It was the wish of Irene to supplant the_The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes)

sons, in favor of her daughter the princess Anne whose philosophy

would not have refused the weight of a diadem. But the order of

male succession was asserted by the friends of their country; the

lawful heir drew the royal signet from the finger of his

insensible or conscious father and the empire obeyed the master

of the palace. Anna Comnena was stimulated by ambition and

revenge to conspire against the life of her brother, and when the

design was prevented by the fears or scruples of her husband, she

passionately exclaimed that nature had mistaken the two sexes,

and had endowed Bryennius with the soul of a woman. The two sons

of Alexius, John and Isaac, maintained the fraternal concord, the

hereditary virtue of their race, and the younger brother was

content with the title of Sebastocrator, which approached the

dignity, without sharing the power, of the emperor. In the same

person the claims of primogeniture and merit were fortunately

united; his swarthy complexion, harsh features, and diminutive

stature, had suggested the ironical surname of Calo-Johannes, or

John the Handsome, which his grateful subjects more seriously

applied to the beauties of his mind. After the discovery of her

treason, the life and fortune of Anne were justly forfeited to

the laws. Her life was spared by the clemency of the emperor; but

he visited the pomp and treasures of her palace, and bestowed the

rich confiscation on the most deserving of his friends. That

respectable friend Axuch, a slave of Turkish extraction, presumed

to decline the gift, and to intercede for the criminal: his

generous master applauded and imitated the virtue of his

favorite, and the reproach or complaint of an injured brother was

the only chastisement of the guilty princess. After this example

of clemency, the remainder of his reign was never disturbed by

conspiracy or rebellion: feared by his nobles, beloved by his

people, John was never reduced to the painful necessity of

punishing, or even of pardoning, his personal enemies. During his

government of twenty-five years, the penalty of death was

abolished in the Roman empire, a law of mercy most delightful to

the humane theorist, but of which the practice, in a large and

vicious community, is seldom consistent with the public safety.

Severe to himself, indulgent to others, chaste, frugal,

abstemious, the philosophic Marcus would not have disdained the

artless virtues of his successor, derived from his heart, and not

borrowed from the schools. He despised and moderated the stately

magnificence of the Byzantine court, so oppressive to the people,

so contemptible to the eye of reason. Under such a prince,

innocence had nothing to fear, and merit had every thing to hope;

and, without assuming the tyrannic office of a censor, he

introduced a gradual though visible reformation in the public and

private manners of Constantinople. The only defect of this

accomplished character was the frailty of noble minds, the love

of arms and military glory. Yet the frequent expeditions of John

the Handsome may be justified, at least in their principle, by

the necessity of repelling the Turks from the Hellespont and the

Bosphorus. The sultan of Iconium was confined to his capital, the

Barbarians were driven to the mountains, and the maritime

provinces of Asia enjoyed the transient blessings of their

deliverance. From Constantinople to Antioch and Aleppo, he

repeatedly marched at the head of a victorious army, and in the

sieges and battles of this holy war, his Latin allies were

astonished by the superior spirit and prowess of a Greek. As he

began to indulge the ambitious hope of restoring the ancient

limits of the empire, as he revolved in his mind, the Euphrates

and Tigris, the dominion of Syria, and the conquest of Jerusalem,

the thread of his life and of the public felicity was broken by a

singular accident. He hunted the wild boar in the valley of

Anazarbus, and had fixed his javelin in the body of the furious

animal; but in the struggle a poisoned arrow dropped from his

quiver, and a slight wound in his hand, which produced a

mortification, was fatal to the best and greatest of the

Comnenian princes.

Chapter XLVIII: Succession And Characters Of The Greek Emperors.—Part

A premature death had swept away the two eldest sons of John the

Handsome; of the two survivors, Isaac and Manuel, his judgment or

affection preferred the younger; and the choice of their dying

prince was ratified by the soldiers, who had applauded the valor

of his favorite in the Turkish war. The faithful Axuch hastened

to the capital, secured the person of Isaac in honorable

confinement, and purchased, with a gift of two hundred pounds of

silver, the leading ecclesiastics of St. Sophia, who possessed a

decisive voice in the consecration of an emperor. With his

veteran and affectionate troops, Manuel soon visited

Constantinople; his brother acquiesced in the title of

Sebastocrator; his subjects admired the lofty stature and martial

graces of their new sovereign, and listened with credulity to the

flattering promise, that he blended the wisdom of age with the

activity and vigor of youth. By the experience of his government,

they were taught, that he emulated the spirit, and shared the

talents, of his father whose social virtues were buried in the

grave. A reign of thirty seven years is filled by a perpetual

though various warfare against the Turks, the Christians, and the

hordes of the wilderness beyond the Danube. The arms of Manuel

were exercised on Mount Taurus, in the plains of Hungary, on the

coast of Italy and Egypt, and on the seas of Sicily and Greece:

the influence of his negotiations extended from Jerusalem to Rome

and Russia; and the Byzantine monarchy, for a while, became an

object of respect or terror to the powers of Asia and Europe.

Educated in the silk and purple of the East, Manuel possessed the

iron temper of a soldier, which cannot easily be paralleled,

except in the lives of Richard the First of England, and of

Charles the Twelfth of Sweden. Such was his strength and exercise

in arms, that Raymond, surnamed the Hercules of Antioch, was

incapable of wielding the lance and buckler of the Greek emperor.

In a famous tournament, he entered the lists on a fiery courser,

and overturned in his first career two of the stoutest of the

Italian knights. The first in the charge, the last in the

retreat, his friends and his enemies alike trembled, the former

for his safety, and the latter for their own. After posting an

ambuscade in a wood, he rode forwards in search of some perilous

adventure, accompanied only by his brother and the faithful

Axuch, who refused to desert their sovereign. Eighteen horsemen,

after a short combat, fled before them: but the numbers of the

enemy increased; the march of the reenforcement was tardy and

fearful, and Manuel, without receiving a wound, cut his way

through a squadron of five hundred Turks. In a battle against the

Hungarians, impatient of the slowness of his troops, he snatched

a standard from the head of the column, and was the first, almost

alone, who passed a bridge that separated him from the enemy. In

the same country, after transporting his army beyond the Save, he

sent back the boats, with an order under pain of death, to their

commander, that he should leave him to conquer or die on that

hostile land. In the siege of Corfu, towing after him a captive

galley, the emperor stood aloft on the poop, opposing against the

volleys of darts and stones, a large buckler and a flowing sail;

nor could he have escaped inevitable death, had not the Sicilian

admiral enjoined his archers to respect the person of a hero. In

one day, he is said to have slain above forty of the Barbarians

with his own hand; he returned to the camp, dragging along four

Turkish prisoners, whom he had tied to the rings of his saddle:

he was ever the foremost to provoke or to accept a single combat;

and the gigantic champions, who encountered his arm, were

transpierced by the lance, or cut asunder by the sword, of the

invincible Manuel. The story of his exploits, which appear as a

model or a copy of the romances of chivalry, may induce a

reasonable suspicion of the veracity of the Greeks: I will not,

to vindicate their credit, endanger my own: yet I may observe,

that, in the long series of their annals, Manuel is the only

prince who has been the subject of similar exaggeration. With the

valor of a soldier, he did not unite the skill or prudence of a

general; his victories were not productive of any permanent or

useful conquest; and his Turkish laurels were blasted in his last

unfortunate campaign, in which he lost his army in the mountains

of Pisidia, and owed his deliverance to the generosity of the

sultan. But the most singular feature in the character of Manuel,

is the contrast and vicissitude of labor and sloth, of hardiness

and effeminacy. In war he seemed ignorant of peace, in peace he

appeared incapable of war. In the field he slept in the sun or in

the snow, tired in the longest marches the strength of his men

and horses, and shared with a smile the abstinence or diet of the

camp. No sooner did he return to Constantinople, than he resigned

himself to the arts and pleasures of a life of luxury: the

expense of his dress, his table, and his palace, surpassed the

measure of his predecessors, and whole summer days were idly

wasted in the delicious isles of the Propontis, in the incestuous

love of his niece Theodora. The double cost of a warlike and

dissolute prince exhausted the revenue, and multiplied the taxes;

and Manuel, in the distress of his last Turkish campaign, endured

a bitter reproach from the mouth of a desperate soldier. As he

quenched his thirst, he complained that the water of a fountain

was mingled with Christian blood. “It is not the first time,”

exclaimed a voice from the crowd, “that you have drank, O

emperor, the blood of your Christian subjects.” Manuel Comnenus

was twice married, to the virtuous Bertha or Irene of Germany,

and to the beauteous Maria, a French or Latin princess of

Antioch. The only daughter of his first wife was destined for

Bela, a Hungarian prince, who was educated at Constantinople

under the name of Alexius; and the consummation of their nuptials

might have transferred the Roman sceptre to a race of free and

warlike Barbarians. But as soon as Maria of Antioch had given a

son and heir to the empire, the presumptive rights of Bela were

abolished, and he was deprived of his promised bride; but the

Hungarian prince resumed his name and the kingdom of his fathers,

and displayed such virtues as might excite the regret and envy of

the Greeks. The son of Maria was named Alexius; and at the age of

ten years he ascended the Byzantine throne, after his father’s

decease had closed the glories of the Comnenian line.

The fraternal concord of the two sons of the great Alexius had

been sometimes clouded by an opposition of interest and passion.

By ambition, Isaac the Sebastocrator was excited to flight and

rebellion, from whence he was reclaimed by the firmness and

clemency of John the Handsome. The errors of Isaac, the father of

the emperors of Trebizond, were short and venial; but John, the

elder of his sons, renounced forever his religion. Provoked by a

real or imaginary insult of his uncle, he escaped from the Roman

to the Turkish camp: his apostasy was rewarded with the sultan’s

daughter, the title of Chelebi, or noble, and the inheritance of

a princely estate; and in the fifteenth century, Mahomet the

Second boasted of his Imperial descent from the Comnenian family.

Andronicus, the younger brother of John, son of Isaac, and

grandson of Alexius Comnenus, is one of the most conspicuous

characters of the age; and his genuine adventures might form the

subject of a very singular romance. To justify the choice of

three ladies of royal birth, it is incumbent on me to observe,

that their fortunate lover was cast in the best proportions of

strength and beauty; and that the want of the softer graces was

supplied by a manly countenance, a lofty stature, athletic

muscles, and the air and deportment of a soldier. The

preservation, in his old age, of health and vigor, was the reward

of temperance and exercise. A piece of bread and a draught of

water was often his sole and evening repast; and if he tasted of

a wild boar or a stag, which he had roasted with his own hands,

it was the well-earned fruit of a laborious chase. Dexterous in

arms, he was ignorant of fear; his persuasive eloquence could

bend to every situation and character of life, his style, though

not his practice, was fashioned by the example of St. Paul; and,

in every deed of mischief, he had a heart to resolve, a head to

contrive, and a hand to execute. In his youth, after the death of

the emperor John, he followed the retreat of the Roman army; but,

in the march through Asia Minor, design or accident tempted him

to wander in the mountains: the hunter was encompassed by the

Turkish huntsmen, and he remained some time a reluctant or

willing captive in the power of the sultan. His virtues and vices

recommended him to the favor of his cousin: he shared the perils

and the pleasures of Manuel; and while the emperor lived in

public incest with his niece Theodora, the affections of her

sister Eudocia were seduced and enjoyed by Andronicus. Above the

decencies of her sex and rank, she gloried in the name of his

concubine; and both the palace and the camp could witness that

she slept, or watched, in the arms of her lover. She accompanied

him to his military command of Cilicia, the first scene of his

valor and imprudence. He pressed, with active ardor, the siege of

Mopsuestia: the day was employed in the boldest attacks; but the

night was wasted in song and dance; and a band of Greek comedians

formed the choicest part of his retinue. Andronicus was surprised

by the sally of a vigilant foe; but, while his troops fled in

disorder, his invincible lance transpierced the thickest ranks of

the Armenians. On his return to the Imperial camp in Macedonia,

he was received by Manuel with public smiles and a private

reproof; but the duchies of Naissus, Braniseba, and Castoria,

were the reward or consolation of the unsuccessful general.

Eudocia still attended his motions: at midnight, their tent was

suddenly attacked by her angry brothers, impatient to expiate her

infamy in his blood: his daring spirit refused her advice, and

the disguise of a female habit; and, boldly starting from his

couch, he drew his sword, and cut his way through the numerous

assassins. It was here that he first betrayed his ingratitude and

treachery: he engaged in a treasonable correspondence with the

king of Hungary and the German emperor; approached the royal tent

at a suspicious hour with a drawn sword, and under the mask of a

Latin soldier, avowed an intention of revenge against a mortal

foe; and imprudently praised the fleetness of his horse as an

instrument of flight and safety. The monarch dissembled his

suspicions; but, after the close of the campaign, Andronicus was

arrested and strictly confined in a tower of the palace of

Constantinople.

