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

44 PROGRESS OP THE TEMPORAL SOVEREIGNTY.time Charlemagne appeared In the Eternal City.* Thefactions that now reigned in Rome threatened to put anend, by their violence, to the authority of the pontiff ; anda third time did France interpose tosave the Papacy fromapparent destruction. Charlemagne, says Machiavelli, decreed," that his Holiness, being God's Vicar, could not besubject to the judgment of man.'"'!- _Charlemagne was nowmaster of nearly allthe E,omano-Germanic~ nations' of thewest^ and, as a recompense for these "Tepeated_succours,tjie Pope (Leo IIL) , on Christmas eve, A.D. 800, placedupon the head of the French king the~crown of the westernempire.:}: In this~acF the~]5ontprdispTayedTiis power notless than his^ratrtiTde^ As one who liaTCTOwns aiicTTcingdomsat his disposal, we behold him selecting the son ofPepin, and placing upon his brow the imperial diadem.this light at least have the partizans of Rome regardedThey have " generally maintained," says Mosheim,the act." that Leo. III., by a divine rifjht^ vested in him as Bishopof Rome, transported the western empire from the Greeksto the Franks."" §his History of Florence,In" Whereas formerly," says Machiavelli, in" the popes were confirmed by theemperors, the emperor now, in his election, was to be beholdento the pope ;by which means the power and dignityof the empire declined, and the Church began toadvance,and by these steps to usurp upon the authority of temporalprinces."||One thing at least is clear, that great advantagesaccrued to both parties from this proceeding. Itadded new lustre to the dignity of Charlemagne, and gavethe title to him who already possessed the power ; while,on the other hand, it greatly enlarged the temporal posses-* First so called by Ammianus Marcellinus, the well-known historianand soldier.+ Works of Nicolo Machiavelli, p. 8 ; Lond. ed. 1679.X Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empii-e,vol. ix. pp. 159-176 :Du Pin, Eccles. Hist. vol. ii. p. 49.§ Mosiieim, cent. viii. part ii. chap. ii. sec. X,!1 Works of Nicolo Machiavelli, p. 8.