Martel had proved himself a great soldier; he was, therefore, an
ambitious man. There was Scripture authority for raising a subordinate
to sovereign power; the prophets of Israel had thus, of old, with oil
anointed kings. And if the sword of France was gently removed from the
kingly hand that was too weak to hold it, and given to the hero who had
already shown that he could smite terribly with it--if this were done by
the authority of the pope, acting as the representative of God, how
great the gain to the papacy! A thousand years might not be enough to
separate the monarchy of France from the theocracy of Italy.

[Sidenote: Revolt of the pope from the emperor.]

[Sidenote: Alliance of the pope and the Franks.]

The resistance which had sprung up to the imperial edict for the
destruction of images determined the course of events. The pope
rebelled, and attempts were made by the emperor to seize or assassinate
him. A fear that the pontiff might be carried to Constantinople, and the
preparations making to destroy the images in the churches, united all
Italy. A council was held at Rome, which anathematized the Iconoclasts.
In retaliation, the Sicilian and other estates of the Church were
confiscated. Gregory III., who in the meantime succeeded to the papacy,
continued the policy of his predecessor. The emperor was defied. A
fleet, fitted out by him in support of the exarch, was lost in a storm.
With this termination of the influence of Constantinople in Italy came
the imminent danger that the pope must acknowledge the supremacy of the
Lombards. In his distress Gregory turned to Charles Martel. He sent him
the keys of the sepulchre of St. Peter, and implored his assistance. The
die was cast. Papal Rome revolted from her sovereign, and became
indissolubly bound to the barbarian kingdoms. To France a new dynasty
was given, to the pope temporal power, and to the west of Europe a
fictitious Roman empire.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: The monks.]

The monks had thus overcome the image-breaking emperors, a result which
proves them to have already become a formidable power in the state. It
is necessary, for a proper understanding of the great events with which
henceforth they were connected, to describe their origin and history.

[Sidenote: Their first position]

In the iconoclastic quarrel they are to be regarded as the
representatives of the common people in contradistinction to the clergy;
often