2 57. FOUNDING OF THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE. A. D. 800. 251
authority over the pope's dominion as Patrician of the Romans became after his death an apple of discord for centuries. Ha drian, to judge from his letters, considered himself as much an absolute sovereign in his dominion as Charles in his.
In 781 at Easter Charles revisited Rome with his son Pepin, who on that occasion was anointed by the pope " King for Italy" ("Rex in Italiam "). On a third visit, in 787, he spent a few days with his friend, Hadrian, in the interest of the patrimony of St. Peter. When Leo III. followed Hadrian (706) he imme diately dispatched to Charles, as tokens of submission, the keys and standards of the city, and the keys of the sepulchre of Peter,
A few years afterwards a terrible riot broke out in Rome in which the pope was assaulted and almost killed (799). He fled for help to Charles, then at Paderborn in Westphalia, and was promised assistance. The next year Charles again crossed the Alps and declared his intention to investigate the charges of cer tain unknown crimes against Leo, but no witness appeared to prove them. Leo publicly read a declaration of his own inno cence, probably at the request of Charles, but with a protest that this declaration should not be taken for a precedent. Soon after wards occurred the great event which marks an era in the eccle siastical and political history of Europe.
THE CORONATION OF CHARLES AS EMPEROR.
While Charles wras celebrating Christmas in St. Peter's, in the year of our Lord 800, and kneeling in prayer before the altar, the pope, as under a sudden inspiration (but no doubt in consequence of a premeditated scheme), placed a golden crown upon his head, and the Roman people shouted three times: "To Charles Augustus, crowned by God, the great and pacific empe ror of the Romans, life and victory ! " Forthwith, after ancient custom, he was adored by thu popo, and was st,ylcd henceforth (instead of Patrician) Emperor and Augustus.1
1 Annales Laurisscnses ad ann. 801 : " Ipsa die sacratissima natalis Domini cum
252 FOURTH PEKIOD. A. D. 590-1049.
The new emperor presented to the pope a round table of silver with the picture of Constantinople, and many gifts of gold, and remained in Rome till Easter. The moment or manner of the coronation may have been unexpected by Charles (if we are to believe his word), but it is hardly conceivable that it was not the result of a previous arrangement between him and Leo. Alcuin seems to have aided the scheme. In his view the pope occupied the first, the emperor the second, the king the third degree in the scale of earthly dignities. He sent to Charles from Tours before his coronation a splendid Bible with the inscription: Ad splendorem imperialis potenticc.1
On his return to France Charles compelled all his subjects to take a new oath to him as " Caesar." He assumed the full title " Serenissimus Augustus -a Deo coronatus, magnus et pacificus imperator j Romanum gubernans imperium, qui et per misericordiam Dei rex Francorum et Longobardorum."
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ACT.
The act of coronation was on the part of the pope a final declaration of independence and self-emancipation against the Greek emperor, as the legal ruler of Rome. Charles seems to have felt this, and hence he proposed to unite the two empires by marrying Irene, who had put her son to death and usurped the Greek crown (797). But the same rebellion had been virtually committed before by the pope in sending the keys of the city to Pepin, and by the French king in accepting this token of tem poral sovereignty. Public opinion justified the act on the prin ciple that might makes right. The Greek emperor, being unable
Rex ad Missam ante confessionem b. Petri Apostoli ab oratione surgeret, Leo P. coronam capiti ejus imposuit, et a cuncto Romanorum populo acclamatum est! ' Karolo Augusto, a Deo coronato, magno et pacifico Imperatori Romanorum, vita et victoria /' Et post Laudes ab Apostolico more antiquorum principum adoratus est, atque, ablato Patricii nomine, Imperator et Augustus est appellatus.'' Comp. Eginhard, Annal. ad ann. 800, and Vita Car., c. 28.
1 But the date of the letter and the meaning of imperialis are not quite certain. See Rettberg, Kirchengesch. Deutschlands, I. 430, and Baxmann, Politik der Papste, I. 313 sqq.