pal laymen.]

[Footnote 84: Qui supra sanctissima patres nostri (episcopi et
sacerdotes) omnimodis servitium et adorationem imaginum renuentes
contempserunt, atque consentientes condemnaverunt, (Concil. tom. ix. p.
101, Canon. ii. Franckfurd.) A polemic must be hard-hearted indeed, who
does not pity the efforts of Baronius, Pagi, Alexander, Maimbourg, &c.,
to elude this unlucky sentence.]

Chapter XLIX: Conquest Of Italy By The Franks.--Part IV.

It was after the Nycene synod, and under the reign of the pious Irene,
that the popes consummated the separation of Rome and Italy, by the
translation of the empire to the less orthodox Charlemagne. They were
compelled to choose between the rival nations: religion was not the sole
motive of their choice; and while they dissembled the failings of
their friends, they beheld, with reluctance and suspicion, the Catholic
virtues of their foes. The difference of language and manners had
perpetuated the enmity of the two capitals; and they were alienated from
each other by the hostile opposition of seventy years. In that schism
the Romans had tasted of freedom, and the popes of sovereignty: their
submission would have exposed them to the revenge of a jealous tyrant;
and the revolution of Italy had betrayed the impotence, as well as the
tyranny, of the Byzantine court. The Greek emperors had restored the
images, but they had not restored the Calabrian estates [85] and the
Illyrian diocese, [86] which the Iconociasts had torn away from the
successors of St. Peter; and Pope Adrian threatens them with a sentence
of excommunication unless they speedily abjure this practical heresy.
[87] The Greeks were now orthodox; but their religion might be tainted
by the breath of the reigning monarch: the Franks were now contumacious;
but a discerning eye might discern their approaching conversion, from
the use, to the adoration, of images. The name of Charlemagne was
stained by the polemic acrimony of his scribes; but the conqueror
himself conformed, with the temper of a statesman, to the various
practice of France and Italy. In his four pilgrimages or visits to the
Vatican, he embraced the popes in the communion of friendship and
piety; knelt before the tomb, and consequently before the image, of the
apostle; and joined, without scruple, in all the prayers and processions
of the Roman liturgy. Would prudence or gratitude allow the pontiffs to
renounce their benefactor? Had they a right to al