The early Church Fathers made no additions to the political science of Jesus and his Apostles. Apparently no questions of seriously conflicting allegiance arose during the whole of the first century. As individuals these early Christians no doubt performed all the duties and paid all the contributions demanded by the Empire. From a strictly legal standpoint, however, the Church was not incorporated among the recognised cults, that is, it was not, like Judaism, a "religio licita." Nevertheless, it was not disturbed for some years.[290:6]Things must have gone along, for the most part, in a customary manner. Pliny's letter to Trajan (about 111) describes the Christians in Bythinia as law-abiding. With the rapid territorialand numerical increase of Christianity, the state was forced to take cognisance of it and the inevitable conflict occurred. The Christians refused to conform to Roman worship and persecution resulted. Persecution in time produced, on the part of many Christians, a refusal to perform the duties of civil and military service, but it cannot be proved that such hostility was universal. Indeed there is much evidence to show a general disposition to compromise with imperial demands.[291:1]

With respect to the general duty of obeying the law of the Empire the Fathers of the ante-Constantine period were quite unanimous in their approval. In fact they boasted of their political loyalty and denied all accusations to the contrary. Justin Martyr said that "wherever we are we pay the taxes and the tribute imposed . . . as we were instructed to do by Him," and "while we worship God alone in all other matters, we cheerfully submit ourselves to you, confessing you to be the kings and rulers of men." Irenæus asserted: "we ought to obey powers and earthly authorities, inasmuch as they are constituted not by the devil, but God." These passages, and many others, which are undoubtedly typical, show that it was the persuasion of the Church that conformity was a general obligation. That this fealty was appreciated is seen in the fact that the Church, at least in the time of Emperor Alexander Severus (222), was permitted to own lands, to erect churches, to elect officers openly, and to send officials to court.[291:2]It was not, however, until 312 that these rights were legalised. Onemust never lose sight of the fact that it was both very easy and very natural for the clergy and the people to accommodate themselves to the new order of things, and to recognise in these new relationships a reproduction of the theocratic constitution of God's subjects under the old covenant. Indeed it was practically impossible for the masses who came to march under the cross in those days to conceive of a Church without some relation to the state. To-day to a modern man's eyes appears only the antagonism between the Church and state.

There was a most striking contrast, from the standpoint of political science, between the Roman and Christian religions. The Roman Emperor identified religion with the state; Christianity separated God from Cæsar. The Roman religion was restricted to earth; Christianity made the world to come the most important part of life. The Roman religion was only for Romans; Christianity was as wide as the world. Roman paganism fell and the Roman Empire perished, but Roman Christianity, clothed in their form, arose on their ruins to rule the world for more than a thousand years.[292:1]

Constantine legalised Christianity, but thereby subjected it to the state. He had no idea whatever of surrendering to it any of his autocratic prerogatives. He became virtually the Pontifex Maximus[292:2]of his new religion by controlling those who performed the sacred rites, and by defining its faith, discipline, organisation, policy, and privileges. He enacted legislation for Christianity just as his predecessors had for paganism. The Church recognised its subjection to the Emperorwithout a complaint and permitted him to appoint and depose its officers, to call and dismiss synods and councils, like Arles (314) and Nicæa (325), and almost to replace the Holy Ghost itself in determining the proceedings.[293:1]This marked a revolution in the relation of the Church to the Empire, for each made a conquest of the other.

It has been customary for Church historians quite generally to characterise the union of the Church and state under Constantine as an unmitigated curse that gave birth to a multitude of evils in the Church which led directly to the Reformation. That contention is one-sided and unfair. Whether the Church and state be regarded as both divine, or both human, or one human and the other divine, the historical fact remains that their union was absolutely necessary and inevitable. When all the forces and factors of the time are carefully and duly considered, it is impossible to conceive of any other solution of the problem in the fourth century.[293:2]That the union did paganise and materialise the Church no one can deny,[293:3]but in compensation the Empire was Christianised and spiritualised. The resultant was mediæval Christianity and the ecclesiastical Empire. The Church, without the strength it received from the state, could not have met the barbarians of the North, the Mohammedans of the South, and the heretics within, and successfully conquered the first, held the second in check, and subdued the third. Much of what we enjoy to-day along the lines of culture, law, and religion is due in great measure to that alliance. After the time of Constantine theChurch becomes such a vital and integral part of the life of Europe that history for a thousand years must be viewed through the eyes of the Church and estimated by her standards.

