Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/278

256 THE DECLINE AND FALL Rome were nearly equal. But the Greek prelate was a domestic slave under the eye of his master, at whose nod he alternately passed from the convent to the throne, and from the throne to the convent. A distant and dangerous station, amidst the bar- barians of the West, excited the spirit and freedom of the Latin bishops. Their popular election endeared them to the Romans ; the public and private indigence was relieved by their ample revenue ; and the weakness or neglect of the emperors com- pelled them to consult, both in peace and war, the temporal safety of the city. In the school of adversity the priest insen- sibly imbibed the virtues and the ambition of a prince ; the same character was assumed, the same policy Avas adopted, by the Italian, the Greek, or the Syrian, who ascended the chair of St. Peter ; and, after the loss of her legions and provinces, the genius and fortune of the popes again restored the supremacy of Rome. It is agreed that in the eighth century their dominion was founded on rebellion, and that the rebellion was produced, and justified, by the heresy of the Iconoclasts ; but the conduct of the second and third Gregory, in this memorable contest, is variously interpreted by the wishes of their friends and enemies. The Byzantine writers unanimously declare that, after a fruit- less admonition, they pronounced the separation of the East and West, and deprived the sacrilegious tyrant of the revenue and sovereignty of Italy. Their excommunication is still more clearly expressed by the Greeks, who beheld the accomplish- ment of the papal triumphs ; and, as they are more strongly attached to their religion than to their country, they praise, instead of blaming, the zeal and orthodoxy of these apostolical men.2 The modern champions of Rome are eager to accept the praise and the precedent : this great and glorious example of the deposition of royal heretics is celebrated by the cardinals Baronius and Bellarmine ; ^" and, if they are asked why the same thunders were not hurled against the Neros and Julians of antiquity, they reply that the weakness of the primitive ^ Kal T^v 'PiofirjU a~vv nacrr) [tiJJ 'IxaAi'a rijs /3a(nAeias aiirov ajrc'<rr>)(r€, SayS TheO- phanes (Chronograph, p. 343 [a.m. 6221]). For this Gregory is styled by Ced- reniis av'rip airoo-ToAiKos (p. 4So). Zonaras specifies the thunder, ivaOftiaTL otjvoSikio (torn. ii. 1. xv. p. 104, 105 [c. 4, ad init.]). It may be observed that the Greeks are apt to confound the times and actions of two Gregories. 2' See Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A.n. 730, No. 4, 5, dignum exemplum ! Bellar- min. de Romano Pontifice, 1. v. c. 8, mulctavit euni parte imperii. Sigonius, de Regno Italiae, 1. iii. Opera, torn. ii. p. 169. Yet such is the change of Italy that Sigonius is corrected by the editor of Milan, Philippus Argelatus, a Bolognese, and subject of the pope.