consequence of this notion, the great and opulent--who were, generally
speaking, the most remarkable for their flagitious and abominable
lives--offered, out of the abundance which they had received by
inheritance or acquired by rapine, rich donations to departed saints,
their ministers upon earth, and the keepers of the temples that were
erected in their honour, in order to avoid the sufferings and penalties
annexed by the priests to transgression in this life, and to escape the
misery denounced against the wicked in a future state. This new and
commodious method of making atonement for iniquity was the principal
source of those immense treasures which, from this period, began to flow
in upon the clergy, the churches, and monasteries, and continued to
enrich them through succeeding ages down to the present time" (p. 174).
Another source of wealth is to be found in the desire of the kings of
the various warring tribes to attach to themselves the bishop and clergy
in their dominions; by bestowing on these lands and dignities they
secured to themselves the aid which the Church officials had it in their
power to render, for not only could bishops bring to the support of
their suzerain the physical succour of armies, but they could also
launch against his enemies that terrible bolt of mediaeval times,
excommunication, which, "rendered formidable by ignorance, struck terror
into the boldest and most resolute hearts" (p. 174). In these latter
gifts we see the origin of the temporalities and titles attached to
episcopal sees and to cathedral chapters. During this century the power
of the Roman Pontiff swelled to an enormous degree, and his sway
extended into civil and political affairs: so supreme an authority had
he become that, in A.D. 751, the Frankish states of the realm--convoked
by Pepin to sanction his design of seizing on the French throne, then
occupied by Childeric III.--directed that an embassy should be sent to
the Pope Zachary, to ask whether it was not right that a weak monarch
should be dethroned; and on the answer of the Pope in the affirmative