 Chapter 49 Part 1 of the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume 5 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recorded by Alec Datesman The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume 5, Chapter 49, Part 1 Introduction, Workshop, 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 of servant only and relative to the latter, a salutary maxim, if in fact as well as a 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, 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 Rumen 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. The primitive Christians were possessed with uncockable repugnance to the use and abuse of images, and this aversion may be ascribed to their descent from the Jews and their eminence 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 breasts 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. 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, but the public religion of the Catholics was uniformly simple and spiritual, and the first notice of the use of pictures is in the center of the Council of Iliberus, 300 years after the Christian era. 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. But a memorial more interesting than the skull or the sandals of the 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 genuflexion, 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. 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 Aryan 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. 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 Penaeus in Palestine was more probably that of some temporal savior. The Gnostics and the 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 superstructure of fable was raised on the popular basis of a Syrian legend, on the correspondence of Christ and Avgaris, so famous in the days of Eusebius, so reluctantly deserted by our modern advocates. The bishop of Caesarea records the epistle, but he most strangely forgets the picture of Christ, 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 of a niche of the wall. From whence, after an oblivion of 500 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 Chosros Nusirvan, 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 ascribed 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 Avgaris, 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, were propagated in the camps and cities of the Eastern Empire. 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 was something of a 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 as 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 Diaspolis, in Palestine, the features of the Mother of God 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. The warship 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 the idolaters, the incessant charge of the Jews and the Mahatmatans, 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 Muslims 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 defense. 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. 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 300 years, the Palladium was yielded to the devotion of Constantinople for a ransom of 12,000 pounds of silver, the redemption of 200 Muslims, and a perpetual truce for the territory of Edessa. In this season of distress and dismay, the eloquence of the monks was exercised in the defense of images, and they attempted to prove that the sin and schism of the greater 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 finally cherished by the levity of the capital, and the invective 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 war-like subjects of Rome, were not reconciled, in the 12th century, to the site of images. These various denominations of men afforded a fund of prejudice and diversion of small account in the villages of Anatolia or Thrace, but which in the fortune of a soldier, a prelate or a eunuch, might often be connected with the powers of the church and state. Of such adventurers, the most fortunate was the emperor Leo III, who from the mountains of Isoria 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, bound 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 altered 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 though 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 his 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 120 years. It was a 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, 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 338 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 power 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 338 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 entrusted 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 their simplicity of the gospel, nor was it easy for them to discern the clue and tread back the mazes of the labyrinth. The worship of images was inseparably blended, at least to a pious fancy, with the cross of 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 skepticism, were benumbed by the habits of obedience and belief. Constantin himself is accused of indulging a royal license to doubt or deny or deride the mysteries of the Catholics, but they were deeply inscribed in the public and private creed of his bishops, and the boldest iconic class to 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 16th 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. The scandal of an abstract heresy can only be 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 the 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 barters were prostituted to these criminals, who justly suffered for murder and rebellion. 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 of justice of the conqueror. The son of Leo, in the first year of his reign, had undertaken an exposition against the Saracens. During his absence, the capital, the palace, and the purple, were occupied by his kinsmen, Artavastes, the ambitious champion of the Orthodox faith. The worship of images was triumphantly restored. The patriarch renounced his dissimulation, or dissembled his sentiments on the righteous claims of the usurper were acknowledged, both in the new and in ancient Rome. Constantin flew for refuge to his paternal mountains, but he descended at the head of the bold and affectionate Isurians, 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 pretense of his adversaries, and, if they missed a temporal diadem, they were rewarded by the Greeks with the crowd 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's Amesinus, the last of the Greek fathers, devoted the tyrant's head, both in this world and the next. 