tian qualities of the odious title appear, in Gregory's view, to have fallen off. The mutual gratulations of the bishop and the usurper, seem to have been occasioned by their power to aid each other in their designs of elevation. Thus a holy father of Rome, virtually entered into a league with the traitor and murderer Phocas, to advance their mutual interests. And the papists are welcome to all the execrations and anathemas, which their holy father Gregory pronounced on that title, by which the bishops of Rome have been distinguished from the time of Phocas till now.

In the event, Phocas was proclaimed emperor, and though Gregory did not live to enjoy the fruits of this revolution, though he did not, in his own person, become universal bishop, yet Phocas conferred the title on a successor shortly after. This successor, who was properly the first pope, was Boniface III. He prevailed upon the bloody Phocas to revoke the decree of the empire which conferred the dignity of universal bishop on the prelate of Constantinople, and obtained a new decree conferring this title on himself and his successors. This was the origin of popery. Here commenced that system of spiritual domination, which has covered the church with sackcloth, and drenched the earth with blood.

But it is here very properly inquired, what validity had this grant or decree of Phocas to constitute a bishop of Rome universal bishop? What had Phocas to do with the church of Christ, which is not of this world, that he should presume to regulate her affairs? The transaction strongly reminds one of a grant which was attempted to be made on another occasion; when the tempter offered to our Saviour all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, if he would fall down at his feet in an act of worship. Our Saviour promptly refused an offer so absurd as well as impious. But the bishop of Rome, on the contrary, was satisfied to receive his grant of supreme authority in the church, from one who had as little right

to bestow the gift, as Satan had to give the kingdoms of the world. To a reflecting mind it must be matter of serious objection to the authority of the pope, that it was first derived from a traitor and a murderer. But with those who ground the claim to power on the ability to exercise it, such considerations will have but little weight. Whatever might have been the right or the wrong in the case, the power was real and effective; for it was backed by the forces of the empire, at the nod of a tyrant, and it has been in many cases exercised in a manner worthy of its origin.

The pope, in consequence of this grant, became a god on earth. He sat in the temple of God, showing himself as God. And no sooner did he find himself announced as head of the church, than he took measures to render this dignity something more than a sound or a title. He set himself at work to make the most of his grant, and secure his acquisition. He immediately called a council at Rome, and procured a decree that no election of a bishop should thenceforth be deemed lawful and good, unless made by the people and clergy, approved by the prince or lord of the city, and confirmed by the pope. Thus the pope held a veto over all appointments in the church, and bound to himself all the bishops, and through them, all the inferior clergy, and through them again, all the people. So that the pope became absolute monarch of the whole of Christendom. His power, however, was still restricted to ecclesiastical affairs. Another kind of power was necessary to satisfy his ambition, and enable him to fulfil all his designs. A temporal sceptre, and the command of an armed force, were deemed indispensable to his plans. To effect this purpose he resorted to another traitor, whose rebellion and usurpation he encouraged, and by whose favor he obtained the sovereign power over certain portions of rich territory in Italy, such as the kingdom of the Heruli, of the Ostrogoths, and of Lombardy, and the exarchate of Ravenna. The man who was the

instrument of this accession to papal power was Pépin, the usurping king of France. This Pépin was chief counsellor and commander under Childeric, the lawful king of the Franks. The king was a weak prince, and confided greatly in his chief counsellor, Pépin, who thought himself more fit to reign than his sovereign, and waited only for some pretext under which to execute his purpose. He resolved to take the opinion of the pope on the following abstract question, viz., "Who best deserves the honor of a king, he who has the power, or he who has only the title?" The crafty pope, to whom the question was proposed, at once comprehended its import, and declared that in his opinion he ought to be considered the king, who possessed the power, rather than he who had the title. The aspiring Pepin now had, what he considered, divine authority for dethroning his sovereign, which he did. As a natural consequence, the pope would now look to Pépin for aid in time of need. The occasion was not slow to occur. The pope, having a quarrel with the king of the Lombards, and being unable to resist that powerful prince, applied, with great earnestness, to Pepin for succour. The king of the Franks could not but acknowledge his obligations to his holiness the pope, and brought to his aid such a force as made the king of the Lombards quickly submit, and promise to give up the territory he had severed from the empire, not to its rightful owner, but to the pope. But no sooner had Pépin withdrawn from the scene of conflict, than the Lombard king violated all his engagements, and attacked the pope afresh. He laid siege to Rome itself, and was at the point of taking the holy city, when the pope, in his distress, sent the following epistle to the king of the Franks :-" To defend the church is of all works most meritorious, and that to which is reserved the greatest reward in the world to come. God might himself have defended his church, or have raised up others to defend the just rights of his apostle, St. Peter.

