the mosaics of the palace of Ravenna, for the decoration of
Aix-la-Chapelle, (Cod. Carolin. epist. 67, p. 223.)]

[Footnote 67: The popes often complain of the usurpations of Leo of
Ravenna, (Codex Carolin, epist. 51, 52, 53, p. 200-205.) Sir corpus St.
Andreae fratris germani St. Petri hic humasset, nequaquam nos Romani
pontifices sic subjugassent, (Agnellus, Liber Pontificalis, in
Scriptores Rerum Ital. tom. ii. pars. i. p. 107.)]

Fraud is the resource of weakness and cunning; and the strong, though
ignorant, Barbarian was often entangled in the net of sacerdotal
policy. The Vatican and Lateran were an arsenal and manufacture,
which, according to the occasion, have produced or concealed a various
collection of false or genuine, of corrupt or suspicious, acts, as they
tended to promote the interest of the Roman church. Before the end
of the eighth century, some apostolic scribe, perhaps the notorious
Isidore, composed the decretals, and the donation of Constantine, the
two magic pillars of the spiritual and temporal monarchy of the popes.
This memorable donation was introduced to the world by an epistle of
Adrian the First, who exhorts Charlemagne to imitate the liberality, and
revive the name, of the great Constantine. [68] According to the legend,
the first of the Christian emperors was healed of the leprosy, and
purified in the waters of baptism, by St. Silvester, the Roman bishop;
and never was physician more gloriously recompensed. His royal proselyte
withdrew from the seat and patrimony of St. Peter; declared his
resolution of founding a new capital in the East; and resigned to
the popes the free and perpetual sovereignty of Rome, Italy, and the
provinces of the West. [69] This fiction was productive of the most
beneficial effects. The Greek princes were convicted of the guilt
of usurpation; and the revolt of Gregory was the claim of his lawful
inheritance. The popes were delivered from their debt of gratitude; and
the nominal gifts of the Carlovingians were no more than the just and
irrevocable restitution of a scanty portion of the ecclesiastical state.
The sovereignty of Rome no longer depended on the choice of a fickle
people; and the successors of St. Peter and Constantine were invested
with the purple and prerogatives of the Caesars. So deep was the
ignorance and credulity of the times, that the most absurd of fables was
received, with equal reverence, in Greece and in France, and is still
enrolled among