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. 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, his visitor general, excited the terror and abhorrence of the black nation. The religious communities were dissolved, the buildings were converted into magazines or bar racks, 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 prescribed, 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. 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 dawn 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, a 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 was sent into the chair of Saint 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 invariably interpreted by the wishes of their friends and enemies. The Byzantine writers unanimously declare that after a fruitless admonition, they pronounce 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 apostolic men. 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, and if they are asked why the same thunders were not hurled against the Neroes and Julians of antiquity, they reply that the weakness of the primitive church was the sole cause of her patient loyalty. 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 gregaries against their lawful sovereign. They are defended only by the moderate Catholics, for the most part, of the Gallican church, who respect the saint without approving the sin. These common advocates of the crown and the meter circumscribe the truth of facts by the rule of equity, scripture and tradition, and appeal to the evidence of the Latins and the lives and epistles of the Popes themselves. End of Chapter 49, Section 1. Your reader was Alec Datesman, Brooklyn, New York. The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, Volume 5. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org recording by Dick Durett. The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter 49, Part 2. Conquest of Italy by the Franks Two original epistles from Gregory II to the Emperor Leo are still extant, 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 10 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 of all 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 demons at a time when the true God had not manifested his person in any visible lightness. 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 counsel and Gregory frankly confesses that 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 entrusted to the clergy. And in the exercise of their divine commission a zealous son will not spare his offending father, the successor or saint Peter may lawfully chastise the kings of the earth. Your salt is so 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 dispatch my orders to Rome. I will break in pieces the image of saint 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 Constance 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 the 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. Are you ignorant that the popes are the bond of union the mediators of peace between the east and west the eyes of the nation are fixed on our humility and they revere as a god upon earth the Apostle Saint Peter whose image you threaten to destroy. The remote and interior kingdoms of the west present their homage to Christ and his vice regent and we now prepare to visit one of their most powerful monarchs who desires to receive from our hands the sacrament of baptism. The barbarians have submitted to the yoke of the gospel while you alone are deft 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 spilled in the contest may it fall on your own head. 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 prescriptive 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 hardy 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 at this signal Ravenna Venice and the citizens of ex Sartate and Pentapolis adhered to the cause of religion their military force by sea and land consisted for the most part of the navies and the spirit of patriotism and real was transfused into the mercenary strangers the Italians swore to live and die in the defense 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 reasonable 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 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 an 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 lords and dukes and exox of high dignity or secret trust they landed with foreign troops they obtained some domestic aid and the superstition of Naples was blushed that her fathers were attacked 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 the several quarters of the city had long exercised a bloody and hereditary feud in religious controversy they found a new element of faction but the votaries of images were superior in numbers or spirit and the exact who attempted to stem the torrent lost his life in a popular sedition to punish this flogitious deed and restore his dominion in Italy the emperor sent a fleet an 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 50 of the principal inhabitants the women and clergy in sackcloth and ashes prostrate in prayer the men were in arms for the defense 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 alternatively yielded and advanced a phantom was seen a voice was heard and Ravenna was victorious by the assurance of victory the strangers repeated to their ships but the popular seacoast poured forth a multitude of boats the waters of the pole were so deeply infected with blood that during six years of public prejudice sustained 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 93 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 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 exact was permitted to reside within the walls of ravina a captive rather than a master and till the imperial coronation of Charlemagne the government of Rome and Italy was exercised in a name of the successes of constant time the liberty of Rome which had been oppressed by the arms and arts of augustus was rescued after 750 years of servitude from the persecution of Leo the isorian by the Caesars the triumph of the councils 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 Teresina and from Narni to the mouth of the Tiber 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 council 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 the individuals were sacred 130,000 citizens were armed for