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In these times
the popes began to acquire greater temporal authority than they had previously
possessed; although the immediate successors of St. Peter were more reverenced
for the holiness of their lives, and the miracles which they performed; and
their example so greatly extended the Christian religion, that princes of other
states embraced it, in order to obviate the confusion which prevailed at that
period. The emperor having become a Christian and returned to Constantinople,
it followed, as was remarked at the commencement of the book, that the Roman
empire was the more easily ruined, and the church more rapidly increased her
authority. Nevertheless, the whole of Italy, being subject either to the
emperors or the kings till the coming of the Lombards, the popes never acquired
any greater authority than what reverence for their habits and doctrine gave
them. In other respects they obeyed the emperors or kings; officiated for them
in their affairs, as ministers or agents, and were even sometimes put to death
by them. He who caused them to become of more importance in the affairs of
Italy, was Theodoric, king of the Goths, when he established the seat of his
empire at Ravenna; for, Rome being without a prince, the Romans found it
necessary, for their safety, to yield obedience to the pope; his authority,
however, was not greatly increased thereby, the only advantage being, that the
church of Rome was allowed to take precedence of that of Ravenna. But the
Lombards having taken possession, and Italy being divided into many parts, the
pope had an opportunity of greater exertion. Being as it were the head of Rome,
both the emperor of Constantinople and the Lombards respected him; so that the
Romans, by his means, entered into league with the Lombards, and with Longinus,
not as subjects, but as equals. Thus the popes, at one time friends of the
Greeks, and at another of the Lombards, increased their own power; but upon the
ruin of the eastern empire, which occurred during the time of Heraclius, their
influence was reduced; for the Sclavi, of whom we spoke before, again assailed
Illyria, and having occupied the country, named it Sclavonia, after themselves;
and the other parts were attacked by the Persians, then by the Saracens under
Mohammed, and lastly by the Turks, who took Syria, Africa, and Egypt. These
causes induced the reigning pope, in his distress, to seek new friends, and he
applied to the king of France. Nearly all the wars which the northern
barbarians carried on in Italy, it may be here remarked, were occasioned by the
pontiffs; and the hordes, with which the country was inundated, were generally
called in by them. The same mode of proceeding still continued, and kept Italy
weak and unsettled. And, therefore, in relating the events which have taken
place from those times to the present, the ruin of the empire will be no longer
illustrated, but only the increase of the pontificate and of the other
principalities which ruled Italy till the coming of Charles VIII. It will be
seen how the popes, first with censures, and afterward with these and arms,
mingled with indulgences, became both terrible and venerable; and how, from
having abused both, they ceased to possess any influence, and were wholly
dependent on the will of others for assistance in their wars.
But to return
to the order of our narration. Gregory III. occupied the papacy, and the
kingdom of the Lombards was held by Astolphus, who, contrary to agreement,
seized Ravenna, and made war upon the pope. On this account, Gregory no longer
relying upon the emperor of Constantinople, since he, for the reasons above
given, was unable to assist him, and unwilling to trust the Lombards, for they
had frequently broken their faith, had recourse to Pepin II., who, from being
lord of Austria and Brabant, had become king of France; not so much by his own
valor as by that of Charles Martel, his father, and Pepin his grandfather; for
Charles Martel, being governor of the kingdom, effected the memorable defeat of
the Saracens near Tours, upon the Loire, in which two hundred thousand of them
are said to have been left dead upon the field of battle. Hence, Pepin, by his
father’s reputation and his own abilities, became afterward king of France. To
him Pope Gregory, as we have said, applied for assistance against the Lombards,
which Pepin promised to grant, but desired first to see him and be honored with
his presence. Gregory accordingly went to France, passing uninjured through the
country of his enemies, so great was the respect they had for religion, and was
treated honorably by Pepin, who sent an army into Italy, and besieged the
Lombards in Pavia. King Astolphus, compelled by necessity, made proposals of
peace to the French, who agreed to them at the entreaty of the pope—for he did
not desire the death of his enemy, but that he should be converted and live. In
this treaty, Astolphus promised to give to the church all the places he had
taken from her; but the king’s forces having returned to France, he did not
fulfill the agreement, and the pope again had recourse to Pepin, who sent
another army, conquered the Lombards, took Ravenna, and, contrary to the wishes
of the Greek emperor, gave it to the pope, with all the places that belonged to
the exarchate, and added to them Urbino and the Marca. But Astolphus, while
fulfilling the terms of his agreement, died, and Desiderius, a Lombard, who was
duke of Tuscany, took up arms to occupy the kingdom, and demanded assistance of
the pope, promising him his friendship. The pope acceding to his request, the
other princes assented. Desiderius kept faith at first, and proceeded to resign
the districts to the pope, according to the agreement made with Pepin, so that
an exarch was no longer sent from Constantinople to Ravenna, but it was
governed according to the will of the pope. Pepin soon after died, and was
succeeded by his son Charles, the same who, on account of the magnitude and
success of his enterprises, was called Charlemagne, or Charles the Great.
Theodore I. now succeeded to the papacy, and discord arising between him and
Desiderius, the latter besieged him in Rome. The pope requested assistance of
Charles, who, having crossed the Alps, besieged Desiderius in Pavai, where he
took both him and his children, and sent them prisoners to France. He then went
to visit the pontiff at Rome, where he declared, THAT THE POPE, BEING VICAR OF
GOD, COULD NOT BE JUDGED BY MEN. The pope and the people of Rome made him
emperor; and thus Rome began to have an emperor of the west. And whereas the
popes used to be established by the emperors, the latter now began to have need
of the popes at their elections; the empire continued to lose its powers, while
the church acquired them; and, by these means, she constantly extended her
authority over temporal princes.
