though he should spill the last drop of his blood, rather than allow a Negative to the Civil power, he would no more be a Martyr, than any of the numberless persons who have suffered death for false, fanatical, heretical, and seditious opinions, which were calculated to disturb the peace of society, and the harmony, mutual charity, and tranquility of mankind.

The ancient Discipline, which was adhered to in the Election of Popes throughout the whole course of the 7th and 8th centuries, is thus stated in the Liber Diurnus Romanorum Pontificum, which has been published by Garnerius from an Original MS. written above one thousand years.

IV. Immediately on the death of a Pope, the very first thing usually observed was, to send an express to the Exarch of Ravenna, that, is to the Imperial Viceroy of Italy, to notify that event. This express was sent by the three persons who were at the head of the Roman Chapter, Sede vacante; namely, the Archipresbyter, the Archidiaconus, and the Primicerius Notariorum. The next proceeding was to attend to

the obsequies of the deceased.-Then a solemn fast of three days was proclaimed, with appropriate prayers for the election of a Successor; the whole body of the Clergy, the Optimates or Gentry, and the Representatives of the people, were summoned to assemble on a given day; the form of an Elective Decretum was prepared for that day, with a blank for the name of the person to be elected; and as soon as the Election was made, and the Electors' names were annexed to this Decretum, it was transmitted to the Imperial Court, with a Postulation, that the Emperor would deign to confirm it by his signature, or return it for confirmation to his Viceroy.

The election thus made was seldom negatived. The newly Elected Pope, as soon as the Decree was returned signed, made a public profession of the Catholic Faith before the Confessional of S. Peter, "ad Confessionem S. Petri." He swore to maintain inviolate the Canons of the Six first General Councils. He Solemnly pronounced, that he would suffer Martyrdom, ra

ther than deny a single Iota of the Revealed faith; and then, the people kneeling, greeted him with reiterated acclamations.*

Gibbon remarks, that the Popes always gloried in the freedom and popularity of their Elections; and sometimes made invidious comparisons between that popularity, and the Despotism of the Imperial Court. Now the Election of Catholic Bishops was founded on the same principles. Natalis Alexander observes, that the Summa potestas, or Chief power in their Election, resided in the Clergy of the va cant Diocese in the first instance, then in the Provincial Bishops, and Metropolitan, and lastly in the Confirmation or negation of the Civil power.†

• See Garnerius's Liber Diurnus Romanor. Pont. c. 2. Compare Ivo Carnotensis in parte IV. Decreti C. cxxxii, et 1. 11. Panormiæ C. ciii. Gratianus Dist. xvi. Antonius Augustinus in Epitome Juris Pontif. Veteris 1. v. Tit. x, c, liv. et Baronius ad ann. 869.

+ "Summa autem eligendi potestas erat penes Clerum, "Episcopos, et Metropolitanum." Natal. Alex. Hist. Eccl. t. 5, pag. 448. In a Roman Synod held by Boniface II. Stephen Bishop of Larissa mentions the validity of his title as founded on the Election Cleri, Populi, Metropolitani, atque

Gibbon's assertion, mentioned in the preceding page, may be true, if applied to those Popes who succeeded the Reign of Leo Isauricus, and contributed so effectually to emancipate Italy from the Dominion of Constantinople, when, in the reign of that illiterate Prince, the Court was governed by a Mahometan, and under the influence of the Jews.*

Before that time, the Popes might indeed have boasted of a free Ecclesiastical election; and that election, to use Gibbon's phrase, might endear them to the Roman people; but they could hardly make invidious comparisons between their independence, and that of those very Em

eorum quorum assensus erat actui necessarius, et secundum priscam Consuetudinem tribus electis, meliori testimonio sortito, electionis palmam promerui. Compare the following Canons:

* A Syrian Mahometan, named Bezer, Leo's favourite, was the first who represented to him, that the Memorials of Christian Martyrdoms, the Statues and Paintings which adorned the Churches of the Empire, were Idols.

"Leo was ignorant of Sacred and Profane Letters. Perhaps "his intercourse with the Jews and Arabs had inspired the "martial peasant with an hatred of Images." Gibbon, Decl. et fall. vol. 5, 4to. p. 97.

perors whose Confirmation was necessary to enable them to take possession of their See.

V. I do not believe, that there is more than one instance of a Pope, who took possession of the Chair of S. Peter, during the whole period of the Exarcate of Ravenna, that is, in the course of one hundred and eighty-four years, from the Exarcate of Longinus, A. D. 568, to that of the fifteenth Exarch, A. D. 752, without the Permission of the Imperial Court expressed in an Imperial Decree. The one solitary instance to which I allude, is that of Pelagius II, who took possession, A. D. 568, without an Imperial Decree, because, as Anastasius Bibliothecarius truly states, Rome was then besieged by the Lombards, and it was impossible to send the usual Deputation to the Emperor; a reason which evidently implies, that this was an exception to established Law founded on cogent necessity.* Paulus Diaconus gives the same ac

Anastasii Bibliothecarii Vaticani Vitæ Pontificum Rom. fol. Romæ 1728, in Vita Pelagii ii, pag. 114. His words are remarkable," Pelagius ii ordinatur absque jussione Principis, "eo quod Longobardi obsiderent Civitatem Romanam" &c.