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

;FALSE DECRETALS OF ISIDORE. 63had achieved a great victory over the empire.Nor was thisthe only advantage which the pontiffs gained in thatstruggle with the imperial power into which they had beentemptingly drawn by the unsettledcharacter of the times.In the case of Charles the Bald the Pope had nominatedthe Emperor. The same act was repeated in the case of hissuccessors, Carloman and Charles the Gross. It was continuedin the contests for the empire which followed thereigns of these princes. The candidate who was richenough to offer the largest bribe, or powerful enough toappear with an army at the gates of Rome, was invariablycrowned emperor in the Vatican. Thus, as the State dissolved,the Church waxed in strength. What the one lostthe other drew to herself. The popes did not trouble theworld with any formal statement of their principles on thehead of the supremacy; they were content to embody themin acts. They were wise enough to know, that the speediestway of getting the world to acknowledge theoretic truth isto familiarize it with its practical applications,—to ask itsapproval of it, not as a theory, but as a fact. Thus thepopes, by a boldaudacious but successfulcourse of dexterous management, and ofaggression, laboured to weave thedoctrine of the supremacy into the general policy of Europe.But for the rise, in the tenth century, of a new power superiorto the Franks, Rome would now have reached the summitof her wishes.*No weapon was too base for the use of Rome.Her handgrasped with equal avidity the forged document and thehired daffcrer. Both were sanctified in her service. In thebeginning of the ninth century came the decretals of Isidore.These professed to be a collection of the decrees and re-* As the author's object here is simply to trace the influence of admittedfacts upon the development of the Paimcy, he thinks it enough to refergenerally to his authorities. His leading authorities are, Eanke, vol. i.Gibbon, vol. ix. ; INIosheim, cent. ix. and x. ; Ilallam's Hist, of the MiddleAges, vol. i. chap. vii. ; Sismondi's Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. xix.XX,; &c. &c.