o THE TWO SWORDS
spiritual power. Possibly the Pope did not act so subtly, but the fact remained that the Lateran mosaic which pictures the two powers kneeling in equal rank before Christ and Peter had already been ren- dered obsolete. Just a few days previous Leo had awaited the verdict of his judge. Now that judge was of lower rank than he.
As Emperor, Charlemagne continued to govern the Church as he had governed it when he was only a king. He brought to it a pros- perity so great that since his time the Papacy has seldom been able to achieve anything comparable. He ploughed the Roman field and sowed the seed of its future greatness. But the unification of powers which he assumed proved no unmingled blessing in this theocracy. By enlisting his clergy, particularly the prelates, for the business of the state on equal terms with the other officials, and by conferring on them especial rights and privileges, Charlemagne unwittingly paved the way for a worldliness that would seriously impair the social structure. Indeed the disease would have become incurable later, had there not been a Papacy not subservient to an Emperor.
Hardly had Charlemagne been laid in his grave than the Empire and the Imperial authority weakened in the hands of his quarrelling heirs. A party of spiritual and temporal nobles was gradually or- ganized on the basis of common conviction that only across the Alps was there a centre where the conception of universal unity remained alive amidst the all-surrounding decay. Another faction clung to the spirit of Charlemagne and bluntly opposed the Pope when he refused to do the Imperial bidding. But Rome gradually rose from its position of subservience; it had only drawn back in order to prepare for a resurgence soon to follow. The Popes who ruled during the first half of the ninth century were not great men but they were con- scious of the duties incumbent on their office.
In all probability the notorious document known as the "Donation of Constantine" dates from the first years of the reign of Louis the Pious, the son of Charlemagne by Hildegarde. It is a forgery which purports to be a document executed by Constantine the Great in favour of Pope Sylvester I and the Roman Church. It states that out of gratitude to the Pope, who had converted, baptized and healed him of the plague, the Emperor had confirmed the subservience of all the churches of the world, including the four Oriental Patriarchies,
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