of the Tiber.42 When the kings were banished, the repub- CHAP, lic reposed on the firm basis which had been founded by

XLIX. their wisdom and virtue. Their perpetual jurisdiction was divided between two annual magistrates; the senate continued to exercise the powers of administration and counsel; and the legislative authority was distributed in the assemblies of the people, by a well-proportioned scale of property and service. Ignorant of the arts of luxury, the primitive Romans had improved the science of government and war: the will of the community was absolute; the rights of indi. viduals were sacred: one hundred and thirty thousand citi. zens were armed for defence or conquest; and a band of robbers and outlaws was moulded into a nation, deserving of freedom and ambitious of glory.43. When the sovereignty of the Greek emperors was extinguished, the ruins of Rome presented the sad image of depopulation and decay; her slavery was an habit, her liberty an accident; the effect of superstition, and the object of her own amazement and terror. The last vestige of her substance, or even the forms, of the constitution, was obliterated from the practice and memory of the Romans; and they were devoid of knowledge, or virtue, again to build the fabric of a commonwealth. Their scanty remnant, the offspring of slaves and strangers, was despicable in the eyes of the victorious Barbarians. As often as the Franks or Lombards expressed their most bitter contempt of a foe, they called him a Roman; “ and in “ this name,” says the bishop Liutprand, “we include what“ ever is base, whatever is cowardly, whatever is perfidious, " the extremes of avarice and luxury, and every vice that “ can prostitute the dignity of human nature."44

a

By the

CHAP. necessity of their situation, the inhabitants of Rome were XLIX.

cast into the rough model of a republican government: they were compelled to elect some judges in peace and some leaders in war: the nobles assembled to deliberate, and their resolves could not be executed without the union and con. sent of the multitude. The style of the Roman senate and people was revived,45 but the spirit was fled; and their new independence was disgraced by the tumultuous conflict of licentiousness and oppression. The want of laws could only be supplied by the influence of religion, and their foreign and domestic counsels were moderated by the authority of the bishop. His alms, his sermons, his correspondence with the kings and prelates of the West, his recent services, their gratitude, and oath, accustomed the Romans to consider hiin as the first magistrate or prince of the city. The Christian humility of the popes was not offended by the name of Dominus, or Lord; and their face and inscription are still apparent on the most ancient coins. 16 Their temporal do. minion is now confirmed by the reverence of a thousand years ; and their noblest title is the free choice of a people,

whom they had redeemed from slavery. Rome at. In the quarrels of ancient Greece, the holy people of Elis tacked by the Lom- enjoyed a perpetual peace, under the protection of Jupiter,

and in the exercise of the Olympic games.47 Happy would A. D. 730.

it have been for the Romans, if a similar privilege had guarded the patrimony of St. Peter from the calamities of war; if the Christians, who visited the holy threshold, would have sheathed their swords in the presence of the apostle and his successor. But this mystic circle could have been traced only by the wand of a legislator and a sage: this pacific system was incompatible with the zcal and ambition of

46

baras,

the popes; the Romans were not addicted, like the inha- CHAP. bitants of Elis, to the innocent and placid labours of agricul

XLIX. ture; and the Barbarians of Italy, though softened by the climate, were far below the Grecian states in the institutions of public and private life. A memorable example of repentance and piety was exhibited by Liutprand king of the Lombards. In arms, at the gate of the Vatican, the conqueror listened to the voice of Gregory the second, 48 withdrew his troops, resigned his conquests, respectfully visited the church of St. Peter, and, after performing his devotions, of fered his sword and dagger, his cuirass and mantle, his silver cross and his crown of gold, on the tomb of the apostle. But this religious fervour was the illusion, perhaps the artifice, of the moment; the sense of interest is strong and lasting; the love of arms and rapine was congenial to the Lombards; and both the prince and people were irresistibly tempted by the disorders of Italy, the nakedness of Rome, and the unwarlike profession of her new chief. On the first edicts of the emperor, they declared themselves the champions of the holy images: Liutprand invaded the province of Romagna, which had already assumed that distinctive appellation ; the Catholics of the Exarchate yielded without reluctance to his civil and military power; and a foreign enemy was introduced for the first time into the impregnable fortress of Ravenna. That city and fortress were speedily recovered by the active diligence and maritime forces of the Venetians; and those faithful subjects obeyed the exhortation of Gregory himself, in separating the personal guilt of Leo from the general cause of the Roman empire." The Greeks were less mindful of the service, than the Lombards of the injury: the two nations, hostile in their faith, were reconciled in a dangerous and unnatural alliance; the king and the exarch marched to the conquest of Spoleto and Rome : the storm evaporated without effect, but the

