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gain which a rescued Europe derived from this victory was a con- sciousness of unity, a consciousness which implied a summons to unite against the alien, and yet so related, world power. This it also was which, despite all the weakening relapses that followed, gave the spir- itual monarchy of the Papacy new strength and the chance to carry out more easily the plans to bring about Christian solidarity.
About this time Rome was involved in a complicated struggle be- tween varied forces. Though the Lombards had become Catholic, they had nevertheless twice taken the field against the Eternal City within ten years. In 729, Gregory the Second induced their king Liutprand to depart, but in 739 the Lombards sacked St. Peter's Ca- thedral. No help could be expected from Constantinople, for there the Iconoclasts had been in rebellion since 726 and Rome was strongly opposed to the Emperor's view of Iconoclasm. Then Gregory III, a Syrian, turned for help to Charles Martel. One urgent letter fol- lowed the other, but the Prankish king also would not help because Liutprand was his only ally in the new wars against the Arabs in the Provence. When Pope Zacharias ascended the throne during the year Charles died, he made some progress but could not reach a lasting peace with his assailants. Suddenly, however, Franconian policy needed the spiritual aid of Rome; and now everything on both sides of the Alps took a new turn.
Charles Martel had risen to the dignity of a royal major-domo in Austria, his part of the Empire; and the Prankish dominion had been extended over the Frisians, Saxons, Bavarians, Allemans and Aqui- tanians. Support came from the nobility from which Charles him- self had risen. Soon the real power no longer lay with the exhausted Merovingian dynasty but was in the hands of the major-domo. Nev- ertheless, the last shadow of this dynasty still called himself king when Charles MarteTs son Pepin took over the whole Empire after his co- heir and brother Carloman became a monk in 747 and renounced the throne. Who was the king? He who had the power or he who bore the name? Pepin was determined to rule and sent two ecclesias- tical prelates to Rome with these questions. Pope Zacharias, a Greek, a learned man, a strong mind, a person of noble distinction, was then in office. Throughout the decade of his reign (741^752) Boniface, the Anglo-Saxon missionary, proceeded with his reform of the Church
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