Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1877 edition. Excerpt: ... From " Dollinger's History Of The Church." (Vol. iii. pp. 117--119.) "On the following festival of Christmas, the Pope crowned Charles as Roman Emperor, amidst the acclamations of the people, whilst he knelt before the altar of St. Peter, and anointed him and his son Pepin. Thus, after an interval of three hundred and twenty-five years, was the dignity of Roman emperor renewed; not transferred from the Greeks to the Franks; for the Byzantine emperors were still acknowledged as such by the popes and by the emperors of the west. But the empire of Constantinople, which had oftentimes been the prey of a fortunate adventurer or rude soldier, which had oppressed and persecuted rather than defended the Church, possessed now no more authority in the west. The Greeks themselves had long looked upon the Italian provinces, not as component parts of the empire, but as foreign conquered lands. By their perfect inability to guard them and protect them against the attacks of the Lombards, they had forfeited their claims to these provinces; and over Rome and the Roman dukedom, the sovereignty of the popes had been established during the course of the eighth century. The popes had recognised the superiority of the Greek emperors only by the insertion of their names and the years of their reign in public records, and by the coining of money bearing their effigies--a practice which had been observed also by the kings of the Franks. Now, therefore, Charles was raised above all the princes and kings of the west; his rank was no longer inferior but equal to that of the emperor of Constantinople; he, who as a patrician, had hitherto been the guardian of the Church of Rome, was now, as emperor, the protector and advocate of the entire Church; and as this was...