CHAP. policy of Liutprand alarmed Italy with a vexatious alterna. XLIX.

tive of hostility and truce. His successor Astolphus declared himself the equal enemy of the emperor and the pope: Ravenna was subdued by force or treachery, 50 and this final conquest extinguished the series of the exarchs, who had reigned with a subordinate power since the time of Justinian and the ruin of the Gothic kingdom. Rome was sum

. moned to acknowledge the victorious Lombard as her lawful sovereign; the annual tribute of a piece of gold was fixed as the ransom of each citizen, and the sword of destruction was unsheathed to exact the penalty of her disobedience. The Romans hesitated; they entreated ; they complained; and the threatening Barbarians were checked by arms and negotiations, till the popes had engaged the friendship of an

ally and avenger beyond the Alps.51 Her deli- In his distress, the first Gregory had implored the aid of verance by the hero of the age, of Charles Martel, who governed the Pepin A. D. 754. French monarchy with the humbie title of mayor or duke ;

and who, by his signal victory over the Saracens, had saved his country, and perhaps Europe, from the Mahometan yoke. The ambassadors of the pope were received by Charles with decent reverence; but the greatness of his occupations, and the shortness of his life, prevented his interference in the affairs of Italy, except by a friendly and ineffectual mediation. His son Pepin, the heir of his power and virtues, assumed the office of champion of the Roman church; and the zeal of the French prince appears to have been prompted by the love of glory and religion. But the danger was on the banks of the Tyber, the succour on those of the Seine; and our sympathy is cold to the relation of distant misery. Amidst the tears of the city, Stephen the third embraced the generous resolution of visiting in person the courts of Lombardy and France, to deprecate the injustice of his enemy, or to excite the pity and indignation of his friend. After soothing the public despair by litanies

XLIX.

and orations, he undertook this laborious journey with the CHAP.
ambassadors of the French monarch and the Greek em-
peror. The king of the Lombards was inexorable; but his
threats could not silence the complaints, nor retard the speed,
of the Roman pontiff, who traversed the Pennine 'Alps, re-
posed in the abbey of St. Maurice, and hastened to grasp
the right hand of his protector; a hand which was never
lifted in vain, either in war or friendship. Stephen was en-
tertained as the visible successor of the apostle; at the next
assembly, the field of March or of May, his injuries were
exposed to a devout and warlike nation, and he repassed
the Alps, not as a suppliant, but as a conqueror, at the head
of a French army, which was led by the king in person.
The Lombards, after a weak resistance, obtained an igno-
minious

peace, and swore to restore the possessions, and to
respect the sanctity, of the Roman church. But no sooner
was Astolphus delivered from the presence of the French
arms, than he forgot his promise and resented his disgrace.
Rome was again encompassed by his arms; and Stephen,
apprehensive of fatiguing the zeal of his Transalpine allies,
enforced his complaint and request, by an eloquent letter in
the name and person of St. Peter himself.52 The apostle
assures his adoptive sons, the king, the clergy, and the
nobles of France, that dead in the flesh, he is still alive in
the spirit; that they now hear, and must obey, the voice of
the founder and guardian of the Roman church: that the
Virgin, the angels, the saints, and the martyrs, and all the
host of heaven, unanimously urge the request, and will con-
fess the obligation; that riches, victory, and paradise, will
crown their pious enterprise, and that eternal damnation
will be the penalty of their neglect, if they suffer his tomb,
his temple, and his people, to fall into the hands of the per-
fidio:is Lombards. The second expedition of Pepin was not
less rapid and fortunate than the first: St. Peter was satis-
fied, Rome was again saved, and Astolphus was taught the
lessons of justice and sincerity by the scourge of a foreign
master. After this double chastisement, the Lombards lan-