ecretary of Charlemagne
affirms, that the French sceptre was transferred by the authority of
the popes; [57] and in their boldest enterprises, they insist, with
confidence, on this signal and successful act of temporal jurisdiction.

[Footnote 55: Besides the common historians, three French critics,
Launoy, (Opera, tom. v. pars ii. l. vii. epist. 9, p. 477-487,) Pagi,
(Critica, A.D. 751, No. 1-6, A.D. 752, No. 1-10,) and Natalis Alexander,
(Hist. Novi Testamenti, dissertat, ii. p. 96-107,) have treated this
subject of the deposition of Childeric with learning and attention, but
with a strong bias to save the independence of the crown. Yet they are
hard pressed by the texts which they produce of Eginhard, Theophanes,
and the old annals, Laureshamenses, Fuldenses, Loisielani]

[Footnote 56: Not absolutely for the first time. On a less conspicuous
theatre it had been used, in the vith and viith centuries, by
the provincial bishops of Britain and Spain. The royal unction of
Constantinople was borrowed from the Latins in the last age of the
empire. Constantine Manasses mentions that of Charlemagne as a foreign,
Jewish, incomprehensible ceremony. See Selden's Titles of Honor, in his
Works, vol. iii. part i. p. 234-249.]

[Footnote 57: See Eginhard, in Vita Caroli Magni, c. i. p. 9, &c.,
c. iii. p. 24. Childeric was deposed--jussu, the Carlovingians were
established--auctoritate, Pontificis Romani. Launoy, &c., pretend that
these strong words are susceptible of a very soft interpretation. Be
it so; yet Eginhard understood the world, the court, and the Latin
language.]

II. In the change of manners and language the patricians of Rome
[58] were far removed from the senate of Romulus, on the palace of
Constantine, from the free nobles of the republic, or the fictitious
parents of the emperor. After the recovery of Italy and Africa by the
arms of Justinian, the importance and danger of those remote provinces
required the presence of a supreme magistrate; he was indifferently
styled the exarch or the patrician; and these governors of Ravenna,
who fill their place in the chronology of princes, extended their
jurisdiction over the Roman city. Since the revolt of Italy and the loss
of the Exarchate, the distress of the Romans had exacted some sacrifice
of their independence. Yet, even in this act, they exercised the right
of disposing of themselves; and the decrees of the senate and people
successively invested Charles Martel and