upheld by despotism over thought.

[Sidenote: Origin of the alliance of the papacy and France.]

From the acts of Pope Gregory the Great, and his organization of the
ideas of his age, the paganization of religion in Italy and its alliance
with art, I have now to turn to the second topic to which this chapter
is devoted--the relations assumed by the papacy with the kings of
France, by which the work of Gregory was consolidated and upheld, and
diffused all over Europe.

[Sidenote: Military results of the Arabian wars.]

The armies of the Saracens had wrested from Christendom the western,
southern, and eastern countries of the Mediterranean; their fleets
dominated in that sea. Ecclesiastical policy had undergone a revolution.
Carthage, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Antioch, had disappeared from the
Christian system; their bishops had passed away. Alone, of the great
episcopal seats, Constantinople and Rome were left. To all human
appearance, their fall seemed to be only a question of time.

[Sidenote: Independence of the pope.]

The disputes of the Bishop of Rome with his African and Asiatic rivals
had thus come to an untimely end. With them nothing more remained to be
done; his communications with the emperor at Constantinople were at the
sufferance of the Mohammedan navies. The imperial power was paralysed.
The pope was forced by events into isolation; he converted it into
independence.

But independence! how was that to be asserted and maintained. In Italy
itself the Lombards seemed to be firmly seated, but they were Arian
heretics. Their presence and power were incompatible with his. Already,
in a political sense, he was at their mercy.

One movement alone was open to him; and, whether he rightly understood
his position or not, the stress of events forced him to make it. It was
an alliance with the Franks, who had successfully resisted the
Mohammedan power, and who were orthodox.

[Sidenote: Conditions of his alliance with the Franks.]

An ambitious Frank officer had resolved to deprive his sovereign of the
crown if the pope would sanctify the deed. They came to an
understanding. The usurpation was consummated by the one and consecrated
by the other. It was then the interest of the intrusive line of monarchs
to magnify their Italian confederate. In the spread of Roman principles
lay the consolidation of the new Frankish power. It became desirable to
compel the ignorant German tribes to acknowledge in the pope the