In the two centuries which intervened between the time of Constantine and that of Justinian, imperial legislation directly affecting the Church in all its institutions made rapid progress. The successors of Constantine continued his policy. Imperial sanction was necessary for the validity of every important act in connection with the Church. Councils were called and dismissed in the name of the sovereign, and their proceedings were not valid without his approval. At the Council of Tyre (335), a portion of the bishops appealed to the Emperor's commissioner to settle the dispute about the Arian question, but he declared that the question must be submitted to his imperial master for final decision since it was his province to legislate on all matters concerning the Church.[294:1]Constantius vetoed a portion of the canons of Remini (360).[294:2]The Emperors Theodosius II. and Valentinian III. likewise rebuked the Council of Ephesus (431), and dictated its procedure.[294:3]The Council of Chalcedon (451) was also told to hurry up its work because the imperial commissioners present were needed in state affairs.[294:4]During this period, however, it is possible to detect pretensions on the part of the Bishop of Rome to the right to call and preside over councils.[294:5]Here began the conflict over ecclesiasticalsovereignty which was to end in a complete victory for the Roman Church.

The later Emperors similarly exercised the right to decide all disputed points of doctrine, discipline, and elections. They nominated, or at least confirmed, the most influential metropolitans and patriarchs. Thus in 377, the Emperor's representative decided between two rival claimants to the apostolic see of Antioch.[295:1]Again, the Roman prefect decided between two rival claimants to the chair of St. Peter, Ursinus and Damasus, in favour of the latter, and punished adherents of the former.[295:2]When rival Popes appealed to Honorius, he appointed a temporary Pope until he could examine into the case. Then he decided in favour of Boniface I. and issued an edict to prevent the recurrence of such a state of affairs.[295:3]The Emperor was the court of last appeal in all ecclesiastical cases. This was recognised by a council of Rome held by Ambrose in 378, which requested of Emperor Gratian that when a Roman bishop was accused, he might always be tried by the imperial council.[295:4]The best evidence, however, of the subordination of the spiritual to the temporal authority in this period is found in the legislation. The whole field of Church government and ecclesiastical life and all the relations, duties, morals, and acts of the clergy are covered in the civil laws of the time. Even heresy was put to flight by imperial edict.[295:5]

During the period of Ostrogothic rule in Italy from 476 to 552, the Roman Church made a few weak efforts to assert her independence. We find, for instance, a Roman synod, held in 502, resolving that no layman has a right to interfere in Church matters. But the Arian Ostrogothic rulers declared that they had succeeded to the Roman Empire's power over the Church. Indeed the Theodosian Code was practically incorporated in the Visigothic Code in 506 by Alaric II. Consequently, Odoacer issued a decree forbidding the alienation of Church property. Theodoric in 498 decided between two rival claimants to the Papacy, Symmachus and Lawrence, giving the former the papal chair and the latter a bishopric.[296:1]When a synod was called later to try Symmachus (501), it was convened in Theodoric's name. Theodoric even appointed a "visitor" to reform the abuses in the Church. He sent Pope John I. to the eastern Emperor on an embassy, and on his return, dissatisfied with his work, threw him into prison, where he died. Athalaric instructed Pope John II. how to prevent simony in episcopal and papal elections.[296:2]

Under Justinian the Great (527-565), who by conquest reunited Italy with the eastern Empire in 552, the Popes and the Western Church were again subjected to the eastern rule. Like the Patriarch of Constantinople the Pope was now the nominee of the Emperor and could be removed at the pleasure of the prince. Sylverius, made Pope by the Arian GothTheodatus, was therefore deposed and exiled by the Emperor's successful general, Belisarius, and a new Pope was chosen. Vigillus, a favourite of the Empress, installed as Pope by Belisarius (537), was peremptorily summoned to Constantinople to answer for his conduct. There a synod was called, and he was excommunicated. His successor, Pelagius I., was apparently appointed directly by the Emperor. Justinian, like Constantine, exercised the right to legislate for every phase of Church life.[297:1]His theory was that "human and divine authority," that is civic and ecclesiastical law, "combining in one and the same act," formed "one true and perfect law for all."[297:2]He meant to exercise a spiritual power very much like the temporal power he wielded. Hence he insisted that the election of a Pope in Rome by the clergy, senate, and people should not be valid until confirmed by him. This practically reduced the Pope of Rome to the position of eastern bishops. The organisation of the Church was guarded and regulated.[297:3]The property of the Church was protected. The jurisdiction of the clergy was clearly defined and minutely regulated as an extension of civil power. In all cases the Emperor was the court of final decision.

