and legitimate methods of governing the Church, and one of the best guarantees both for its inward purity and external independence, was a proof of its growing corruption, and a fearful omen for its future prosperity. It arose in some measure from a cause which we are about to mention.

The early origin and office of the Metropolitans have already been noticed; they were the Prelates resident in the capital of the Province, and their legitimate office was to preside in provincial councils; but they endeavoured to extend their consequence by usurping a judicial authority in charges against Bishops, and other matters properly lying under the cognizance of the Council; and they had some success until the sixth century. But from this period we may date their downfall: the ambition of the Popes*, always jealous of their power, and anxious to transfer it to the Holy See, pressed and assailed them from above: from below, the episcopal order, preferring a distant and indulgent controul to the more rigid scrutiny of a domestic censor, were equally eager for their overthrow; and this was greatly facilitated by the minute subdivisions of some of the Western Provinces, which in many cases politically separated the Metropolitan from the Bishops who were placed under his superintendence, and thus at once annihilated his influence. From these causes the Metropolitan system fell into decay, so that little more than its name remained at the end of the eighth century—and closely connected with its fall was the disuse of Provincial Councils.

.

The great result which was brought about by the above circumstances, and which showed itself early in the West-as to the West were also confined the changes which we have mentioned-was the undue aggrandisement of the episcopal order, and its consequent deformity and corruption. From the moment that the princes succeeded in usurping the

The progress of this usurpation is so well described by Giannone, (Storia di Nap., lib. iii. c. vi.) that we shall here give the substance of his account. In the fifth century the title of Patriarch was universally acknowledged to belong, in common with the four oriental prelates, to the Bishop of Rome. His ordinary power indeed did not extend beyond the Provinces called Suburban (Suburbicarie), those which obeyed the VicarGeneral of Rome; and to these limits it was confined till the reign of Valentinian. But in process of time, as the prerogatives of primacy were united in his person, it was easy to stretch them farther. It belonged to him as Primate to have regard and attention; on this ground he began to send into such provinces as seemed to require such superintendence his own vicars; in Illyria first, afterwards in Thessaly and Macedonia, the delegates of the Roman Pontiff exercised Patriarchal authority. This he presently afterwards extended over the whole of Italy, over Gaul and Spain; as well as over all coun tries newly converted by his missionaries; so that the Greeks themselves acknowledged him to be sole Patriarch of the West. The next step of the Popes, which occasioned no small disturbances, was to usurp the power of ordaining Bishops throughout all the Western Church, which was no less than to subvert the rights of all the Metropolitans. They proceeded farther, and claimed the office of ordaining the Metropolitans themselves. The method they made use of to usurp the rights of the Metropolitans regarding ordination was, to send them the Vest or Pallium-for it was by means of this that the Metropolitans were invested by the Holy Pontiff with the power of ordaining the Bishops of the Province; whence it followed that such power was not possessed by them unless by this grant of the Pallium. Here another point was gained-the Metropolitans had not the power of exercising all the episcopal functions until they had received the Pallium from the Pope. The last step naturally followed this-that the Pope would not grant the Pallium until the Metropolitans had taken an oath of fidelity such as he required. Another ground on which he advanced was this-he contrived that appeals from the decisions of the Metropolitans, especially relating to disputed elections of Bishops, should be brought before himself; that if the electors had been negligent, or the elected unfit, the election should devolve on the Pope; that he alone should possess the right of accepting the cessions of Sees, of determining translations, and the coadjutorships in the next succession; and lastly, that the confirmation of all episcopal elections should be vested in the Holy See,

