162

THE DECLINE AND FALL

CHAP.

XL1X.

name of the great Constantine.* According tothe legend, the first of the Christian emperorswas healed of the leprosy, and purified in thewaters of baptism, by St. Silvester, the Romanbishop; and never was physician more glori-ously recompensed. His royal proselyte with-drew from the seat and patrimony of St. Peter;declared his resolution of founding a new capi-tal in the East; and resigned to the popes thefree and perpetual sovereignty of Rome, Italy ,and the provinces of the West/ This fictionwas productive of the most beneficial effects.The Greek princes were convicted of the guiltof usurpation ; and the revolt of Gregory wasthe claim of his lawful inheritance. The popeswere delivered from their debt of gratitude ;and the nominal gifts of the Carlovingians wereno more than the just and irrevocable restitu-tion of a scanty portion of the ecclesiasticalstate. The sovereignty of Rome no longer de-pended on the choice of a fickle people; andthe successors of St. Peter and Constantine were invested with the purple and prerogatives

y Piissimo Constantino magno, per ejus largitatem S. K. Ecclesiaeievata et exaltata esl, et polestatem in his Hcsperiae parlibus largiridignatus eat ... . Quia ecce novus Constantinus his temporibus, &c,(Codex Carotin. epist. 49, in tom. iii, pars ii, p. 195). Pagi (Critics,a. d. 321, N°. 16) ascribes them to an impostor of the viiitli century,who borrowed the name of St. Isidore: his humble title of Ptccator wasignorantly, but aptly, turned into Mercator : his merchandize wasiudeed profitable, and a few sheets of paper were sold for much wealthand power.

z Fabricius (Bibliot. Graec. tom. vi, p. 4-7) has enumerated the sere*ral editions of this Act, in Greek and Latin . The copy which Lau-rentius Valla recites and refutes, appears to be taken eilher from thespurious Acts of St. Silvester or from Gratian'a Decree, to which according to him and others* it bus been surreptitiously tacked.