This arbitrary interference with the affairs of the Western Church by the imperial authority at Constantinople brought the papal hierarchy to the brink of ruin. The clergy were alarmed at this invasion of the sacred canons of the Council of Chalcedon, and theunity of the Western Church, which had been so strong for several centuries, was seriously threatened. The clergy of Gaul "silently withdrew from, or boldly renounced their communion with Rome; the Illyrian episcopacy prepared to follow their example"; and Africa became defiant.[298:1]Even the Italian provinces like Venetia and Liguria became disaffected. Pope Pelagius I., indebted to the Emperor for his office, was forced to beg the intervention of the secular arm to compel the ecclesiastical rebels to continue true to their allegiance to the See of Peter. Sorrowful indeed was this spectacle to those who could recall the palmy days of Leo the Great, Felix, Gelasius, and Hormisdas, who had imposed their will on all ecclesiastics, had planted the banner of Roman supremacy in every corner of Christendom, and had even imposed their laws on princes. But it must be remembered that the theory on which Roman leadership rested had not been assailed, and was soon to reassert itself.

In the election of a Pope in 577, the Roman clergy resumed their independence and ventured to consecrate and to inaugurate a successor without even waiting for imperial license. Hence Pelagius II. was the first independently elected Pontiff since the Byzantine conquest of Italy. He reasserted the universal primacy of the Bishop of Rome in a bold tone, and declared that anything done without papal authority was null and void.[298:2]Meanwhile the disaffection in the West had given way to pronounced loyalty to Rome.

Even Pope Gregory the Great did not question the supremacy of the temporal power. He acknowledged the Emperor as his "earthly master" and said thatGod had given the ruler dominion even over the priesthood.[299:1]When Emperor Maurice renewed an old edict prohibiting monasteries from receiving soldiers as monks (593), Gregory timidly objected, but quieted his conscience by saying: "What am I but a worm and dust thus to speak to my masters? . . . I have done what was my duty in every particular; I have obeyed the Emperor and have not hushed in silence what I felt to be due to God."[299:2]He attempted, however to carry out the spirit of the law.[299:3]But Gregory the Great was willing to compromise the substantial prerogatives of his office. As the subject of the Emperor, he could yield a point. As Pope he stood as firm as a rock, yet was too wise to provoke a disruption which could bring nothing but injury to the unity and power of the Church.

Popes, like patriarchs, were required to keep an "agent" at the eastern court. The Emperors continued to insist on the right to confirm all papal elections, and, of course, this practically put the election into their hands, as is shown by the elevation of so many "agents" to the papal throne, viz., Vigillus, Pelagius I., Gregory the Great, Sabinian, etc. The Popes, on their installation, were expected to pay tribute to the eastern Emperor.[299:4]Even in questions of doctrine, the Emperor might enforce his will by exiling an obstinate Pope, as in the case of Martin I. (655).

During the period from 552 to 800, the papal power was growing stronger all the time, and only awaited afavourable opportunity to issue a declaration of independence. The Italians hated both the Greeks and Lombards as foreign masters. Between the two stood the Pope as the only representative of Italian nationality and the sole champion of Italian independence. The Papacy was in theory democratic, and celibacy made a dynasty impossible. The occasion for a declaration of independence was the Iconoclastic Controversy; the leaders were Gregory II. and Gregory III., who formally excommunicated Emperor Leo and his hierarchy; and the new ally to make the independence good was the family of Pepin in Gaul and Germany. After 772, the papal documents do not bear the name of the eastern Emperor.[300:1]

The seventh and eighth centuries in European history reveal the elements of religious and political life in a state of incessant and violent fermentation. Sudden changes took place in the relative position of nations. The old Empire was disintegrating and new kingdoms were appearing. During this period of political transformation, the Church was the only system that persisted in the old channel that it had created for itself. The Papacy, though not yet an acknowledged kingdom in the world, still stood among the political powers as a self-existent organisation, exercising an influence over princes and subjects. The governments were isolated, divided, anarchical. In the Church alone was there unity, order, method, organisation, and supreme purpose. There alone was found facility of communication and cordial interchange of views. The Popes of Rome kept up a constant intercourse with all nations from Asia to the Atlantic and constituted the one recognised unifying force inEurope standing for the highest ideals of the age along all lines.

