'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.
[50] I should not have thought it necessary to explain that the sentence in the text is meant simply to state what were (so far as can be made out) the sentiments and notions of the ninth century, if a writer in the Tablet (reviewing a former edition) had not understood it as an expression of the author's own belief.
To a modern eye there is of course no necessary connection between the Roman Empire and a catholic and apostolic Church; in fact, the two things seem rather, such has been the impression made on us by the long struggle of church and state, in their nature mutually antagonistic. The interest of history lies not least in this, that it shews us how men have at different times entertained wholly different notions respecting the relation to one another of the same ideas or the same institutions.
[51] Monachus Sangallensis, De Gestis Karoli; in Pertz, Monumenta Germaniæ Historica.
[52] Monachus Sangallensis; ut supra. So Pope Gregory the Great two centuries earlier: 'Quanto cæteros homines regia dignitas antecedit, tanto cæterarum gentium regna regni Francorum culmen excellit.' Ep. v. 6.
[53] Alciatus, De Formula imperii Romani.
[54] Or rather, according to the then prevailing practice of beginning the year from Christmas-day, A.D. 801.