lovingian empire, or the empire
of Charlemagne. In the year 774 Charlemagne completed the work begun by
Pepin twenty years before and overthrew the kingdom of the Lombards in
Italy, which was the last of the three horns plucked up before the
little horn of Daniel. By this victory he became complete master of
Italy, and he received the title Patrician of Rome. This was not merely
an honorary title, such as had for ages been conferred upon certain
individuals; but it was a distinct form of civil government and supreme,
taking the same rank with that of the Consular, the Decemvirate, the
Triumvirate, etc., in the earlier history of the nation. It lasted,
however, only "a short space," or twenty-six years, when Charlemagne,
having extended his conquests over all the western part of Europe,
assumed the Imperial title and thus revived the empire of Rome in the
West under its Gothic form. In his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
Gibbon says: "In the twenty-six years that elapsed between the conquest
of Lombardy and his Imperial coronation, Rome, which had been delivered
by the sword, was subject, as his own, to the scepter, of Charlemagne.
The people swore allegiance to his person and family; in his name, money
was coined, and justice was administered, and the election of Popes was
examined and confirmed by his authority--except an original and
self-inherent claim of sovereignity, there was not any prerogative
remaining which the title of emperor could add to the Patrician of
Rome." This decisive testimony by the highest authority on the subject
shows conclusively that all the power of sovereignty resided in
Charlemagne as the Patrician of Rome, and that this, therefore, is a
proper head to be ranked with the other six that preceded it.[14]

[Footnote 14: Commentators frequently identify the seventh head with the
Exarchate of Ravenna. After the overthrow of the kingdom of the
Ostrogoths in Italy by Belisarius, the general of Justinian, about the
middle of the sixth century, the territory became subject to the emperor
of the Eastern empire and was ruled by him through an Exarch whose place
of residence was Ravenna. This Exarchate (sometimes called _Patriciate_)
continued until about the middle of the eighth century, when it was
terminated by Astolphus, king of the Lombards, who made Ravenna the
capital of the Lombardic kingdom in 752. Three years later the Lombards
were defeated by Pepin, who made the Holy See a present of t