Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/280

 258 THE DECLINE AND FALL hibit the portrait, or at least the mask, of the founder of the papal monarchy. " During ten pure and fortunate years," says Gregory to the emperor, "we have tasted the annual comfort of your royal letters, subscribed in purple ink with your own hand, the sacred pledges of your attachment to the orthodox creed of our fathers. How deplorable is the change ! how tremendous the scandal ! You now accuse the Catholics of idolatry ; and, by the accusation, you betray your own impiety and ignorance. To this ignorance we are compelled to adapt the grossness of our style and arguments ; the first elements of holy letters are sufficient for your confusion ; and, were you to enter a grammar-school and avow yourself the enemy of our worship, the simple and pious children would be provoked to cast their horn-books at your head." After this decent salutation, the pope attempts the usual distinction between the idols of antiquity and the Christian images. The former were the fanciful repre- sentations of phantoms or daemons, at a time when the true God had not manifested his person in any visible likeness. The latter are the genuine forntis of Christ, his mother, and his saints, who had approved, by a crowd of miracles, the innocence and merit of this relative worship. He must indeed have trusted to the ignorance of Leo, since he could assert the perpetual use of images from the apostolic age, and their venerable presence in the six synods of the Catholic church. A more specious argument is drawn from present possession and recent practice ; the harmony of the Christian world supersedes the demand of a general council ; and Gregory frankly confesses that such assemblies can only be useful under the reign of an orthodox prince. To the impudent and inhuman Leo, more guilty than an 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 of St. Peter may lawfully chastise the kings of the earth. " You assault us, O tyrant ! with a carnal and military hand ; unarmed and naked, we can only implore the Christ, the prince of the heavenly host, that he will send unto you a devil, for the destruction of your body and the salvation of your soul. You declare, with foolish arrogance, I will despatch my orders