In this prison he was left about twelve years; a most painful

restraint, from which the thirst of action and pleasure

perpetually urged him to escape. Alone and pensive, he perceived

some broken bricks in a corner of the chamber, and gradually

widened the passage, till he had explored a dark and forgotten

recess. Into this hole he conveyed himself, and the remains of

his provisions, replacing the bricks in their former position,

and erasing with care the footsteps of his retreat. At the hour

of the customary visit, his guards were amazed by the silence and

solitude of the prison, and reported, with shame and fear, his

incomprehensible flight. The gates of the palace and city were

instantly shut: the strictest orders were despatched into the

provinces, for the recovery of the fugitive; and his wife, on the

suspicion of a pious act, was basely imprisoned in the same

tower. At the dead of night she beheld a spectre; she recognized

her husband: they shared their provisions; and a son was the

fruit of these stolen interviews, which alleviated the

tediousness of their confinement. In the custody of a woman, the

vigilance of the keepers was insensibly relaxed; and the captive

had accomplished his real escape, when he was discovered, brought

back to Constantinople, and loaded with a double chain. At length

he found the moment, and the means, of his deliverance. A boy,

his domestic servant, intoxicated the guards, and obtained in wax

the impression of the keys. By the diligence of his friends, a

similar key, with a bundle of ropes, was introduced into the

prison, in the bottom of a hogshead. Andronicus employed, with

industry and courage, the instruments of his safety, unlocked the

doors, descended from the tower, concealed himself all day among

the bushes, and scaled in the night the garden-wall of the

palace. A boat was stationed for his reception: he visited his

own house, embraced his children, cast away his chain, mounted a

fleet horse, and directed his rapid course towards the banks of

the Danube. At Anchialus in Thrace, an intrepid friend supplied

him with horses and money: he passed the river, traversed with

speed the desert of Moldavia and the Carpathian hills, and had

almost reached the town of Halicz, in the Polish Russia, when he

was intercepted by a party of Walachians, who resolved to convey

their important captive to Constantinople. His presence of mind

again extricated him from danger. Under the pretence of sickness,

he dismounted in the night, and was allowed to step aside from

the troop: he planted in the ground his long staff, clothed it

with his cap and upper garment; and, stealing into the wood, left

a phantom to amuse, for some time, the eyes of the Walachians.

From Halicz he was honorably conducted to Kiow, the residence of

the great duke: the subtle Greek soon obtained the esteem and

confidence of Ieroslaus; his character could assume the manners

of every climate; and the Barbarians applauded his strength and

courage in the chase of the elks and bears of the forest. In this

northern region he deserved the forgiveness of Manuel, who

solicited the Russian prince to join his arms in the invasion of

Hungary. The influence of Andronicus achieved this important

service: his private treaty was signed with a promise of fidelity

on one side, and of oblivion on the other; and he marched, at the

head of the Russian cavalry, from the Borysthenes to the Danube.

In his resentment Manuel had ever sympathized with the martial

and dissolute character of his cousin; and his free pardon was

sealed in the assault of Zemlin, in which he was second, and

second only, to the valor of the emperor.

No sooner was the exile restored to freedom and his country, than

his ambition revived, at first to his own, and at length to the

public, misfortune. A daughter of Manuel was a feeble bar to the

succession of the more deserving males of the Comnenian blood;

her future marriage with the prince of Hungary was repugnant to

the hopes or prejudices of the princes and nobles. But when an

oath of allegiance was required to the presumptive heir,

Andronicus alone asserted the honor of the Roman name, declined

the unlawful engagement, and boldly protested against the

adoption of a stranger. His patriotism was offensive to the

emperor, but he spoke the sentiments of the people, and was

removed from the royal presence by an honorable banishment, a

second command of the Cilician frontier, with the absolute

disposal of the revenues of Cyprus. In this station the Armenians

again exercised his courage and exposed his negligence; and the

same rebel, who baffled all his operations, was unhorsed, and

almost slain by the vigor of his lance. But Andronicus soon

discovered a more easy and pleasing conquest, the beautiful

Philippa, sister of the empress Maria, and daughter of Raymond of

Poitou, the Latin prince of Antioch. For her sake he deserted his

station, and wasted the summer in balls and tournaments: to his

love she sacrificed her innocence, her reputation, and the offer

of an advantageous marriage. But the resentment of Manuel for

this domestic affront interrupted his pleasures: Andronicus left

the indiscreet princess to weep and to repent; and, with a band

of desperate adventurers, undertook the pilgrimage of Jerusalem.

His birth, his martial renown, and professions of zeal, announced

him as the champion of the Cross: he soon captivated both the

clergy and the king; and the Greek prince was invested with the

lordship of Berytus, on the coast of Phoenicia.

In his neighborhood resided a young and handsome queen, of his

own nation and family, great-granddaughter of the emperor Alexis,

and widow of Baldwin the Third, king of Jerusalem. She visited

and loved her kinsman. Theodora was the third victim of his

amorous seduction; and her shame was more public and scandalous

than that of her predecessors. The emperor still thirsted for

revenge; and his subjects and allies of the Syrian frontier were

repeatedly pressed to seize the person, and put out the eyes, of

the fugitive. In Palestine he was no longer safe; but the tender

Theodora revealed his danger, and accompanied his flight. The

queen of Jerusalem was exposed to the East, his obsequious

concubine; and two illegitimate children were the living

monuments of her weakness. Damascus was his first refuge; and, in

the characters of the great Noureddin and his servant Saladin,

the superstitious Greek might learn to revere the virtues of the

Mussulmans. As the friend of Noureddin he visited, most probably,

Bagdad, and the courts of Persia; and, after a long circuit round

the Caspian Sea and the mountains of Georgia, he finally settled

among the Turks of Asia Minor, the hereditary enemies of his

country. The sultan of Colonia afforded a hospitable retreat to

Andronicus, his mistress, and his band of outlaws: the debt of

gratitude was paid by frequent inroads in the Roman province of

Trebizond; and he seldom returned without an ample harvest of

spoil and of Christian captives. In the story of his adventures,

he was fond of comparing himself to David, who escaped, by a long

exile, the snares of the wicked. But the royal prophet (he

presumed to add) was content to lurk on the borders of Judaea, to

slay an Amalekite, and to threaten, in his miserable state, the

life of the avaricious Nabal. The excursions of the Comnenian

prince had a wider range; and he had spread over the Eastern

world the glory of his name and religion.

By a sentence of the Greek church, the licentious rover had been

separated from the faithful; but even this excommunication may

prove, that he never abjured the profession of Chistianity.

His vigilance had eluded or repelled the open and secret

persecution of the emperor; but he was at length insnared by the

captivity of his female companion. The governor of Trebizond

succeeded in his attempt to surprise the person of Theodora: the

queen of Jerusalem and her two children were sent to

Constantinople, and their loss imbittered the tedious solitude of

banishment. The fugitive implored and obtained a final pardon,

with leave to throw himself at the feet of his sovereign, who was

satisfied with the submission of this haughty spirit. Prostrate

on the ground, he deplored with tears and groans the guilt of his

past rebellion; nor would he presume to arise, unless some

faithful subject would drag him to the foot of the throne, by an

iron chain with which he had secretly encircled his neck. This

extraordinary penance excited the wonder and pity of the

assembly; his sins were forgiven by the church and state; but the

just suspicion of Manuel fixed his residence at a distance from

the court, at Oenoe, a town of Pontus, surrounded with rich

vineyards, and situate on the coast of the Euxine. The death of

Manuel, and the disorders of the minority, soon opened the

fairest field to his ambition. The emperor was a boy of twelve or

fourteen years of age, without vigor, or wisdom, or experience:

his mother, the empress Mary, abandoned her person and government

to a favorite of the Comnenian name; and his sister, another

Mary, whose husband, an Italian, was decorated with the title of

Caesar, excited a conspiracy, and at length an insurrection,

against her odious step-mother. The provinces were forgotten, the

capital was in flames, and a century of peace and order was

overthrown in the vice and weakness of a few months. A civil war

was kindled in Constantinople; the two factions fought a bloody

battle in the square of the palace, and the rebels sustained a

regular siege in the cathedral of St. Sophia. The patriarch

labored with honest zeal to heal the wounds of the republic, the

most respectable patriots called aloud for a guardian and

avenger, and every tongue repeated the praise of the talents and

even the virtues of Andronicus. In his retirement, he affected to

revolve the solemn duties of his oath: “If the safety or honor of

the Imperial family be threatened, I will reveal and oppose the

mischief to the utmost of my power.” His correspondence with the

patriarch and patricians was seasoned with apt quotations from

the Psalms of David and the epistles of St. Paul; and he

patiently waited till he was called to her deliverance by the

voice of his country. In his march from Oenoe to Constantinople,

his slender train insensibly swelled to a crowd and an army: his

professions of religion and loyalty were mistaken for the

language of his heart; and the simplicity of a foreign dress,

which showed to advantage his majestic stature, displayed a

lively image of his poverty and exile. All opposition sunk before

him; he reached the straits of the Thracian Bosphorus; the

Byzantine navy sailed from the harbor to receive and transport

the savior of the empire: the torrent was loud and irresistible,

and the insects who had basked in the sunshine of royal favor

disappeared at the blast of the storm. It was the first care of

Andronicus to occupy the palace, to salute the emperor, to

confine his mother, to punish her minister, and to restore the

public order and tranquillity. He then visited the sepulchre of

Manuel: the spectators were ordered to stand aloof, but as he

bowed in the attitude of prayer, they heard, or thought they

heard, a murmur of triumph or revenge: “I no longer fear thee, my

old enemy, who hast driven me a vagabond to every climate of the

earth. Thou art safely deposited under a seven-fold dome, from

whence thou canst never arise till the signal of the last

trumpet. It is now my turn, and speedily will I trample on thy

ashes and thy posterity.” From his subsequent tyranny we may

impute such feelings to the man and the moment; but it is not

extremely probable that he gave an articulate sound to his secret

thoughts. In the first months of his administration, his designs

were veiled by a fair semblance of hypocrisy, which could delude

only the eyes of the multitude; the coronation of Alexius was

performed with due solemnity, and his perfidious guardian,

holding in his hands the body and blood of Christ, most fervently

declared that he lived, and was ready to die, for the service of

his beloved pupil. But his numerous adherents were instructed to

maintain, that the sinking empire must perish in the hands of a

child, that the Romans could only be saved by a veteran prince,

bold in arms, skilful in policy, and taught to reign by the long

experience of fortune and mankind; and that it was the duty of

every citizen to force the reluctant modesty of Andronicus to

undertake the burden of the public care. The young emperor was

himself constrained to join his voice to the general acclamation,

and to solicit the association of a colleague, who instantly

degraded him from the supreme rank, secluded his person, and

verified the rash declaration of the patriarch, that Alexius

might be considered as dead, so soon as he was committed to the

custody of his guardian. But his death was preceded by the

imprisonment and execution of his mother. After blackening her

reputation, and inflaming against her the passions of the

multitude, the tyrant accused and tried the empress for a

treasonable correspondence with the king of Hungary. His own son,

a youth of honor and humanity, avowed his abhorrence of this

flagitious act, and three of the judges had the merit of

preferring their conscience to their safety: but the obsequious

tribunal, without requiring any reproof, or hearing any defence,

condemned the widow of Manuel; and her unfortunate son subscribed

the sentence of her death. Maria was strangled, her corpse was

buried in the sea, and her memory was wounded by the insult most

offensive to female vanity, a false and ugly representation of

her beauteous form. The fate of her son was not long deferred: he

was strangled with a bowstring; and the tyrant, insensible to

pity or remorse, after surveying the body of the innocent youth,

struck it rudely with his foot: “Thy father,” he cried, “was a

knave, thy mother a whore, and thyself a fool!”

The Roman sceptre, the reward of his crimes, was held by

Andronicus about three years and a half as the guardian or

sovereign of the empire. His government exhibited a singular

contrast of vice and virtue. When he listened to his passions, he

was the scourge; when he consulted his reason, the father, of his

people. In the exercise of private justice, he was equitable and

rigorous: a shameful and pernicious venality was abolished, and

the offices were filled with the most deserving candidates, by a

prince who had sense to choose, and severity to punish. He

prohibited the inhuman practice of pillaging the goods and

persons of shipwrecked mariners; the provinces, so long the

objects of oppression or neglect, revived in prosperity and

plenty; and millions applauded the distant blessings of his

reign, while he was cursed by the witnesses of his daily

cruelties. The ancient proverb, That bloodthirsty is the man who

returns from banishment to power, had been applied, with too much

truth, to Marius and Tiberius; and was now verified for the third

time in the life of Andronicus. His memory was stored with a

black list of the enemies and rivals, who had traduced his merit,

opposed his greatness, or insulted his misfortunes; and the only

comfort of his exile was the sacred hope and promise of revenge.