appointment to vacant Sees, the mutual awe and dependence of the Bishop and his clergy were at an end. The original method of election, according to which the dignity was generally conferred on some eminent ecclesiastic who had long resided in the diocese, secured at least some degree of deference in the elected to the office and privileges of the priesthood; but the practice of regal appointment broke that tie, and the stranger, who was frequently intruded, with few common interests or affections, gave loose without any restraint to his insolence or his avarice, in an age and condition of society in which public opinion had no influence. Accordingly we collect, even from the Councils of those times which were entirely composed of Bishops, the violent excesses to which many members of that order proceeded. We have learnt (says the Council of Toledo, in 589) that the Bishops treat their parishes not episcopally but cruelly, and oppress their dioceses with losses and exactions. Wherefore, let all that the Bishops would appropriate to themselves be refused, excepting that which the ancient constitutions grant to them; and let the clergy, whether parochial or diocesan, who are tormented by the Bishop, carry their complaints to the Metropolitan, and let the Metropolitan hasten to repress such excesses.' Nearly a century afterwards the fourth Council of Braga (in 675) inveighs against the brutality of certain Bishops who treated honourable men like robbers, and lacerated priests, abbots, and deacons, with personal chastisement. 'Avarice (says the Council of Toledo in 633) is the root of all evils, and that detestable thirst takes possession even of the heart of Bishops. Many of the faithful, through the love of Christ and the martyrs, build chapels in the parishes of the Bishops, and leave offerings there; but the Bishops seize them and turn them to their own use. Hence it follows that Clerks are wauting to perform the divine offices, for they receive not their fees; and the chapels when dilapidated are not repaired, because sacerdotal avidity has carried away the resources, &c.' Besides these and similar proofs, which might be brought in great abundance, the tyrannical oppressions of the Bishops are sufficiently evinced by the conspiracies or coalitions of the priesthood to resist them, which are sometimes mentioned, of course with reprehension and menace, by the Councils of the sixth and seventh centuries.

Notwithstanding the measures taken to repress it, the licence and the demoralization of the episcopal order gradually increased, and towards the close of the eighth century it had reached perhaps the farthest limit to which it ever proceeded. The restraint which had formerly been imposed by the watchful superintendence of provincial Councils and Metropolitans was feebly supplied by the rare, and cautious, and often ineffectual interference of the Roman See. The practice of regal election freed the Bishop from any check with which either respect or gratitude towards his clergy and people might otherwise have supplied him-and the positive degradation of the clergy itself removed him still farther from any deference to the feelings, or even the rights, of that Body. Sole administrator of the revenues of the Church, he possessed the most ample means of plunder and usurpation; while his close connexion with political transactions, and the weight which he exerted in the most important deliberations of the State, so interwove the temporal with the spiritual office and duties, and also added to his legitimate authority so much temporal power, that there were few excesses which he might not hope to commit with impunity*. It is therefore without surprise that we find him at one time advancing to

It should not be forgotten, however, that this character was sometimes assumed on royal compulsion; nor was this the only stain which the Church received from its contact with the wild barbarism of those ages.

M

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His

battle at the head of his armed attendants, and at another engaged in marauding expeditions from motives of plunder or private hostility. and he grew to resemble the rude Barons who surrounded him, both in habits and his manners alike departed from the ecclesiastical character, the extent of his power, and the insolence with which he exercised it. We now turn to Rome-the centre to which most of our attention must hereafter be directed and having shown the progress of The Papal the religious aristocracy during the seventh and eighth Principle. ages, let us observe whether any corresponding advance was made by the monarchical principle. Gregory the Great Idied in the year 604; and certainly if his immediate successors had equalled him in energy and ambition, the period of papal usurpation might have been greatly anticipated. But the fact was so far otherwise, that through a dreary period of almost five centuries the Vatican was never eminence, and seize the sceptre which was so long presented to it by ruled by any character of sufficient transcendency to assert its single supersuperstition and ignorance. But this accident, though it retarded the maturity of the Roman Church, did not prevent the gradual operation of

the principles

on which it was now firmly founded; and if it be the

cumstances by which systems are formed or established, a very ordinary province of genius alone to create those commanding situations and cirmind may turn them to advantage when created and presented. And thus the long succession of obscure pontiffs, who presided in the West for the century and a half which followed, may have profited by such occasions as were offered to extend the authority of the Church and exalt the supremacy of its head. At least we have reason to believe, that both the one and the other of those objects were, upon the whole, advanced during the period in question.