defense or conquest and a band of robbers and outlaws was molded into a nation deserving of freedom and ambitious of glory when the sovereignty of the greek empress 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 fetches of the substance or even of 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 common wealth their scanty remnant the offspring of slaves and strangers was despicable in the eyes of the victorious barbarians as often as the francs or lombards expressed their most bitter contempt of a foe they called him a roman and in this name says the bishop Leo Prend 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 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 but the spirit was fled and their new independence was disgraced by the tumultuous conflict of licentiousness and oppression the want of laws could only be supplied by the influence of religion and their foreign and domestic councils were moderated by the authority of the bishop his arms his sermons his correspondent were the kings and prelates of the west his recent services their gratitude and oath accustomed the romans to consider him as the first magistrate of prince of the city the christian humility of the pope was not offended by the name of dominus or lord and their face and inscription are still apparent on the most ancient coins their temporal dominion is now confirmed by the reverence of a thousand years and their noblest title is the free choice of a people whom they had redeemed from slavery in the quarrels of ancient Greece the holy people of vellus enjoyed a perpetual peace and under the protection of jupiter and in the exercise of the olympic games happy would it have been for the romans if a similar privilege had guarded the patrimony of saint 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 warned of the legislature 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 ellis 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 leoprend king of the lombards in arms at the gates of the vatican the conqueror listened to the voice of gregory the second withdrew his troops resigned his conquest respectfully visited the church of saint peter and after performing his devotions offered his sword and dagger his cures and mantle his silver cross and his crown of gold on the tome of the apostle but this religious fervor was the illusion perhaps the outifice 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 leotbrand 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 her venna 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 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 leotprand alarmed idly with a vexations alternative of hostility and truce his successor astalphus declared himself the equal enemy of the emperor and the pope revena was subdued by force or treachery 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 in his distress the first Gregory had implored the aid of the hero of the age of Charles Martel who governed the French monarchy with a humble title of mayor or Duke and who by his signal victory over the Saracens had saved his country and perhaps Europe from the Mohammedan 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 prompted by the love of glory and religion but the danger was on the banks of the Tiber the sucker on those of the Seine and our sympathy is cold to the relation of distant misery amidst the tears of the city Stephen III 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 penine alps reposed in the abbey of Saint 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 a stalfest 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 Naseel of his trans-alpine allies enforced his complaint and request by an eloquent letter and the name and person of Saint Peter himself 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 urged 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 peppin was not less rapid and fortunate than the first Saint Peter was satisfied Rome was again saved and Astolfos was taught the lessons of justice and sincerity by the scourge of a foreign master after this double chastisement the lombards languished about 20 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 I the genius the fortune and the greatness of Shalemine the son of peppin 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 the passes of the Alps and the walls of Pavia were the only defense of the lombards the former were surprised the latter were invested by the son of peppin and after a blockade of two years desiderious the last of their native princes surrendered his scepter and his capital under the dominion of a foreign king but in the possession of the 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 end of chapter five part two recording by Dick Duret Manchester, New Hampshire USA chapter 49 of the history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire volume five this is a LibriVox recording all recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Dick Duret the history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon chapter 49 part three 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 and a patrician of Rome under the sacerdotal monarchy of Saint Peter the nations began to resume the practice of seeking on the banks of the Tiber 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 the valour 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 childrenic 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 a certain his own rank and a 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 gregaries 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 childrenic 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 casualist descendants of a judge or the oracle of a prophet their marrow-vingion 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 Saint Boniface the Apostle of Germany and by the grateful hands of Stephen the Third who in the monastery of Saint Dennis placed the diadem on the head of his benefactor the royal unction of the kings of Israel was dexterously applied the success of Saint Peter assumed the character of a divine ambassador a German chieftain was transformed into the lords anointed and this Jewish right 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 Carlo-vingion princes without apprehending the future danger these princes gloried in their present security the secretary of Charlemagne affirms that the French scepter was transferred by the authority of the popes and in their boldest enterprises they insist