word:  “Anathema.”  Desiderius shrank back.  In that moment as it seems the ambassadors of Charles arrived in Rome, satisfied themselves of the justice of the papal summons, and carried back to the great Frank the prayer of the pope that he would “redeem the Church of God.”  In the late summer of that year the Frankish host was assembled at Geneva and was already beginning to cross the mountains in two mighty commands by the Great S. Bernard and the Mont Cenis; in October the siege of Pavia was begun.

That siege endured for more than eight months.  Meanwhile Charles had made himself master of Verona and of many of the cities of the plain.  The men of Spoleto hastened to “commend” themselves to the pope and the citizens of Fermo, Osimo, and Ancona, and of Citta di Castello, we read, followed their example, and for the feast of Easter 774, Charles appeared in Rome, and was greeted and embraced by the pope at S. Peter’s.  On Easter Day Charles heard Mass in S. Maria Maggiore, on Easter Monday in S. Peter’s, on Easter Tuesday in S. Paul’s.  On the Wednesday in that Easter week, according to Hadrian’s biographer, he made that great Donation to the papacy which confirmed and extended and secured the gift of Pepin his father.  The duchies of Spoleto and Benevento, and much else, were added to the exarchate “as it was of old” and given to the pope.  Then in June Pavia, the Lombard capital, fell and Desiderius and his wife were sent by Charles as prisoners to a convent in Picardy where it is said they ended their lives.

[Illustration:  GUARDHOUSE OF THE PALACE OF THEODORIC]

The Donation of Pepin, confirmed, renewed, and enlarged by Charles, may, of course, be understood in various ways; at any rate it has been so understood; but it is certain that the pope saw in it both the fulfilment of his hopes and the final establishment of the papal monarchy.  Yet while he utterly refused, and rightly, to admit the claim of Charles—­not yet emperor—­to interfere in the election of the archbishop of Ravenna, the head of his new dominion, he graciously permitted the king to take away certain mosaics from the old imperial city to adorn his palace at Aix; and that in the following letter, which Dr. Hodgkin translates:  “We have received your bright and honeysweet letters brought us by Duke Arwin.  In these you expressed your desire that we should grant you the mosaics and marbles of the palace in the city of Ravenna, as well as other specimens to be found both in the pavement and on the walls.  We willingly grant your request because by your royal struggles the Church of your patron S. Peter daily enjoys many benefits, for which great will be your reward in heaven....”  On no theory yet put forward can the pope be considered as the subject of the king of the Franks.  That he had been and was to be the subject of the emperor can be defended, but when has S. Peter been the creature of a king?

It was not Hadrian as we know but Leo who was destined to crown what pope Stephen had begun, and to re-establish the empire in the West, and as he thought to create for S. Peter not an occasional but a permanent champion.