The necessary extinction of the young emperor and his mother

imposed the fatal obligation of extirpating the friends, who

hated, and might punish, the assassin; and the repetition of

murder rendered him less willing, and less able, to forgive. 1018

A horrid narrative of the victims whom he sacrificed by poison or

the sword, by the sea or the flames, would be less expressive of

his cruelty than the appellation of the halcyon days, which was

applied to a rare and bloodless week of repose: the tyrant strove

to transfer, on the laws and the judges, some portion of his

guilt; but the mask was fallen, and his subjects could no longer

mistake the true author of their calamities. The noblest of the

Greeks, more especially those who, by descent or alliance, might

dispute the Comnenian inheritance, escaped from the monster’s

den: Nice and Prusa, Sicily or Cyprus, were their places of

refuge; and as their flight was already criminal, they aggravated

their offence by an open revolt, and the Imperial title. Yet

Andronicus resisted the daggers and swords of his most formidable

enemies: Nice and Prusa were reduced and chastised: the Sicilians

were content with the sack of Thessalonica; and the distance of

Cyprus was not more propitious to the rebel than to the tyrant.

His throne was subverted by a rival without merit, and a people

without arms. Isaac Angelus, a descendant in the female line from

the great Alexius, was marked as a victim by the prudence or

superstition of the emperor. 1019 In a moment of despair, Angelus

defended his life and liberty, slew the executioner, and fled to

the church of St. Sophia. The sanctuary was insensibly filled

with a curious and mournful crowd, who, in his fate,

prognosticated their own. But their lamentations were soon turned

to curses, and their curses to threats: they dared to ask, “Why

do we fear? why do we obey? We are many, and he is one: our

patience is the only bond of our slavery.” With the dawn of day

the city burst into a general sedition, the prisons were thrown

open, the coldest and most servile were roused to the defence of

their country, and Isaac, the second of the name, was raised from

the sanctuary to the throne. Unconscious of his danger, the

tyrant was absent; withdrawn from the toils of state, in the

delicious islands of the Propontis. He had contracted an indecent

marriage with Alice, or Agnes, daughter of Lewis the Seventh, of

France, and relict of the unfortunate Alexius; and his society,

more suitable to his temper than to his age, was composed of a

young wife and a favorite concubine. On the first alarm, he

rushed to Constantinople, impatient for the blood of the guilty;

but he was astonished by the silence of the palace, the tumult of

the city, and the general desertion of mankind. Andronicus

proclaimed a free pardon to his subjects; they neither desired,

nor would grant, forgiveness; he offered to resign the crown to

his son Manuel; but the virtues of the son could not expiate his

father’s crimes. The sea was still open for his retreat; but the

news of the revolution had flown along the coast; when fear had

ceased, obedience was no more: the Imperial galley was pursued

and taken by an armed brigantine; and the tyrant was dragged to

the presence of Isaac Angelus, loaded with fetters, and a long

chain round his neck. His eloquence, and the tears of his female

companions, pleaded in vain for his life; but, instead of the

decencies of a legal execution, the new monarch abandoned the

criminal to the numerous sufferers, whom he had deprived of a

father, a husband, or a friend. His teeth and hair, an eye and a

hand, were torn from him, as a poor compensation for their loss:

and a short respite was allowed, that he might feel the

bitterness of death. Astride on a camel, without any danger of a

rescue, he was carried through the city, and the basest of the

populace rejoiced to trample on the fallen majesty of their

prince. After a thousand blows and outrages, Andronicus was hung

by the feet, between two pillars, that supported the statues of a

wolf and an a sow; and every hand that could reach the public

enemy, inflicted on his body some mark of ingenious or brutal

cruelty, till two friendly or furious Italians, plunging their

swords into his body, released him from all human punishment. In

this long and painful agony, “Lord, have mercy upon me!” and “Why

will you bruise a broken reed?” were the only words that escaped

from his mouth. Our hatred for the tyrant is lost in pity for the

man; nor can we blame his pusillanimous resignation, since a

Greek Christian was no longer master of his life.

1018 (return) [ Fallmerayer (Geschichte des Kaiserthums von

Trapezunt, p. 29, 33) has highly drawn the character of

Andronicus. In his view the extermination of the Byzantine

factions and dissolute nobility was part of a deep-laid and

splendid plan for the regeneration of the empire. It was

necessary for the wise and benevolent schemes of the father of

his people to lop off those limbs which were infected with

irremediable pestilence— “and with necessity, The tyrant’s plea,

excused his devilish deeds!!”—Still the fall of Andronicus was a

fatal blow to the Byzantine empire.—M.]

1019 (return) [ According to Nicetas, (p. 444,) Andronicus

despised the imbecile Isaac too much to fear him; he was arrested

by the officious zeal of Stephen, the instrument of the Emperor’s

cruelties.—M.]

I have been tempted to expatiate on the extraordinary character

and adventures of Andronicus; but I shall here terminate the

series of the Greek emperors since the time of Heraclius. The

branches that sprang from the Comnenian trunk had insensibly

withered; and the male line was continued only in the posterity

of Andronicus himself, who, in the public confusion, usurped the

sovereignty of Trebizond, so obscure in history, and so famous in

romance. A private citizen of Philadelphia, Constantine Angelus,

had emerged to wealth and honors, by his marriage with a daughter

of the emperor Alexius. His son Andronicus is conspicuous only by

his cowardice. His grandson Isaac punished and succeeded the

tyrant; but he was dethroned by his own vices, and the ambition

of his brother; and their discord introduced the Latins to the

conquest of Constantinople, the first great period in the fall of

the Eastern empire.

If we compute the number and duration of the reigns, it will be

found, that a period of six hundred years is filled by sixty

emperors, including in the Augustan list some female sovereigns;

and deducting some usurpers who were never acknowledged in the

capital, and some princes who did not live to possess their

inheritance. The average proportion will allow ten years for each

emperor, far below the chronological rule of Sir Isaac Newton,

who, from the experience of more recent and regular monarchies,

has defined about eighteen or twenty years as the term of an

ordinary reign. The Byzantine empire was most tranquil and

prosperous when it could acquiesce in hereditary succession; five

dynasties, the Heraclian, Isaurian, Amorian, Basilian, and

Comnenian families, enjoyed and transmitted the royal patrimony

during their respective series of five, four, three, six, and

four generations; several princes number the years of their reign

with those of their infancy; and Constantine the Seventh and his

two grandsons occupy the space of an entire century. But in the

intervals of the Byzantine dynasties, the succession is rapid and

broken, and the name of a successful candidate is speedily erased

by a more fortunate competitor. Many were the paths that led to

the summit of royalty: the fabric of rebellion was overthrown by

the stroke of conspiracy, or undermined by the silent arts of

intrigue: the favorites of the soldiers or people, of the senate

or clergy, of the women and eunuchs, were alternately clothed

with the purple: the means of their elevation were base, and

their end was often contemptible or tragic. A being of the nature

of man, endowed with the same faculties, but with a longer

measure of existence, would cast down a smile of pity and

contempt on the crimes and follies of human ambition, so eager,

in a narrow span, to grasp at a precarious and shortlived

enjoyment. It is thus that the experience of history exalts and

enlarges the horizon of our intellectual view. In a composition

of some days, in a perusal of some hours, six hundred years have

rolled away, and the duration of a life or reign is contracted to

a fleeting moment: the grave is ever beside the throne: the

success of a criminal is almost instantly followed by the loss of

his prize and our immortal reason survives and disdains the sixty

phantoms of kings who have passed before our eyes, and faintly

dwell on our remembrance. The observation that, in every age and

climate, ambition has prevailed with the same commanding energy,

may abate the surprise of a philosopher: but while he condemns

the vanity, he may search the motive, of this universal desire to

obtain and hold the sceptre of dominion. To the greater part of

the Byzantine series, we cannot reasonably ascribe the love of

fame and of mankind. The virtue alone of John Comnenus was

beneficent and pure: the most illustrious of the princes, who

procede or follow that respectable name, have trod with some

dexterity and vigor the crooked and bloody paths of a selfish

policy: in scrutinizing the imperfect characters of Leo the

Isaurian, Basil the First, and Alexius Comnenus, of Theophilus,

the second Basil, and Manuel Comnenus, our esteem and censure are

almost equally balanced; and the remainder of the Imperial crowd

could only desire and expect to be forgotten by posterity. Was

personal happiness the aim and object of their ambition? I shall

not descant on the vulgar topics of the misery of kings; but I

may surely observe, that their condition, of all others, is the

most pregnant with fear, and the least susceptible of hope. For

these opposite passions, a larger scope was allowed in the

revolutions of antiquity, than in the smooth and solid temper of

the modern world, which cannot easily repeat either the triumph

of Alexander or the fall of Darius. But the peculiar infelicity

of the Byzantine princes exposed them to domestic perils, without

affording any lively promise of foreign conquest. From the

pinnacle of greatness, Andronicus was precipitated by a death

more cruel and shameful than that of the malefactor; but the most

glorious of his predecessors had much more to dread from their

subjects than to hope from their enemies. The army was licentious

without spirit, the nation turbulent without freedom: the

Barbarians of the East and West pressed on the monarchy, and the

loss of the provinces was terminated by the final servitude of

the capital.

The entire series of Roman emperors, from the first of the

Caesars to the last of the Constantines, extends above fifteen

hundred years: and the term of dominion, unbroken by foreign

conquest, surpasses the measure of the ancient monarchies; the

Assyrians or Medes, the successors of Cyrus, or those of

Alexander.

VOLUME FIVE

Chapter XLIX: Conquest Of Italy By The Franks.—Part I.

Introduction, Worship, And Persecution Of Images.—Revolt Of Italy

And Rome.—Temporal Dominion Of The Popes.—Conquest Of Italy By The

Franks.—Establishment Of Images.—Character And Coronation Of

Charlemagne.—Restoration And Decay Of The Roman Empire In The

West.—Independence Of Italy.— Constitution Of The Germanic Body.

In the connection of the church and state, I have considered the

former as subservient only, and relative, to the latter; a

salutary maxim, if in fact, as well as in narrative, it had ever

been held sacred. The Oriental philosophy of the Gnostics, the

dark abyss of predestination and grace, and the strange

transformation of the Eucharist from the sign to the substance of

Christ’s body, 1 I have purposely abandoned to the curiosity of

speculative divines. But I have reviewed, with diligence and

pleasure, the objects of ecclesiastical history, by which the

decline and fall of the Roman empire were materially affected,

the propagation of Christianity, the constitution of the Catholic

church, the ruin of Paganism, and the sects that arose from the

mysterious controversies concerning the Trinity and incarnation.

At the head of this class, we may justly rank the worship of

images, so fiercely disputed in the eighth and ninth centuries;

since a question of popular superstition produced the revolt of

Italy, the temporal power of the popes, and the restoration of

the Roman empire in the West.

1 (return) [ The learned Selden has given the history of

transubstantiation in a comprehensive and pithy sentence: “This

opinion is only rhetoric turned into logic,” (his Works, vol.

iii. p. 2037, in his Table-Talk.)]

The primitive Christians were possessed with an unconquerable

repugnance to the use and abuse of images; and this aversion may

be ascribed to their descent from the Jews, and their enmity to

the Greeks. The Mosaic law had severely proscribed all

representations of the Deity; and that precept was firmly

established in the principles and practice of the chosen people.

