eneficial to the Church over which he
ruled. [Sidenote: Its rupture.] The Image-breaking Controversy put an
end to the nominal tie between the Eastern emperors and the Church of
Italy (about A.D. 730), and almost the whole {122} of the peninsula
soon after became part of the dominions of Charlemagne. This great
Emperor's influence was used in Italy, as elsewhere, to foster the work
of the Church, which however suffered severely from the state of
lawlessness and confusion incident on the breaking up of Charlemagne's
empire after his death, A.D. 814. [Sidenote: Depression of the Church
in Italy.] The Church of Italy in the ninth century had also to undergo
the inroads of the Mahometans in the South, and of the heathen Magyars
(or Hungarians) on the North, as well as of the Northmen, who ravaged
and pillaged the churches and monasteries on the coasts. Other
depressing influences were to be found in the secularization of the
Bishops of Rome through the increase of their temporal power, and the
usurpation by the German emperors of the right of election to the
popedom, which properly belonged to the Clergy of Rome. [Sidenote:
Gregory VII.'s reforms.] The corruptions which from these and other
causes had crept into the Church of Italy, drew towards them the
attention of the famous Hildebrand, afterwards Pope Gregory VII. (A.D.
1073-A.D. 1085), and his efforts at reformation were not without a
beneficial effect. [Sidenote: Heresies of the Albigenses] Early in the
twelfth century the heretical sect of the Albigenses, whose doctrines
resembled those of the ancient Manicheans, spread from the South of
France into Italy, where they received the name of Paterini.
[Sidenote: and Waldenses.] Both they and the kindred sect of the
Waldenses came under the notice of Innocent III. (A.D. 1198-A.D. 1216).
The Albigenses were exterminated with circumstances of great
cruelty[1], but the {123} Waldenses survive to the present day in the
valleys of Piedmont. [Sidenote: Evil effects of the residence at
Avignon on the Italian Church.] The seventy years' residence of the
Bishops of Rome at Avignon (A.D. 1305-A.D. 1376) was felt by the Church
of Italy to be an injury and a great evil, and in the forty years'
schism which followed the return of the chief pastor of the Italians to
his own episcopal city (A.D. 1378-A.D. 1417), only the kingdom of the
Two Sicilies sided with the anti-Popes. [Sidenote: Other depressing
influences.] Meanwhile the