[41] A singular account of the origin of the separation of the Greeks
and Latins occurs in the treatise of Radulfus de Columna (Ralph
Colonna, or, as some think, de Coloumelle), _De translatione Imperii
Romani_ (circ. 1300). 'The tyranny of Heraclius,' says he, 'provoked a
revolt of the Eastern nations. They could not be reduced, because the
Greeks at the same time began to disobey the Roman Pontiff, receding,
like Jeroboam, from the true faith. Others among these schismatics
(apparently with the view of strengthening their political revolt)
carried their heresy further and founded Mohammedanism.' Similarly,
the Franciscan Marsilius of Padua (circa 1324) says that Mohammed, 'a
rich Persian,' invented his religion to keep the East from returning
to allegiance to Rome. It is worth remarking that few, if any, of the
earlier historians (from the tenth to the fifteenth century) refer to
the Emperors of the West from Constantine to Augustulus: the very
existence of this Western line seems to have been even in the eighth
or ninth century altogether forgotten.
[42] Anastasius, _Vitæ Pontificum Romanorum_ i. _ap._ Muratori.
[43] Letter in _Codex Carolinus_, in Muratori's _Scriptores Rerum
Italicarum_, vol. iii. (part 2nd), addressed 'Subregulo Carolo.'
[44] Letter in _Cod. Carol._ (Mur. _R. S. I._ iii. [2.] p. 96), a
strange mixture of earnest adjurations, dexterous appeals to Frankish
pride, and long scriptural quotations: 'Declaratum quippe est quod
super omnes gentes vestra Francorum gens prona mihi Apostolo Dei Petro
exstitit, et ideo ecclesiam quam mihi Dominus tradidit vobis per manus
Vicarii mei commendavi.'
[45] The exact date when Pipin received the title cannot be made out.
Pope Stephen's next letter (p. 96 of Mur. iii.) is addressed 'Pipino,
Carolo et Carolomanno patriciis.' And so the _Chronicon Casinense_
(Mur. iv. 273) says it was first given to Pipin. Gibbon can hardly be
right in attributing it to Charles Martel, although one or two
documents may be quoted in which it is used of him. As one of these is
a letter of Pope Gregory II's, the explanation may be that the title
was offered or intended to be offered to him, although never accepted
by him.
[46] The title of Patrician appears even in the remote West: it stands
in a charter of Ina the West Saxon king, and in one given by Richard
of Normandy in A.D. 1015. Ducange, _s.v._
[47] After the _translatio ad Francos_ of A.D. 800, the two Empires
corresponded exactly to the two Khalifates of Bagdad and Cordova.
[48]
'Plaudentem cerne senatum
Et Byzantinos proceres, Graiosque Quirites.'
_In Eutrop._ ii. 135.
[49] Several Emperors during this period had been patrons of images,
as was Irene at the moment of which I write: the stain nevertheless
adhered to their government as a whole.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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