Within fifty years from the death of Gregory, Pope St. Martin assembled a Council at Rome, in which, among various expositions of doctrine, he condemned a certain heresy at that time maintained by Constant, the Emperor of the East. That Prince, little disposed to pardon the offence, sent his Exarch into Italy with orders to seize the person of the Pontiff. By the employment of some address he succeeded in his mission; in the year 653 St. Martin was carried away from Rome a captive to Constantinople, and thence, after enduring, according to the Catholic historians, a multitude of insults, he was exiled to the Chersonesus. In the year following (655) he died there; and his successor Eugenius was appointed by the Emperor. The singularity of this circumstance has recommended it to our notice, rather than its importance. It was an isolated event, depending solely on the political power which the Emperor of the day might happen to possess over his Italian subjects, and not at all affecting the influence which the Holy See was now acquiring in every quarter of the West-for that was the ground on which its battles were to be fought and its conquests gained, and to that they were destined to be confined; and so long as it suffered no reverses in that field, it mattered little what might be the result of an occasional dispute either with the Patriarch or the Emperor of the East.

We have already mentioned that, during the seventh and eighth centuries, some successful inroads were made by the Popes on the privileges of Metropolitans, especially in their election or confirmation; and the

The pallium or peculiar vest was requested of the Pope by the Metropolitans, at first merely, as it would seem, in token of an honour to which no condition was annexed, but afterwards in attestation of their subjection to the See, and obedience to its canonical com

influence of St. Boniface, the apostle of Germany, was warmly exerted about the year 742 among the Bishops of France and Germany, to extend the authority of the See. Another occurrence, which tended much more effectually, though by a very different course, to the same result, took place almost immediately afterwards.

The Donation

of Pepin.

Pepin, who was mayor of the palace to Childeric III., King of France, was desirous to dethrone his imbecile master, and to usurp the name, after having long exercised the power of royalty. Accordingly he assembled the States of the realm, and they gave it as their opinion that the Bishop of Rome should previously be consulted respecting the lawfulness of the project. In consequence ambassadors were sent to Zachary with a question to the following import- Whether the divine law did not permit a valiant and warlike people to dethrone a pusillanimous and indolent monarch who was incapable of discharging any of the functions of royalty, and to substitute in his place one more worthy of rule, and who had already rendered most important services to the State? The answer of the Pope was such as the usurper desired: Childeric was stripped of royalty without any opposition, and Pepin took undisputed possession of the throne.

This occurrence is generally related as the first instance of the temporal ambition of the Vatican, or at least of its interference with the rights of princes and the allegiance of subjects-and therefore the conduct of the Pope has commonly been treated (by Protestant writers) with unmeasured reprehension. But certainly if we consider the act of Zachary distinct from those subsequent usurpations, to which in truth it did neither necessarily lead, nor even furnish a plausible precedent-if we consider the act, as historical justice requires of us, with a fair regard to the circumstances of France and Italy, and to the principles of the times, we shall be surprised indeed that a Pope of the eighth century should so easily assent to the most popular principle of republicanism, and we may reject perhaps the political axiom which he has laid down; but we shall not accuse him of ambitious or unchristian arrogance for having resolved a difficulty which he did not create; for having answered a question which was proposed to him, as the highest human authority, and proposed without any interference or solicitation on his own part. It is true that the nature of his answer may have been influenced by his manifest interests, and the necessity in which the See then stood of a powerful protector-but this is a consideration quite distinct from the original broad charge of intrusion in temporal concerns and even in this matter, the mere absence of that splendid disinterestedness, which is rare in every age, and almost impossible in bad ages, is not to be stigmatized as inexcusably criminal, nor to be placed on the same level with the active, intriguing intrusiveness of guilty ambition.

