The popes followed the missionary policy of Gregory and the instinct of Roman ambition
and power. Every progress of Christianity in the West and the North was a progress of the Roman
Church. Augustin, Boniface, Ansgar were Roman missionaries and pioneers of the papacy. As
England had been annexed to the triple crown under Gregory I., so France, the Netherlands, Germany
and Scandinavia were annexed under his successors. The British and Scotch-Irish independence
gave way gradually to the irresistible progress of Roman authority and uniformity. Priests, noblemen
and kings from all parts of the West were visiting Rome as the capital of Christendom, and paid
homage to the shrine of the apostles and to the living successor of the Galilaean fisherman.
But while the popes thus extended their spiritual dominion over the new barbarous races,
they were the political subjects of the Eastern emperor as the master of Italy, and could not be
consecrated without his consent. They were expected to obey the imperial edicts even in spiritual
matters, and were subject to arrest and exile. To rid themselves of this inconvenient dependence
was a necessary step in the development of the absolute papacy. It was effected in the eighth century
by the aid of a rising Western power. The progress of Mohammedanism and its encroachment on
the Greek empire likewise contributed to their independence.
§ 54. From Gregory II to Zacharias. a.d. 715–741.
Gregory II. (715–731) marks the transition to this new state of things. He quarreled with the
iconoclastic emperor, Leo the Isaurian, about the worship of images. Under his pontificate,
Liutprand,^231 the ablest and mightiest king of the Lombards, conquered the Exarchate of Ravenna,
and became master of Italy.
But the sovereignty of a barbarian and once Arian power was more odious and dangerous
to the popes than that of distant Constantinople. Placed between the heretical emperor and the
barbarian robber, they looked henceforth to a young and rising power beyond the Alps for deliverance
and protection. The Franks were Catholics from the time of their conversion under Clovis, and
achieved under Charles Martel (the Hammer) a mighty victory over the Saracens (732), which
saved Christian Europe against the invasion and tyranny of Islâm. They had thus become the
protectors of Latin Christianity. They also lent their aid to Boniface in the conversion of Germany.
Gregory, III. (731–741) renewed the negotiations with the Franks, begun by his predecessor.
When the Lombards again invaded the territory, of Rome, and were ravaging by fire and sword the
last remains of the property of the church, he appealed in piteous and threatening tone to Charles
Martel, who had inherited from his father, Pepin of Herstal, the mayoralty of France, and was the
virtual ruler of the realm. "Close not your ears," he says, "against our supplications, lest St. Peter
close against you the gates of heaven." He sent him the keys of the tomb of St. Peter as a symbol
of allegiance, and offered him the titles of Patrician and Consul of Rome.^232 This was virtually a
declaration of independence from Constantinople. Charles Martel returned a courteous answer, and
(^231) Or Luitprand, born about 690, died 744. There is also a Lombard historian of that name, a deacon of the cathedral of
Pavia, afterwards bishop of Cremona, died 972.
(^232) Gibbon actually attributes these titles to Charles Martel; while Bryce (p. 40) thinks that they were first given to Pepin.
Gregory II. had already (724) addressed Charles Martel as "Patricius" (see Migne, Opera Caroli M. II. 69). Gregory III. sent
him in 739 ipsas sacratissimas claves confessionis beati Petri quas vobus ad regnum dimisimus (ib. p. 66), which implies the
transfer of civil authority over Rome.