The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

CONVERSION OF THE NORTHERN NATIONS. 41away, their superstition restored to Rome. The various 1nations who were now masters of the western empire Ifound in the Papacy, and nowhere else, to use Muller's fwords, " a point of union.""* The sagacious measures ofPope Gregoi-y the Great contributed at this juncture materialassistance to the rising Papacy. The barbariankings being now submissive to the Roman faith, Gregoryexerted himself, with a large measure of success, to establishit as a law throughout their kingdoms, that the metropolitanshould receive the sanction of the pontiff. For thisend it now became the practice to send from Rome apalliumf to the metropolitan, in token of investiture ; andwithout the pall he could notlawfully enter on the exerciseof his functions. The zeal of Boniface, the apostle of Germanya century later, completed what Pope Gregory hadcommenced. This man, a Briton by birth, travelled throughoutGermany and Gaul, preaching profound submission toPeter and his representative the Roman bishop ; and hesucceeded in inducing the German and Frank bishops totake the vow he himself had taken ofimplicit obedience tothe Roman see. Henceforward, without the pallium nometropolitan entered upon the duties of his office.^ Howmuch this tended to consolidate the spiritual supremacy,and to pave the way for the temporal usurpations of thepopes, it is not difficult to perceive.In the seventh century, we find a prevalent dispositionamong the princes of the west to submit themselves implicitly,in all matters that pertained to religion, to the Romansee. In their pagan state they had been accustomed toundertake no affairof consequence without the advice andconsent of their priests, by whom they were held in themost degrading vassalage ; and after their conversion theyj* Universal History, vol. i. p. 412.t The pall is formed of the fleece of certain lambs selected for that purpose,and is manufiictured by the nuns of St Agnes,:f Eanke's History of the Popes, vol. i. pp. 11, 12.