Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/810

Rh 786 ROME [HISTORY. onation 'Pippin. 777). Pippin brought his array to the rescue (754-755) an( j fulfilled his promise. The pope accepted the dona- tion in the name of St Peter, and as the visible head of the church. Thus in 755 central Italy broke its connexion with the empire and became independent ; thus was in- augurated the temporal power of the papacy, the cause of so much subsequent warfare and revolution in Rome. Its first consequences were speedily seen. In 767 the death of Paul I. was followed by a fierce revolt of the nobles under Duke Toto (Theodoro) of Nepi, who by violent means raised his brother Constantino to the chair of St Peter, although Constantino was a layman and had first to be ordained. For more than a year the. new pontiff was a pliable tool in the hands of Toto and of the nobles. But the genuine papal faction, headed by a few judices de clero, asked the aid of the Lombards and made a formidable resistance. Their adversaries were defeated, tortured, and put to death. Toto was treacherously slain during a fight. The pope was blinded and left half dead on the highway. Fresh and no less violent riots ensued, owing to the public dread lest the new pope, Stephen IV. (768-772), elected by favour of the Lombards, should give them the city in return. But Stephen went over to the Franks, whom he had previously deserted, and his succes- sor, Hadrian I. (772-795), likewise adhered to their cause, called the city to arms to resist king Desiderius and his Lombard hordes, and besought the assistance of Charle- magne. This monarch accordingly made a descent into Italy in 773, and not only gained an easy victory over Desiderius, but destroyed the Lombard kingdom and seized the iron crown. Entering Rome for the first time in 774, he confirmed and augmented the donation of Pippin by the addition of the dukedom of Spoleto. He returned several times to Italy and Rome, making new conquests and fresh concessions to Adrian I., until the death of the latter in 795. The position of Rome and of the pope is now substan- tially changed. Duke, prefect, militia, and the people exist as heretofore, but are all subordinate to the head of the church, who, by the donations of Pippin and Charle- magne, has been converted into a powerful temporal sovereign. Henceforth all connexion with Byzantium is broken off, but Rome is still the mainspring of the empire, the Roman duchy its sole surviving fragment in Italy, and the pope stands before the world as representative of both. And, although it is difficult to determine how this came about, the pope is now regarded and regards him- self as master of Rome. In the year 772 he entrusts the vestiarius with judicial powers over the laity, ecclesiastics, freemen, and slaves nostrae Romanae reipublicae. He writes to Charlemagne that he has issued orders for the burning of the Greek ships employed in the slave trade, "in our city of Civita Vecchia" (Centuincellse), and he always speaks of Rome and the Romans as " our city," " our republic," " our people." The donations of Pippin and Charlemagne are restitutions made to Saint Peter, the holy church, and the republic at the same time. It is true that Charlemagne held the supreme power, had an im- mensely increased authority, and actively fulfilled his duties as patricius. But his power was only occasionally exercised in Rome ; it was the result of services rendered to the church, and of the church's continual need of his help ; it was, as it were, the power of a mighty and indispensable ally. The pope, however, was most tenacious of his own authority in Rome, made vigorous protest whenever rebels fled to Charlemagne or appealed to that monarch's arbitra- tion, and contested the supremacy of the imperial officials in Rome. Yet the pope was no absolute sovereign, nor, in the modern sense of the term, did any then exist. He asserted supremacy over many lauds which continually rebelled against him, and which, for want of an army of his own, he was unable to reduce to obedience without others' help. Neither did the republic acknowledge him as its head. It profited by the growing power of the pope, could not exist without him, respected his moral authority, but considered that he usurped undue power in Rome. This was specially the feeling of the nobles, who had hitherto held the chief authority in the republic, and, being still the leaders of the army, were by no means willing to relinquish it. The Roman nobles were very different from other aristocratic bodies elsewhere. They were not, as they pretended, descendants of the Camilli and the Scipios, but neither were they a feudal aristocracy, inasmuch as the Teutonic element had as yet made small way among them. They were a mixture of different elements, national and foreign, formed by the special conditions of Rome. Their power was chiefly derived from the high offices and large grants of money and land conferred on them by the popes ; but, as no dynasty existed, they could not be dynastic. Every pope aggrandized his own kindred and friends, and these were the natural and often open adversaries of the next pontiff and his favourites. Thus the Roman nobility was powerful, divided, restless, and turbulent ; it was con- tinually plotting against the pope, threatening not only his power, but even his life; it continually appealed to the people for assistance, stirred the militia to revolt, and rendered government an impossibility. Hence, notwith- standing his immense moral authority, the pope was the effective head neither of the aristocracy, the army, nor of the as yet unorganized lower classes. The lord of vast but often insubordinate territories, the recognized master of a capital city torn by internecine feud and plots against himself, he needed the support of an effective force for his own preservation and the maintenance of the authority proffered him from ail quarters. Hence the necessity of creating an empire of the West, after having snapped every link with that of the East. Thus the history of Rome is still, as in the past, a history of continual strife between pope, emperor, and republic ; and the city, while imbibing strength from all three, keeps them in perpetual tumult and confusion. Leo III. (796-816) further strengthened the ties be- tween Charlemagne and the church by sending the former a letter with the keys of the shrine of St Peter and the banner of Rome. Charlemagne had already joined to his office of patrician the function of high justice. The new symbols now sent constituted him miles of Rome and general of the church. The pope urged him to despatch an envoy to receive the oath of fealty, thus placing him- self, the representative of the republic, in the subordinate position of one of the bishops who had received the immunities of counts. And all these arrangements took place without the slightest reference to the senate, the army, or the people. Much resentment was felt, especially by the nobles, and a revolution ensued headed by the primicerius Paschalis and the secundicerius Campulus, and backed by all who wished to liberate the city from the papal rule. During a solemn procession the pope was attacked and barbarously maltreated by his assailants, who tried to tear out his eyes and tongue (799). He was thrown into prison, escaped, and overtook Charle- magne at Paderborn, and returned guarded by ten of the monarch's envoys, who condemned to death the leaders of the revolt, reserving, however, to their sovereign the right of final judgment. Charlemagne arrived in December 800, and as high justice assembled a tribunal of the clergy, nobles, citizens, and Franks ; he pronounced Leo to be innocent, and confirmed the capital sentence passed on the rebels. But through the intercession of the pope, who dreaded the wrath of the nobles, this was presently com-