We have seen that the spiritual supremacy owed its origin to a murderer; the temporal owes its origin to an

usurper.

Pepin, the son of Charles Martel, aspired to the throne of France, then occupied by Childeric III. He consulted Zachary, bishop of Rome, and desired to know if it were lawful to depose the then lawful ruler. Zachary wanted this daring soldier's help to protect himself from the Greeks and Lombards; the result was an unholy compact, or alliance, between them. Childeric was deposed by Pepin, and the kingdom transferred to the latter. The bishop of Rome formally recognised the act. Stephen, the second successor of Zachary, went to France again to solicit Pepin's aid against the Lombards; and in 754, solemnly confirmed the decision of his predecessor, absolved Pepin from his oath of allegiance to Childeric, and crowned him king in his stead. In return, by force of arms, Pepin handed over to the see of Rome the exarchate of Ravenna and other provinces. Thus was the bishop of Rome now, for

to him by the canonists of the church of Rome, and is inserted by them among others attributed to Gelasius :

"Quamvis enim membra ipsius, id est, veri regis atque pontificis, secundum participationem naturæ, magnifice utrumque in sacrâ generositate sumpsisse dicantur, ut simul regale genus et sacerdotale subsistant: attamen Christus memor fragilitatis humanæ, quod suorum saluti congrueret, dispensatione magnifica temperans, sic actionibus propriis dignitatibusque distinctis officia potestatis utriusque discrevit, suos volens medicinali humilitate salvari non humana superbia rursus intercipi; ut et Christiani imperatores pro æternâ vitâ pontificibus indigerent, et pontifices pro temporalium cursu rerum imperialibus dispositionibus uterentur, quatenus spiritalis actio a carnalibus distaret incursibus: et ideo militans Deo, minime se negotiis sæcularibus implicaret ac vicissim non ille rebus divinis præsidere videretur, qui esset negotiis sæcularibus implicatus, ut et modestia utriusque ordinis curaretur, ne extolleretur utroque suffultus, et competens qualitatibus actionum specialiter professio aptaretur. Quibus omnibus rite collectis, satis evidenter ostenditur, a sæculari potestate nec ligari prorsus nec solvi posset pontificem," etc. Sacro. Conc. Coll. tom. viii. cols. 93, 94, Mansi (edit. Florent. 1762); and Binius, Concil. tom. ii. par. i. p. 487. Colon. 1618.

1 "Le roy en fit une donation à Saint Pierre, à l'Eglise Romaine et à tous

the first time, raised to the rank of a temporal prince. Gregory (A.D. 741), the predecessor of Zachary, had already offered to withdraw his allegiance from the emperor and give it to Charles Martel, if he would deliver the city from the Lombards. This scheme did not succeed; but his successor, Zachary, carried out the negotiations with Pepin, as above stated.

Charlemagne, the son of Pepin (A.D. 774), not only confirmed the grant made by his father, but added other Italian provinces to the see of Rome. In return for Charlemagne's donation, the bishop of Rome gave him the title of "The Most Christian King," and by his help made Charlemagne emperor of all the West.1

The bishop of Rome (as yet he was not pope) having attained to this high degree by fraud, a further fraud was now perpetrated by the appearance of the infamous and notorious forgeries known as the decretal epistles of the early popes. These decretals were put forward to confirm their spiritual and temporal power. Binius, archbishop of Cologne, who, in 1608, published a collection of councils, while endeavour

les papes à perpetuité.-Il mit ainsi le pape en possession de toutes ces villes au nombre de vingt-deux: sçavoir, Ravenne, Rimini, Pesaro, Fano, Cesene, Sinigaille, Jesi, Forlimpopoli, Forli, Castrocaro, Monte-Feltro, Acerragio, que l'on ne connoit plus, Mont-Lucari, que l'on croit être, Vocera, Serravole, S. Marini, Bobio, Urbin, Caglio, Luceoli prés de Candiano, Eugubio, Comaichio, et Narni. C'est le dénombrement qu'on fait Anastase. Et voilà le premier fondement de la seigneurie temporelle de l'Eglise Romaine." Fleury, Hist. Eccl. liv. xliii. An. 755. cap. xviii. p. 382, 383. tom. ix. Paris, 1703. 1 "In 755, King Pepin confirmed to the holy see, in the person of Stephen II., the Exarchate of Ravenna, and part of the Romagna now wrested from it; and in 774, Charlemagne confirmed his father's gift, and added to it the provinces of Perugia and Spoleto, which are now sought to be revolutionized, that so a title of a thousand years' possession (which few, if any other, of European dynasties can pretend to) may, by a stroke of the pen, or a slash of the sword, be cancelled or rent." Dr. Wiseman's London Pastoral for 1860. See Tablet for April 21st, 1860, p. 245, col. iv. The wily doctor uses the word "confirmed," whereas Pepin "gave," not "confirmed," these provinces to the bishop of Rome. Lower down he calls it a "gift."

ing to sustain the genuineness of these epistles, admitted that "most of these letters of the popes were written about the primacy of Peter; the dominion of the Roman church; the ordination of bishops; that priests are not to be injured, nor accused, nor deposed; and about appeals being made to the apostolic see."