with confidence on this signal and successful act of temporal jurisdiction in the change of manners and language the patricians of Rome were far removed from the senate of Romulus on 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 filled their place in the chronology of princes extended their jurisdiction over the roman city since the revolt of Italy and the loss of 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 successfully invested Charles Martel and his posterity with the honors of patrician of Rome the leaders of a powerful nation would have disdained their servile title and subordinate office but the reign of the greek emperors were 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 defense of the church and city 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 formally 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 I no sooner was he informed of the sudden approach of the monarch than he dispatched the magistrates and nobles of Rome to meet him with the banner about 30 miles from the city at the distance of one mile the Florminian Way was lined with schools or national communities of Greeks lombards Saxons and so forth 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 the great deliverer at the aspect of the holy crosses and incense 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 now was the frank content with these vain and empty demonstrations of respect in the 26 years that it lapsed between the conquest of Lombardi and his imperial coronation Rome which had been delivered by the sword was subject as his own to the scepter of Charlemagne the people swore allegiance to his person and family and his name money was coined and justice was administered and the election of the popes was examined and confirmed by his authority except in original and self-interest claim of sovereignty there was not any prerogative remaining which the title of emperor could add to the patrician of Rome 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 conquest of Pepin Astolfos was 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 Saint Peter the ample measure of the exarchate might comprise all the provinces of Italy which had obeyed the emperor and his vice regent 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 Encona 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 entrusted 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 everyone may accept without injury whatever his benefactor can bestow without injustice the Greek emperor had abdicated or forfeited his right to the exarchate and a sword of a stolphus was broken by the strongest sword of the carlovingian it was not in the cause of the iconoclast that Pepin had exposed his person and army in a double expedition beyond the Alps he possessed and might lawfully alienate his conquest and to the importunities of the Greeks he piously replied that no human consideration should tempt him to resume the gift which he had confirmed 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 Spolato sought a refuge from the storm shaved their heads after the Roman fashion declared themselves the servants and subjects of Saint 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 who in the first transports of his victory dispoiled himself of the Greek emperor of the cities and islands which had formally 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 as well as Rome was numbered in a list of his metropolitan cities the sovereignty of the of the Exarchate melted away in the hands of the Popes they found in the archbishops of Ravenna a dangerous and domestic rival 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 fraud is the resource of weakness and cunning and the strong though ignorant barbarian was often entangled in the net of sacerdotal policy the Vatican and Lateran were an arsenal and manufacture which according to the occasion have produced or concealed a various collection of false or genuine of corrupt or suspicious acts as they tended to promote the interests of the Roman church before the end of the age century some apostolic scribe perhaps the notorious Isidore composed the decretals and the donation of Constantine the two magic pillars of the spiritual and temporal monarchy of the Popes this memorable donation was introduced to the world by an epistle of Adrian the first who exhorts Charlemagne to imitate the liberality and revive the name of the great Constantine according to the legend the first of the Christian emperors was healed of the leprosy and purified in the waters of baptism by Saint Sylvester the Roman bishop and never was physician more gloriously recompensed his royal proselytite withdrew from the seat and patrimony of Saint Peter declared his resolution of founding a new capital in the east and resigned to the Popes the free and perpetual sovereignty of Rome Italy and the provinces of the west this fiction was productive of the most beneficial effects the Greek princes were convicted of the guilt of usurpation and the revolt of Gregory was the claim of his lawful inheritance the Popes were delivered from their debt of gratitude and nominal gifts of the Carlo Vengeans were no more than the just and irrevocable restitution of a scanty portion of the ecclesiastical state the sovereignty of Rome no longer depended on the choice of a fickle people and the successes of Saint Peter and Constantine were invested with the purple and prerogatives of the Caesars so deep was the ignorance and credulity of the times that the most absurd of fables was received with equal reverence in Greece and in France and is still enrolled among the decrees of the canon law the emperors and the Romans were incapable of discerning a forgery that subverted their rights and freedom and the holy opposition proceeded from a Sabine monastery which in the beginning of the 12th century disputed the truth and validity of the donation of Constantine In the revival of Letters and Liberty this fictitious deed was transpirced by the pen of Laurentius Valla the pen of an eloquent critic and a Roman patriot his contemporaries of the 15th century were astonished at his sacrilegious boldness yet such is the silent and irresistible progress of reason that before the end of the next age the fable was rejected by the contempt of historians and poets and the tacit or modest censure of the advocates of the Roman church the popes themselves have indulged a smile at the credulity of the vulgar but a false and obsolete title still sanctifies their reign