The wit of the Christian apologists was pointed against the

foolish idolaters, who bowed before the workmanship of their own

hands; the images of brass and marble, which, had they been

endowed with sense and motion, should have started rather from

the pedestal to adore the creative powers of the artist. 2

Perhaps some recent and imperfect converts of the Gnostic tribe

might crown the statues of Christ and St. Paul with the profane

honors which they paid to those of Aristotle and Pythagoras; 3

but the public religion of the Catholics was uniformly simple and

spiritual; and the first notice of the use of pictures is in the

censure of the council of Illiberis, three hundred years after

the Christian aera. Under the successors of Constantine, in the

peace and luxury of the triumphant church, the more prudent

bishops condescended to indulge a visible superstition, for the

benefit of the multitude; and, after the ruin of Paganism, they

were no longer restrained by the apprehension of an odious

parallel. The first introduction of a symbolic worship was in the

veneration of the cross, and of relics. The saints and martyrs,

whose intercession was implored, were seated on the right hand of

God; but the gracious and often supernatural favors, which, in

the popular belief, were showered round their tomb, conveyed an

unquestionable sanction of the devout pilgrims, who visited, and

touched, and kissed these lifeless remains, the memorials of

their merits and sufferings. 4 But a memorial, more interesting

than the skull or the sandals of a departed worthy, is the

faithful copy of his person and features, delineated by the arts

of painting or sculpture. In every age, such copies, so congenial

to human feelings, have been cherished by the zeal of private

friendship, or public esteem: the images of the Roman emperors

were adored with civil, and almost religious, honors; a reverence

less ostentatious, but more sincere, was applied to the statues

of sages and patriots; and these profane virtues, these splendid

sins, disappeared in the presence of the holy men, who had died

for their celestial and everlasting country. At first, the

experiment was made with caution and scruple; and the venerable

pictures were discreetly allowed to instruct the ignorant, to

awaken the cold, and to gratify the prejudices of the heathen

proselytes. By a slow though inevitable progression, the honors

of the original were transferred to the copy: the devout

Christian prayed before the image of a saint; and the Pagan rites

of genuflection, luminaries, and incense, again stole into the

Catholic church. The scruples of reason, or piety, were silenced

by the strong evidence of visions and miracles; and the pictures

which speak, and move, and bleed, must be endowed with a divine

energy, and may be considered as the proper objects of religious

adoration. The most audacious pencil might tremble in the rash

attempt of defining, by forms and colors, the infinite Spirit,

the eternal Father, who pervades and sustains the universe. 5 But

the superstitious mind was more easily reconciled to paint and to

worship the angels, and, above all, the Son of God, under the

human shape, which, on earth, they have condescended to assume.

The second person of the Trinity had been clothed with a real and

mortal body; but that body had ascended into heaven: and, had not

some similitude been presented to the eyes of his disciples, the

spiritual worship of Christ might have been obliterated by the

visible relics and representations of the saints. A similar

indulgence was requisite and propitious for the Virgin Mary: the

place of her burial was unknown; and the assumption of her soul

and body into heaven was adopted by the credulity of the Greeks

and Latins. The use, and even the worship, of images was firmly

established before the end of the sixth century: they were fondly

cherished by the warm imagination of the Greeks and Asiatics: the

Pantheon and Vatican were adorned with the emblems of a new

superstition; but this semblance of idolatry was more coldly

entertained by the rude Barbarians and the Arian clergy of the

West. The bolder forms of sculpture, in brass or marble, which

peopled the temples of antiquity, were offensive to the fancy or

conscience of the Christian Greeks: and a smooth surface of

colors has ever been esteemed a more decent and harmless mode of

imitation. 6

2 (return) [ Nec intelligunt homines ineptissimi, quod si sentire

simulacra et moveri possent, adoratura hominem fuissent a quo

sunt expolita. (Divin. Institut. l. ii. c. 2.) Lactantius is the

last, as well as the most eloquent, of the Latin apologists.

Their raillery of idols attacks not only the object, but the form

and matter.]

3 (return) [ See Irenaeus, Epiphanius, and Augustin, (Basnage,

Hist. des Eglises Reformees, tom. ii. p. 1313.) This Gnostic

practice has a singular affinity with the private worship of

Alexander Severus, (Lampridius, c. 29. Lardner, Heathen

Testimonies, vol. iii. p. 34.)]

4 (return) [ See this History, vol. ii. p. 261; vol. ii. p. 434;

vol. iii. p. 158-163.]

5 (return) [ (Concilium Nicenum, ii. in Collect. Labb. tom. viii.

p. 1025, edit. Venet.) Il seroit peut-etre a-propos de ne point

souffrir d’images de la Trinite ou de la Divinite; les defenseurs

les plus zeles des images ayant condamne celles-ci, et le concile

de Trente ne parlant que des images de Jesus Christ et des

Saints, (Dupin, Bibliot. Eccles. tom. vi. p. 154.)]

6 (return) [ This general history of images is drawn from the

xxiid book of the Hist. des Eglises Reformees of Basnage, tom.

ii. p. 1310-1337. He was a Protestant, but of a manly spirit; and

on this head the Protestants are so notoriously in the right,

that they can venture to be impartial. See the perplexity of poor

Friar Pagi, Critica, tom. i. p. 42.]

The merit and effect of a copy depends on its resemblance with

the original; but the primitive Christians were ignorant of the

genuine features of the Son of God, his mother, and his apostles:

the statue of Christ at Paneas in Palestine 7 was more probably

that of some temporal savior; the Gnostics and their profane

monuments were reprobated; and the fancy of the Christian artists

could only be guided by the clandestine imitation of some heathen

model. In this distress, a bold and dexterous invention assured

at once the likeness of the image and the innocence of the

worship. A new super structure of fable was raised on the popular

basis of a Syrian legend, on the correspondence of Christ and

Abgarus, so famous in the days of Eusebius, so reluctantly

deserted by our modern advocates. The bishop of Caesarea 8

records the epistle, 9 but he most strangely forgets the picture

of Christ; 10 the perfect impression of his face on a linen, with

which he gratified the faith of the royal stranger who had

invoked his healing power, and offered the strong city of Edessa

to protect him against the malice of the Jews. The ignorance of

the primitive church is explained by the long imprisonment of the

image in a niche of the wall, from whence, after an oblivion of

five hundred years, it was released by some prudent bishop, and

seasonably presented to the devotion of the times. Its first and

most glorious exploit was the deliverance of the city from the

arms of Chosroes Nushirvan; and it was soon revered as a pledge

of the divine promise, that Edessa should never be taken by a

foreign enemy. It is true, indeed, that the text of Procopius

ascribes the double deliverance of Edessa to the wealth and valor

of her citizens, who purchased the absence and repelled the

assaults of the Persian monarch. He was ignorant, the profane

historian, of the testimony which he is compelled to deliver in

the ecclesiastical page of Evagrius, that the Palladium was

exposed on the rampart, and that the water which had been

sprinkled on the holy face, instead of quenching, added new fuel

to the flames of the besieged. After this important service, the

image of Edessa was preserved with respect and gratitude; and if

the Armenians rejected the legend, the more credulous Greeks

adored the similitude, which was not the work of any mortal

pencil, but the immediate creation of the divine original. The

style and sentiments of a Byzantine hymn will declare how far

their worship was removed from the grossest idolatry. “How can we

with mortal eyes contemplate this image, whose celestial splendor

the host of heaven presumes not to behold? He who dwells in

heaven, condescends this day to visit us by his venerable image;

He who is seated on the cherubim, visits us this day by a

picture, which the Father has delineated with his immaculate

hand, which he has formed in an ineffable manner, and which we

sanctify by adoring it with fear and love.” Before the end of the

sixth century, these images, made without hands, (in Greek it is

a single word, 11 were propagated in the camps and cities of the

Eastern empire: 12 they were the objects of worship, and the

instruments of miracles; and in the hour of danger or tumult,

their venerable presence could revive the hope, rekindle the

courage, or repress the fury, of the Roman legions. Of these

pictures, the far greater part, the transcripts of a human

pencil, could only pretend to a secondary likeness and improper

title: but there were some of higher descent, who derived their

resemblance from an immediate contact with the original, endowed,

for that purpose, with a miraculous and prolific virtue. The most

ambitious aspired from a filial to a fraternal relation with the

image of Edessa; and such is the veronica of Rome, or Spain, or

Jerusalem, which Christ in his agony and bloody sweat applied to

his face, and delivered to a holy matron. The fruitful precedent

was speedily transferred to the Virgin Mary, and the saints and

martyrs. In the church of Diospolis, in Palestine, the features

of the Mother of God 13 were deeply inscribed in a marble column;

the East and West have been decorated by the pencil of St. Luke;

and the Evangelist, who was perhaps a physician, has been forced

to exercise the occupation of a painter, so profane and odious in

the eyes of the primitive Christians. The Olympian Jove, created

by the muse of Homer and the chisel of Phidias, might inspire a

philosophic mind with momentary devotion; but these Catholic

images were faintly and flatly delineated by monkish artists in

the last degeneracy of taste and genius. 14

7 (return) [ After removing some rubbish of miracle and

inconsistency, it may be allowed, that as late as the year 300,

Paneas in Palestine was decorated with a bronze statue,

representing a grave personage wrapped in a cloak, with a

grateful or suppliant female kneeling before him, and that an

inscription was perhaps inscribed on the pedestal. By the

Christians, this group was foolishly explained of their founder

and the poor woman whom he had cured of the bloody flux, (Euseb.

vii. 18, Philostorg. vii. 3, &c.) M. de Beausobre more reasonably

conjectures the philosopher Apollonius, or the emperor Vespasian:

in the latter supposition, the female is a city, a province, or

perhaps the queen Berenice, (Bibliotheque Germanique, tom. xiii.

p. 1-92.)]

8 (return) [ Euseb. Hist. Eccles. l. i. c. 13. The learned

Assemannus has brought up the collateral aid of three Syrians,

St. Ephrem, Josua Stylites, and James bishop of Sarug; but I do

not find any notice of the Syriac original or the archives of

Edessa, (Bibliot. Orient. tom. i. p. 318, 420, 554;) their vague

belief is probably derived from the Greeks.]

9 (return) [ The evidence for these epistles is stated and

rejected by the candid Lardner, (Heathen Testimonies, vol. i. p.

297-309.) Among the herd of bigots who are forcibly driven from

this convenient, but untenable, post, I am ashamed, with the

Grabes, Caves, Tillemonts, &c., to discover Mr. Addison, an

English gentleman, (his Works, vol. i. p. 528, Baskerville’s

edition;) but his superficial tract on the Christian religion

owes its credit to his name, his style, and the interested

applause of our clergy.]

10 (return) [ From the silence of James of Sarug, (Asseman.

Bibliot. Orient. p. 289, 318,) and the testimony of Evagrius,

(Hist. Eccles. l. iv. c. 27,) I conclude that this fable was

invented between the years 521 and 594, most probably after the

siege of Edessa in 540, (Asseman. tom. i. p. 416. Procopius, de

Bell. Persic. l. ii.) It is the sword and buckler of, Gregory

II., (in Epist. i. ad. Leon. Isaur. Concil. tom. viii. p. 656,

657,) of John Damascenus, (Opera, tom. i. p. 281, edit. Lequien,)

and of the second Nicene Council, (Actio v. p. 1030.) The most

perfect edition may be found in Cedrenus, (Compend. p. 175-178.)]

11 (return) [ See Ducange, in Gloss. Graec. et Lat. The subject

is treated with equal learning and bigotry by the Jesuit Gretser,

(Syntagma de Imaginibus non Manu factis, ad calcem Codini de

Officiis, p. 289-330,) the ass, or rather the fox, of

Ingoldstadt, (see the Scaligerana;) with equal reason and wit by

the Protestant Beausobre, in the ironical controversy which he

has spread through many volumes of the Bibliotheque Germanique,

(tom. xviii. p. 1-50, xx. p. 27-68, xxv. p. 1-36, xxvii. p.

85-118, xxviii. p. 1-33, xxxi. p. 111-148, xxxii. p. 75-107,

xxxiv. p. 67-96.)]

12 (return) [ Theophylact Simocatta (l. ii. c. 3, p. 34, l. iii.

c. 1, p. 63) celebrates it; yet it was no more than a copy, since

he adds (of Edessa). See Pagi, tom. ii. A.D. 588 No. 11.]

13 (return) [ See, in the genuine or supposed works of John

Damascenus, two passages on the Virgin and St. Luke, which have

not been noticed by Gretser, nor consequently by Beausobre,

(Opera Joh. Damascen. tom. i. p. 618, 631.)]

14 (return) [ “Your scandalous figures stand quite out from the

canvass: they are as bad as a group of statues!” It was thus that

the ignorance and bigotry of a Greek priest applauded the

pictures of Titian, which he had ordered, and refused to accept.]

