ties: the images of Christ and the Virgin, of the angels, martyrs,
and saints, were abolished in all the churches of Italy; and a strong
alternative was proposed to the Roman pontiff, the royal favor as the
price of his compliance, degradation and exile as the penalty of his
disobedience. Neither zeal nor policy allowed him to hesitate; and
the haughty strain in which Gregory addressed the emperor displays his
confidence in the truth of his doctrine or the powers of resistance.
Without depending on prayers or miracles, he boldly armed against the
public enemy, and his pastoral letters admonished the Italians of their
danger and their duty. [37] At this signal, Ravenna, Venice, and
the cities of the Exarchate and Pentapolis, adhered to the cause of
religion; their military force by sea and land consisted, for the
most part, of the natives; and the spirit of patriotism and zeal was
transfused into the mercenary strangers. The Italians swore to live and
die in the defence of the pope and the holy images; the Roman people was
devoted to their father, and even the Lombards were ambitious to share
the merit and advantage of this holy war. The most treasonable act,
but the most obvious revenge, was the destruction of the statues of Leo
himself: the most effectual and pleasing measure of rebellion, was the
withholding the tribute of Italy, and depriving him of a power which he
had recently abused by the imposition of a new capitation. [38] A form
of administration was preserved by the election of magistrates and
governors; and so high was the public indignation, that the Italians
were prepared to create an orthodox emperor, and to conduct him with
a fleet and army to the palace of Constantinople. In that palace, the
Roman bishops, the second and third Gregory, were condemned as the
authors of the revolt, and every attempt was made, either by fraud or
force, to seize their persons, and to strike at their lives. The city
was repeatedly visited or assaulted by captains of the guards, and dukes
and exarchs of high dignity or secret trust; they landed with foreign
troops, they obtained some domestic aid, and the superstition of Naples
may blush that her fathers were attached to the cause of heresy. But
these clandestine or open attacks were repelled by the courage and
vigilance of the Romans; the Greeks were overthrown and massacred, their
leaders suffered an ignominious death, and the popes, however inclined
to mercy, refused to inte