Charlemagne inherited the protectorate of the temporal dominions of the pope which had been
wrested from the Lombards by Pepin, as the Lombards had wrested them from the Eastern emperor.
When the Lombards again rebelled and the pope (Hadrian) again appealed to the transalpine monarch
for help, Charles in the third year of his sole reign (774) came to the rescue, crossed the Alps with
an army—a formidable undertaking in those days—subdued Italy with the exception of a small
part of the South still belonging to the Greek empire, held a triumphal entry in Rome, and renewed
and probably enlarged his father’s gift to the pope. The original documents have perished, and no
contemporary authority vouches for the details; but the fact is undoubted. The gift rested only on
the right of conquest. Henceforward he always styled himself "Rex Francorum et Longobardorum,
et Patricius Romanorum." His authority over the immediate territory of the Lombards in Northern
Italy was as complete as that in France, but the precise nature of his authority over the pope’s
dominion as Patrician of the Romans became after his death an apple of discord for centuries.
Hadrian, to judge from his letters, considered himself as much an absolute sovereign in his dominion
as Charles in his.
In 781 at Easter Charles revisited Rome with his son Pepin, who on that occasion was
anointed by the pope "King for Italy" ("Rex in Italiam"). On a third visit., in 787, he spent a few
days with his friend, Hadrian, in the interest of the patrimony of St. Peter. When Leo III. followed
Hadrian (796) he immediately dispatched to Charles, as tokens of submission the keys and standards
of the city, and the keys of the sepulchre of Peter.
A few years afterwards a terrible riot broke out in Rome in which the pope was assaulted
and almost killed (799). He fled for help to Charles, then at Paderborn in Westphalia, and was
promised assistance. The next year Charles again crossed the Alps and declared his intention to
investigate the charges of certain unknown crimes against Leo, but no witness appeared to prove
them. Leo publicly read a declaration of his own innocence, probably at the request of Charles, but
with a protest that this declaration should not be taken for a precedent. Soon afterwards occurred
the great event which marks an era in the ecclesiastical and political history of Europe.
The Coronation of Charles as Emperor.
While Charles was celebrating Christmas in St. Peter’s, in the year of our Lord 800, and
kneeling in prayer before the altar, the pope, as under a sudden inspiration (but no doubt in
consequence of a premeditated scheme), placed a golden crown upon his head, and the Roman
people shouted three times: "To Charles Augustus, crowned by God, the great and pacific emperor
of the Romans, life and victory!" Forthwith, after ancient custom, he was adored by the pope, and
was styled henceforth (instead of Patrician) Emperor and Augustus.^250
The new emperor presented to the pope a round table of silver with the picture of
Constantinople, and many gifts of gold, and remained in Rome till Easter. The moment or manner
of the coronation may have been unexpected by Charles (if we are to believe his word), but it is
hardly conceivable that it was not the result of a previous arrangement between him and Leo. Alcuin
seems to have aided the scheme. In his view the pope occupied the first, the emperor the second,
(^250) Annales Laurissenses ad ann. 801: "Ipsa die sacratissima natalis Domini cum Rex ad Missam ante confessionem b.
Petri Apostoli ab oratione surgeret, Leo P. coronam capriti ejus imposuit, et a cuncto Romanorum populo acclamatum est:,
Karolo Augusto, a Deo coronato, magno et pacifico Imperatori Romanorum, vita et victoria!’ Et post Laudes ab Apostolico
more antiquorum principum adoratus est, atque, ablato Patricii nomine, Imperator et Augustus est appellatus." Comp. Eginhard,
Annal. ad ann. 800, and Vita Car., c. 28.