The worship of images had stolen into the church by insensible

degrees, and each petty step was pleasing to the superstitious

mind, as productive of comfort, and innocent of sin. But in the

beginning of the eighth century, in the full magnitude of the

abuse, the more timorous Greeks were awakened by an apprehension,

that under the mask of Christianity, they had restored the

religion of their fathers: they heard, with grief and impatience,

the name of idolaters; the incessant charge of the Jews and

Mahometans, 15 who derived from the Law and the Koran an immortal

hatred to graven images and all relative worship. The servitude

of the Jews might curb their zeal, and depreciate their

authority; but the triumphant Mussulmans, who reigned at

Damascus, and threatened Constantinople, cast into the scale of

reproach the accumulated weight of truth and victory. The cities

of Syria, Palestine, and Egypt had been fortified with the images

of Christ, his mother, and his saints; and each city presumed on

the hope or promise of miraculous defence. In a rapid conquest of

ten years, the Arabs subdued those cities and these images; and,

in their opinion, the Lord of Hosts pronounced a decisive

judgment between the adoration and contempt of these mute and

inanimate idols. 1511 For a while Edessa had braved the Persian

assaults; but the chosen city, the spouse of Christ, was involved

in the common ruin; and his divine resemblance became the slave

and trophy of the infidels. After a servitude of three hundred

years, the Palladium was yielded to the devotion of

Constantinople, for a ransom of twelve thousand pounds of silver,

the redemption of two hundred Mussulmans, and a perpetual truce

for the territory of Edessa. 16 In this season of distress and

dismay, the eloquence of the monks was exercised in the defence

of images; and they attempted to prove, that the sin and schism

of the greatest part of the Orientals had forfeited the favor,

and annihilated the virtue, of these precious symbols. But they

were now opposed by the murmurs of many simple or rational

Christians, who appealed to the evidence of texts, of facts, and

of the primitive times, and secretly desired the reformation of

the church. As the worship of images had never been established

by any general or positive law, its progress in the Eastern

empire had been retarded, or accelerated, by the differences of

men and manners, the local degrees of refinement, and the

personal characters of the bishops. The splendid devotion was

fondly cherished by the levity of the capital, and the inventive

genius of the Byzantine clergy; while the rude and remote

districts of Asia were strangers to this innovation of sacred

luxury. Many large congregations of Gnostics and Arians

maintained, after their conversion, the simple worship which had

preceded their separation; and the Armenians, the most warlike

subjects of Rome, were not reconciled, in the twelfth century, to

the sight of images. 17 These various denominations of men

afforded a fund of prejudice and aversion, of small account in

the villages of Anatolia or Thrace, but which, in the fortune of

a soldier, a prelate, or a eunuch, might be often connected with

the powers of the church and state.

15 (return) [ By Cedrenus, Zonaras, Glycas, and Manasses, the

origin of the Aconoclcasts is imprinted to the caliph Yezid and

two Jews, who promised the empire to Leo; and the reproaches of

these hostile sectaries are turned into an absurd conspiracy for

restoring the purity of the Christian worship, (see Spanheim,

Hist. Imag. c. 2.)]

1511 (return) [ Yezid, ninth caliph of the race of the Ommiadae,

caused all the images in Syria to be destroyed about the year

719; hence the orthodox reproaches the sectaries with following

the example of the Saracens and the Jews Fragm. Mon. Johan.

Jerosylym. Script. Byzant. vol. xvi. p. 235. Hist. des Repub.

Ital. par M. Sismondi, vol. i. p. 126.—G.]

16 (return) [ See Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. p. 267,)

Abulpharagius, (Dynast. p. 201,) and Abulfeda, (Annal. Moslem. p.

264,), and the criticisms of Pagi, (tom. iii. A.D. 944.) The

prudent Franciscan refuses to determine whether the image of

Edessa now reposes at Rome or Genoa; but its repose is

inglorious, and this ancient object of worship is no longer

famous or fashionable.]

17 (return) [ (Nicetas, l. ii. p. 258.) The Armenian churches are

still content with the Cross, (Missions du Levant, tom. iii. p.

148;) but surely the superstitious Greek is unjust to the

superstition of the Germans of the xiith century.]

Of such adventurers, the most fortunate was the emperor Leo the

Third, 18 who, from the mountains of Isauria, ascended the throne

of the East. He was ignorant of sacred and profane letters; but

his education, his reason, perhaps his intercourse with the Jews

and Arabs, had inspired the martial peasant with a hatred of

images; and it was held to be the duty of a prince to impose on

his subjects the dictates of his own conscience. But in the

outset of an unsettled reign, during ten years of toil and

danger, Leo submitted to the meanness of hypocrisy, bowed before

the idols which he despised, and satisfied the Roman pontiff with

the annual professions of his orthodoxy and zeal. In the

reformation of religion, his first steps were moderate and

cautious: he assembled a great council of senators and bishops,

and enacted, with their consent, that all the images should be

removed from the sanctuary and altar to a proper height in the

churches where they might be visible to the eyes, and

inaccessible to the superstition, of the people. But it was

impossible on either side to check the rapid through adverse

impulse of veneration and abhorrence: in their lofty position,

the sacred images still edified their votaries, and reproached

the tyrant. He was himself provoked by resistance and invective;

and his own party accused him of an imperfect discharge of his

duty, and urged for his imitation the example of the Jewish king,

who had broken without scruple the brazen serpent of the temple.

By a second edict, he proscribed the existence as well as the use

of religious pictures; the churches of Constantinople and the

provinces were cleansed from idolatry; the images of Christ, the

Virgin, and the saints, were demolished, or a smooth surface of

plaster was spread over the walls of the edifice. The sect of the

Iconoclasts was supported by the zeal and despotism of six

emperors, and the East and West were involved in a noisy conflict

of one hundred and twenty years. It was the design of Leo the

Isaurian to pronounce the condemnation of images as an article of

faith, and by the authority of a general council: but the

convocation of such an assembly was reserved for his son

Constantine; 19 and though it is stigmatized by triumphant

bigotry as a meeting of fools and atheists, their own partial and

mutilated acts betray many symptoms of reason and piety. The

debates and decrees of many provincial synods introduced the

summons of the general council which met in the suburbs of

Constantinople, and was composed of the respectable number of

three hundred and thirty-eight bishops of Europe and Anatolia;

for the patriarchs of Antioch and Alexandria were the slaves of

the caliph, and the Roman pontiff had withdrawn the churches of

Italy and the West from the communion of the Greeks. This

Byzantine synod assumed the rank and powers of the seventh

general council; yet even this title was a recognition of the six

preceding assemblies, which had laboriously built the structure

of the Catholic faith. After a serious deliberation of six

months, the three hundred and thirty-eight bishops pronounced and

subscribed a unanimous decree, that all visible symbols of

Christ, except in the Eucharist, were either blasphemous or

heretical; that image-worship was a corruption of Christianity

and a renewal of Paganism; that all such monuments of idolatry

should be broken or erased; and that those who should refuse to

deliver the objects of their private superstition, were guilty of

disobedience to the authority of the church and of the emperor.

In their loud and loyal acclamations, they celebrated the merits

of their temporal redeemer; and to his zeal and justice they

intrusted the execution of their spiritual censures. At

Constantinople, as in the former councils, the will of the prince

was the rule of episcopal faith; but on this occasion, I am

inclined to suspect that a large majority of the prelates

sacrificed their secret conscience to the temptations of hope and

fear. In the long night of superstition, the Christians had

wandered far away from the simplicity of the gospel: nor was it

easy for them to discern the clew, and tread back the mazes, of

the labyrinth. The worship of images was inseparably blended, at

least to a pious fancy, with the Cross, the Virgin, the Saints

and their relics; the holy ground was involved in a cloud of

miracles and visions; and the nerves of the mind, curiosity and

scepticism, were benumbed by the habits of obedience and belief.

Constantine himself is accused of indulging a royal license to

doubt, or deny, or deride the mysteries of the Catholics, 20 but

they were deeply inscribed in the public and private creed of his

bishops; and the boldest Iconoclast might assault with a secret

horror the monuments of popular devotion, which were consecrated

to the honor of his celestial patrons. In the reformation of the

sixteenth century, freedom and knowledge had expanded all the

faculties of man: the thirst of innovation superseded the

reverence of antiquity; and the vigor of Europe could disdain

those phantoms which terrified the sickly and servile weakness of

the Greeks.

18 (return) [ Our original, but not impartial, monuments of the

Iconoclasts must be drawn from the Acts of the Councils, tom.

viii. and ix. Collect. Labbe, edit. Venet. and the historical

writings of Theophanes, Nicephorus, Manasses, Cedrenus, Zonoras,

&c. Of the modern Catholics, Baronius, Pagi, Natalis Alexander,

(Hist. Eccles. Seculum viii. and ix.,) and Maimbourg, (Hist. des

Iconoclasts,) have treated the subject with learning, passion,

and credulity. The Protestant labors of Frederick Spanheim

(Historia Imaginum restituta) and James Basnage (Hist. des

Eglises Reformees, tom. ii. l. xxiiii. p. 1339-1385) are cast

into the Iconoclast scale. With this mutual aid, and opposite

tendency, it is easy for us to poise the balance with philosophic

indifference. * Note: Compare Schlosser, Geschichte der

Bilder-sturmender Kaiser, Frankfurt am-Main 1812 a book of

research and impartiality—M.]

19 (return) [ Some flowers of rhetoric. By Damascenus is styled

(Opera, tom. i. p. 623.) Spanheim’s Apology for the Synod of

Constantinople (p. 171, &c.) is worked up with truth and

ingenuity, from such materials as he could find in the Nicene

Acts, (p. 1046, &c.) The witty John of Damascus converts it into

slaves of their belly, &c. Opera, tom. i. p. 806]

20 (return) [ He is accused of proscribing the title of saint;

styling the Virgin, Mother of Christ; comparing her after her

delivery to an empty purse of Arianism, Nestorianism, &c. In his

defence, Spanheim (c. iv. p. 207) is somewhat embarrassed between

the interest of a Protestant and the duty of an orthodox divine.]

The scandal of an abstract heresy can be only proclaimed to the

people by the blast of the ecclesiastical trumpet; but the most

ignorant can perceive, the most torpid must feel, the profanation

and downfall of their visible deities. The first hostilities of

Leo were directed against a lofty Christ on the vestibule, and

above the gate, of the palace. A ladder had been planted for the

assault, but it was furiously shaken by a crowd of zealots and

women: they beheld, with pious transport, the ministers of

sacrilege tumbling from on high and dashed against the pavement:

and the honors of the ancient martyrs were prostituted to these

criminals, who justly suffered for murder and rebellion. 21 The

execution of the Imperial edicts was resisted by frequent tumults

in Constantinople and the provinces: the person of Leo was

endangered, his officers were massacred, and the popular

enthusiasm was quelled by the strongest efforts of the civil and

military power. Of the Archipelago, or Holy Sea, the numerous

islands were filled with images and monks: their votaries

abjured, without scruple, the enemy of Christ, his mother, and

the saints; they armed a fleet of boats and galleys, displayed

their consecrated banners, and boldly steered for the harbor of

Constantinople, to place on the throne a new favorite of God and

the people. They depended on the succor of a miracle: but their

miracles were inefficient against the Greek fire; and, after the

defeat and conflagration of the fleet, the naked islands were

abandoned to the clemency or justice of the conqueror. The son of

Leo, in the first year of his reign, had undertaken an expedition

against the Saracens: during his absence, the capital, the

palace, and the purple, were occupied by his kinsman Artavasdes,

the ambitious champion of the orthodox faith. The worship of

images was triumphantly restored: the patriarch renounced his

dissimulation, or dissembled his sentiments and the righteous

claims of the usurper was acknowledged, both in the new, and in

ancient, Rome. Constantine flew for refuge to his paternal

mountains; but he descended at the head of the bold and

affectionate Isaurians; and his final victory confounded the arms

and predictions of the fanatics. His long reign was distracted

with clamor, sedition, conspiracy, and mutual hatred, and

sanguinary revenge; the persecution of images was the motive or

pretence, of his adversaries; and, if they missed a temporal

diadem, they were rewarded by the Greeks with the crown of

martyrdom. In every act of open and clandestine treason, the

emperor felt the unforgiving enmity of the monks, the faithful

slaves of the superstition to which they owed their riches and

influence. They prayed, they preached, they absolved, they

inflamed, they conspired; the solitude of Palestine poured forth

a torrent of invective; and the pen of St. John Damascenus, 22

the last of the Greek fathers, devoted the tyrant’s head, both in

this world and the next. 23 2311 I am not at leisure to examine

how far the monks provoked, nor how much they have exaggerated,

their real and pretended sufferings, nor how many lost their

lives or limbs, their eyes or their beards, by the cruelty of the

emperor. 2312 From the chastisement of individuals, he proceeded

to the abolition of the order; and, as it was wealthy and

useless, his resentment might be stimulated by avarice, and

justified by patriotism. The formidable name and mission of the

Dragon, 24 his visitor-general, excited the terror and abhorrence

of the black nation: the religious communities were dissolved,

the buildings were converted into magazines, or barracks; the

lands, movables, and cattle were confiscated; and our modern

precedents will support the charge, that much wanton or malicious

havoc was exercised against the relics, and even the books of the

monasteries. With the habit and profession of monks, the public

and private worship of images was rigorously proscribed; and it

should seem, that a solemn abjuration of idolatry was exacted

from the subjects, or at least from the clergy, of the Eastern

empire. 25

21 (return) [ The holy confessor Theophanes approves the

principle of their rebellion, (p. 339.) Gregory II. (in Epist. i.

ad Imp. Leon. Concil. tom. viii. p. 661, 664) applauds the zeal

of the Byzantine women who killed the Imperial officers.]