3

But it pleased him to choose you, my most excellent son, out of the whole human race, for that holy purpose. For it was in compliance with his divine inspiration and command that I applied to you, that I came into your kingdom, that I exhorted you to espouse the cause of his beloved apostle, and your great protector, St. Peter. You espoused his cause accordingly, and your zeal for his honor was quickly rewarded by a signal and miraculous victory. But St. Peter, my most excellent son, has not yet reaped the least advantage from so glorious a victory, though owing entirely to him. The perfidious and wicked Astulphus (the king of the Lombards) has not yet yielded to him one foot of ground; nay, unmindful of his oath, and actuated by the devil, he has begun hostilities anew; and bidding defiance both to you and St. Peter, threatens us and the whole Roman empire with death and destruction." The pope, however, dare not trust too much to the influence of his own eloquence upon the mind of the French king. He pretended to have procured an epistle from St. Peter himself, which he sent to Pepin as a genuine production of his great predecessor in the see of Rome. The following is an extract from the said letter of St. Peter:-"Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to the three most excellent kings, Pepin, Charles, and Carloman, (the two last were sons of Pepin,) to all the holy bishops, abbots, presbyters, and monks, to all the dukes, counts, commanders of the French army, and to the whole people of France, grace unto you and peace be multiplied. I am the apostle Peter, to whom it was said, thou art Peter, and upon this rock, &c. Feed my sheep, &c. And I will give unto thee the keys, &c. As this was all said to me in particular, all who hearken to me, and obey my exhortations, may persuade themselves and firmly believe that their sins are forgiven them. Hearken therefore to me, Peter the apostle and servant of Jesus Christ; and since I have preferred you to all the nations of the earth,

hasten, I beseech and conjure you, if you care to be cleansed from your sins, and to earn an eternal reward, hasten to the relief of my city, of my church, of the people committed to my care, ready to fall into the hands of the wicked Lombards, their merciless enemies. It has pleased the Almighty that my body should rest in this city, the body that has suffered, for the sake of Christ, such exquisite torments; and can you, my most Christian sons, stand by unconcerned, and see it insulted by the most wicked of nations? No, let it never be said, and it will I hope never be said, that I, the apostle of Jesus Christ, that my apostolic church, the foundation of the faith, that my flock recommended to you by me and my vicar, have trusted in you, but trusted in vain. Our lady, the Virgin Mary, the mother of God, joins earnestly entreating, nay, and commands you to hasten, to run, to fly, to the relief of my favorite people, reduced almost to the last gasp, and calling, in that extremity, night and day upon her, and upon me. The thrones and dominions, the principalities and the powers, and the whole multitude of the heavenly host, entreat you, together with us, not to delay, but to come with all possible speed, and rescue my chosen flock from the jaws of the ravening wolves, ready to devour them. My vicar might in this extremity have recurred, and not in vain, to other nations; but with me the French are, and ever have been, the first, the best, the most deserving of all nations; and I would not suffer the reward, the exceeding great reward, that is reserved in this and the other world for those who'shall deliver my people, to be earned by any other."-(Bower's Lives of the Popes.)

It so happened, however, that Pepin had begun his march toward Italy, before this letter of St. Peter reached him, so that the apostle, in a great measure, lost his labor. The king of the Lombards was subdued, and his territory bestowed upon the see of Rome. This completed the elevation of the Romish bishop, and changed