The Project Gutenberg EBook of The History of The Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon

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Title: The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Volume 5

Author: Edward Gibbon

Commentator: H. H. Milman

Posting Date: June 7, 2008 [EBook #735]
Release Date: November, 1996

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DECLINE OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE ***

Produced by David Reed

HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE

Edward Gibbon, Esq.

With notes by the Rev. H. H. Milman

Vol. 5

Chapter XLIX: Conquest Of Italy By The Franks.--Part I.

Introduction, Worship, And Persecution Of Images.--Revolt Of
Italy And Rome.--Temporal Dominion Of The Popes.--Conquest
Of Italy By The Franks.--Establishment Of Images.--Character
And Coronation Of Charlemagne.--Restoration And Decay Of The
Roman Empire In The West.--Independence Of Italy.--
Constitution Of The Germanic Body.

In the connection of the church and state, I have considered the former
as subservient only, and relative, to the latter; a salutary maxim,
if in fact, as well as in narrative, it had ever been held sacred. The
Oriental philosophy of the Gnostics, the dark abyss of predestination
and grace, and the strange transformation of the Eucharist from the sign
to the substance of Christ's body, [1] I have purposely abandoned to the
curiosity of speculative divines. But I have reviewed, with diligence
and pleasure, the objects of ecclesiastical history, by which the
decline and fall of the Roman empire were materially affected, the
propagation of Christianity, the constitution of the Catholic church,
the ruin of Paganism, and the sects that arose from the mysterious
controversies concerning the Trinity and incarnation. At the head
of this class, we may justly rank the worship of images, so fiercely
disputed in the eighth and ninth centuries; since a question of popular
superstition produced the revolt of Italy, the temporal power of the
popes, and the restoration of the Roman empire in the West.

[Footnote 1: The learned Selden has given the history of
transubstantiat