and by the same fortune which has attended the decretals to decretals and the sibling oracles the edifice has subsisted after foundations have been undermined while the popes established in Italy their freedom and dominion the images the first cause of their revolt were restored in the eastern empire under the reign of Constantine V the union of civil and ecclesiastical power had overthrown the tree without extirpating the root of superstition the idols for such they were now held were secretly cherished by the order and the sex most prone to devotion and the fond alliance of the monks and females obtained a final victory over the reason and authority of man Leo IV maintained with less figure the religion of his father and grandfather but his wife, the fair and ambitious Irene had imbibed the zeal of the Athenians the heirs of the idolatry rather than the philosophy of their ancestors during the life of her husband these sentiments were inflamed by danger and disillusion and she could only labor to protect and promote some favorite monks who she drew from their caverns and seated on the metropolitan thrones of the east but as soon as she reigned in her own name and that of her son Irene more seriously undertook the ruin of the iconoclasts and the first step in her future persecution was a general edict for liberty and conscience in the restoration of the monks a thousand images were exposed to the public veneration a thousand legends were inverted of their sufferings and miracles by the opportunities of death or removal the episcopal seats were judiciously filled the most eager competitors for earthly or celestial favor anticipated and flattered the judgment of their sovereign and the promotion of her secretary Terasius gave Irene the patriarch of Constantinople and the command of the Oriental Church but the decrees of a general council could only be repealed by a similar assembly the iconoclasts whom she convened were bold in possession and averse to debate and the feeble voice of the bishops was re-echoed by the more formidable clamor of the soldiers and people of Constantinople the delay and intrigues of a year the separation of the disaffected troops and the choice of niece for a second orthodox synod removed these obstacles and the episcopal conscience was again after the Greek fashion in the hands of the prince no more than 18 days were allowed for the consummation of this important work the iconoclasts appeared not as judges but as criminals or penitents the scene was decorated by the legates of Pope Adrian and the Eastern Patriarchs the decrees were framed by the president Terasius and ratified by the acclamations and subscriptions of 350 bishops they unanimously pronounced that the worship of images was is agreeable to scripture and reason to the fathers and councils of the church but they hesitate whether that worship be relative or direct whether the godhead and the figure of christ be entitled to the same mode of adoration of the second nicing council the acts are still extant a curious monument of superstition and ignorance of falsehood and folly I shall only notice the judgment of the bishops on the comparative merit of image worship and morality a monk had concluded their truce with a demon of fornication on condition of interrupting his daily prayers to a picture that hung in his cell his scooples prompted him to consult the abbot rather than abstain from adoring christ and his mother and their holy images it would be better for you reply the chasmist to enter every brothel and visit every prostitute in the city for the honor of orthodoxy at least the orthodoxy of the roman church it is somewhat unfortunate that the two princes who convene the two councils of nice are both stained with the blood of their sons the second of these assemblies was approved and rigorously executed by the despotism of Irene and she refused her adversaries the toleration which at first she had granted to her friends during the five succeeding reigns a period of 38 years the contest was maintained with unabated rage and various success between the worshipers and the breakers of the images but i am not inclined to pursue with minute diligence the repetition of the same events nysiferous allowed a general liberty of speech and practice and the only virtue of his reign is accused by the monks as the cause of his temporal and eternal perdition superstition and weakness form the character of michael the first but the saints and images were incapable of supporting their votary on the throne in the purple leo the fifth asserted the name and religion of an armenian and the idols with their seditious adherents were condemned to a second exile their applause would have sanctified the murder of an impious tyrant but his assassin and successor the second michael was tainted from his birth with the fridgen heresies he attempted to mediate between the contending parties and the intractable spirit of the catholics insensibly cast him into the opposite scale his moderation was guarded by timidity but his son theophilus alike ignorant of fear and piety was the last and most cruel of the iconoclasts the enthusiasm of the times ran strongly against them and the emperors who stemmed the torrent were exasperated and punished by the public hatred after the death of theophilus the final victory of the images was achieved by a second female his widow theodora whom he left the guardian of the empire her measures were bold and decisive the fiction of a tardy repentance absolved the fame and the soul of a deceased husband the sentence of the iconoclasts patriarch was commuted from the loss of his eyes to a whipping of 200 lashes the bishops trembled the monks shouted and the festival of orthodoxy preserves the annual memory of the triumph of the images a single question yet remained whether they are endowed with any proper and inherent sanctity it was agitated by the greeks of the 11th century and as this opinion has the strongest recommendation of absurdity i am surprised that it was not more explicitly decided in the affirmative in the west pope adrian I accepted and announced the decrees of the nicene assembly which is now revered by the catholics as the seventh in rank of the general councils roman and idly were docile to the voice of their father but the greatest part of the latin christians were far behind in the race of superstition the churches of france germany england and spain steered a middle course between the adoration and the destruction of