ration, however, was a religious dispute over the use of images in worship.

This is known as the "iconoclast" (image-breaking) question. A small but influential minority in the Greek Empire desired to abolish the use of images, which, they felt, the ignorant were apt to degrade from symbols into idols. The great reforming emperor, Leo the Isaurian (717-741), who had just saved what was left of Christendom from the Saracens (§ 634), put himself at the head of the movement, with all his despotic power. Finally, he ordered all images removed from the churches. The West in general believed in their use as valuable aids to worship, and in Italy the pope forbade obedience to the order of the emperor. The result was the separation of Christendom into two halves, never since united.

Thus, Rome was left the unquestioned head of the Latin church. Other conditions, which we are now to trace, raised this headship into a real monarchy, temporal as well as spiritual, such as was never attained in the Greek church, where the patriarchs of Constantinople were overshadowed by the imperial will.

B. THE POPE BECOMES A TEMPORAL SOVEREIGN.

661. The Pope as a Civil Officer of the Greek Emperor. – While the Roman bishops were winning this spiritual rule over all the West, they were also becoming independent temporal princes (monarchs) over a small state in Italy.

This process begins with the Lombard invasion. In the break-up of Italy (§ 615), the imperial governor (exarch) at Ravenna was cut off from Rome and the strip of territory about it that still belonged to the Empire. From the time of

1 In the East, Leo and his successors were temporarily successful. The monks and populace resisted them, however, and, before the year 800, the image-worshipers regained the throne in the person of the Empress Irene. Meantime the question had divided Christendom. The churches of Greece and Russia and the other Slav states of Southeastern Europe still belong to the Greek communion.

Constantine, all bishops had held considerable civil authority; and this new condition left the bishop of Rome the chief lieutenant of the Empire in his isolated district. At the same time, in the position that the pope claimed as spiritual head of Christendom, he called, in some matters, for submission from the emperor himself. Thus his double character of the emperor's servant and the emperor's superior could be easily confused; while the difficulty of communication left him in any case very nearly an independent sovereign.

662. This Virtual Independence avowed by Open Rebellion. The emperor did not permit this growing independence without a struggle. One pope was dragged from the altar to a dungeon; another died a lonely exile in the Crimea; and only a threatened revolt in Italy saved another from a like fate in 701.

More and more the Roman population of Italy rallied round its great bishop against the disliked Greek power. When the Emperor Leo the Isaurian tried to extend imperial taxation in Italy, Pope Gregory sanctioned resistance. The imperial decree regarding images, we have noted, met with like reception. Plans were discussed in Italy for setting up a new emperor in Rome, or for a confederation of the peninsula under the pope. As the image-worship dispute grew violent, church councils, summoned by Pope Gregory II (730 A.D.) and by Gregory III (731 A.D.), excommunicated Leo. The emperor sent a fleet and army to seize Gregory and subdue Italy; but a storm wrecked the expedition and the rebellion succeeded.

After these events, Roman bishops assumed office without sanction from the emperors; and, fifty years later, Pope Hadrian made the political separation more apparent by ceasing to date events by the reigns of the emperors.

2

1 Until this rebellion, the popes, though elected by the clergy and people of Rome, had waited like other bishops for confirmation by the emperor before entering on their office.

2 Instead, he called a certain day "December 1, of the year 781 under the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ, our God and Redeemer," and so began our method of counting time. He should have made the year 785. Owing to this error in calculation, we are now obliged to say that Christ was born 4 B.C.

663. Recognition and Protection of the New Sovereignty by the Franks. The next step was to secure recognition for the new papal sovereignty. First, however, it was seriously threatened by the Lombards. The Lombard king Aistulf had seized the Exarchate of Ravenna in the north, and was bent upon seizing Rome also. Had he succeeded, Italy would have become one state with a united nation. This result was prevented by the opposition of the popes.

A Lombard master close at hand would have been more dangerous to the papal claims than a distant Greek master; and the popes appealed to the Franks for aid. It happened that the great Frankish mayors had need of papal sanction for their plans just then, and so the bargain was struck. The story demands that we return to Frankish history.

FOR FURTHER READING. - Church's Beginnings of the Middle Ages, 106-110; Carr's Church and Empire, ch. xxiv; Adams' Civilization, ch. vi; Emerton's Introduction; Curteis; and the Church Histories, Catholic and Protestant.

IV. THE FRANKS AND THE PAPACY.

(THE FRANKS FROM CHARLES THE HAMMER TO CHARLES THE GREAT.) 664. The Carolingian1 Dynasty secures the Frankish Throne, with Papal Sanction. Shortly after the victory at Tours, the "Do-nothing" king died. Charles Martel did not venture to take the title of king, but neither did he place any Merovingian upon the throne. He continued to rule, in his capacity as Mayor of the Palace, without any king at all. Before his death he secured the consent of the nobles to the division of his office between his sons Karlmann and Pippin.

These young mayors, less secure at first than their victorious father, thought it best to crown a Merovingian prince, in whose name they might govern, like their predecessors. Their first work was to continue the task of their father and

1 For this name, see § 667, note. The student will do well to prepare for this topic and for the following chapter by rereading the earlier history of the Franks (§§ 616–620, 647-650, 656).