Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/290

 268 THE DECLINE AND FALL of Pavia, were the only defence of the Lombards ; the former Conquest of were Surprised, the latter were invested, by the son of Pepin ; Charlemagne, and after a blockade of two years, Desiderius, the last of their A.I). 774 ^ ' ' [ten months] native princcs, surrendered his sceptre and his capital. Under the dominion of a foreign king, but in the possession of their 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. ^^ Pepin and The mutual obligations of the popes and the Carlovinsrian Charlemagne, *-' * Jt ~ F^ifce' A D f'^'^i^y form the important link of ancient and modern, of civil 751, 763-768 and ecclesiastical, history. In the conquest of Italy, the cham- pions of the Roman church obtained a favourable 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 of patrician of Rome. I, Under the sacerdotal monarchy of St. 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 his valour ; his friends were multiplied by his liberality ; his father had been the saviour 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 Childeric ; but his obsolete right could only be used as an in.strument of sedition ; the nation was desirous of restoring the simplicity of the constitution ; and Pepin, a subject and a prince, was ambitious to ascertain his own rank and the 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 com- mon ambassadors addressed the Roman pontiff, to dispel their •'•♦See the Annali d'ltalia of Muratori, torn. vi. and the tliree first dissertations of his Antiquitates Italias Medii /Evi, torn. i. •'•5 Besides the common historians, three French critics, Launoy (Opera, tom. v. pars ii. 1. vii. epist. 9, p. 477-487), Pagi (Critica, a.d. 751, No. 1-6, A.D. 752, No. i-io), and Natahs Alexander (Hist. Novi Testament!, Dissertat. ii. p. 96-107), have treated this subject of the deposition of Childeric with learning and attention, but with a strong bias to save the independence of the crown. Yet they are hard pressed by the te.xts which they produce of Eginhard, Theophanes, and the old annals, Laureshamenses, Fuldenses, Loisiel^ni [= Laurissenses maioresj.