the growing power of the pope, could not exist without him, respected his moral authority, but considered that he usurped undue power in Rome. This was specially the feeling of the nobles, who had hitherto held the chief authority in the republic, and, being still the leaders of the army, were by no means willing to relinquish it. The Roman nobles were very different from other aristocratic bodies elsewhere. They were not as they pretended, descendants of the Camilli and the Scipios, but neither were they a feudal aristocracy, inasmuch as the Teutonic element had as yet made small way among them. They were a mixture of different elements, national and foreign, formed by the special conditions of Rome. Their power was chiefly derived from the high offices and large grants of money and land conferred on them by the popes; but, as no dynasty existed, they could not be dynastic. Every pope aggrandized his own kindred and friends, and these were the natural and often open adversaries of the next pontiff and his favourites. Thus the Roman nobility was powerful, divided, restless and turbulent; it was continually plotting against the pope, threatening not only his power, but even his life; it continually appealed to the people for assistance, stirred the militia to revolt and rendered government an impossibility. Hence, notwithstanding his immense moral authority, the pope was the effective head neither of the aristocracy, the army nor of the as yet unorganized lower classes. The lord of vast but often insubordinate territories, the recognized master of a capital city torn by internecine feud and plots against himself, he needed the support of an effective force for his own preservation and the maintenance of the authority proffered him from all quarters. Hence the necessity of creating an empire of the West, after having snapped every link with that of the East. Thus the history of Rome is still, as in the past, a history of continual strife between pope, emperor and republic; and the city, while imbibing strength from all three, keeps them in confusion.
Leo III. (796-816) further strengthened the ties between Charlemagne and the church by sending the former a letter with the keys of the shrine of St Peter and the banner of Rome. Charlemagne had already joined to his office of patrician the function of high justice. The new symbols now sent constituted him miles of Rome and general of the church. The pope urged him to despatch an envoy to receive the oath of fealty, thus placing himself, the representative of the republic, in the subordinate position of one of the bishops who had received the immunities of counts. And all these arrangements took place without the slightest reference to the senate, the army or the people. Much resentment was felt, especially by the nobles, and a revolution ensued headed by the primicerius Paschalis and the secundicerius Campulus, and backed by all who wished to liberate the city from the papal rule. During a solemn procession the pope was attacked and barbarously maltreated by his assailants, who tried to tear out his eyes and tongue (799). He was thrown into prison, escaped and overtook Charlemagne at Paderborn, and returned guarded by ten of the monarch's envoys, who condemned to death the leaders of the revolt, reserving, however, to their sovereign the right of final judgment. Charlemagne arrived in December 800, and as high justice assembled a tribunal of the clergy, nobles, citizens and Franks; he pronounced Leo to be innocent, and confirmed the capital sentence passed on the rebels. But through the intercession of the pope, who dreaded the wrath of the nobles, this was presently Charlemagne crowned emperor. commuted into perpetual exile. And finally on Christmas day, in St Peter's, before an assemblage of Roman and Frankish lords, the clergy and the people, the pontiff placed the imperial crown on Charlemagne's head and all proclaimed him emperor.
Thus the new emperor was elected by the Romans and consecrated by the pope. But he was their real master and supreme judge. The pope existed only by his will, since he alone supplied the means for the maintenance of the temporal power, and already pretended to the right of controlling the papal elections. Yet Charlemagne was not sovereign of Rome; he possessed scarcely any regalia there, and was not in command of the army; he mainly represented a principle, but this principle was the law which is the basis of the state. The pope still nominated the Roman judges, but the emperor or his missi presided over them, together with those of the pope, and his decision was appealed to in last resort. During the Carolingian times no mention is found of the prefect, and it would seem that his office was filled by the imperial missus, or legate, the judices de clero and judices de militia. The power of the pope was now entangled with that of the republic on the one hand and that of the empire on the other. The consequent confusion of sacred and secular functions naturally led to infinite complications and disputes.
The death of Charlemagne in 814 was the signal for a fresh conspiracy of the nobles against the pope, who, discovering their design, instantly put the ringleaders to death, and was severely blamed by Louis for this violation of the imperial prerogative. While the matter was under discussion the nobles broke out in fiercer tumults, both in Rome and the Campagna. At last, in 824, the emperor Lothair came to re-establish order in Rome, and proclaimed a new and noteworthy constitution, to which Pope Eugenius II. (824-27) gave his oath of adherence. By this the partnership of pope and emperor in the temporal rule of Rome and the states of the church was again confirmed. The more direct power appertained to the pope; the supreme authority, presidency of the tribunals, and final judgment on appeal to the emperor. The new constitution also established the right of contending parties to select either the Roman or the Teutonic code for the settlement of their disputes. During the Carolingian period it is not surprising that the commune should have been, as it were, absorbed by the church and the empire. In fact, it is scarcely mentioned in history throughout that time. Decline of the empire. And when, no longer sustained by the genius of its founder, the Frankish empire began to show signs of dissolution, the popes, finding their power thereby strengthened, began to assume many of the imperial attributes. Soon, however, as a natural consequence of the loss of the main support of the papacy, the nobles regained vigour and were once more masters of the city. Teutonic and feudal elements had now largely penetrated into their organization. The system of granting lands, and even churches and convents, as benefices according to feudal forms, became more and more general. It was vain for the popes to offer opposition, and they ended by yielding to the current. The fall of the Frankish empire left all Italy a prey to anarchy, and torn by the faction fights of Berengar of Friuli and Guido of Spoleto, the rival claimants to the crowns of Italy and the empire. The Saracens were advancing from the south, the Huns from the north; the popes had lost all power; and in the midst of this frightful chaos a way was opened for the rise of the republics. Anarchy was at its climax in Rome, but the laity began to overpower the clergy to such an extent that the judices de militia prevailed over the judices de clero. For a. long time no imperial missi or legates had been seen, and the papacy was incredibly lowered. The election of the popes had positively fallen into the hands of certain beautiful women notorious for their evil life and depravity. The Renewed power of the aristocracy. aristocracy alone gained strength; now freed from the domination of the emperor, it continually wrested fresh privileges from the impotent pontiffs, and became organized as the ruling force of the republic. Gregorovius, notwithstanding his denial of the continuation of the senate after the 6th century, is obliged to acknowledge that it appeared to have returned to life in the power of this new baronage. And, although this body was now permeated with the feudal principle, it did not discard its ancient traditions. The nobles claimed to be the main source of the empire; they wished to regain the dignity and office of patricius, and to make it, if possible, hereditary in some of their families. Nothing is known of their system of organization, but it seems
