the lust of kings for absolute authority, and the desire of subjects for
liberty; they provoked war, and mediated peace; and took advantage of
every turn in the minds of men, whether of a public or private nature,
to extend their influence, and push their power from ecclesiastical to
civil, from subjection to independency, from independency to empire.

France had many advantages over the other parts of Europe. The Saracens
had no permanent success in that country. The same hand which expelled
those invaders deposed the last of a race of heavy and degenerate
princes, more like Eastern monarchs than German leaders, and who had
neither the force to repel the enemies of their kingdom nor to assert
their own sovereignly. This usurpation placed on the throne princes of
another character, princes who were obliged to supply their want of
title by the vigor of their administration. The French monarch had need
of some great and respected authority to throw a veil over his
usurpation, and to sanctify his newly acquired power by those names and
appearances which are necessary to make it respectable to the people. On
the other hand, the Pope, who hated the Grecian Empire, and equally
feared the success of the Lombards, saw with joy this new star arise in
the North, and gave it the sanction of his authority. Presently after be
called it to his assistance. Pepin passed the Alps, relieved the Pope,
and invested him with the dominion of a large country in the best part
of Italy.

Charlemagne pursued the course which was marked out for him, and put an
end to the Lombard kingdom, weakened by the policy of his father and the
enmity of the Popes, who never willingly saw a strong power in Italy.
Then he received from the hand of the Pope the Imperial crown,
sanctified by the authority of the Holy See, and with it the title of
Emperor of the Romans, a name venerable from the fame of the old Empire,