It is not probable that Pope Zachary foresaw all the advantages which soon afterwards accrued to the Holy See from his decision-but pressed by the Greeks on one hand, and the Lombards on the other, he was no doubt glad of the occasion to create a substantial friendship beyond the Alps. The Lombards had gradually possessed themselves of those provinces of Italy which had remained longest attached to the Greek empire, under the name of the Exarchate of Ravenna*; and those warlike

mands. The virtues of the pallium are described at length in an Epistle from Pope Zachary to Boniface. Baron. ann. 742, sect. v. See above, note on p. 160.

* The strict limits of the Exarchate were included in the territories of Ravenna, Bologna and Ferrara: dependent on it was the Pentapolis, which extended along the Adriatic from Rimini to Ancona, and advanced into the interior as far as the ridges of the Apennines. Gibbon c. 49.

foreigners were now projecting the extension of their conquest to the whole peninsula. Stephen II., the successor of Zachary, applied to the Court of France for protection; and instantly, Pepin, at the head of a numerous army, crossed the Alps, and overthrew the Lombards, and recovered the Exarchate from their hands. Pepin might have restored this valuable spoil to the throne of Constantinople with great praise of justice; or by the indulgence of ambition he might have retained permanent possession of it himself, without any reproach and with much profit-he did neither; but, mindful of his obligation to the Holy See, and sensible of the advantage of intimate alliance with it, be transferred the sovereignty over the provinces in question to the Bishop of Rome. This celebrated donation took place in 754-5; and thus we observe that the earliest interference of the Vatican in temporal matters brought after it, in the course of three years only, a rich and solid reward of temporal power, which has never since been either greatly increased or greatly diminished. The degree of authority which individual Pontiffs have exerted in their States has indeed been liable in different ages to extreme diversities; still the authority itself has, in some shape, been perpetuated; and it has survived the splendid pretensions of the spiritual despotism, by whose infancy it was created, whose maturity it assisted to swell and pamper, and whose expiring influence will probably be confined to the same limits with itself.

Charlemagne's liberality to the Church.

The donation of Pepin awaited the confirmation of his son Charlemagne; for in the year 774 the Lombards again threatened the Roman territories; the aid of France was again invoked, and the monarch who now afforded it, did not pause till he had entirely and finally subverted the empire of those conquerors, and proclaimed himself their King. Charlemagne was so far from disapproving his father's munificence to the Pope, that he renewed and even increased the grant by some accession of territory; he drew still closer the bonds which allied him with a Bishop whose power was real and solid, however fanciful may have been the claims on which it stood; and thus he secured the zealous assistance of the See, when circumstances at length allowed him to mature the projects of his own ambition, and to proclaim himself, in the year 800, the Emperor of the West.

Charlemagne did not confine his benefactions to the Bishop of Rome. but distributed them among all the orders of the hierarchy. He augmented their wealth, he enlarged their privileges, he exalted their dignity, he confirmed and extended their immunities; and were it not beyond contradiction established, that he was one of the greatest and wisest princes who ever reigned, some writers would not have hesitated to place him among the weakest of mankind. But the motives of his liberality were such as became a magnanimous and a benevolent monarch. Superstition has never been accounted among them, nor any unfounded fears or undue reverence of the ecclesiastical order—from the former he was perhaps more nearly exempt than would have appeared possible in so rude an age; and in his transactions with the clergy, even with the Pope himself, he never forgot, or allowed them to forget, his own supremacy. But he was desirous to civilize his barbarous subjects; he was anxious to influence their rude manners, and correct their vicious morals, by the more general diffusion and comprehension of the Christian truths; and he was willing also to sow the seeds of secular learning, and dispel the ignorance which oppressed his people. As the first step towards this regeneration he presented to them the example of his own piety and his own learning*. But when he looked

* Many writers assert that he yielded not to any contemporary in either of those merits;