22 (return) [ John, or Mansur, was a noble Christian of Damascus,

who held a considerable office in the service of the caliph. His

zeal in the cause of images exposed him to the resentment and

treachery of the Greek emperor; and on the suspicion of a

treasonable correspondence, he was deprived of his right hand,

which was miraculously restored by the Virgin. After this

deliverance, he resigned his office, distributed his wealth, and

buried himself in the monastery of St. Sabas, between Jerusalem

and the Dead Sea. The legend is famous; but his learned editor,

Father Lequien, has a unluckily proved that St. John Damascenus

was already a monk before the Iconoclast dispute, (Opera, tom. i.

Vit. St. Joan. Damascen. p. 10-13, et Notas ad loc.)]

23 (return) [ After sending Leo to the devil, he introduces his

heir, (Opera, Damascen. tom. i. p. 625.) If the authenticity of

this piece be suspicious, we are sure that in other works, no

longer extant, Damascenus bestowed on Constantine the titles.

(tom. i. p. 306.)]

2311 (return) [ The patriarch Anastasius, an Iconoclast under

Leo, an image worshipper under Artavasdes, was scourged, led

through the streets on an ass, with his face to the tail; and,

reinvested in his dignity, became again the obsequious minister

of Constantine in his Iconoclastic persecutions. See Schlosser p.

211.—M.]

2312 (return) [ Compare Schlosser, p. 228-234.—M.]

24 (return) [ In the narrative of this persecution from

Theophanes and Cedreves, Spanheim (p. 235-238) is happy to

compare the Draco of Leo with the dragoons (Dracones) of Louis

XIV.; and highly solaces himself with the controversial pun.]

25 (return) [ (Damascen. Op. tom. i. p. 625.) This oath and

subscription I do not remember to have seen in any modern

compilation]

The patient East abjured, with reluctance, her sacred images;

they were fondly cherished, and vigorously defended, by the

independent zeal of the Italians. In ecclesiastical rank and

jurisdiction, the patriarch of Constantinople and the pope of

Rome were nearly equal. But the Greek prelate was a domestic

slave under the eye of his master, at whose nod he alternately

passed from the convent to the throne, and from the throne to the

convent. A distant and dangerous station, amidst the Barbarians

of the West, excited the spirit and freedom of the Latin bishops.

Their popular election endeared them to the Romans: the public

and private indigence was relieved by their ample revenue; and

the weakness or neglect of the emperors compelled them to

consult, both in peace and war, the temporal safety of the city.

In the school of adversity the priest insensibly imbibed the

virtues and the ambition of a prince; the same character was

assumed, the same policy was adopted, by the Italian, the Greek,

or the Syrian, who ascended the chair of St. Peter; and, after

the loss of her legions and provinces, the genius and fortune of

the popes again restored the supremacy of Rome. It is agreed,

that in the eighth century, their dominion was founded on

rebellion, and that the rebellion was produced, and justified, by

the heresy of the Iconoclasts; but the conduct of the second and

third Gregory, in this memorable contest, is variously

interpreted by the wishes of their friends and enemies. The

Byzantine writers unanimously declare, that, after a fruitless

admonition, they pronounced the separation of the East and West,

and deprived the sacrilegious tyrant of the revenue and

sovereignty of Italy. Their excommunication is still more clearly

expressed by the Greeks, who beheld the accomplishment of the

papal triumphs; and as they are more strongly attached to their

religion than to their country, they praise, instead of blaming,

the zeal and orthodoxy of these apostolical men. 26 The modern

champions of Rome are eager to accept the praise and the

precedent: this great and glorious example of the deposition of

royal heretics is celebrated by the cardinals Baronius and

Bellarmine; 27 and if they are asked, why the same thunders were

not hurled against the Neros and Julians of antiquity, they

reply, that the weakness of the primitive church was the sole

cause of her patient loyalty. 28 On this occasion the effects of

love and hatred are the same; and the zealous Protestants, who

seek to kindle the indignation, and to alarm the fears, of

princes and magistrates, expatiate on the insolence and treason

of the two Gregories against their lawful sovereign. 29 They are

defended only by the moderate Catholics, for the most part, of

the Gallican church, 30 who respect the saint, without approving

the sin. These common advocates of the crown and the mitre

circumscribe the truth of facts by the rule of equity, Scripture,

and tradition, and appeal to the evidence of the Latins, 31 and

the lives 32 and epistles of the popes; themselves.

26 (return) [ Theophanes. (Chronograph. p. 343.) For this Gregory

is styled by Cedrenus. (p. 450.) Zonaras specifies the thunder,

(tom. ii. l. xv. p. 104, 105.) It may be observed, that the

Greeks are apt to confound the times and actions of two

Gregories.]

27 (return) [ See Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A.D. 730, No. 4, 5;

dignum exemplum! Bellarmin. de Romano Pontifice, l. v. c. 8:

mulctavit eum parte imperii. Sigonius, de Regno Italiae, l. iii.

Opera, tom. ii. p. 169. Yet such is the change of Italy, that

Sigonius is corrected by the editor of Milan, Philipus Argelatus,

a Bolognese, and subject of the pope.]

28 (return) [ Quod si Christiani olim non deposuerunt Neronem aut

Julianum, id fuit quia deerant vires temporales Christianis,

(honest Bellarmine, de Rom. Pont. l. v. c. 7.) Cardinal Perron

adds a distinction more honorable to the first Christians, but

not more satisfactory to modern princes—the treason of heretics

and apostates, who break their oath, belie their coin, and

renounce their allegiance to Christ and his vicar, (Perroniana,

p. 89.)]

29 (return) [ Take, as a specimen, the cautious Basnage (Hist.

d’Eglise, p. 1350, 1351) and the vehement Spanheim, (Hist.

Imaginum,) who, with a hundred more, tread in the footsteps of

the centuriators of Magdeburgh.]

30 (return) [ See Launoy, (Opera, tom. v. pars ii. epist. vii. 7,

p. 456-474,) Natalis Alexander, (Hist. Nov. Testamenti, secul.

viii. dissert. i. p. 92-98,) Pagi, (Critica, tom. iii. p. 215,

216,) and Giannone, (Istoria Civile Napoli, tom. i. p. 317-320,)

a disciple of the Gallican school In the field of controversy I

always pity the moderate party, who stand on the open middle

ground exposed to the fire of both sides.]

31 (return) [ They appeal to Paul Warnefrid, or Diaconus, (de

Gestis Langobard. l. vi. c. 49, p. 506, 507, in Script. Ital.

Muratori, tom. i. pars i.,) and the nominal Anastasius, (de Vit.

Pont. in Muratori, tom. iii. pars i. Gregorius II. p. 154.

Gregorius III. p. 158. Zacharias, p. 161. Stephanus III. p. 165.;

Paulus, p. 172. Stephanus IV. p. 174. Hadrianus, p. 179. Leo III.

p. 195.) Yet I may remark, that the true Anastasius (Hist.

Eccles. p. 134, edit. Reg.) and the Historia Miscella, (l. xxi.

p. 151, in tom. i. Script. Ital.,) both of the ixth century,

translate and approve the Greek text of Theophanes.]

32 (return) [ With some minute difference, the most learned

critics, Lucas Holstenius, Schelestrate, Ciampini, Bianchini,

Muratori, (Prolegomena ad tom. iii. pars i.,) are agreed that the

Liber Pontificalis was composed and continued by the apostolic

librarians and notaries of the viiith and ixth centuries; and

that the last and smallest part is the work of Anastasius, whose

name it bears. The style is barbarous, the narrative partial, the

details are trifling—yet it must be read as a curious and

authentic record of the times. The epistles of the popes are

dispersed in the volumes of Councils.]

Chapter XLIX: Conquest Of Italy By The Franks.—Part II.

Two original epistles, from Gregory the Second to the emperor

Leo, are still extant; 33 and if they cannot be praised as the

most perfect models of eloquence and logic, they exhibit the

portrait, or at least the mask, of the founder of the papal

monarchy. “During ten pure and fortunate years,” says Gregory to

the emperor, “we have tasted the annual comfort of your royal

letters, subscribed in purple ink, with your own hand, the sacred

pledges of your attachment to the orthodox creed of our fathers.

How deplorable is the change! how tremendous the scandal! You now

accuse the Catholics of idolatry; and, by the accusation, you

betray your own impiety and ignorance. To this ignorance we are

compelled to adapt the grossness of our style and arguments: the

first elements of holy letters are sufficient for your confusion;

and were you to enter a grammar-school, and avow yourself the

enemy of our worship, the simple and pious children would be

provoked to cast their horn-books at your head.” After this

decent salutation, the pope attempts the usual distinction

between the idols of antiquity and the Christian images. The

former were the fanciful representations of phantoms or daemons,

at a time when the true God had not manifested his person in any

visible likeness. The latter are the genuine forms of Christ, his

mother, and his saints, who had approved, by a crowd of miracles,

the innocence and merit of this relative worship. He must indeed

have trusted to the ignorance of Leo, since he could assert the

perpetual use of images, from the apostolic age, and their

venerable presence in the six synods of the Catholic church. A

more specious argument is drawn from present possession and

recent practice the harmony of the Christian world supersedes the

demand of a general council; and Gregory frankly confesses, than

such assemblies can only be useful under the reign of an orthodox

prince. To the impudent and inhuman Leo, more guilty than a

heretic, he recommends peace, silence, and implicit obedience to

his spiritual guides of Constantinople and Rome. The limits of

civil and ecclesiastical powers are defined by the pontiff. To

the former he appropriates the body; to the latter, the soul: the

sword of justice is in the hands of the magistrate: the more

formidable weapon of excommunication is intrusted to the clergy;

and in the exercise of their divine commission a zealous son will

not spare his offending father: the successor of St. Peter may

lawfully chastise the kings of the earth. “You assault us, O

tyrant! with a carnal and military hand: unarmed and naked we can

only implore the Christ, the prince of the heavenly host, that he

will send unto you a devil, for the destruction of your body and

the salvation of your soul. You declare, with foolish arrogance,

I will despatch my orders to Rome: I will break in pieces the

image of St. Peter; and Gregory, like his predecessor Martin,

shall be transported in chains, and in exile, to the foot of the

Imperial throne. Would to God that I might be permitted to tread

in the footsteps of the holy Martin! but may the fate of Constans

serve as a warning to the persecutors of the church! After his

just condemnation by the bishops of Sicily, the tyrant was cut

off, in the fullness of his sins, by a domestic servant: the

saint is still adored by the nations of Scythia, among whom he

ended his banishment and his life. But it is our duty to live for

the edification and support of the faithful people; nor are we

reduced to risk our safety on the event of a combat. Incapable as

you are of defending your Roman subjects, the maritime situation

of the city may perhaps expose it to your depredation but we can

remove to the distance of four-and-twenty stadia, to the first

fortress of the Lombards, and then—you may pursue the winds. 34

Are you ignorant that the popes are the bond of union, the

mediators of peace, between the East and West? The eyes of the

nations are fixed on our humility; and they revere, as a God upon

earth, the apostle St. Peter, whose image you threaten to

destroy. 35 The remote and interior kingdoms of the West present

their homage to Christ and his vicegerent; and we now prepare to

visit one of their most powerful monarchs, who desires to receive

from our hands the sacrament of baptism. 36 The Barbarians have

submitted to the yoke of the gospel, while you alone are deaf to

the voice of the shepherd. These pious Barbarians are kindled

into rage: they thirst to avenge the persecution of the East.

Abandon your rash and fatal enterprise; reflect, tremble, and

repent. If you persist, we are innocent of the blood that will be

spilt in the contest; may it fall on your own head!”

33 (return) [ The two epistles of Gregory II. have been preserved

in the Acta of the Nicene Council, (tom. viii. p. 651-674.) They

are without a date, which is variously fixed, by Baronius in the

year 726, by Muratori (Annali d’Italia, tom. vi. p. 120) in 729,

and by Pagi in 730. Such is the force of prejudice, that some

papists have praised the good sense and moderation of these

letters.]

34 (return) [ (Epist. i. p. 664.) This proximity of the Lombards

is hard of digestion. Camillo Pellegrini (Dissert. iv. de Ducatu

Beneventi, in the Script. Ital. tom. v. p. 172, 173) forcibly

reckons the xxivth stadia, not from Rome, but from the limits of

the Roman duchy, to the first fortress, perhaps Sora, of the

Lombards. I rather believe that Gregory, with the pedantry of the

age, employs stadia for miles, without much inquiry into the

genuine measure.]

