The Historians' History of the World 07

In the meantime a new theatre was preparing for the Franks, on which they were destined by Providence to play a very conspicuous and important part. The exertions and influence of Boniface, the great apostle of Germany, and the intimate religious union he had effected between the Frankish church and the bishops of Rome, were to produce for both parties still richer fruits than had yet appeared.

The reunion of the Lombards under one head had been naturally followed as we have previously seen, by a further extension of their borders at the expense of the Roman Empire; and this extension was the immediate cause of a collision between the kings of the Lombards and the successors of St. Peter, which gave rise to the most important and lasting results.

The evident intention of the bishops of Rome, to play off the Lombards and the Byzantine court against each other, and to make their own career the resultant of these two opposing forces, seemed, for some time, likely to be entirely frustrated.

A Frankish Officer

Liutprand, justly irritated by the conduct of the Romans, to whom he had shown so much forbearance, had led his forces to the very gates of Rome, with the full intention of incorporating it with the rest of his Italian dominions; and thus, with all his foresight, Gregory had brought the rising structure of the papacy into the greatest danger, and appeared to be himself at the mercy of his enemies.

In this extremity the holy father bethought himself of the powerful nation which had for so many ages been the faithful ally of the Catholic church, and had lately been united in still closer bonds of reverence and amity to St. Peter’s chair. In 739 Pope Gregory III applied for aid against the Lombards “to his most excellent son, the sub-king Charles.”

That this application was made unwillingly, and with considerable misgivings about the consequences, may be inferred from the extremities to which Gregory submitted before he made it.

His hesitation was owing, no doubt, in part to his instinctive dread of giving the papal chair a too powerful protector, who might easily become a master; and partly to his knowledge of the sincere friendship which existed between his opponent Liutprand and his desired ally. Of all the circumstances which threatened to prevent the realisation of the papal dreams of temporal independence and spiritual domination, none were so greatly and so justly dreaded as an alliance between the Franks and Lombards; and we shall see that Gregory III and his successors spared no pains, and shrank from no means however questionable, to excite jealousy and hatred between the Franks and their Lombard kinsmen.

THE POPE CALLS TO CHARLES

[740-741 A.D.]

While the Romans were trembling within their hastily repaired walls, and awaiting the decisive assault of the Lombards, Charles Martel was resting from the fatigues of his late campaigns in Burgundy; and he was still in that country when the papal envoys reached him. They brought with them a piteous epistle from Gregory, in which he complains with bitterness of the persecutions of his enemies, who, he says, had robbed the very church of St. Peter (which stood without the walls) of its candlesticks; and taken away the pious offerings of the Frankish princes. Charles received the communication of the afflicted pontiff with the greatest reverence. The interests of the empire, and more especially of his own family, were too intimately connected with the existence and honour of the bishops of Rome, to allow of his feeling indifferent to what was passing in Italy; and there is no reason to doubt that he entertained the highest veneration for the head of the church. Yet this first embassy seems to have justified the fears rather than the hopes of Gregory. The incessant exertions which Charles’ enemies compelled him to make for the maintenance of his authority would long ago have destroyed a man of ordinary energy and endurance, and were beginning to tell even upon his iron frame. He was aware that the new order of things, of which he was the principal author, depended for its continuance and consolidation solely upon his presence and watchfulness. So far from being in a condition to lead his forces to a distant country, and to make enemies of brave and powerful friends, it was not long since he had sought the assistance of the Lombards themselves; and he knew not how soon he might stand in need of it again. He therefore contented himself with opening friendly negotiations with Liutprand, who excused himself to Charles, and agreed to spare the papal territory on condition that the Romans should cease to interfere between himself and his rebellious subjects. The exact terms of the agreement made between Gregory and Liutprand, by the mediation of Charles Martel, are of the less moment, as they were observed by neither party.