The Lombards,
having now been two hundred and thirty-two years in the country, were strangers
only in name, and Charles, wishing to reorganize the states of Italy, consented
that they should occupy the places in which they had been brought up, and call
the province after their own name, Lombardy. That they might be led to respect
the Roman name, he ordered all that part of Italy adjoining to them, which had
been under the exarchate of Ravenna, to be called Romagna. Besides this, he
created his son Pepin, king of Italy, whose dominion extended to Benevento; all
the rest being possessed by the Greek emperor, with whom Charles was in league.
About this time Pascal I. occupied the pontificate, and the priests of the
churches of Rome, from being near to the pope, and attending the elections of
the pontiff, began to dignify their own power with a title, by calling
themselves cardinals, and arrogated so great authority, that having excluded
the people of Rome from the election of pontiff, the appointment of a new pope
was scarcely ever made except from one of their own number: thus on the death
of Pascal, the cardinal of St. Sabina was created pope by the title of Eugenius
II. Italy having come into the hands of the French, a change of form and order
took place, the popes acquiring greater temporal power, and the new authorities
adopting the titles of count and marquis, as that of duke had been introduced
by Longinus, exarch of Ravenna. After the deaths of some pontiffs, Osporco, a
Roman, succeeded to the papacy; but on account of his unseemly appellation, he
took the name of Sergius, and this was the origin of that change of names which
the popes adopt upon their election to the pontificate.
In the
meantime, the Emperor Charles died and was succeeded by Lewis (the Pious, after
whose death so many disputes arose among his sons, that at the time of his
grandchildren, the house of France lost the empire, which then came to the
Germans; the first German emperor being called Arnolfus. Nor did the
Carlovingian family lose the empire only; their discords also occasioned them
the loss of Italy; for the Lombards, gathering strength, offended the pope and
the Romans, and Arnolfo, not knowing where to seek relief, was compelled to
create Berengarius, duke of Fruili, king of Italy. These events induced the
Huns, who occupied Pannonia, to assail Italy; but, in an engagement with
Berengarius, they were compelled to return to Pannonia, which had from them
been named Hungary.
Romano was at
this time emperor of Greece, having, while prefect of the army, dethroned
Constantine; and as Puglia and Calabria, which, as before observed, were parts
of the Greek empire, had revolted, he gave permission to the Saracans to occupy
them; and they having taken possession of these provinces, besieged Rome. The
Romans, Berengarius being then engaged in defending himself against the Huns,
appointed Alberic, duke of Tuscany, their leader. By his valor Rome was saved
from the Saracens, who, withdrawing from the siege, erected a fortress upon
Mount Gargano, by means of which they governed Puglia and Calabria, and
harassed the whole country. Thus Italy was in those times very grievously
afflicted, being in constant warfare with the Huns in the direction of the
Alps, and, on the Neapolitan side, suffering from the inroads of the Saracens.
This state of things continued many years, occupying the reigns of three
Berengarii, who succeeded each other; and during this time the pope and the
church were greatly disturbed; the impotence of the eastern, and the disunion
which prevailed among the western princes, leaving them without defense. The
city of Genoa, with all her territory upon the rivers, having been overrun by
the Saracens, an impulse was thus given to the rising greatness of Pisa, in
which city multitudes took refuge who had been driven out of their own country.
These events occurred in the year 931, when Otho, duke of Saxony, the son of
Henry and Matilda, a man of great prudence and reputation, being made emperor,
the pope Agapito, begged that he would come into Italy and relieve him from the
tyranny of the Berengarii.
The States of
Italy were governed in this manner: Lombardy was under Berengarius III. and Alfred
his son; Tuscany and Romagna were governed by a deputy of the western emperor;
Puglia and Calabria were partly under the Greek emperor, and partly under the
Saracens; in Rome two consuls were annually chosen from the nobility, who
governed her according to ancient custom; to these was added a prefect, who
dispensed justice among the people; and there was a council of twelve, who each
year appointed rectors for the places subject to them. The popes had more or
less authority in Rome and the rest of Italy, in proportion as they were
favorites of the emperor or of the most powerful states. The Emperor Otho came
into Italy, took the kingdom from the Berengarii, in which they had reigned
fifty-five years, and reinstated the pontiff in his dignity. He had a son and a
nephew, each named Otho, who, one after the other, succeeded to the empire. In
the reign of Otho III., Pope Gregory V. was expelled by the Romans; whereupon
the emperor came into Italy and replaced him; and the pope, to revenge himself
on the Romans, took from them the right to create an emperor, and gave it to
three princes and three bishops of Germany; the princes of Brandenburg,
Palatine, and Saxony, and the bishops of Magonza, Treveri, and Colonia. This
occurred in the year 1002. After the death of Otho III. the electors created
Henry, duke of Bavaria, emperor, who at the end of twelve years was crowned by
Pope Stephen VIII. Henry and his wife Simeonda were persons of very holy life,
as is seen by the many temples built and endowed by them, of which the church
of St. Miniato, near Florence, is one. Henry died in 1024, and was succeeded by
Conrad of Suabia; and the latter by Henry II., who came to Rome; and as there
was a schism in the church of three popes, he set them all aside, and caused the
election of Clement II., by whom he was crowned emperor.
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