the grave." He continued, while he had strength, to
hold the crucifix, which contained a splinter of the true
cross, to his breast; when his strength failed, he left
that office to Drogo, Bishop of Metz, his natural brother,
who, with the Archbishops of Treves and Mentz, at-
tended his dying hours.
His last words were the
German, aus, aus. His attendants supposed that he
was bidding an evil spirit, of whose presence
he was conscious, avaunt. He then lifted up
his eyes to heaven, and, with serenity approaching to a
smile, expired."

June 20,

A.D. 840.

Christian history has dwelt at some length on the life of this monarch. His appellation, the Pious, shows what the religion was which was held in especial honour in his day, its strength and its weakness, its virtue, and what in a monarch can hardly escape the name of vice. It displays the firmer establishment of a powerful and aristocratic clergy, not merely in that part of Europe which became the French monarchy, but also in great part of trans-Rhenane Germany; the manner in which they attained and began to exercise that power; the foundation, in short, of great national Churches, in acknowledged subordination, if not always in rigid obedience, to the See of Rome, but also mingling, at times with overruling weight, in all the temporal affairs of each kingdom.

ship in the

But throughout the reign of Louis the Pious, not only did the Empire assert this supremacy in Image-wor ecclesiastical as in temporal affairs; Teutonic West. independence maintained its ground, more perhaps than its ground, on the great question of image-worship.

u

Louis died on an island of the Rhine, opposite to Ingelheim. VOL. III.

L

1

A.D. 824.

Claudius of

The Council of Paris enforced the solemn decree of the Council of Frankfort. The Iconoclastic Byzantine Emperor, Michael the Stammerer, entered into negotiations with the Western Emperor, of which the manifest object was to compel the Pope at least to amity, and to recede from the decrees of the second Council of Nicæa asserted by his predecessors. The ambassadors of Constantinople appeared in Rome, accompanied by ambassadors from Louis. The Pope Eugenius, who owed his Popedom to the Franks, who sat on his throne only through their support, was in great embarrassment: he was obliged to elude what he dared not oppose. At no other time could a Turin. bishop like Claudius of Turin have acted the fearless Iconoclast in an Italian city, removed all images and pictures, condemned even the cross, and lived and died, if not unassailed by angry controversialists, yet unrebuked by any commanding authority, undegraded, and in the full honours of a Bishop. Claudius was a Spaniard who acquired fame as a commentator on the Scriptures in the court of Louis at Aquitaine. Among the first acts of Louis as Emperor was the promotion of Claudius to the bishopric of Turin. The stern reformer at once began to wage war on what he deemed the superstitions of the people. Claudius went much further than the temperate decrees of the Council of Frankfort. Images were to him idols; the worship of the cross godlessness. Turin was overawed by his vigorous authority. A strong party, not the most numerous, espoused his cause. He was not unopposed. The Abbot Theodemir, of a monastery near Nismes; Dungal, a Scot, a learned theologian of Pavia, Jonas, Bishop of Orleans, denounced his doctrines. But Theodemir in

genuously confesses that most of the great Transalpine prelates thought with Claudius.* Agobard of Lyons published a famous treatise, if not in defence of Claudius, maintaining in their utmost strength the decrees of Frankfort.

But it was not on image-worship alone that Claudius of Turin advanced opinions premature and anticipative of later times. The apostolic office of St. Peter ceased with the life of St. Peter. The power of the keys passed to the whole episcopal order. The Bishop of Rome had apostolic power only in so far as he led an apostolic life.

It is difficult to suppose but that some tradition or succession to the opinions of Claudius of Turin lay concealed in the valleys of the Piedmontese Alps, to appear again after many centuries.

* Gfrörer, 111, p. 736.

CHAPTER IIL

Saracens in Italy.

THE Carlovingian Empire expired with Louis the Pious. It separated, not so much into three kingdoms, as into three nations. Germany, France, and Italy, though governed each by a descendant of Charlemagne, and for a short time re-united under the sceptre of Charles the Fat, began to diverge more widely in their social institutions, in their form of government, in the manners and character of the people.

Lothair

The imperial title was, in general, assumed by that one of the sons or grandsons of Louis the Emperor. Pious who was master of Italy. First Lothair, and then his son, Louis II., was Emperor, King of Italy, and Sovereign of the city of Rome. The right to ratify, if not the election, the consecration of the Pope, was among the imperial privileges asserted with the greatest rigour and determination. At the close of the uneventful pontificate of Gregory IV.,—uneventful as far as the affairs of Rome, not uneventful to those who could discern the slow but steady advancement of hierarchical pretensions -the Emperor Lothair heard with Pope Sergius. indignation that the clergy and people of Jan. 844. Rome had elected Sergius II., a Roman of noble birth, and from his youth trained in ecclesiastical

Annal. Bertiniani.

b See the famous letter of Gregory IV. ad Episcopos, written, it should seem, under the influence of the Abbot Wala. See note, p. 136.

duties; and that Sergius, contrary to the solemn treaty, had been at once consecrated, without awaiting his good pleasure. The Romans had expelled John, a deacon, chosen by some of the low and rustic people." The haughty nobles had insisted on the condemnation of the audacious usurper. Sergius interposed to save his life. Again, we see the commonalty and the nobles in fierce strife; but the nobles, grown haughty, are less humbly imperialist. Lothair despatched immediately his son Louis with an army, and accompanied by Drogo Bishop of Metz, to punish, perhaps to degrade, the presumptuous prelate. The Franks, whose natural ferocity had not been abated by years of civil war, as if to show the resentment of the Emperor, committed frightful ravages. From the borders of the Roman territory to Bologna they advanced, wasting as they went, towards Rome. But Pope Sergius knew the strength of his position, and put forth all his religious grandeur to control the mind of the young invader. A fortunate tempest had already shaken the minds of the Franks: some of the followers of the Bishop of Metz had been struck dead by lightning, but still the army advanced with menacing haste.

Louis, son

Nine miles from the city Louis was met by the civil authorities, with banners flying and loud acclamations, the military schools, or bands, and the people under their various standards, chanting hymns As he came nearer, the sacred

and songs

of welcome.

of Lothair,

in Rome.

c Anastasius, Vit. Sergii; Annal. | nimis omnes timore Franci correpti Bertin, ad ann. 844. sunt. Sed nullatenus mente feroci

d " Imperito et agresti populo."- tatem deponentes, atroci voluntate ad urbem velociter properabant."-Vit.

Vit. Serg.

"Hoc videntes horribile signum Sergii.