HISTORY OF LATIN CHRISTIANITY. BOOK IV.-continued. CHAPTER XI. Pepin, King of France. BUT whatever might have been the result of the negotiations between the Pope and Charles Martel, they were interrupted by the death of the two contracting parties. Charles Martel and Gregory III. died within a month of each other." Pope Zacha Zacharias, a Greek, succeeded to Gregory III. At his election even the form of obtaining the consent of the Exarch, as representative of the rias, Dec. 741. Eastern emperor, was discarded for ever. The death of Charles Martel, which weakened his power by dividing it between his sons Carloman and Pepin, left the Pope at the mercy of Liutprand. The exarchate, the Roman territory, Rome itself, was utterly defenceless against the Lombard, exasperated, as he might justly be, at this attempt to mingle up a Transalpine power in the affairs of Italy. At the time of Gregory's death there seems to have been a suspension of hostilities, attributed, • Baronius inclines to the damnation | Pope also to die at this critical time? of Charles; at least, ascribes his death Charles Martel died A.D. 741, Oct. 21; to his tardiness in not marching to Gregory III., Nov. 27. the Pope's succour. How came the VOL. III. B though with no historical authority, to the remonstrances or menaces of Charles Martel. But now the terror even of the name of Charles was withdrawn, and the Pope had no protection but in the sanctity of his office. He sent an embassy to Liutprand, who received it with courtesy and respect, granted advantageous terms of peace to the dukedom or territory of Rome, and promised to restore Ameria and the other cities which he had seized, to the Roman territory. Liutprand inexorably demanded that the Pope should abandon the cause of the rebellious Duke of Spoleto. Thrasimund was compelled to submit: he was deposed, and retired into a monastery. Liutprand appointed a more obedient vassal, his own nephew, a dangerous neighbour to Rome, to the dukedom. But Liutprand delayed the restoration of the four cities: his armies still occupied the midland regions of Italy. The independence of Rome was on the hazard: Italy was again on the verge of becoming a Lombard kingdom. The future destinies of Europe were trembling in the balance. Had the whole of Italy, at least to the borders of Naples (Naples, and even Sicily, could easily have been wrested from the Greek empire), been consolidated under one hereditary rule, and had the Pope sunk back to his spiritual functions, Pepin and his more powerful successor, Charlemagne, might not have been invited into Italy as protectors of the liberties and religion of Rome. The course of Lombard conquest was arrested by the personal weight and sacerdotal awe which environed. the Pope. Since the time of Leo the Great, no Pontiff placed such bold reliance on his priestly character and on himself as Zacharias. Other Popes had not mingled in the active life of man with man. They had officiated in the churches, presided in councils of ecclesiastics, issued decrees, administered their temporal affairs through their officers or legates. Zacharias seemed to delight in encountering his most dangerous enemies face to face he was his own ambassador. Zacharias no doubt knew the character of the Lombard king. With all his ambition and warlike activity, Liutprand, if we are to believe the Lombard historian, blended the love of peace and profound piety. He was renowned for his chastity, his fervency in prayer, his liberality in almsgiving. He was illiterate, yet to be equalled with the sagest philosophers. The strength and the weakness of such a character were equally open to impressions from the apostolic majesty, perhaps the apostolic gentleness, of the head of Christendom. with Liut Terni. The spiritual potentate set forth in his peaceful array, surrounded by his court of bishops, to the Interview camp of Liutprand near Terni. He was met prand at at Cortona by Grimoald, an officer of Liutprand's court, conducted first to Narni, afterwards with great pomp, accompanied by part of the army and by the Lombard nobility, to Terni. The scene of the interview was a church-that of St. Valentine; the Pope thus availing himself of the awfulness by which a religious mind like that of Liutprand would in such a place be already half prostrated before his holy antagonist. There he would listen with deeper emotion to the appalling admonitions of the pontiff on the vanity of earthly grandeur. The Lombard was reminded of the strict, it might be speedy, account which he was to give to God in whose presence he stood, of all the blood b"Castus, pudicus, orator pervigil, eleemosynis largus, literarum quidem ignarus, sed philosophis æquandus."-Paul. Diac. Anastas. in Vit. Zachariæ. which he had shed in war. He was threatened with eternal damnation if he delayed to surrender the four cities, according to his stipulations. Treaty of The issue of such a contest could not be doubtful. The appalled Barbarian yielded at once. He declared that he restored the four cities to St. Peter. His generous piety knew no bounds. He gave back all the estates of the Church in the Sabine country, which the Lombards had held for thirty yearsNarni, Osimo, Ancona, and towns in the district of Sutri-released unransomed all the Roman prisoners taken in the war, and concluded a peace for twenty years with the Dukedom of Rome. The treaty was ratified by a solemn service, at which the Pope (the bishopric of Terni being vacant) officiated; the pious king, the officers of his court and army, attended in submissive reverence. The Pope then entertained him with a great banquet, and returned to Rome. The deliverer of the city from a foreign yoke was received with a religious ovation, as well deserved as one of the Triumphs of older days. The procession passed from the ancient Pantheon, now the church of St. Mary ad Martyres, to St. Peter's. Yet beyond the immediate circle of the pontiff's magic influence, Liutprand could not resist the temptation offered by the wreck of the defenceless exarchate. Though, according to his treaty with the Pope, he respected the territory of Rome, he suddenly surprised Cesena, and announced his determination to subdue the rest of the exarchate. Ravenna already beheld the formidable conqueror before her walls. The only "Ubi cum tantâ suavitate esum sumpsit, et cum tantâ hilaritate cordis, ut diceret rex tantum se nunquam meminisse comessatum."-Vit. Zachar. |