to despise the poverty and ignorance of the Franks and Saxons; and in
their last decline refused to prostitute to the kings of Germany the
title of Roman emperors.

[Footnote 120: Invidiam tamen suscepti nominis (C. P. imperatoribus
super hoc indignantibus) magna tulit patientia, vicitque eorum
contumaciam... mittendo ad eos crebras legationes, et in epistolis
fratres eos appellando. Eginhard, c. 28, p. 128. Perhaps it was on their
account that, like Augustus, he affected some reluctance to receive the
empire.]

[Footnote 121: Theophanes speaks of the coronation and unction of
Charles (Chronograph. p. 399,) and of his treaty of marriage with
Irene, (p. 402,) which is unknown to the Latins. Gaillard relates his
transactions with the Greek empire, (tom. ii. p. 446-468.)]

[Footnote 122: Gaillard very properly observes, that this pageant was a
farce suitable to children only; but that it was indeed represented in
the presence, and for the benefit, of children of a larger growth.]

[Footnote 123: Compare, in the original texts collected by Pagi,
(tom. iii. A.D. 812, No. 7, A.D. 824, No. 10, &c.,) the contrast of
Charlemagne and his son; to the former the ambassadors of Michael (who
were indeed disavowed) more suo, id est lingua Graeca laudes dixerunt,
imperatorem eum et appellantes; to the latter, Vocato imperatori
Francorum, &c.]

[Footnote 124: See the epistle, in Paralipomena, of the anonymous writer
of Salerno, (Script. Ital. tom. ii. pars ii. p. 243-254, c. 93-107,)
whom Baronius (A.D. 871, No. 51-71) mistook for Erchempert, when he
transcribed it in his Annals.]

[Footnote 125: Ipse enim vos, non imperatorem, id est sua lingua, sed
ob indignationem, id est regem nostra vocabat, Liutprand, in Legat. in
Script. Ital. tom. ii. pars i. p. 479. The pope had exhorted Nicephorus,
emperor of the Greeks, to make peace with Otho, the august emperor of
the Romans--quae inscriptio secundum Graecos peccatoria et temeraria...
imperatorem inquiunt, universalem, Romanorum, Augustum, magnum, solum,
Nicephorum, (p. 486.)]

These emperors, in the election of the popes, continued to exercise the
powers which had been assumed by the Gothic and Grecian princes; and the
importance of this prerogative increased with the temporal estate
and spiritual jurisdiction of the Roman church. In the Christian
aristocracy, the principal members of the clergy still formed a senate
to assist the administration, and to supply the vacancy, of the