images which they admitted into their temples not as objects of worship but as lively and useful memorials of faith and history an angry book of controversy was composed and published in the name of charlamagne under his authority a senate of 300 bishops was assembled at frankfort they blamed the fury of the iconoclasts but they pronounced a more severe censure against the superstition of the greeks and the decrees of their pretended council which was long despised by the barbarians of the west among them the worship of images advanced with a silent and insensible progress but a large atonement is made for their hesitation and delay by the gross idolatry of the ages which precede the reformation and of the countries both in europe and america which are still immersed in the gloom of superstition end of chapter 49 part three recording by dick dirrett manchester new hampshire usa chapter 49 of the history of the decline and fall of the roman empire volume five this is a librivox recording all librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org recording by dick dirrett chapter 49 conquest of italy by the franks part four it was after the nicene synod and under the reign of the pious Irene that the popes consummated the separation of Rome and italy by the translation of the empire to the less orthodox charlamagne they were compelled to choose between the rival nations religion was not the sole motive of their choice and while they dissembled the failings of their friends they'd be held with reluctance and suspicion the catholic virtues of their foes the difference of language and manners had perpetrated the enmity of the two capitals and they were alienated from each other by the hostile opposition of 70 years in that schism the romans had tasted the freedom and the popes of sovereignty their submission would have exposed them to the revenge of a jealous tyrant and the revolution of italy had betrayed the impotence as well as the tyranny of the byzantine court the greek emperors had restored the images but they had not restored the calabrian estates and the illyrian diocese which the iconoclasts had torn away from the successes of st peter and pope adrian threatens them with a sentence of excommunication unless they speedily abjure this practical heresy the greeks were now orthodox but their religion might be tated by the breath of the reigning monarch the franks were now contumatious but a discerning eye might discern their approaching conversion from the use to the adoration of images the name of shallomine was stained by the polemic acrimony of his scribes but the conqueror himself conformed with the temper of a statement to the various practice of france and italy in his four primiges or visits to the vatican he embraced the popes in the communion of friendship and piety knelt before the tome and consequently before the image of the apostle and joined without scruple in all the prayers and processions of the roman liturgy would prudence or gratitude allow the pontiffs to renew renounce rather their benefit had they a right to alienate his gift of the exarchate had they power to abolish his government of rom the title of patrician was below the merit and greatness of shallomine and it was only by reviving the western empire that they could pay their obligations or secure their establishment by this decisive measure they would finally eradicate the claims of the greeks from the debasement of a provincial town the majesty of rom would be restored the latin christians would be united under the supreme head in their ancient metropolis and the conquerors of the west would receive their crown from the successes of saint peter the roman church would acquire a zealous and respectable advocate and under the shadow of the carlovingian power the bishop might exercise with honor and safety the government of the city before the ruin of paganism in rom the competition for a wealthy bishopric had often been productive of tumult and bloodshed the people was less numerous but the times were more savage the prize more important and the chair of saint peter was fiercely disputed by the leading ecclesiastics who aspired to the rank of sovereign the reign of adrian the first surpasses the measure of past or succeeding ages the walls of rom the sacred patrimony the ruin of the lombards and the friendship of shallomine were the trophies of his fame he secretly edified the throne of his successes and displayed in a narrow space the virtues of a great prince his memory was revered but in the next election a priest of the lateran leo the third was preferred to the nephew and the favorite of adrian whom he had promoted to the first dignities of the church their acquiescence or repentance disguised above four years the blackest intention of revenge till the day of a procession when a furious band of conspirators dispersed the unarmed multitude and assaulted with blows and wounds the sacred person of the pope but their enterprise on his life or liberty was disappointed perhaps by their own confusion and remorse leo was left for dead on the ground on his revival from the swoon the effect of his loss of blood he recovered his speech and sight and this natural event was improved to the miraculous restoration of his eyes and tongue of which he had been deprived twice deprived by the knife of the assassins from his prison he escaped to the Vatican the duke of spoleto hasten to his rescue shallomines sympathized in his injury and in his camp of paddup born in west failure accepted or solicited a visit from the roman pontiff leo repast the elves with a commission of counts and bishops the guards of his safety and the judges of his innocence and it was not without reluctance that the conqueror of the Saxons delayed till the ensuing year the personal discharge of this pious office in his fourth and last pilgrimage he was received at Rome with the due honors of king and patrician leo was permitted to purge himself by oath of the crimes imputed to his charge his enemies were silenced and the sacrilegious attempt against his life was punished by the mild and insufficient penalty of exile on the festival of christmas the last year of the eighth century shallomine appeared in the church of st peter and to gratify the vanity of Rome he had exchanged a simple dress of his country for the habit of a patrician after the celebration of the holy mysteries leo suddenly placed a precious crown on his head and the dome resided with the acclamations of the people