ienate his gift of the
Exarchate? Had they power to abolish his government of Rome? The title
of patrician was below the merit and greatness of Charlemagne; and
it was only by reviving the Western empire that they could pay their
obligations or secure their establishment. By this decisive measure they
would finally eradicate the claims of the Greeks; from the debasement
of a provincial town, the majesty of Rome would be restored: the Latin
Christians would be united, under a supreme head, in their ancient
metropolis; and the conquerors of the West would receive their crown
from the successors of St. Peter. The Roman church would acquire
a zealous and respectable advocate; and, under the shadow of the
Carlovingian power, the bishop might exercise, with honor and safety,
the government of the city. [88]

[Footnote 85: Theophanes (p. 343) specifies those of Sicily and
Calabria, which yielded an annual rent of three talents and a half of
gold, (perhaps 7000 L. sterling.) Liutprand more pompously enumerates the
patrimonies of the Roman church in Greece, Judaea, Persia, Mesopotamia
Babylonia, Egypt, and Libya, which were detained by the injustice of the
Greek emperor, (Legat. ad Nicephorum, in Script. Rerum Italica rum, tom.
ii. pars i. p. 481.)]

[Footnote 86: The great diocese of the Eastern Illyricum, with Apulia,
Calabria, and Sicily, (Thomassin, Discipline de l'Eglise, tom. i. p.
145: ) by the confession of the Greeks, the patriarch of Constantinople
had detached from Rome the metropolitans of Thessalonica, Athens
Corinth, Nicopolis, and Patrae, (Luc. Holsten. Geograph. Sacra, p. 22)
and his spiritual conquests extended to Naples and Amalphi (Istoria
Civile di Napoli, tom. i. p. 517-524, Pagi, A. D 780, No. 11.)]

[Footnote 87: In hoc ostenditur, quia ex uno capitulo ab errore
reversis, in aliis duobus, in eodem (was it the same?) permaneant
errore.... de diocessi S. R. E. seu de patrimoniis iterum increpantes
commonemus, ut si ea restituere noluerit hereticum eum pro hujusmodi
errore perseverantia decernemus, (Epist. Hadrian. Papae ad Carolum
Magnum, in Concil. tom. viii. p. 1598;) to which he adds a reason, most
directly opposite to his conduct, that he preferred the salvation of
souls and rule of faith to the goods of this transitory world.]

[Footnote 88: Fontanini considers the emperors as no more than the
advocates of the church, (advocatus et defensor S. R. E. See Ducange,
Gloss Lat. tom. i. p. 297.) His antag