Up to this period the See of Rome had gone far toward establishing an ecclesiastical monarchy. Every principle of an unlimited religious autocracy had been asserted and to a considerable extent established. The outward machinery for this spiritual absolutism had been created and partially put in motion. But many obstacles to the smooth working of the system were still encountered. Chief among these impediments was the strong arm of the eastern Empire. Until the fetters of political dependence were broken, the Papacy could never accomplish its great mission.

Hitherto the Church of Rome had assumed a political headship on many occasions, but it was the result of some accidental emergency and soon disappeared. Nevertheless the experience gained in this exercise of secular authority created an ambition on the part of the Roman Pontiffs for political independence, furnished precedents for future claims, and led the Italians to believe that the head of the Church could give them efficient government in temporal affairs as well as spiritual. The great problem before the successors of St. Peter at this time was how to manage the ecclesiastical ascendency already gained over the Western Church, so as to render it serviceable in securing that political self-existence so essential not only to maintain the ground already won but also to realise their high hopes in other directions. At this juncture a combination of external causes, unparalleled in the world's history, came in to favour the emancipation of the Papacy from the last feeble bonds of a nominal dependency and to permit of the assumption of temporal sovereigntyvirtually if not in recognised title. This meant the realisation of the mediæval Church.

Emperor Leo's attempt to abolish the worship of images in Christendom provoked a rebellion in Italy headed by the Pope. Luitprand, seeing his opportunity as King of the Lombards, fell on the exarchate as the champion of images and on Rome as the supposed ally of the Emperor. The Pope, perilously placed between a heretic and an invader, appealed for help to a Catholic chief across the Alps who had just saved Christendom by defeating the Mohammedans on the field of Poitiers. Gregory III. excommunicated the eastern Emperor and begged Charles Martel to hasten to the succour of the Holy Church. Here the Roman Pontiff leads a political revolt against his legitimate sovereign and appeals to a foreign power to make the revolt successful. The Bishop of Rome has stepped into the position of a temporal prince with the political future of Italy in his hands.

The alliance of the Papacy with the Franks marks a new epoch not only in Church history, but in the history of western Europe. These Franks settled in northern France about 250, and began to Germanise the Celtic and Romanic races and institutions found there. But the current of Roman civilisation was so strong that the Franks were swept into it before they realised it. Under Clovis, they were converted directly to Roman Christianity.[302:1]With the aid of the Roman Christians, he was able to conquer the Arian princes of the western Goths, Burgundians, and Bavarians. He and his successors gave the Church much property, acquiesced in the papal claims, and helpedto extend the papal power throughout the West, though they ruled the bishops and clergy as their vassals.[303:1]Clovis, himself, convoked synods and enacted Church laws. Later rulers followed these precedents.[303:2]Thus the way was prepared for a successful alliance between the Frankish ruler and the Papacy.[303:3]

The house of Pepin was to play an important part in this new arrangement. In 622, Pepin of Laudon, a zealous champion of Christianity, was made mayor of the palace in Austrasia. Pepin of Herstal, grandson of the first Pepin, became in 688 a mayor of the palace for all France (d. 714). He succeeded in making the office hereditary in his family. A series of infant kings[303:4]made the mayor virtually king. Pepin viewed the Church as a powerful ally, and fostered missionaries. Under him, twenty bishoprics were founded, and the Church secured large territorial possessions.[303:5]

Charles Martel, after a contest of four years, succeeded to his father's office in 718. He ruled France with the hand of a master, Christianised the Frisians on the north by force, aided Boniface, the apostle of the Germans, defeated the Saracens at the battle of Tours (732), and drove them back into Spain.[303:6]On the death of Theodoric IV. (737), Charles ruled the Franks directly without setting up another puppet king. Pope Gregory III. in 739 sent him the keys of St. Peter's grave, with the offer of the sovereignty of Rome and Italy in return for aid against the Lombards.[303:7]This proffered alliance was refused, but Charles offered to mediate between the Pope and the Lombards.[304:1]He dealt with Church endowments as with any other part of the royal domain. He gave to his liege Milo the archbishoprics of Rheims and Treves, and to his nephew Hugh the archbishoprics of Rouen, Paris, and Bayeau with several abbeys. When he died in 741, "he divided his kingdom between his sons"—a proof that not only the office of mayor of the palace, but also that of king, had become practically hereditary in his family; yet Charles Martel had never assumed the title of king.