35 (return) [ {Greek}]

36 (return) [ (p. 665.) The pope appears to have imposed on the

ignorance of the Greeks: he lived and died in the Lateran; and in

his time all the kingdoms of the West had embraced Christianity.

May not this unknown Septetus have some reference to the chief of

the Saxon Heptarchy, to Ina king of Wessex, who, in the

pontificate of Gregory the Second, visited Rome for the purpose,

not of baptism, but of pilgrimage! (Pagi. A., 89, No. 2. A.D.

726, No. 15.)]

The first assault of Leo against the images of Constantinople had

been witnessed by a crowd of strangers from Italy and the West,

who related with grief and indignation the sacrilege of the

emperor. But on the reception of his proscriptive edict, they

trembled for their domestic deities: the images of Christ and the

Virgin, of the angels, martyrs, and saints, were abolished in all

the churches of Italy; and a strong alternative was proposed to

the Roman pontiff, the royal favor as the price of his

compliance, degradation and exile as the penalty of his

disobedience. Neither zeal nor policy allowed him to hesitate;

and the haughty strain in which Gregory addressed the emperor

displays his confidence in the truth of his doctrine or the

powers of resistance. Without depending on prayers or miracles,

he boldly armed against the public enemy, and his pastoral

letters admonished the Italians of their danger and their duty.

37 At this signal, Ravenna, Venice, and the cities of the

Exarchate and Pentapolis, adhered to the cause of religion; their

military force by sea and land consisted, for the most part, of

the natives; and the spirit of patriotism and zeal was transfused

into the mercenary strangers. The Italians swore to live and die

in the defence of the pope and the holy images; the Roman people

was devoted to their father, and even the Lombards were ambitious

to share the merit and advantage of this holy war. The most

treasonable act, but the most obvious revenge, was the

destruction of the statues of Leo himself: the most effectual and

pleasing measure of rebellion, was the withholding the tribute of

Italy, and depriving him of a power which he had recently abused

by the imposition of a new capitation. 38 A form of

administration was preserved by the election of magistrates and

governors; and so high was the public indignation, that the

Italians were prepared to create an orthodox emperor, and to

conduct him with a fleet and army to the palace of

Constantinople. In that palace, the Roman bishops, the second and

third Gregory, were condemned as the authors of the revolt, and

every attempt was made, either by fraud or force, to seize their

persons, and to strike at their lives. The city was repeatedly

visited or assaulted by captains of the guards, and dukes and

exarchs of high dignity or secret trust; they landed with foreign

troops, they obtained some domestic aid, and the superstition of

Naples may blush that her fathers were attached to the cause of

heresy. But these clandestine or open attacks were repelled by

the courage and vigilance of the Romans; the Greeks were

overthrown and massacred, their leaders suffered an ignominious

death, and the popes, however inclined to mercy, refused to

intercede for these guilty victims. At Ravenna, 39 the several

quarters of the city had long exercised a bloody and hereditary

feud; in religious controversy they found a new aliment of

faction: but the votaries of images were superior in numbers or

spirit, and the exarch, who attempted to stem the torrent, lost

his life in a popular sedition. To punish this flagitious deed,

and restore his dominion in Italy, the emperor sent a fleet and

army into the Adriatic Gulf. After suffering from the winds and

waves much loss and delay, the Greeks made their descent in the

neighborhood of Ravenna: they threatened to depopulate the guilty

capital, and to imitate, perhaps to surpass, the example of

Justinian the Second, who had chastised a former rebellion by the

choice and execution of fifty of the principal inhabitants. The

women and clergy, in sackcloth and ashes, lay prostrate in

prayer: the men were in arms for the defence of their country;

the common danger had united the factions, and the event of a

battle was preferred to the slow miseries of a siege. In a

hard-fought day, as the two armies alternately yielded and

advanced, a phantom was seen, a voice was heard, and Ravenna was

victorious by the assurance of victory. The strangers retreated

to their ships, but the populous sea-coast poured forth a

multitude of boats; the waters of the Po were so deeply infected

with blood, that during six years the public prejudice abstained

from the fish of the river; and the institution of an annual

feast perpetuated the worship of images, and the abhorrence of

the Greek tyrant. Amidst the triumph of the Catholic arms, the

Roman pontiff convened a synod 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 confirmed 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

37 (return) [ I shall transcribe the important and decisive

passage of the Liber Pontificalis. Respiciens ergo pius vir

profanam principis jussionem, jam contra Imperatorem quasi contra

hostem se armavit, renuens haeresim ejus, scribens ubique se

cavere Christianos, eo quod orta fuisset impietas talis. Igitur

permoti omnes Pentapolenses, atque Venetiarum exercitus contra

Imperatoris jussionem restiterunt; dicentes se nunquam in ejusdem

pontificis condescendere necem, sed pro ejus magis defensione

viriliter decertare, (p. 156.)]

38 (return) [ A census, or capitation, says Anastasius, (p. 156;)

a most cruel tax, unknown to the Saracens themselves, exclaims

the zealous Maimbourg, (Hist. des Iconoclastes, l. i.,) and

Theophanes, (p. 344,) who talks of Pharaoh’s numbering the male

children of Israel. This mode of taxation was familiar to the

Saracens; and, most unluckily for the historians, it was imposed

a few years afterwards in France by his patron Louis XIV.]

39 (return) [ See the Liber Pontificalis of Agnellus, (in the

Scriptores Rerum Italicarum of Muratori, tom. ii. pars i.,) whose

deeper shade of barbarism marks the difference between Rome and

Ravenna. Yet we are indebted to him for some curious and domestic

facts—the quarters and factions of Ravenna, (p. 154,) the revenge

of Justinian II, (p. 160, 161,) the defeat of the Greeks, (p.

170, 171,) &c.]

40 (return) [ Yet Leo was undoubtedly comprised in the si quis

.... imaginum sacrarum.... destructor.... extiterit, sit extorris

a cor pore D. N. Jesu Christi vel totius ecclesiae 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, 47, apud Spanheim, Hist. Imag. p. 112) homicidas non

esse qui excommunicatos trucidant.]

41 (return) [ 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. (Muratori, Annali d’Italia, tom. vi. p.

337.)]

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 Caesars, the triumphs of the consuls had been annihilated: in

the decline and fall of the empire, 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

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 community 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

liberty 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 nature.” 44 441 By the necessity of their

situation, the inhabitants of Rome were cast into the rough model

of a republican government: they were compelled to elect some

judges in peace, and some leaders in war: the nobles 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

vicentiousness 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. 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.

42 (return) [ I have traced the Roman duchy according to the

maps, and the maps according to the excellent dissertation of

father Beretti, (de Chorographia Italiae Medii Aevi, 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.]

43 (return) [ 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 (return) [ Quos (Romanos) nos, Longobardi scilicet, Saxones,

Franci, Locharingi, Bajoarii, Suevi, Burgundiones, tanto

dedignamur ut inimicos nostros commoti, nil aliud contumeliarum

nisi Romane, dicamus: hoc solo, id est Romanorum nomine, quicquid

ignobilitatis, quicquid timiditatis, quicquid avaritiae, quicquid

luxuriae, quicquid mendacii, immo quicquid vitiorum est

comprehendentes, (Liutprand, in Legat Script. Ital. tom. ii. para

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.]

441 (return) [ Yet this contumelious sentence, quoted by

Robertson (Charles V note 2) as well as Gibbon, was applied by

the angry bishop to the Byzantine Romans, whom, indeed, he admits

to be the genuine descendants of Romulus.—M.]

45 (return) [ Pipino regi Francorum, omnis senatus, atque

universa populi generalitas a Deo servatae Romanae 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.)]

46 (return) [ See Muratori, Antiquit. Italiae Medii Aevi, 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 Pere Joubert (Science des Medailles, tom.

ii. p. 42) explains by Constantinopoli Officina B (secunda.)]

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 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 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, 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 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 negotiations, till the popes

had engaged the friendship of an ally and avenger beyond the

Alps. 51

47 (return) [ 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.)]

48 (return) [ The speech of Gregory to the Lombard is finely

composed by Sigonius, (de Regno Italiae, l. iii. Opera, tom. ii.

p. 173,) who imitates the license and the spirit of Sallust or

Livy.]

49 (return) [ 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, l. vi. c. 42, 54, in Script. Ital.

tom. i. pars i. p. 506, 508;) but our chronologists, Pagi,

Muratori, &c., cannot ascertain the date or circumstances]

50 (return) [ 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 (return) [ 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. (Bibliothecae 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.)]

In his distress, the first 511 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 mediation. 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 by the love of glory and religion. But the danger

was on the banks of the Tyber, the succor 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, apprehensive of fatiguing

the zeal of his Transalpine allies enforced his complaint and

request by an eloquent letter in the name and person of St. Peter

himself. 52 The apostle assures his adopted sons, the king, the

clergy, and the nobles of France, that, dead in the flesh, he is

still alive in the spirit; that they now hear, and must obey, the

voice of the founder and guardian of the Roman church; that the

Virgin, the angels, the saints, and the martyrs, and all the host

of heaven, unanimously urge the request, and will confess the

obligation; that riches, victory, and paradise, will crown their

pious enterprise, and that eternal damnation will be the penalty

of their neglect, if they suffer his tomb, his temple, and his

people, to fall into the hands of the perfidious Lombards. The

second expedition of Pepin was not less rapid and fortunate than

the first: St. Peter was satisfied, Rome was again saved, and

Astolphus was taught the lessons of justice and sincerity by the

scourge of a foreign master. After this double chastisement, the

Lombards languished about twenty years in a state of languor and

decay. But their minds were not yet humbled to their condition;

and instead of affecting the pacific virtues of the feeble, they

peevishly harassed the Romans with a repetition of claims,

evasions, and inroads, which they undertook without reflection,

and terminated without glory. On either side, their expiring

monarchy was pressed by the zeal and prudence of Pope Adrian the

First, the genius, the fortune, and greatness of Charlemagne, the

son of Pepin; these heroes of the church and state were united in

public and domestic friendship, and while they trampled on the

prostrate, they varnished their proceedings with the fairest

colors of equity and moderation. 53 The passes of the Alps, and

the walls of Pavia, were the only defence of the Lombards; the

former were surprised, the latter were invested, by the son of

Pepin; and after a blockade of two years, 531 Desiderius, the

last of their native princes, surrendered his sceptre and his

capital.

Under the dominion of a foreign king, but in the possession of

their national laws, the Lombards became the brethren, rather

than the subjects, of the Franks; who derived their blood, and

manners, and language, from the same Germanic origin. 54

511 (return) [ Gregory I. had been dead above a century; read

Gregory III.—M]

52 (return) [ See this most extraordinary letter in the Codex

Carolinus, epist iii. p. 92. The enemies of the popes have

charged them with fraud and blasphemy; yet they surely meant to

persuade rather than deceive. This introduction of the dead, or

of immortals, was familiar to the ancient orators, though it is

executed on this occasion in the rude fashion of the age.]

53 (return) [ Except in the divorce of the daughter of

Desiderius, whom Charlemagne repudiated sine aliquo crimine. Pope

Stephen IV. had most furiously opposed the alliance of a noble

Frank—cum perfida, horrida nec dicenda, foetentissima natione

Longobardorum—to whom he imputes the first stain of leprosy,

(Cod. Carolin. epist. 45, p. 178, 179.) Another reason against

the marriage was the existence of a first wife, (Muratori, Annali

d’Italia, tom. vi. p. 232, 233, 236, 237.) But Charlemagne

indulged himself in the freedom of polygamy or concubinage.]

531 (return) [ Of fifteen months. James, Life of Charlemagne, p.

187.—M.]

54 (return) [ See the Annali d’Italia of Muratori, tom. vi., and

the three first Dissertations of his Antiquitates Italiae Medii

Aevi, tom. i.]

Chapter XLIX: Conquest Of Italy By The Franks.—Part III.

