772 773 777 780 Adrian had recourse to him against Didier, A. D. king of the Lombards, who had taken several cities, and was threatening all Italy. Charlemagne passed the Alps. Every thing yielded. Didier was delivered up: the Lombard kings, enemies to Rome, and to the popes, were destroyed: Charlemagne caused himself to be crowned king of Italy, and assumed the title of king of the French and Lombards. At the same time he exercised in Rome itself the supreme authority, in quality of patrician, and confirmed to the holy see the donations of the king his father. The emperors found it difficult to withstand the Bulgarians, and vainly supported, against Charlemagne, the dispossessed Lombards. The quarrel about images still subsisted. Leo III. son of Copronymus, seemed at first to be moderate; but he renewed the persecution as soon as he thought himself master. He quickly died. His son Constantine, but ten years old, succeeded him, and reigned under the tuition of the empress Irene his mother. Then things began to change their aspect. Paul, patriarch of Constantinople, declared, towards the end of his life, that he had opposed the images contrary to his conscience; and retired into a monastery, where he deplored, in presence of the empress, the misfortune of the church of Constantinople, separated from the four patriarchal sees and proposed to her the celebration of an universal council, as the only remedy of so great an evil. Tarasius his successor maintained, that the question had not been 784 784 787 A. D. judged in due order, because they had began with a decree of the emperor, upon which an informal council had followed; whereas in matters of religion, it was for the council to begin, and for the emperors to support the judgment of the church. On this principle, he accepted the patriarchate only upon condition that the universal council should be held: it was commenced at Constantinople, and continued at Nice*. The pope sent thither his legates the council of the Iconoclasts was condemned: they were detested as people, who, after the example of the Saracens, accused the Christians of idolatry. It was decided, that images should be honoured in remembrance, and for the sake of the originals; which is called in the council relative worship, honorary adoration and salutation, as opposed to supreme worship, and adoration of Latria, or of entire subjection, which the council reserves for God alone. Beside the legates of the holy see, and the presence of the patriarch of Constantinople, there appeared legates from the other patriarchal sees, then oppressed by the Infidels. Some have disputed their mission, but what is undisputed, is, that far from disowning them, all those sees have admitted the council, without the least appearance of contradiction, and it has been received by the whole church. The French, encompassed with idolaters, or with new Christians, whose ideas they were afraid to perplex, and at Conc. Nic. Act. 7. the same time puzzled with the equivocal A. D. term adoration, hesitated long. Of all the 787 images, they would pay honour to none, but that of the cross, as being absolutely different from the figures, which the Hea thens believed full of divinity. They preserved, however, the other images in an honourable place, and even in the churches, and detested the Iconoclasts. What difference remained, made no schism. The French at length understood, that the fathers of Nice required for images only the same kind of worship, in all due proportion, which they themselves paid to relics, to the book of the gospel, and to the cross; and this council was honoured by all Christendom, under the name of the seventh general council. Thus have we seen the seven general councils, which the East, and the West, the Greek and Latin churches, receive with equal reverence. The emperors convened those great assemblies, by the sovereign authority they had over all the bishops, or, at least, over the principal ones, on whom all the rest depended, and who were then subjects of the empire. Public carriages were furnished them by order of the princes. They assembled councils in the East, where they made their residence, and usually sent thither commissaries to maintain order. The bishops, thus assembled, carried with them the authority of the Holy Ghost, and the tradition of the churches. At the beginning of Christianity there were three principal sees, which had the precedency of all 787 A. D. the rest: that of Rome, that of Alexandria, and that of Antioch*. The council of Nice had allowed the same rank to the bishop of the holy city. The second and fourth councils exalted the see of Constantinople, and would have it to be the second. Thus were there five.sces, which in process of time, were called patriarchal. Precedency was given them in the council. Of those sees, the see of Rome was always regarded as the first, and the council of Nice regulated the others by itt. There were also Metropolitan bishops, who were heads of provinces, and took precedence of the other bishops. It was rather late before they began to be called archbishops; but their authority was not the less acknowledged. When the council was formed, the Holy Scripture was propounded; passages of the ancient fathers, witnesses of tradition, were read: it was tradition that interpreted Scripture: its true meaning was believed to be that, about which former ages were agreed; and no one thought he had a right to explain it otherwise. Such as refused to submit to the decisions of the council, were anathematized. The faith being explained, ecclesiastical discipline was settled, and canons, that is, rules of the church, were drawn up. It was believed, that the faith never changed, and that though discipline might receive various alterations, according to times and places, men ought * Conc. Nic. Can. 7. Conc. C. P. I. Can. 3. Conc. Chalced. Can. 28. Conc. Nic. Can. 6. 787 to aim, as much as possible, at a perfect A. D. imitation of antiquity. In fine, the popes assisted only by their legates at the first general councils; but they expressly approved of their doctrine, and there was but one faith in the church. Constantine and Irene, caused the decrees of the seventh council to be religiously executed; but the rest of their conduct was not consistent. The young prince, whom his mother forced to marry a woman he did not love, gave himself up to dishonourable amours; and, weary of implicitly obeying so imperious a mother, he endeavoured to remove her from public affairs, in which, however, she maintained herself in spite of him. Alphonsus the Chaste reigned in Spain. The perpetual continence that prince observed, earned him that noble title, and rendered him worthy to deliver Spain from the infamous tribute of an hundred virgins, which his uncle Mauregatus had granted to the Moors. Three score and ten thousand of those Infidels, killed in a battle with Mugatius their general, evinced the valour of Alphonsus. Constantine also endeavoured to signalize himself against the Bulgarians; but the success did not answer his expectation. He destroyed, at last, the whole power of Irene; and being as incapable to govern himself, as to suffer the government of another, he divorced his wife Mary, in order to espouse Theodora, one of her attendants. His mother, exasperated, fomented the troubles, which so great a scandal occasioned, and Constan 793 793 798 799 |