The actual alliance of the Pope with the Franks was consummated with Pepin the Short. The occasion for the compact was the Iconoclastic Controversy in the East, and the change of dynasty in the West. Pepin the Short accepted what Charles Martel had refused. He ruled Neustria, while Carloman, his brother, ruled Austrasia (741-747). When Carloman became a monk (747), Pepin was left as the sole ruler of all France, but still under a phantom Merovingian king. In 751, with the consent of the Franks in their annual assembly, two churchmen were sent to Rome to ask Pope Zacharias, acting in the capacity of an international arbiter, whether the real king ought not to take the name of king. The Pope answered in the affirmative, and thus authorised the usurpation.[304:2]Thus a new prerogative of the Holy See came into active existence. The next year the assembly of Soissons elected Pepin and his wife King and Queen of France. Childeric III., the Merovingian weakling, was shorn of both his royal hair and his royal crown, and shut up in a monastery.Boniface in all probability then anointed the head appointed by the Pope to wear the French crown.[305:1]

Through this alliance, the Pope expected to make the declaration of independence from the eastern Empire good, to increase and extend papal power in the West, to establish a precedent for deposing and enthroning kings—a significant thing for the future,—and to gain material help against the Arian Lombards who were threatening Rome.[305:2]In 753, Pope Stephen II., who succeeded Zacharias (752), fled to France from the Lombards to implore aid from Pepin against them. In sack-cloth and ashes, he threw himself at the King's feet and would not rise until his petition was granted.[305:3]The Pope himself now solemnly anointed Pepin and his family with royal power, at St. Denis, and made him and his two sons patricians of Rome.[305:4]After that Pepin called himself "by the grace of God, King of the Franks."

Pepin repaid the Pope by making two excursions into Italy against the Lombards. He took an army to Italy in 754, defeated the Pope's enemies, and compelled them to sign a treaty respecting the rightsand territory of the Roman See, but the Franks had scarcely recrossed the Alps before the promises were broken. Pepin, therefore, entered Italy a second time (755), called thither by the famous letter purporting to be from St. Peter himself.[306:1]The Lombard power was effectually broken. The towns and lands of the exarchate and Romagna, claimed by both the Lombards and the eastern Emperor, were given to the Pope.[306:2]This is the famous "Donation of Pepin" by which his envoy laid the conquest of twenty-two cities at the shrine of St. Peter, and thus began the temporal power of the Pope.[306:3]The act of donation is lost.[306:4]The Pope had owned tracts of land all over the Empire before, but now he becomes through this gift a temporal sovereign over a large part of Italy known as the "Patrimony of St. Peter," or the "States of the Church," which continued until 1870, when it was absorbed into the new kingdom of Italy. This act changed the whole later history of the Papacy[306:5]and provoked a long controversy with the secular powers of Europe. Pepin continued to labour to build up the Church in France by restoring confiscated Church property,[306:6]by undertaking needed reforms in discipline and organisation,[306:7]and by giving material assistance and valuable relics to many religious foundations.

This alliance between the most powerful representativeof the Germanic world and the leader of Roman Christendom in the West was one of the most eventful coalitions in the history of Europe.[307:1]It was the event upon which all mediæval history turned. It created a new political organisation in western Europe with the Pope and German Emperor at the head. For centuries, it affected every institution in western Europe. After Pepin, each new Pope sent a delegation with the key and flag of Rome and the key of St. Peter's tomb to the Frankish rulers for confirmation of the election and to give the king the oath of allegiance. Thus, the strongest western king assumed the same prerogative over the Church which the eastern Emperor had exercised. Pepin's policy was followed by Charles the Great, the German Emperors, the Austrian Emperors, Napoleon the Great, and Napoleon III.

The next important step in the relations between Church and state was the restoration of the Roman Empire in the West in 800 by Charles the Great,[307:2]the son of Pepin. Charles was born in 742, and received the education of a warrior. At the age of twelve, he was anointed king, with his father and brother, by Pope Stephen II. (754). As a boy, he participated in military expeditions and gained considerable renown for his ability, his independence, and his prowess. When his father died in 768, he ruled jointly with his brother Carloman, whom he apparently hated very bitterly, and with whom he quarrelled continually, until 771, when Carloman died and Charles assumed his rule as King of all the Franks.

