increased thereby, the only advantage being, that the church of Rome was
allowed to take precedence of that of Ravenna. But the Lombards having
taken possession, and Italy being divided into many parts, the pope had
an opportunity of greater exertion. Being as it were the head of Rome,
both the emperor of Constantinople and the Lombards respected him; so
that the Romans, by his means, entered into league with the Lombards,
and with Longinus, not as subjects, but as equals. Thus the popes,
at one time friends of the Greeks, and at another of the Lombards,
increased their own power; but upon the ruin of the eastern empire,
which occurred during the time of Heraclius, their influence was
reduced; for the Sclavi, of whom we spoke before, again assailed
Illyria, and having occupied the country, named it Sclavonia, after
themselves; and the other parts were attacked by the Persians, then by
the Saracens under Mohammed, and lastly by the Turks, who took Syria,
Africa, and Egypt. These causes induced the reigning pope, in his
distress, to seek new friends, and he applied to the king of France.
Nearly all the wars which the northern barbarians carried on in Italy,
it may be here remarked, were occasioned by the pontiffs; and the
hordes, with which the country was inundated, were generally called in
by them. The same mode of proceeding still continued, and kept Italy
weak and unsettled. And, therefore, in relating the events which have
taken place from those times to the present, the ruin of the empire will
be no longer illustrated, but only the increase of the pontificate and
of the other principalities which ruled Italy till the coming of Charles
VIII. It will be seen how the popes, first with censures, and afterward
with these and arms, mingled with indulgences, became both terrible and
venerable; and how, from having abused both, they ceased to possess
any influence, and were wholly dependent on the will of others for
assistance in their wars.