These documents were first published by Autgarius, bishop of Mentz, in France, about the year 836. They were never heard of before. These forgeries, for nearly 700 years, deceived the world, and had their desired effect.1 The frauds were exposed at the time of the Reformation, and are now admitted even by Romanists to be forgeries. But the popes had the advantage of 700 years, during which period their temporal and spiritual supremacy, founded on these forged documents, was firmly believed to be derived from St. Peter himself, and thus the belief became grafted into the Roman system.

THE NINTH CENTURY.

A.D. 818.-We have traced the rise and progress in the East of the heresy of the alleged substantial presence of Christ in the eucharist. It had now spread to the West. Paschase Radbert advanced the following doctrine :

1 See Fleury's Eccl. Hist. vol. ix. liv. 44, p. 500, et seq. Paris, 1703, and tom. ix. p. 456. Paris, 1769, where the proofs of their being forgeries are

set out.

2 For a short, popular description of these forgeries, see Neander's Church History, vol. vi. p. 1, et seq. ; and Life and Times of Charlemagne; Religious Tract Society.

"That the body of Christ in the eucharist is the same body as that which was born of the Virgin, which suffered upon the cross, and which was raised from the grave." This theory, hitherto unknown in the West, was immediately opposed. In 825, Rabanus, archbishop of Mentz, in his epistle to Heribald, specially condemned this new theory, as then lately introduced. His words are :—

"Lately, indeed, some individuals, not thinking rightly concerning the sacrament of the body and blood of the Lord, have said, 'that that very body and blood of the Lord which was born from the Virgin Mary, in which the Lord himself suffered upon the cross, and in which he rose again from the sepulchre, is the same as that which is received from the altar.' In opposition to which error, as far as lay in our power, writing to the abbot Egilus, we propounded what ought truly to be believed concerning the body itself." 2

He then proceeded to give a spiritual interpretation deduced from our Lord's words in St. John's Gospel, ch. vi., as being applied to the Lord's Supper. The theory then lately introduced by some individuals, and condemned by this archbishop, is exactly the same theory now taught by the church of Rome. The Trent Catechism informs us that the body contained in the sacrament is identical "with the true body of Christ, the same body which was born of the Virgin Mary, and sits at the right hand of the Father."

3

1 Paschas. Radbert de Sacram. Euchar. cap. iii. p. 19. Colon. 1551. 2 "Nam quidam, nuper de ipso sacramento corporis, et sanguinis domini non recte sentientes dixerunt: hoc ipsum corpus et sanguinem domini; quod de Maria Virgine natum est, et in quo ipse dominus passus est in cruce et resurrexit de sepulchro, idem esse quod sumiter de altari.' Cui errori, quantum potuimus, ad Egilum abbatem scribentes, de corpore ipso quid verè credendum sit, aperuimus." Raban Archiepis. Mogunt. Epist. ad Heribald. Episc. Antissiodor. de Euchar. c. xxxiii. ad calc. Reginon. Abbat. Pruniens. Libr. II. de Eccles. Disciplin. et Relig. Christian. p. 516. Stephan. Baluz. Tutel. Paris, 1671.

3 Catech. Concl. Trent, p. 221. Donovan's Translation, Dublin, 1829.

This teaching, as we have seen, was only introduced in the ninth century. The doctrine was considered so offensive and so novel that this archbishop not only wrote to the abbot Egilus, but also to Heribald, to whom he declares that the theory was then only lately introduced.

The Western church, however, now took the infection, and it created some excitement; so much so that the emperor Charles was induced to take the opinion of Bertram, a monk of the abbey of Corbie. In reply to the emperor's demand, he wrote a treatise on the body and blood of Christ, wherein he not only repudiated the idea advanced by Radbert, word for word, but also declared that "the bread and wine are the body and blood of Christ figuratively." 1

A.D. 845.—According to the acknowledgment of Alexander of Hales, who was styled from his skill the "irrefragable doctor" (A.D. 1230), confirmation was instituted as a sacrament in the Meldesium (Meaux) Council of this date. This was only a provincial council. Confirmation was admitted by the church of Rome authoritatively as a sacrament in 1547, at the seventh session of the Council of Trent.

A.D. 850.—At a synod in Pavia, the custom of priestly unction, especially in mortal sickness, was sanctioned, and was placed in the same rank with the other sacraments.3

1 The whole of this reply is such a complete refutation of the modern Roman theory that we have added, in Appendix A, the entire passage with the translation, to which we desire particular attention. Bertram. Presbyt. de Corp. et Sanguin. Domin. pp. 180-222. Colon. 1551, or sec. lxxxix. Oxon. 1838.

2 "Institutum fuit hoc sacramentum spiritus sancti instinctu in concilio Meldensi." Alex. Ales. op. omn. vol. iv. p. 109. Venet. 1575.

3 Neander's Church History, vol. vi. p. 146. London, 1852.