The first problem which engaged his attention was to strengthen and extend his kingdom. This heaccomplished by almost incessant military expeditions, of which he made fifty-three. His domain was extended north, east, and south. The Bretons were subdued on the north; the Saxons on the east were conquered after cruelly murdering 4000 prisoners, laying waste their land with fire and sword, and transplanting 10,000 families elsewhere in Germany and in Gaul.[308:1]The Slavs beyond the Saxons,[308:2]the Bavarians in the south-east, the Saracens and Basques in the south,[308:3]the Avars in Pannonia,[308:4]and the Lombards in Italy, were all subjugated. The result of this military activity was that Charles ruled over France, nearly all of Italy, a large part of Germany, Holland and Belgium, and a corner of Spain. Then by shrewd marriage alliances, he cemented these conquests. He married his dukes and counts to the princesses of powerful lords and kings, and he personally took as his wife, in turn, a Lombard, a Swabian, an east Frankish, an Alemannian princess, and even proposed marriage to the eastern Empress. He assumed the crown of Lombardy in 773. All parts of this vast realm were held together by a complete system of royal laws regulating the whole life of his people even in the minutest details.[308:5]

Charles, as "Patrician of Rome," was no less active in religious lines. He inherited the alliance with the Papacy and continued it. He protected the Church against the Saracens in Spain, the pagans to the north and east, the Arian Lombards in Italy, and the eastern Emperors. After freeing the Papacy fromthe Lombards in 774, 781, and 799, he renewed the "Donation of Pepin" and made some valuable additions.[309:1]He viewed the Pope, however, as merely the chief bishop in his realm. In 796 Pope Leo III. sent him the key and flag of Rome and the key of St. Peter's tomb as tokens of submission; and three years later the same Pope fled to Charles for safety and succour. He reformed and reorganised the Church in his kingdom and made himself its real head. He carried on the missionary labours of Boniface by converting the Saxons at the sword's point, and by forcing Christianity upon the Avars. He preached to the whole hierarchy, held Church councils, and even admonished the Pope. He refused to champion the Pope's cause in the Iconoclastic Controversy, but took a sane middle ground with a leaning toward iconoclasm. In a council at Frankfort, he presided, and had the council legislate on discipline and even on dogma (794).[309:2]

The career of Charles as Emperor of the Roman Empire in the West (800-814) must now be considered.[309:3]

Many causes seemed to be operating to open up this new field for his masterly ability. A woman, having put out the eyes of her son, was ruling in the East, contrary to the Roman constitution. Charles had carved out an Empire with his sword and was undisputed master of the West. He was the recognised Emperor in power, if not in name. He had become the defender of the Church and the protector of the Pope. To assume the imperial crown was notnearly so radical or unnatural an act, then, as it might seem. In 799, when Pope Leo III. fled from the Roman mob to Charles at Paderborn, Charles gave him royal entertainment, promised aid, notified his Frankish diet of his intentions (Aug., 800), crossed the Alps with an army, and entered Rome in joyous triumph (Nov., 800).[310:1]There he held a solemn synod in St. Peter's to investigate the causes of the riot which had driven the Pope out, and also the charges made against him. The Pontiff was freed of all guilt.[310:2]

The reward for Charles's friendly protection soon came. On Christmas eve, 800, while he was kneeling in prayer before the altar of St. Peter, the Church being crowded with the clergy, soldiers, and common people, the Pope suddenly put a golden crown upon the king's head, while the Romans shouted: "To Charles Augustus, crowned by God, great and pacific Emperor of the Romans, life and victory." The Pope then adored him as Emperor Augustus by bowing the knee as his first subject. The drama was concluded by anointing Charles and his son Pepin with the sacred oil.[310:3]

Whether or not this was a surprise to Charles is a disputed question. He pretended to be greatly surprised, even angered, at the Pope's trick, and declared that he would not have gone to Church had he known of it.[310:4]There seems to be little doubt about its being premeditated by the Pope. The probability is that no surprise was ever more carefully prearranged on both sides. It is easy to imagine the possibilityof its being planned out at Paderborn over the wine cups and venison stews. It was very clearly a fine piece of acting on the part of both the Pope and the king. Certainly every act of the two men for some time previous pointed directly and unmistakably to that result.[311:1]If we can believe Charles's own repeated assertions, the exact time and manner may have been unknown to him, but for years, perhaps as early as 785, Charles had spoken of the possibility. Alcuin, the great confidant of Charles in educational and religious matters, knew of the plan before 800. It had naturally often been suggested to the king by his own officers and nobles and most likely urged by the Popes themselves.[311:2]In fact the history of both the Frankish dynasty and the Papacy for some years had been steadily tending to this result as a climax.

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