long life and victory to Charles the most pious augustus crowned by god the great and pacific emperor of the romans the head and body of shallomine were consecrated by the royal unction after the example of the caesars he was saluted or adored by the pontiff his coronation oath represents a promise to maintain the faith and privileges of the church and the first fruits were paid in his rich offerings to the shrine of his apostle in his familiar conversation the emperor protested the ignorance of the intentions of leo which he would have disappointed by his absence on that memorable day but the preparations of the ceremony must have disclosed the secret and the journey of shallomine reveals his knowledge and expectation he had acknowledged that the imperial title was the object of his ambition and a roman synod had promised that it was the only adequate reward of his merit and services the appellation of great that's been often bestowed and sometimes deserved but shallomine is the only prince in whose favor the title has been indisulably blended with the name that name with the addition of saint is inserted in the roman calendar and the saint by a rare felicity is crowned with the praises of the historians and philosophers of an enlightened age his real merit is doubtless enhanced by the barbarism of the nation and the times from which he emerged but the apparent magnitude of an object is likewise enlarged by the unequal comparison and the ruins of palmyra derive a casual splendor from the nakedness of the surrounding desert without injustice to his fame i may discern some blemishes in the sanctity and greatness of the restorer of the western empire of his moral virtues chastity is not the most conspicuous but the public happiness could not be materially injured by his nine wives or concubines the various indulgence of meaner or more transient amours the multitude of his bastards whom he bestowed on the church and the long celibacy and licentious manners of his daughters whom the father was suspected of loving were to form a passion i shall be scarcely permitted to accuse the ambition of a conqueror but in a day of equal retribution the sons of his brother carloman the marrow vengeance princes of aquitaine and the 4500 saxons who were beheaded on the same spot would have something to allege against the justice and humanity of charlamagne his treatment of the vanquished saxons was an abuse of the right of conquest his laws were not less sanguinary than his arms and in the discussion of his motives whatever is subtracted from bigotry must be imputed to temper the sedentary reader is amazed by his incessant activity of mind and body and his subjects and enemies were not less astonished at his sudden presence at the moment when they believed his at the most distant extremity of the empire neither peace nor war nor summer nor winter were a season of repose and our fancy cannot easily reconcile the annals of his reign with a geography of his expeditions but this activity was a national rather than a personal virtue the vagrant life of a frank was spent in the chase in pilgrimage in military adventures and the journeys of charlamagne were distinguished only by a more numerous train and a more important purpose his military renown must be tried by the scrutiny of his troops his enemies and his actions alexander conquered with the arms of philip but the two heroes were preceded who preceded charlamagne bequeathed his their name their examples and the companions of their victories at the head of his veteran and superior armies he oppressed the savage or degenerate nations who were incapable of confederating for their common safety nor did he ever encounter an equal antagonist in numbers in discipline or in arms the science of war had been lost and revived with the arts of peace but his campaigns are not illustrated by any siege or battle of singular difficulty and success and he might behold within v the sarasen trophies of his grandfather after the spanish expedition his rearguard was defeated in the pyrenian mountains and the soldiers whose situation was irretrievable and whose valour was useless might accuse with their last breath the want of skill or caution of their general i touch with reverence the laws of charlamagne so highly applauded by the respectable judge they compose not a system but a series of occasional and minute edicts for the correction of abuses the reformation of manners the economy of his farms the care of his poultry and even the sale of his eggs he was to improve the laws and the character of the franks and his attempts however feeble and imperfect are deserving of praise the inveterate evils of the times were suspended or modified by his government but in his institutions i can seldom discover the general views and the immortal spirit of a legislature who survives himself for the benefit of posterity the union and stability of his empire depended on the life of a single man he imitated the dangerous practice of dividing his kingdoms among his sons and after his numerous diets the whole constitution was left to fluctuate between the disorders of anarchy and despotism his esteem for the piety and knowledge of the clergy tempted him to entrust that aspiring order of temporal dominion and civil jurisdiction and his son lewis when he was stripped and degraded by the bishops might accuse in some measure the imprudence of his father his laws enforced the imposition of tithes because the daemons had proclaimed in the air that the default of payment had been the cause of the last scarcity the literary merits of charlamagne are tested by the foundation of schools the introduction of arts the works which were published in his name and his familiar connection with the subjects and strangers whom he invited to his court to educate both the prince and people his own studies were tardy laborious and imperfect if he spoke latin and understood greek he derived the rudiments of knowledge from conversation rather than from books and in his mature age the emperor strove to acquire the practice of writing which every peasant now learns in his infancy the grammar and logic the music and astronomy of the times were only cultivated as the handmaids of superstition but the curiosity of the human mind must ultimately tend to its improvement and the encouragement of learning reflects the purest and most pleasing luster on a character of charlamagne the dignity of his person the length of his reign the prosperity of his arms the vigor