НА Р. XLIX. their obligations or fecure their establishment. By CHAP. this decifive measure they would finally eradicate the claims of the Greeks from the debasement of a provincial town, the majesty of Rome would be restored the Latin Chriftians would be united under a fupreme head, in their ancient metropolis; and the conquerors of the West would receive their crown from the fucceffors of St. Peter. The Roman church would acquire a zealous and refpectable advocate; and, under the fhadow of the Carlovingian power, the bifhop might exercise, with honour and fafety, the government of the city $8. 58 Before the ruin of paganifm in Rome, the com- Coronation petition for a wealthy bishopric had often been productive of tumult and bloodfhed. The peo ple were lefs numerous, but the times were more favage, the prize more important, and the chair of St. Peter was fiercely difputed by the leading ecclefiaftics who afpired to the rank of fovereign. The reign of Adrian the first " furpaffes the mea 88 Fontanini confiders the emperors as no more than the advocates of the church (advocatus et defenfor S. R. E. See Ducange, Gloff. Lat. tom. i. p. 97.). His antagonist Muratori reduces the popes to be no more than the exarchs of the emperor. In the more equitable view of Mofheim (Inftitut. Hift. Eccles. p. 264, 265.), they held Rome under the empire as the most honourable fpecies of fief or benefice-premuntur nocte cali ginofâ ! 89 His merits and hopes are fummed up in an epitaph of thirty-eight verfes, of which Charlemagne declares himself the author (Concil. tom. viii. p. 520.). Poft patrem lacrymans Carolus hæc carmina fcripfi. ... Nomina jungo fimul titulis, clariffime, noftra The poetry might be supplied by Alcuin; but the tears, the most glorious of Charlemagne as Rome and emperor of of the West, A. D. 800, Dec. 25. fure XLIX. CHAP fure of paft or fucceeding ages"; the walls of Rome, the facred patrimony, the ruin of the Lombards, and the friendship of Charlemagne, were the trophies of his fame: he fecretly edified the throne of his fucceffors, and displayed in a narrow space the virtues of a great prince. His memory was revered; but in the next election, a priest of the Lateran, Leo the third, was preferred to the nephew and the favourite of Adrian, whom he had promoted to the first dignities of the church. Their acquiefcence or repentance difguifed, above four years, the blackest intention of revenge, till the day of a proceffion, when a furious band of confpirators difperfed the unarmed multitude, and affaulted with blows and wounds the facred person of the pope. But their enterprise on his life or liberty was disappointed, perhaps by their own confufion and remorse. Leo was left for dead on the ground; on his revival from the fwoon, the effect of his loss of blood, he recovered his fpeech and fight; and this natural event was improved to the miraculous restoration of his eyes and tongue, of which he had been deprived, twice deprived, by the knife of the affaffins ". From 91 90 Every new pope is admonished" Sancte Pater, non videbis annos "Petri," twenty-five years. On the whole feries the average is about eight years-a short hope for an ambitious cardinal, 91 The affurance of Anaftafius (tom. iii. pars i. p. 197, 198.) is fup'ported by the credulity of fome French annalists; but Eginhard, and other writers of the fame age, are more natural and fincere. "Unus ei occulus "paullulum eft læfus," fays John the deacon of Naples (Vit. Epifcop. Napol. in Scriptores Muratori, tom. i. pars ii. p. 312.). Theodulphus, a contemporary bishop of Orleans, obferves with prudence (1. iii. carm. 3.), Reddita funt? mirum eft: mirum eft auferre nequîffe. Eft tamen in dubio, hinc mirer aut inde magis. his XLIX. his prifon, he efcaped to the Vatican; the duke CHAP. of Spoleto haftened to his rescue, Charlemagne fympathised in his injury, and in his camp of Paderborn in Weftphalia accepted or folicited a vifit from the Roman pontiff. Leo repaffed the Alps with a commiffion of counts and bishops, the guards of his fafety and the judges of his innocence; and it was not without