To the most excellent and exalted lord, graciously to be preserved to us for a long life in his princely office (name), exarch of Italy, the priests, deacons, and all the clergy of Rome, the magistrates, the army, and the people of this city of Rome as suppliants send greeting.

Providence is able to give aid in human affairs and to change the weeping and groaning of the sorrowing into rejoicing..

Inasmuch as (name), of pontifical memory, has been called from present cares to eternal rest, as is the lot of mortals, a great load of sorrow oppressed us, for as guardians we were deprived of our own guardian. But the accustomed kindness of our God did not permit us to remain long in this affliction because we hoped in Him. For after we had humbly spent three days in prayer that the heavenly kindness might, for the merits of all, make known whom as worthy it commanded to be elected to succeed to the apostolic office, with the aid of His grace which inspired the minds of all; and after we had assembled as is customary, that is, the clergy and the people of Rome with the presence of the nobility and the army, from the least to the greatest, so to speak; and the election, with the help of God and the aid of the holy Apostles, fell upon the person of (name), the most holy archdeacon of this holy Apostolic See of the Roman Church. The good and chaste life of this man, beloved of God, was in the opinion of all so deserving that none opposed his election, no one was absent, and none dissented from it. For why should not men agree unanimously upon him whom the incomparable and unfailing providence of our God had foreordained to this office? For without doubt this had been determined upon in the presence of God. So solemnly performing his decrees and confirming with our signatures the desires of hearts concerning his election, we have sent you our fellow-servants as the bearers of this letter (names), most holy bishop (name), venerable presbyter (name), regionary notary (name), regionary subdeacons (names), honorable citizens, and from the most

flourishing and successful Roman army (name), most eminent consul, and (names) chief men, tribunes of the army, begging and praying together that your excellency, whom may God preserve, may with your accustomed goodness agree with our pious choice; because he, who has been unanimously elected by our humility, is such that so far as human discernment is able to see, no spot of reproach appears in him. And therefore we beg and beseech you, by God's inspiration, to grant our petition quickly, because there are many questions and other matters arising daily which require for remedy the care of pontifical favor. And the affairs of the province and the need of causes connected therewith also seek and await the control of due authority. Besides we need some one to keep the neighboring enemy in check, which can only be done by the power of God, and of the Prince of the Apostles through his vicar, the bishop of Rome; since it is well known that at various times the bishop of Rome has driven off enemies by his warnings, and at other times he has turned aside and restrained them by his prayers; so that by his words alone, on account of their reverence for the Prince of the Apostles, they have offered voluntary obedience, and thus they, whom the force of arms had not overcome, have yielded to the warnings and prayers of the Pope.

Since these things are so, we again and again beseech you, our exalted lord, preserved by God, that, with the aid and inspiration of God in your heart, you may quickly give orders to adorn the Apostolic See by the completed ordination of the same, our father. And we, your humble servants, on seeing our desires fulfilled, may then give unceasing thanks to God and to you, and with our spiritual pastor, our bishop, enthroned in the Apostolic Seat, we may pour out prayers for the life and health and complete victories of our most exalted and Christian lords (names), the great and victorious emperors, that the merciful God may give manifold victories to their royal courage, and cause them to triumph over all peoples, and that God may give them joy of heart, because the

ancient rule of Rome has been restored. For we know that he whom we have elected Pope can, with his prayers, influence the divine omnipotence; and he has prepared a joyful increase for the Roman Empire, and he will aid you in this, in the government of this province of Italy, which is subject to you, and will aid and protect all of us, your servants, through many

years.

Subscription of the priests.

I, (name), the humble archpriest of the holy Roman Church, have with full consent subscribed to this document which we have made concerning (name), most holy archdeacon, our bishop elect.

And the subscription of the laity.

I, (name), in the name of God, consul, have with full consent subscribed to this document which we have made concerning (name), most holy archdeacon, our bishop-elect.

(d)` Paulus Diaconus, Hist. Langobardorum, IV, 44. (MSL, 95: 581.)

Agilulf may have been a convert to the Catholic faith, v. supra, § 99. His successors were not. In fact, not until 653, when Aribert, the nephew of Theodelinda, ascended the throne, were the Lombards permanently under Catholic rulers.

