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Rh by the military organisations, but also by another factor, the Church, which prepared to occupy the gaps left by the activity of the State, and to enter upon a part of its heritage. Through means of influence peculiar to herself and not accessible to the State, the Church had in Italy a very special position through her extensive landed property, as also by right of privileges which former emperors, in particular Justinian, had accorded to her. The legal privileges of the Church went so far, that popes of the sixth century already claimed for the clergy the right to be judged by ecclesiastics only, and its landed property was protected by special laws. The influence of the Church in all matters could only be controlled by the actual power and authority of the State, for the claim of the pope and of the ecclesiastical hierarchy to be the representatives of the civitas Dei, and as such superior to worldly authorities, permitted a growth of power to an unlimited extent.

The material foundation for this power was supplied by the immense wealth, of the Roman Church especially, which designated its possessions by preference as patrimonium pauperum. The starting-point for its activity was indeed the care of the poor, a field which had been entirely neglected by the State, but gained importance in proportion to the increasing distress of the times and the insufficiency of the public administration. The State itself, in fact, not only allowed the bishops an important voice in the election of the provincial governors, but it granted them a certain right of control over all officials, in so far as they were permitted to attend to the complaints of the oppressed population, and to convey them to the magistrates in authority or even to the emperor himself. Time after time there was intervention, mostly by the popes, and no part of the administration was free from their influence.

The predominance of the ecclesiastical influence over the secular in the civil administration shews itself very clearly in the department of municipal government, for the curiales, the remainders of the old, having lost their autonomy and become mere bearers of burdens, were already doomed. In Lilybaeum, for instance, the wealthy citizens, manifestly the curiales, had made an agreement with the bishop in accordance with which the bishop took over certain of their burdens, and in return a number of estates were transferred to the Church. At Naples the bishop tried to get possession of the aqueducts and the city gates. Above all, at Rome the pope extended the range of his power in his own interest and in the interest of the population, who could no longer depend upon the regular working of the public administration. The Pragmatica sanctio had guaranteed the maintenance by the State of the public buildings at Rome; nevertheless, in the seventh century the care of the aqueducts as well as the preservation of the city walls passed over to the papal administration. By this time no more mention is made of the praefectura urbis, and when after almost two centuries it