of his government and the reverence of distant nations distinguish him from the royal crowd and europe dates a new era from his restoration of the western empire that empire was not unworthy of its title and some of the fairest kingdoms of europe were the patrimony or conquest of a prince who reigned at the same time in france spain idly germany and hungary the roman province of gall had been transformed into the name and monarchy of france but in the decay of the marrow vigen line its limits were contracted by the independence of the britains and the revolt of aquitaine charlamagne pursued and confined the britains on the shores of the ocean and that ferocious tribe whose orange and language are so different from the french was chastised by the imposition of tribute hostages and peace after a long and evasive contest the rebellion of the dukes of aquitaine was punished by the forfeiture of their province their liberty and their lives harsh and rigorous would have been such treatment of ambitious governors who had too faithfully copied the mayors of the palace but a recent discovery has proved that these unhappy princes were the last and lawful heirs of the blood and scepter of clovis and younger branch from the brother of dacobert of the marrow vigen house their ancient kingdom was reduced to the duchy of gustoying to the counties of ferson rock and armagnac at the foot of the pyrenees their race was propagated till the beginning of the 16th century and after surviving their colo vigen tyrants they were reserved to feel the injustice or the favors of a third dynasty by the reunion of aquitaine france was enlarged to its present boundaries with the additions of the netherlands and spain as far as the rine the saracens had been expelled from france by the grandfather and father of charlemagne but they still possessed the greatest part of spain from the rock of gibraltar to the pyrenees amidst their civil divisions an arabian emir of saragossa employed his protection in the diet of patahon charlemagne undertook the expedition restored the emir and without distinction of faith impartially crushed the resistance of the christians and rewarded the obedience and services of the mohammatans in his absence he instituted the spanish march which extended from the pyrenees to the river ebro basalona was the residence of the french governor he possessed the counties of russilon and katalonia and the infant kingdoms of navar and aragon were subject to his jurisdiction as king of the lombards and patrician of rom he reigned over the greatest part of italy a tract of a thousand miles from the alps to the borders of colabria the duchy of beniventum a lombard fief had spread at the expense of the greeks over the morden kingdom of naples but ericus the reigning duke refused to be included in the slavery of his country assumed the independent title of prince and opposed his sword to the carlovingian monarchy his defense was firm his submission was not inglorious and the emperor was content with an easy tribute the demolition of his fortresses and the acknowledgement on his coins of a supreme lord the artral flattery of his son grimoire added the appellation of father but he asserted his dignity with prudence and benventum insensibly escaped from the french yoke charlamagne was the first who united germany under the same scepter the name of oriental france is preserved in the circle of franconia and the people of hess and thuringia were recently incorporated with the alamani no formidable to the romans were the faithful vassals and confederates of the franks and their country was inscribed within the morden limits of alsace swabia and switzerland the bavarians with a similar indulgence of their laws and manners were less patient of a master the repeated treasons of tesillo justified the abolition of their hereditary dukes and their power was shared among the counts who judged and guarded that important frontier but the north of germany from the rine and beyond the elb was still hostile and pagan now was it till after the war of 33 years that the saxons bowed under the yoke of christ and of charlamagne the idols and their votaries were extirpated the foundation of eight bishoprics of munster osnaburg patterborn and mendon of bremen farton hill the shame and halberstatt defined on either side of the west the bounds of ancient saxony these episcopal seats were the first schools and cities of that savage land and the religion and humanity of the children atoned in some degree for the massacre of the parents beyond the alb the slavie or slavonians of similar manners and various denominations overspread the modern dominions of prussia poland and bohemia and some transient marks of obedience have tempted the french historian to extend the empire to the baltik and the vestula the conquest or conversion of those countries is of a more recent age but the first union of bohemia with a dramatic body may be justly ascribed to the arms of charlamagne he retaliated on the avars or huns of panomia the same calamities which they had inflicted on the nations their rings the wooden fortifications which encircled their districts and the villages were broken down by the triple effort of a french army that was poured into their country by land and water through the carpathian mountains and along the plain of the danube after a bloody conflict of eight years the loss of some french generals was avenged by the slaughter of the most noble huns the relics of the nation submitted the royal residents of the shagan was left desolate and unknown and the treasures the rapine of 250 years enriched the victorious troops or decorated the churches of idli and gall after the reduction of panomia the empire of charlamagne was bounded only by the conflicts of the danube with the taiz and the sabi the provinces of estria liburnia and delmatia were an easy though unprofitable accession and it was an effect of his modernation that he left the maritime cities under the real or nominal sovereignty of the greeks but these distant possessions added more to the reputation than to the power of the latin emperor nor did he risk any ecclesiastical foundations to reclaim the barbarians from their vagrant life and idolatrous worship some canals of communication between the rivers the saun and the and the muse the rine and the danube were faintly attempted their execution would have vivified the empire and more cost and labor were often wasted in the structure of a cathedral end of chapter 49