230 FOURTH PEEIOD. A. D. 590-1049.
§ 53. The Papacy from Gregory I. to Gregory II. A. D.
604-715.
The successors of Gregory I. to Gregory II. were, with few exceptions, obscure men, and ruled but a short time. They were mostly Italians, many of them Romans ; a few were Syrians, chosen by the Eastern emperors in the interest of their policy and theology.
Sabinianus (604) was as hard and avaricious as Gregory was benevolent and liberal, and charged the famine of his reign upon the prodigality of his sainted predecessor. Boniface III. (606- 607) did not scruple to assume the title of " universal bishop," against which Gregory, in proud humility, had so indignantly protested as a blasphemous antichristian assumption. Boniface IV. converted the Roman Pantheon into a Christian church dedicated to the Virgin Mary and all the Martyrs (608). Honorius I. (625—638) was condemned by an oecumenical council and by his own successors as a Monothelite heretic ; while Mar tin I. (649-655) is honored for the persecution he endured in behalf of the orthodox doctrine of two wills in Christ. Under Gregory II. and III., Germany was converted to Roman Chris tianity.
The popes followed the missionary policy of Gregory and the instinct of Roman ambition and power. Every progress of Christianity in the West and the North was a progress of the Roman Church. Augustin, Boniface, Ansgar were Roman mis sionaries and pioneers of the papacy. As England had been annexed to the triple crown under Gregory I., so France, the Netherlands, Germany and Scandinavia were annexed under his successors. The British and Scotch-Irish independence gave way gradually to the irresistible progress of Roman authority and uniformity. Priests, noblemen and kings from all parts of the West were visiting Rome as the capital of Christendom, and paid homage to the shrine of the apostles and to the living successor of the Galilsean fisherman.
I 54. FROM GREGORY II. TO ZACIIARIAS. A.D. 715-741. 231
But while the popes thus extended their spiritual dominion over the new barbarous races, they were the political subjects of the Eastern emperor as the master of Italy, and could not be consecrated without his consent. They were expected to obey the imperial edicts even in spiritual matters, and were subject to arrest and exile. To rid themselves of this inconvenient dependence was a necessary step in the development of the ab solute papacy. It was effected in the eighth century by the aid of a rising Western power. The progress of Mohammedanism and its encroachment on the Greek empire likewise contributed to their independence.
§ 54. From Gregory II. to Zaeharias. A.D. 715-741.
Gregory II. (715-731) marks the transition to this new state of things. He quarreled with the iconoclastic emperor, Leo the Isaurian, about the worship of images. Under his pontifi cate, Liutprand,1 the ablest and mightiest king of the Lombards, conquered the Exarchate of Ravenna, and became master of Italy.
But the sovereignty of a barbarian and once Arian power was more odious and dangerous to the popes than that of distant Constantinople. Placed between the heretical emperor and the barbarian robber, they looked henceforth to a young and rising power beyond the Alps for deliverance and protection. The Franks were Catholics from the time of their conversion under Clovis, and achieved under Charles Martel (the Hammer) a mighty victory over the Saracens (732), which saved Christian Europe against the invasion and tyranny of Islam. They had thus become, the protectors of Latin Christianity. They also lent their aid to Boniface in the conversion of Germany.
Gregory III. (731-741) renewed the negotiations with the Franks, begun by his predecessor. When the Lombards again
1 Or Luitprand, born about 690, died 744. There is also a Lombard histo rian of that name, a deacon of the cathedral of Pavia, afterwards bishop of Cremona, died 972.
232 FOURTH PERIOD. A. D. 590-1049.
invaded the territory of Rome, and were ravaging by fire and sword the last remains of the property of the church, he appealed in piteous and threatening tone to Charles Martel, who had in herited from his father, Pepin of Herstal, the mayoralty of France, and was the virtual ruler of the realm. " Close not your ears," he says, "against our supplications, lest St. Peter close against you the gates of heaven." He sent him the keys of the tomb of St. Peter as a symbol of allegiance, and offered him the titles of Patrician and Consul of Rome.1 This was virtually a declaration of independence from Constantinople. Charles Martel returned a courteous answer, and sent presents to Rome, but did not cross the Alps. He was abhorred by the clergy of his own country as a sacrilegious spoiler of the pro perty of the church and disposer of bishoprics to his counts and dukes in the place of rightful incumbents.2
The negotiations were interrupted by the death of Charles Martel Oct. 21, 741, followed by that of Gregory III., Nov. 27 of the same year.