256

THE DECLINE AND FALL

CHAP.

LXIX.

right;

▼irtue;

name of domimis or lord was inscribed on thecoin of the bishops: their title was acknowledgedby acclamations and oaths of allegiance; andwith the free, or reluctant consent of the Ger-man Caesars, they had long exercised a supremeor subordinate jurisdiction over the city and pa-trimony of St. Peter. The reign of the popes,which gratified the prejudices, was not incom-patible with the liberties of Rome; and a morecritical enquiry would have revealed a still no-bler source of their power; the gratitude of anation, whom they had rescued from the heresyand oppression of the Greek tyrant. In an ageof superstition, it should seem that the union ofthe royal and sacerdotal characters would mutu-ally fortify each other; and that the keys of pa-radise would be the surest pledge of earthly obe-dience. The sanctity of the office might indeedbe degraded by the personal vices of the man;but the scandals of the tenth century were obli-terated by the austere and more dangerous vir-tues of Gregory the seventh and his successors;and in the ambitious contests which they main-tained for the rights of the church, their suffer-ings or their success must equally tend to in-crease the popular veneration. They sometimeswandered in poverty and exile, the victims ofpersecution; and the apostolic zeal with whichthey offered themselves to martyrdom must en-gage the favour and sympathy of every catholicbreast. And sometimes, thundering from theVatican , they created, judged, and deposed thekings of the world: nor could the proudest Ro-