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year 755, he laid fiege to Rome for the fecond time, but was again obliged to fue for peace, by the victorious arms of Pepin, who returned into Italy, and forcing the Lombard to execute the treaty he had fo audaciously violated, made a new grant of the Exarchate, and of Pentapolis, to the Roman Pontiff and his fucceffors in the apof tolic See of St. Peter. And thus was the Bishop of Rome raised to the rank of a temporal Prince.""The fplendid donation was granted in fupreme and absolute dominion, and the world beheld for the firft time a Chriftian Bishop invested with the prerogatives of a temporal prince; the choice of magiftrates, the exercife of justice, the impofition of taxes, and the wealth of the palace of Ravenna.-Before the end of the eighth century fome apoftolical scribe, perhaps the notorious Ifidore, compofed the Decretals, and the Donation of Conftantine, the two magic pillars of the fpiritual and temporal monarchy of the Popes. This memorable donation was introduced to the world by an Epistle of Adrian the first, who exhorts Charlemagne to imitate the liberality, and revive the

• Mosheim, vol. i. p. 353

name

name of the great Conftantine. According to the legend, the firft of the Christian Emperors was healed of the leprofy, and purified in the waters of baptifm by St. Silvester, the Roman Bishop. His royal profelyte withdrew from the feat and patrimony of St. Peter; declared his refolution of founding a new capital in the East; and refigned to the Popes the free and perpetual fovereignty of Rome, Italy, and the provinces of the Weft. This fiction was productive of the most beneficial effects. The Greek princes were convicted of the guilt of ufurpation; and the revolt of Gregory was the claim of his lawful inheritance. The fovereignty of Rome no longer depended on the choice of a fickle people; and the Succeffors of St. Peter and Conftantine were invested with the purple and prerogatives of the Cefars."

Thus did the mystery of iniquity begin to work, with all deceivableness of unrighte oufness. Thus was the fovereign Pontiff mighty in power, but not by his own power;

* Gibbon, c. 49, p. 124, 125, 126.

• 2 Theff. ii. 7.

Dan. viii. 24.

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and thus did he practise and profper, and through his policy be caufed craft to profper in his hand. Thus Rome" acquired a new feat and dominion in this patrimony of St. Peter, which has continued for above a thousand years. The beaft appeared to be wounded to death, but the deadly wound inflicted by the fword of Odoacer, King of the Heruli, was healed, after the Roman Empire had received fuch an injury in one of its heads, or forms of government (that is, the fixth) as left no probable profpect that Rome should ever more rife to power and empire. And all the world wondered after the beaft: for this event of a new and extraordinary form of government, divers from all others" this facerdotal monarchy," as Gibbon calls it, excited the aftonishment of mankind in the fucceeding ages of its aggrandizement.

After their return from Avignon, the keys of St. Peter were guarded by the fword of St. Paul. Rome was commanded by an impregnable citadel: the use of cannon is a powerful engine against

VOL. II.

"Lowman, p. 198, 176.

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popular

popular feditions: a regular force of cavalry and infantry was enlifted under the banners of the Pope: his ample revenues fupplied the refources of war; and, from the extent of his domain, he could bring down on a rebellious city an army of hoftile neighbours and loyal fubjects. Since the union of the dutchies of Ferrara and Urbino, the Ecclefiaftical State extends from the Mediterranean to the Adriatic, and from the confines of Naples to the banks of the Po; and as early as the fixteenth century, the greater part of that fpacious and fruitful country acknowledged the lawful claims and temporal fovereignty of the Roman Pontiffs. Their claims were readily deduced from the genuine or fabulous donations of the darker ages: the fucceffive fteps of their final settlement would engage us too far in the transactions of Italy, and even of Europe; the crimes of Alexander the fixth, the martial operations of Julius the fecond, and the liberal policy of Leo the tenth, a theme which has been adorned by the pens of the nobleft hiftorians of the times. In the first period of their conquefts, till the expedition of Charles the eighth, the Popes might

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might fuccessfully wrestle with the adjacent princes and states, whose military force was equal, or inferior, to their own *.

Power was indeed given unto him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations-for the Pope affumed the prerogative of being the fupreme fovereign of the Chriftian Church, and exercised for many ages an uncontrolled and univerfal authority. The kings gave their power and strength unto him, as previous to the Reformation all the monarchs of the West acknowledged him as their fuperior and lord, and, as his vaffals, submitted to his power and his caprice. In the seventh century Pope Zechary I. depofed Childeric, King of France, the last of the Merovingian race, and abfolved his fubjects from their oaths of allegiance . In the eighth century, Paul I. excommunicated Conftantinus Copronymus, the Greek Emperor, because he endeavoured to abo

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Gibbon, vol. vi. p. 613, 614.

"Socrates faith of the Church of Rome and Alexandria, the moft famous Churches in the Apostles' time, that about the year 430, the Roman and Alexandrian Bishops, leaving their facred functions, were degenerated to a secular rule or dominion." Hooker's Eccl. Polity, p. 152.

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