The mutual obligations of the popes and the Carlovingian family

form the important link of ancient and modern, of civil and

ecclesiastical, history. In the conquest of Italy, the champions

of the Roman church obtained a favorable occasion, a specious

title, the wishes of the people, the prayers and intrigues of the

clergy. But the most essential gifts of the popes to the

Carlovingian race were the dignities of king of France, 55 and of

patrician of Rome. I. Under the sacerdotal monarchy of St. Peter,

the nations began to resume the practice of seeking, on the banks

of the Tyber, their kings, their laws, and the oracles of their

fate. The Franks were perplexed between the name and substance of

their government. All the powers of royalty were exercised by

Pepin, mayor of the palace; and nothing, except the regal title,

was wanting to his ambition. His enemies were crushed by his

valor; his friends were multiplied by his liberality; his father

had been the savior of Christendom; and the claims of personal

merit were repeated and ennobled in a descent of four

generations. The name and image of royalty was still preserved in

the last descendant of Clovis, the feeble Childeric; but his

obsolete right could only be used as an instrument of sedition:

the nation was desirous of restoring the simplicity of the

constitution; and Pepin, a subject and a prince, was ambitious to

ascertain his own rank and the fortune of his family. The mayor

and the nobles were bound, by an oath of fidelity, to the royal

phantom: the blood of Clovis was pure and sacred in their eyes;

and their common ambassadors addressed the Roman pontiff, to

dispel their scruples, or to absolve their promise. The interest

of Pope Zachary, the successor of the two Gregories, prompted him

to decide, and to decide in their favor: he pronounced that the

nation might lawfully unite in the same person the title and

authority of king; and that the unfortunate Childeric, a victim

of the public safety, should be degraded, shaved, and confined in

a monastery for the remainder of his days. An answer so agreeable

to their wishes was accepted by the Franks as the opinion of a

casuist, the sentence of a judge, or the oracle of a prophet: the

Merovingian race disappeared from the earth; and Pepin was

exalted on a buckler by the suffrage of a free people, accustomed

to obey his laws and to march under his standard. His coronation

was twice performed, with the sanction of the popes, by their

most faithful servant St. Boniface, the apostle of Germany, and

by the grateful hands of Stephen the Third, who, in the monastery

of St. Denys placed the diadem on the head of his benefactor. The

royal unction of the kings of Israel was dexterously applied: 56

the successor of St. Peter assumed the character of a divine

ambassador: a German chieftain was transformed into the Lord’s

anointed; and this Jewish rite has been diffused and maintained

by the superstition and vanity of modern Europe. The Franks were

absolved from their ancient oath; but a dire anathema was

thundered against them and their posterity, if they should dare

to renew the same freedom of choice, or to elect a king, except

in the holy and meritorious race of the Carlovingian princes.

Without apprehending the future danger, these princes gloried in

their present security: the secretary of Charlemagne affirms,

that the French sceptre was transferred by the authority of the

popes; 57 and in their boldest enterprises, they insist, with

confidence, on this signal and successful act of temporal

jurisdiction.

55 (return) [ Besides the common historians, three French

critics, Launoy, (Opera, tom. v. pars ii. l. vii. epist. 9, p.

477-487,) Pagi, (Critica, A.D. 751, No. 1-6, A.D. 752, No. 1-10,)

and Natalis Alexander, (Hist. Novi Testamenti, dissertat, ii. p.

96-107,) have treated this subject of the deposition of Childeric

with learning and attention, but with a strong bias to save the

independence of the crown. Yet they are hard pressed by the texts

which they produce of Eginhard, Theophanes, and the old annals,

Laureshamenses, Fuldenses, Loisielani]

56 (return) [ Not absolutely for the first time. On a less

conspicuous theatre it had been used, in the vith and viith

centuries, by the provincial bishops of Britain and Spain. The

royal unction of Constantinople was borrowed from the Latins in

the last age of the empire. Constantine Manasses mentions that of

Charlemagne as a foreign, Jewish, incomprehensible ceremony. See

Selden’s Titles of Honor, in his Works, vol. iii. part i. p.

234-249.]

57 (return) [ See Eginhard, in Vita Caroli Magni, c. i. p. 9,

&c., c. iii. p. 24. Childeric was deposed—jussu, the

Carlovingians were established—auctoritate, Pontificis Romani.

Launoy, &c., pretend that these strong words are susceptible of a

very soft interpretation. Be it so; yet Eginhard understood the

world, the court, and the Latin language.]

II. In the change of manners and language the patricians of Rome

58 were far removed from the senate of Romulus, or the palace of

Constantine, from the free nobles of the republic, or the

fictitious parents of the emperor. After the recovery of Italy

and Africa by the arms of Justinian, the importance and danger of

those remote provinces required the presence of a supreme

magistrate; he was indifferently styled the exarch or the

patrician; and these governors of Ravenna, who fill their place

in the chronology of princes, extended their jurisdiction over

the Roman city. Since the revolt of Italy and the loss of the

Exarchate, the distress of the Romans had exacted some sacrifice

of their independence. Yet, even in this act, they exercised the

right of disposing of themselves; and the decrees of the senate

and people successively invested Charles Martel and his posterity

with the honors of patrician of Rome. The leaders of a powerful

nation would have disdained a servile title and subordinate

office; but the reign of the Greek emperors was suspended; and,

in the vacancy of the empire, they derived a more glorious

commission from the pope and the republic. The Roman ambassadors

presented these patricians with the keys of the shrine of St.

Peter, as a pledge and symbol of sovereignty; with a holy banner

which it was their right and duty to unfurl in the defence of the

church and city. 59 In the time of Charles Martel and of Pepin,

the interposition of the Lombard kingdom covered the freedom,

while it threatened the safety, of Rome; and the patriciate

represented only the title, the service, the alliance, of these

distant protectors. The power and policy of Charlemagne

annihilated an enemy, and imposed a master. In his first visit to

the capital, he was received with all the honors which had

formerly been paid to the exarch, the representative of the

emperor; and these honors obtained some new decorations from the

joy and gratitude of Pope Adrian the First. 60 No sooner was he

informed of the sudden approach of the monarch, than he

despatched the magistrates and nobles of Rome to meet him, with

the banner, about thirty miles from the city. At the distance of

one mile, the Flaminian way was lined with the schools, or

national communities, of Greeks, Lombards, Saxons, &c.: the Roman

youth were under arms; and the children of a more tender age,

with palms and olive branches in their hands, chanted the praises

of their great deliverer. At the aspect of the holy crosses, and

ensigns of the saints, he dismounted from his horse, led the

procession of his nobles to the Vatican, and, as he ascended the

stairs, devoutly kissed each step of the threshold of the

apostles. In the portico, Adrian expected him at the head of his

clergy: they embraced, as friends and equals; but in their march

to the altar, the king or patrician assumed the right hand of the

pope. Nor was the Frank content with these vain and empty

demonstrations of respect. In the twenty-six years that elapsed

between the conquest of Lombardy and his Imperial coronation,

Rome, which had been delivered by the sword, was subject, as his

own, to the sceptre of Charlemagne. The people swore allegiance

to his person and family: in his name money was coined, and

justice was administered; and the election of the popes was

examined and confirmed by his authority. Except an original and

self-inherent claim of sovereignty, there was not any prerogative

remaining, which the title of emperor could add to the patrician

of Rome. 61

58 (return) [ For the title and powers of patrician of Rome, see

Ducange, (Gloss. Latin. tom. v. p. 149-151,) Pagi, (Critica, A.D.

740, No. 6-11,) Muratori, (Annali d’Italia, tom. vi. p. 308-329,)

and St. Marc, (Abrege Chronologique d’Italie, tom. i. p.

379-382.) Of these the Franciscan Pagi is the most disposed to

make the patrician a lieutenant of the church, rather than of the

empire.]

59 (return) [ The papal advocates can soften the symbolic meaning

of the banner and the keys; but the style of ad regnum dimisimus,

or direximus, (Codex Carolin. epist. i. tom. iii. pars ii. p.

76,) seems to allow of no palliation or escape. In the Ms. of the

Vienna library, they read, instead of regnum, rogum, prayer or

request (see Ducange;) and the royalty of Charles Martel is

subverted by this important correction, (Catalani, in his

Critical Prefaces, Annali d’Italia, tom. xvii. p. 95-99.)]

60 (return) [ In the authentic narrative of this reception, the

Liber Pontificalis observes—obviam illi ejus sanctitas dirigens

venerabiles cruces, id est signa; sicut mos est ad exarchum, aut

patricium suscipiendum, sum cum ingenti honore suscipi fecit,

(tom. iii. pars i. p. 185.)]

61 (return) [ Paulus Diaconus, who wrote before the empire of

Charlemagne describes Rome as his subject city—vestrae civitates

(ad Pompeium Festum) suis addidit sceptris, (de Metensis

Ecclesiae Episcopis.) Some Carlovingian medals, struck at Rome,

have engaged Le Blanc to write an elaborate, though partial,

dissertation on their authority at Rome, both as patricians and

emperors, (Amsterdam, 1692, in 4to.)]

The gratitude of the Carlovingians was adequate to these

obligations, and their names are consecrated, as the saviors and

benefactors of the Roman church. Her ancient patrimony of farms

and houses was transformed by their bounty into the temporal

dominion of cities and provinces; and the donation of the

Exarchate was the first-fruits of the conquests of Pepin. 62

Astolphus with a sigh relinquished his prey; the keys and the

hostages of the principal cities were delivered to the French

ambassador; and, in his master’s name, he presented them before

the tomb of St. Peter. The ample measure of the Exarchate 63

might comprise all the provinces of Italy which had obeyed the

emperor and his vicegerent; but its strict and proper limits were

included in the territories of Ravenna, Bologna, and Ferrara: its

inseparable dependency was the Pentapolis, which stretched along

the Adriatic from Rimini to Ancona, and advanced into the

midland-country as far as the ridges of the Apennine. In this

transaction, the ambition and avarice of the popes have been

severely condemned. Perhaps the humility of a Christian priest

should have rejected an earthly kingdom, which it was not easy

for him to govern without renouncing the virtues of his

profession. Perhaps a faithful subject, or even a generous enemy,

would have been less impatient to divide the spoils of the

Barbarian; and if the emperor had intrusted Stephen to solicit in

his name the restitution of the Exarchate, I will not absolve the

pope from the reproach of treachery and falsehood. But in the

rigid interpretation of the laws, every one may accept, without

injury, whatever his benefactor can bestow without injustice. The

Greek emperor had abdicated, or forfeited, his right to the

Exarchate; and the sword of Astolphus was broken by the stronger

sword of the Carlovingian. It was not in the cause of the

Iconoclast that Pepin has exposed his person and army in a double

expedition beyond the Alps: he possessed, and might lawfully

alienate, his conquests: and to the importunities of the Greeks

he piously replied that no human consideration should tempt him

to resume the gift which he had conferred on the Roman Pontiff

for the remission of his sins, and the salvation of his soul. The

splendid donation was granted in supreme and absolute dominion,

and the world beheld for the first time a Christian bishop

invested with the prerogatives of a temporal prince; the choice

of magistrates, the exercise of justice, the imposition of taxes,

and the wealth of the palace of Ravenna. In the dissolution of

the Lombard kingdom, the inhabitants of the duchy of Spoleto 64

sought a refuge from the storm, shaved their heads after the

Roman fashion, declared themselves the servants and subjects of

St. Peter, and completed, by this voluntary surrender, the

present circle of the ecclesiastical state. That mysterious

circle was enlarged to an indefinite extent, by the verbal or

written donation of Charlemagne, 65 who, in the first transports

of his victory, despoiled himself and the Greek emperor of the

cities and islands which had formerly been annexed to the

Exarchate. But, in the cooler moments of absence and reflection,

he viewed, with an eye of jealousy and envy, the recent greatness

of his ecclesiastical ally. The execution of his own and his

father’s promises was respectfully eluded: the king of the Franks

and Lombards asserted the inalienable rights of the empire; and,

in his life and death, Ravenna, 66 as well as Rome, was numbered

in the list of his metropolitan cities. The sovereignty of the

Exarchate melted away in the hands of the popes; they found in

the archbishops of Ravenna a dangerous and domestic rival: 67 the

nobles and people disdained the yoke of a priest; and in the

disorders of the times, they could only retain the memory of an

ancient claim, which, in a more prosperous age, they have revived

and realized.

62 (return) [ Mosheim (Institution, Hist. Eccles. p. 263) weighs

this donation with fair and deliberate prudence. The original act

has never been produced; but the Liber Pontificalis represents,

(p. 171,) and the Codex Carolinus supposes, this ample gift. Both

are contemporary records and the latter is the more authentic,

since it has been preserved, not in the Papal, but the Imperial,

library.]

63 (return) [ Between the exorbitant claims, and narrow

concessions, of interest and prejudice, from which even Muratori

(Antiquitat. tom. i. p. 63-68) is not exempt, I have been guided,

in the limits of the Exarchate and Pentapolis, by the Dissertatio

Chorographica Italiae Medii Aevi, tom. x. p. 160-180.]

64 (return) [ Spoletini deprecati sunt, ut eos in servitio B.

Petri receperet et more Romanorum tonsurari faceret, (Anastasius,

p. 185.) Yet it may be a question whether they gave their own

persons or their country.]

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