Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/807

Rh MEDIEVAL REPUBLIC.] ROME 783 bds. Tl 1X58. Crjory r. Kome was a mere provincial city, constantly exposed to attack, we may imagine to what the senate was reduced. All Roman institutions were altered and decayed; but their original features were still to be traced, and no heterogeneous element had been introduced into them. The first dawn of a completely new epoch can only be dated from the invasion of the Lombards (568-572). Their conquest of a large portion of Italy was accompanied by the harshest oppression. They abolished all ancient laws and institutions, and not only seized a third of the lands, but reduced the inhabitants to almost utter slavery. But, in the unsubdued parts of the country namely, in Ravenna, Rome, and the maritime cities a very dif- ferent state of things prevailed. The necessity for self- defence and the distance of the empire, now too worn out to render any assistance, compelled the inhabitants to depend solely on their own strength. Thus, certain maritime cities, such as Naples, Amalfi, Pisa, and Venice, soon attained to a greater or less degree of liberty and inde- pendence. A special state of things now arose in Rome. We behold the rapid growth of the papal power and the con- tinual increase of its moral and political influence. This had already begun under Leo I., and been further pro- moted by the pragmatic sanction. Not only the super- intendence but often the nomination of public function- aries and judges was now in the hands of the popes. And the accession to St Peter's chair of a man of real genius in the person of Gregory I., surnamed the Great, marked the commencement of a new era. By force of individual character, as well as by historic necessity, this pope became the most potent personage in Rome. Power fell naturally into his hands ; he was the true representative of the city, the born defender of church and state. His ecclesiastical authority, already great throughout Italy, was specially great in the Roman diocese and in southern Italy. The continual offerings of the faithful had previously endowed the church with enormous possessions in the province of Rome, in Sicily, Sardinia, and other parts. The admini- stration of all this property soon assumed the shape of a small government council in Rome. This protected and succoured the oppressed, settled disputes, nominated judges, and controlled the ecclesiastical authorities. The use made by the pope of his revenues greatly contributed to the increase of his moral and political authority. When the city was besieged by the Lombards, and the emperor left his army unpaid, Gregory supplied the required funds and thus made resistance possible. And, when the defence could be no longer maintained, he alone, by the weight of his personal influence and the payment of large sums, induced the Lombards to raise the siege. He negotiated in person with Agilulph, and was recognized by him as the true representative of the city. Thus Rome, after being five times taken and sacked by the barbarians, was, on this occasion, saved by its bishop. The exarch, although unable to give any help, protested against the assumption of so much authority by the pope ; but Gregory was no usurper, and his attitude was the natural result of events. " For twenty-seven years " so wrote this pontiff to the imperial government of Constan- tinople " we lived in terror of the Longobards, nor can I say what sums we had to pay them. There is an imperial treasurer with the army at Ravenna; but here it is I who am treasurer. Likewise I have to provide for the clergy, the poor, and the people, and even to succour the distress of other churches." It was at this moment that the new Roman commune began to take shape and acquire increasing vigour owing to its distance from the seat of the empire and its resistance to the Lombard besiegers. Its special character was now to be traced in the preponderance of the military over the civil power. A Roman element had penetrated into the army, which was already possessed of considerable political importance. The prefect of Rome loses authority and seems almost a nullity compared with the magister militum. Hardly anything is heard of the senate. " Quia enim Senatus deest, populus interiit," exclaims Gregory in a moment of despair. The popes now make common cause with the people against the Lombards on the one hand and the emperor on the other. But they avoid an absolute rupture with the empire, lest they should have to face the Lombard power without any prospect of help. Later, when the growing strength of the commune becomes menacing, they remain faithful to the empire in order not to be at the mercy of the people. It was a permanent feature of their policy never to allow the complete inde- pendence of the city until they should be its sole and absolute masters. But that time was still in the future. Meanwhile pope and people joined in the defence of their common interests. This alliance was cemented by the religious disputes of the East and the West. First came the Monothelite con- troversy regarding the twofold nature of Christ. In order to compel obedience to his edict, the emperor commanded the exarch to take energetic measures, and, provided he could secure the favour of the Roman army, to actually seize the person of Pope Martin I. (649-654). A long and violent struggle ensued, in which the people of Rome and of other Italian cities sided so vigorously with the popes that John VI. (701-705) had to interpose in order to release the exarch from captivity and prevent a definitive rupture with the empire. Later (710-711) Ravenna revolted against the emperor, organized its armed population under twelve flags, and almost all the cities of the exarchate joined in a resistance that was the first step towards the independence of the Italian communes. A still fiercer religious quarrel then broke out concerning images. Pope Gregory II. (715-731) opposed the cele- brated edict of the iconoclastic emperor Leo the Isaurian. Venice and the Pentapolis took up arms in favour of the pope, and elected dukes of their own without applying to the emperor. Again public disorder rose to such a pitch that the pope was obliged to check it lest it should go too far. In the midst of these warlike tumults a new constitu- The tion, almost a new state, was being set up in Rome, duchy of During the conflict with Philippicus, the Monothelite and heretical emperor who ascended the throne in 711, the Liber Pontijicalis makes the first mention of the duchy of Rome (ducatus Romanae urbis), and we find the people struggling to elect a duke of their own. In the early days of the Byzantine rule the territory appertaining to the city was no greater than under the Roman empire. But, partly through the weakness of the government of Constantinople, and above all through the decomposi- tion of the Italian provinces under the Lombards, who destroyed all unity of government in the peninsula, this dukedom was widely extended, and its limits were always changing in accordance with the course of events. It was watered by the Tiber, and stretched into Tuscia to the right, starting from the mouth of the Marta, by Tolfa and Bleda, and reaching as far as Orte. Viterbo was a frontier city of the Lombards. On the left the duchy extended into Latium as far as the Garigliano. It spread very little to the north-east and was badly defended on that side, inasmuch as the duchy of Spoleto reached to within fourteen miles of the Salara gate. On the other side, towards Umbria, the river Nera was its boundary line. The constitution of the city now begins to show the