44. After Ariwald (626-636) had reigned twelve years over the Lombards he departed this life, and Rothari of the family of Arodus took the kingdom of the Lombards. He was a strong, brave man, and walked in the paths of justice; in Christian faith, however, he did not hold to the right way, but was polluted by the unbelief of the Arian heresy. The Arians say, to their confusion, that the Son is inferior to the Father and, in the same way, the Holy Ghost is inferior to the Father and the Son; we, Catholic Christians, on the contrary, confess that the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost are one true God in three persons, equal in power and glory. In the times of Rothari there were in nearly all the cities of his kingdom two bishops, a Catholic and an Arian.

To this very day there is shown in the city of Ticinus [Pavia] the place where the Arian bishop resided, at the church of St. Eusebius, and held the baptistery while the Catholic bishop was at the head of another church. The Arian bishop, however, who was in this city, whose name was Anastasius, accepted the Catholic faith and afterward ruled the Church of Christ. This king Rothari caused the laws of the Lombards to be reduced to writing and named the book The Edict; the laws of the Lombards up to that time had been retained merely in memory and by their use in the courts. This took place, as the king in the preface to his law-book says, in the seventyseventh year1 after the Lombards came into Italy.

109. ROME, CONSTANTINOPLE, AND THE LOMBARDS IN THE PERIOD OF THE FIRST ICONOCLASTIC CONTROVERSY; THE SEVENTH GENERAL COUNCIL, NICEA, A. D. 787 By the eighth century the veneration of pictures or icons had become wide-spread throughout the Eastern Church. Apart from their due place in the cultus, grave abuses and superstitions had arisen in many parts of the Church in connection with the icons. To Leo III the Isaurian (717-741), and to the army, the veneration of the icons, as practised by the populace, and especially by the monks, seemed but little removed from the grossest idolatry. Accordingly, in an edict issued in 726, Leo attempted to put an end to the abuses by preventing all veneration of the icons. Meeting with opposition, his measures passed from moderate to severe. In Italy, although the use of icons was not developed to the same extent as in the East, sympathy was entirely against the Iconoclasts. Gregory II (715-731) and Gregory III (731-741) bitterly reproached and denounced the action of the Emperor. Nearly all the exarchate willingly passed under the power of the Lombards. Other parts of northern Italy also broke with the Emperor. Leo retaliated by annex1 The Edict says seventy-sixth year.

ing Illyricum to the see of Constantinople and confiscating the papal revenues in southern Italy. From that time the connection between the Pope and the Emperor was very slight. The Emperor Constantine V Copronymus (741-775) was more severe than his father, and in many respects even fiercely brutal in his treatment of the monks. A synod was assembled at Constantinople, 754, attended by three hundred and thirtyeight bishops, who, as was customary in Eastern synods, supported the Emperor. His son, Leo IV Chazarus (775-780), was less energetic and disposed to tolerate the use of icons in private. But his widow, Irene, the guardian of her infant son, Constantine VI, was determined to restore the images or icons. A synod held at Constantinople in 786 was broken up by the soldiery of the capital. In 787 at Nicæa a council was called at a safe distance and Iconoclasm was condemned.

Additional source material: St. John Damascene on Holy Images, Eng. trans. by Mary H. Allies, 1898; St. John of Damascus, Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, PNF, ser. II, vol. IX; Percival, Seven Ecumenical Councils (PNF).

(a) Liber Pontificalis, Vita Gregorii II. Ed. Duchesne, I,

403.

Disorders in Italy consequent upon Iconoclasm.

The following passage from the Liber Pontificalis gives a vivid and, on the whole, accurate picture of the confusion in Italy during the last years of the authority of the Eastern Roman Empire in the peninsula. It is hardly likely that the Emperor ordered the death of the pontiff as recorded, and more probable that his over-officious representatives regarded it as a means of ingratiating themselves with their master. The passage is strictly contemporaneous, as the Liber Pontificalis, at least in this part, is composed of brief biographies of Popes written immediately after their decease and in some instances during their lives. For a fuller statement of the whole period, see Hefele, §§ 332 ff., who gives an abstract of the following and also of two letters alleged to have been written by Gregory II to the Emperor, which Hefele accepts as genuine. For a criticism of these letters, see Hodgkin, op. cit., VI, 501-505. Hodgkin gives an excellent account of King Liutprand in ch. XII of the same volume, pp. 437-508, and throws much light on the following passage.

For the events immediately preceding this, see Paulus Diaconus, Hist. Langobardorum, VI, 46-48, given above in § 106. Paulus refers