Meantime
Pope Zachary, on his part, made ready to accomplish his engagement, the
chaplain of Pepin being the intermedium of negotiation. On the demand
being formally made, the pope decided that "he should be king who really
possessed the royal power." Hereupon, in March, A.D. 752, Pepin caused
himself to be raised by his soldiers on a buckler and proclaimed King of
the Franks. To give solemnity to the event, he was anointed by the
bishops with oil. The deposed king, Childeric III., was shut up in the
convent of St. Omer. Next year Pope Stephen III., driven to extremity,
applied to Pepin for assistance against the Lombards. It was during
these transactions that he fell upon the device of enforcing his demand
by a letter which he feigned had been written by St. Peter to the
Franks. And now, visiting France, the pope, as an earnest of his
friendship, and as the token of his completion of the contract, in the
monastery of St. Denis, placed, with his own hands, the diadem on
Pepin's brow, and anointed him, his wife, and children, with "the holy
oil," thereby reviving the Jewish system of creating kings by
anointment, and imparting to his confederate "a divine right." Pepin now
finally defeated the Lombards, and assigned a part of the conquered
territory to the pope. Thus, by a successful soldier, two important
events had been accomplished--a revolution in France, attended by a
change of dynasty, and a revolution in Christendom--the Bishop of Rome
had become a temporal sovereign. To the hilt of the sword of France the
keys of St. Peter were henceforth so firmly bound that, though there
have been great kings, and conquerors, and statesmen who have wielded
that sword, not one to this day has been able, though many have desired,
to wrench the encumbrance away.

[Sidenote: The reign of Charlemagne.]

Charlemagne, on succeeding his father Pepin, thoroughly developed his
policy. At the urgent entreaty of Pope Stephen III. he entered Italy,
subjugated the Lombards, and united the crown of Lombardy to that of
France. Upon the pagan Saxons burning the church of Deventer, he
commenced a war with them which lasted thirty-three years, and ended in
their compulsory Christianization. As the circle of his power extended,
he everywhere founded churches and established bishoprics, enriching
them with territorial possessions. To the petty sovereigns, as they
successively succumbed, he permitted the title of counts. True to his
own and his fa