THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
God, but says nothing of the restoration of an agreement regarding the division of territory. The situation of 752 is repeated in 773, 3. The Do- when Hadrian needed to be saved by nation of Charlemagne as Stephen II. needed Charle- help from Pippin. So in later corremagne. spondence the pope speaks of the restoration of the duchy of Spoleto, and of the possession by Leo, archbishop of Ravenna, of part of the exarchy, especially the cities Imola and Bologna, Spoleto having, in 773, put itself under the pope of its own accord. While the pope was recognized as sovereign in Spoleto, 774-775, in January of 776 Charlemagne was so recognized; in other words, within the assumed " donation of Pippin " Charlemagne is evident as lord. A developed political situation appears later, when, in 787, he yielded to his ally the pope several cities of Lombardic Tuscany and of the duchy of Beneventum, though a great part of this donation wras never realized, since under the stress of a severe campaign with Greek South Italy Charlemagne became reconciled with Duke Grimoald of Beneventum, and left him in peaceable possession of the greatest part of the territory given to the pope. The complaints of Hadrian from this period relate to the non-fulfilment of this promise. But through this donation the territory of the " sacred republic of the Roman Church of God " was actually enlarged, and cities like Viterbo, Toscanella, Soana, Orvieto, and others to the south came into possession of the Church. But the question arises how it is that the biography of Hadrian mentions so frequently the donation, in spite of the fact that such a donation was not realized. It must be recalled that this was the period when the story of the Donation of Constantine (q.v.) was fabricated, and Hadrian knew of the document containing it (Carolina epistolce, lxi.). The " donation " fixed the political program of the Curia as that which seemed attainable. Yet the Curia met with little success from Charlemagne, who, on the basis of the title of patricius, both directed the external policy of the " Roman republic," and seized upon control in internal matters. The difficult position in which Leo III. (qv.) found himself enhanced this assumption of power. The fact that Leo sent the keys to Charlemagne and begged him to receive the oath of allegiance of his Roman subject sets forth with lucidity the relation which the Frankish king sustained to the " republic." It was only a natural consequence of this that on Dec. 23, 800, Charlemagne sat in judgment above the lord of that republic, and the reception of the crown on Dec. 25 did not alter at all this situation; the new title of emperor perhaps only emphasized what was already known — the dependence of the pope upon the Frankish king.
After the death of Charlemagne the relation of the emperor to the " Roman republic " changed. While many compacts were entered into between pope and emperor, the reports regarding them are not extant and but little is known. That of the year 817 is important, referring as it does to the islands of Corsica, Sardinia, and Sicily as gifts of Charlemagne, according to the so-called Ludovici-
anum. But this reference is not trustworthy.
Louis the Pious was intent upon maintaining the
earlier relationship, and in 824 sent
4. Curtail- his son Lothair I. to Rome to remind
ment of the new Pope Eugene II. of his re- Papal lations as feudal subject. An im- Domains. portant document was the Constitutio Romana of Nov., 824, which not only arranged for the selection of the pope but for the relationship of the emperor and the " republic." Imperial delegates were with the papal to have oversight of the conduct of the business of the republic, and the names of judges and officers were to be reported to the emperor. But the victory of Gregory IV. at Colmar in 833 was the beginning of the end of the Carolingian control of the " Roman republic." But from the " republic " one part after another was cut off — by the archbishops of Ravenna in the north, by the dukes of Spoleto in the east, by those of Benevento in the south, and gradually from the papal domain grew a little state ruled by Alberic as " prince and senator of all the Romans." The author of the Libellus de imperatoria potestate in urbe Roma (MGH, Script., iii. 719-722, 1839) bewails the fall of the republic and sighs for a Charlemagne to check the pride of the nobility. The longed-for emperor came in the person of Otho I., who on entering Rome promised to guard the pope's rights and the integrity of the " sacred territory of Peter." When Otho came into possession of Rome, his action was energetic; the pact of 962 recognized clearly the imperial overlordship in the papal domain, while the words of the Vita Hadriani I. regarding the donation are repeated here. After the short rule of Otho III., there followed a period of decline of papal dominion, and even the period of Gregory VII. brought few changes, though Gregory's claims were made as large as possible. While Robert Guiscard received Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily from Pope Nicholas II., and Richard took Capua, both recognized these dominions as the pope's. The claims of Gregory,made possible the realization of possession of these regions for later popes who lived in more fortunate times. Indeed, the gift of the patrimony of Countess Matilda of Tuscany, which ought to have fallen to the pope, did not come under his actual control, but was administered by imperial margraves in the name of the emperor. After the death of Otho I. the exarchy was in possession of the archbishop of Ravenna; later the cities became independent until the time of Frederick I. Pentapolis appertained to the duchy of Spoleto, which was itself at first under the Lombards and then in possession of various dukes. The terra sancti Petri itself, based on the donation of Pippin, was for the most part under little princes whose names are unknown. Of a sovereignty of the pope in this period there is hardly a trace.
The victory of Alexander III. (q.v.) brought at first no essential change even in the very patrimonium itself. Henry VI . made his brother Philip duke of all the papal possessions; but after the death of Henry, the popes began to make effective their claims upon the " patrimony of the Blessed Peter. To this the national reaction against external con-