who attained to such a momentary pre-eminence was not such as the West
could recollect with satisfaction. In fact, it was due to other causes
than the merits of individual Popes that Rome became and remained the
religious metropolis of Europe.

How, then, are we to account for her triumphant progress? Hobbes
suggested one explanation when he called the Papacy "the ghost of the
Roman Empire." And it is true that the later Emperors found it
convenient to confer special privileges on the bishops of their ancient
capital. But they adopted this policy too late, when reverence for the
Empire was already declining in the West. By imperial grants the Papacy
gained no substantial powers, while individual Popes lost credit and
independence by their special connection with the New Rome on the
Bosporus. They were compelled to play an ignominious part in the
squabbles of the Eastern Churches, they were loaded with onerous secular
duties; they became the emblems and the agents of an alien tyranny,
mistrusted alike by the barbarian invaders and the nominal subjects of
the Empire.

Other critics have explained the prestige of the Papacy as the fruit of
successful impostures. For this hypothesis there is little to be said.
One or two Popes, not the greatest, have condescended to use forged
title-deeds. But the effect of these frauds has been much exaggerated.
The most famous of them are the _Donation of Constantine_ and the
_False Decretals_. The former, though probably of Roman origin, was
little used at Rome, and only served to justify the modest beginnings of
the temporal power. The latter are of more importance, and are sometimes
regarded as opening an era of new pretensions. In fact they are little
more than reiterations and amplifications of very ancient claims. Though
frequently quoted by the canon lawyers, they are not indispensable links