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III.

Zacharias

deposes

66

CHAP. ly forbad the use of them, and punished all those very severely who paid any reverence to them. It was Gregory the Second who wrote to Boniface's legate in Germany, quod illi, quorum uxores infirmitate aliquá morbide debitum reddere noluerunt, "ali poterant nubere." His successor Pope ZachaKing Chil- rias deprived and deposed poor King Childeric for weakness and insufficiency to govern, and absolved his subjects of their oaths, thereby to make Pepin the son of Charles Martel King in his place; who probably would not forget the obligation, nor suffer that authority to be suppressed which had given him so great a crown.

deric.

Stephen II. invites Pe

The Pope, Stephen the Second, makes a journey pin to in- into France unto Pepin, who shortly after marches vade Italy. with his army into Italy to vindicate the Church from the tyranny of the Lombards; and, that he might be sure of the prayers of the Church for his success, vows to consecrate all that he should win to the Church; and so all the towns which had continued under the Exarch, and were all the remainder of the power of the Emperor, were delivered into the possession of the Pope; and from that time the Emperors of Constantinople have had no more to do in Italy. The Lombards upon the death of their King Astolphus grew so divided amongst themselves that the Pope was courted on both sides, and complied still with those who would be most at his disposal; and so quickly wrought himself above all their power; Luitiprandus himself having first given to Pope Zacharias and to the Church the territories of Ancona and many other cities, and much other land, in hope to have gained the favour of the Popes. And now Pepin according to his vow delivers up to the Pope

Ancona, Ravenna, &c. deli

vered to the Pope.

Ravenna,

III.

Ravenna, Parma, Mantua, and many other places, CHAP. besides all the towns of the Exarchat: so that office was determined, after it had continued a hundred seventy five years from Narses, and had kept the Popes from attaining their ambitious designs by very severe mortifications.

tine.

III.

Yet this growth was like to be nipped in the bud ; Constanand Pepin was no sooner dead, and the see became void, but there was a new schism in the Church, and Constantine was chosen by the nobility and some of the clergy to be Pope; and though a layman he was consecrated and did exercise the office of Pope near a year; when it being discovered that he endeavoured to bring in again the power of the Emperor of Constantinople, Stephen the Third was chosen Pope by Stephen the people and the clergy; and Constantine was taken by tumults and had his eyes put out; who notwithstanding appeared before the council which was then called at Rome, insisted upon his right, justified his election, and named other Bishops who had been chosen before they were in orders: but the council deposed him and acknowledged Stephen, and ordained that no layman should be capable of being chosen Pope. All this was very little before the year eight hundred; and so long time had the Popes been without that jurisdiction and authority which they would have the world believe to be founded in divine

right, and the basis upon which the whole fabric of

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the Christian religion is supported.

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Charles the Great, the son of Pepin, continues his Charlegreat affection and reverence to the see of Rome, con-overthrows firms the donation formerly made by his father with other great privileges, marches with a strong army his father's into Italy, and there overthrows and takes prisoner grant to

the Lombards, and confirms

the Popes.

CHAP. Desiderius, the last King of the Lombards, after they had governed Italy above two hundred years: and in

III.

lieu of these benefits a council at Rome of above a Obtains the hundred and fifty Bishops, in the time of Adrianright of approving the the First, ordained that Charles the Great should the Bishops have the right to approve the election of whomof Rome. soever for the future should be chosen Bishop of Rome.

election of

How far this addition and access of greatness was from imprinting in the hearts of the people any reverence to the person of the Pope or opinion of his spiritual capacity, is evident enough by what was done to the very successor of Adrian, Pope Leo the Third; who was taken in the streets at Rome as he went in procession by two priests, Pasquall and Campallus, and by them, after they had put out his eyes," was cast into prison in irons; and when Charles the Great came again into Italy for his relief, and called a council of the clergy and people of Rome, Pasquall and Campallus appeared and charged the Pope with many enormous crimes; from which he freed himself no otherwise than by going up into the pulpit, and with the Evangelists in his hands making oath that all that he stood accused of was false; and so they believed him, without giving any such reparation to him, or inflicting such punishment upon those who had used him so rudely as would have been due to one who they thought could have opened and shut the gates of heaven. Charles the Great was recomAnd is de- pensed for his journey by being declared " Imperator clared Im-«Romanorum ;" and from this time, which was in manorum. the year eight hundred, the Emperors of the West A.D. 800. took their beginning. This poor Pope was after the

perator Ro

66

death of the Emperor driven out of Rome by the people,

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people, all his houses were pulled down, and he was CHAP. himself kept in banishment till he died.

At the same time, when Charles the Great was declared Emperor with the sole power of approving and consequently of disapproving the election of every Pope, his eldest son Pepin was likewise crowned by the Pope King of Italy. And France, that had never yet undergone any encroachment from the Pope, and had raised him to that height, and had made him a great and an absolute prince, (yet so beset with enemies or rivals that he had still as much need of her protection as he had before of her creation,) looked upon him now as so absolutely her creature, and obliged to be so, (because he could not be but by her approbation) that she thought fit to give him some authority, and to make use of it for her own greatness and this was done by Charles the better to suppress those contestations which he was liable to in his own kingdom; without any apprehension that from thence would ever grow a presumption to control his own power or dispute his own jurisdiction.

It is a vulgar error (entertained by men of no Origin of vulgar faculties) that the privileges of the Church the privi leges of the and of churchmen in all kingdoms had their original Church. from the grants or declarations of Popes; whereby they conceive that the clergy stand engaged to support all the extravagant pretences of the Popes, from whom their own greatness proceeds, and that the Pope is equally obliged to defend all their concernments, as flowing from his grace and bounty. Whereas in truth the rights and privileges which the clergy claim in any Christian kingdom are as ancient as Christianity itself in that kingdom, and in most places

F

III.

reverence

for mini

sters of re

ligion.

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CHAP, places much ancienter than any authority of the Pope in that kingdom, and of another nature and extent than ever any Pope pretended to grant. If it were otherwise, they would produce the record of any one such grant that they have ever made to the Universal clergy of any nation. But religion, true or false, as it is devotion paid by Pagans as well as Christians to that divinity which they acknowledge, (whether they comprehend it or no,) so the ministers of that devo tion (whether Druids or Flamens, or by whatsoever style or appellation they were called) always found a respect and reverence from the people, who looked upon them as better acquainted with and more favoured by those deities which they were all bound to worship. And upon this ground (as much founded in nature as any prospect or inclination to religion is) at the first dawning of Christianity, the same persons upon whom its doctrines made impression in any nation had, in the same instant, a singular esteem of and regard for those who preached it to them, as men sent and employed by God himself; and they had no sooner the least apprehension of the joys of heaven than they had all imaginable deference to cesto those who would shew them the way thither, This was the foundation of all the glorious successes which the Apostles themselves had in all their labours; and the persons qualified and sent by them over all the world found the same regard from all to whom God gave his grace, to believe what they said, and to be trng advised and instructed by them; and though Christianity did not then in its infancy nor (God help us) ever since do its work so perfectly, that they bar but who were converted to the belief of its doctrine did equally practise the obligations of it; yet the persons,

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