reluctance, that the conqueror of the Saxons delayed till the enfuing year the perfonal discharge of this pious office. In his fourth and last pilgrimage, he was received at Rome with the due honours of king and patrician: Leo was permitted to purge himself by oath of the crimes imputed to his charge: his enemies were filenced, and the facrilegious attempt against his life was punished by the mild and infufficient penalty of exile. On the festival of Christmas, the laft year of the eighth century, Charlemagne appeared in the church of St. Peter; and, to gratify the vanity of Rome, he had exchanged the fimple drefs of his country for the habit of a patrician "2. After the celebration of the holy mysteries, Leo fuddenly placed a precious crown on his head ", and the dome re 93 92 Twice, at the request of Hadrian and Leo, he appeared at Romelongâ tunicâ et chlamyde amicus, et caldeamentis quoque Romano more formatis. Eginhard (c, xxiii. p. 109-113.) describes, like Suetonius, the fimplicity of his drefs, fo popular in the nation, that when Charles the Bald returned to France in a foreign habit, the patriotic dogs barked at the apoftate (Gaillard, Vie de Charlemagne, tom. iv. p. 109.). 93 See Anaftafius (p. 199.) and Eginhard (c. xxviii. p. 124-128.). The unction is mentioned by Theophanes (p. 399.), the oath by Sigonius (from the Ordo Romanus), and the pope's adoration more antiquorum principum, by the Annales Bertiniani (Script. Murator. tom. ii. pars ii. P. 505.). founded XLIX. CHAP. founded with the acclamations of the people, "Long life and victory to Charles, the most "pious Auguftus, crowned by God the great and "pacific emperor of the Romans!" The head and body of Charlemagne were confecrated by the royal unction: after the example of the Cafars he was faluted or adored by the pontiff; his coronation oath reprefents a promise to maintain the faith and privileges of the church; and the first fruits were paid in his rich offerings to the fhrine of the apostle. In his familiar converfation, the emperor protefted his ignorance of the intentions of Leo, which he would have difappointed by his absence on that memorable day. But the preparations of the ceremony must have difclofed the fecret; and the journey of Charlemage reveals his knowledge and expectation: he had acknowledged that the imperial title was the object of his ambition, and a Roman fenate had pronounced, that it was the only adequate reward of his merit and fervices 94. Reign and character of Charle The appellation of great has been often beftowed and fometimes deferved, but CHARLE MAGNE is the only prince in whofe favour the 768-814. title has been indiffolubly blended with the name. magne, A. D. * 94 This great event of the tranflation or restoration of the empire, is related and difcuffed by Natalis Alexander (fecul. ix. differt. i. p. 390397.), Pagi (tom. iii. p. 418.), Muratori (Annali d'Italia, tom. vi. p. 339 -352.), Sigonius (de Regno Italiæ, 1. iv. Opp. tom. ii. p. 247—251.), Spanheim (de fictâ Tranflatione Imperii), Giannone (tom. i. p. 395-405.), St. Marc (Abregé Chronologique, tom. i. p. 438-450.), Gaillard (Hift. de Charlemagne, tom. ii. p. 386-446.). Almost all thefe moderns have XLIX. That name, with the addition of faint, is inferted CHAP. 95 By Mably (Obfervations fur l'Hiftoire de France), Voltaire (Histoire Generale), Robertson (History of Charles V.), and Montefquieu (Efprit des Loix, 1. xxxi. c. 18.). In the year 1782, M. Gaillard published his Histoire de Charlemagne (in 4 vols. in 12mo), which I have freely and profitably ufed. The author is a man of fenfe and humanity; and his work is laboured with industry and elegance. But I have likewife examined the original monuments of the reigns of Pepin and Charlemagne, in the yth vo. ume of the Hiftorians of France. 96 The vifion of Weltin, compofed by a monk, eleven years after the death of Charlemagne, fhews him in purgatory, with a vulture, who is perpetually gnawing the guilty member, while the reft of his body, the emblem of his virtues, is found and perfect (fee Gaillard, tom. ii. p. 317 360.). daughters, |