the custom of kissing the Pope’s feet, an honour superior to that of Kings and Emperors, began about this time.  There are some instances of it in the ninth century:  Platina tells us, that the feet of Pope Leo IV were kissed, according to antient custom, by all who came to him:  and some say that Leo III began this custom, pretending that his hand was infected by the kiss of a woman.  The Popes began also about this time to canonize saints, and to grant indulgences and pardons:  and some represent that Leo III was the first author of all these things.  It is further observable, that Charles the great, between the years 775 and 796, conquered all Germany from the Rhine and Danube northward to the Baltic sea, and eastward to the river Teis; extending his conquests also into Spain as far as the river Ebro:  and by these conquests he laid the foundation of the new Empire; and at the same time propagated the Roman Catholic religion into all his conquests, obliging the Saxons and Hunns who were heathens, to receive the Roman faith, and distributing his northern conquests into Bishopricks, granting tithes to the Clergy and Peter-pence to the Pope:  by all which the Church of Rome was highly enlarged, enriched, exalted, and established.

In the forementioned dissertation upon some coins of Charles_ the great, Ludovicus Pius, Lotharius, and their successors, stamped at Rome_, there is a draught of a piece of Mosaic work which Pope Leo III. caused to be made in his Palace near the Church of John Lateran, in memory of his sending the standard or banner of the city of Rome curiously wrought, to Charles the great; and which still remained there at the publishing of the said book.  In the Mosaic work there appeared Peter with three keys in his lap, reaching the Pallium to the Pope with his right hand, and the banner of the city to Charles the great with his left.  By the Pope was this inscription, SCISSIMUS D.N.  LEO PP; by the King this, D.N.  CARVLO REGI; and under the feet of Peter this, BEATE PETRE, DONA VITAM LEONI PP, ET BICTORIAM CARVLO REGI DONA.  This Monument gives the title of King to Charles, and therefore was erected before he was Emperor.  It was erected when Peter was reaching the Pallium to the Pope, and the Pope was sending the banner of the city to Charles, that is, A.C. 796.  The words above, Sanctissimus Dominus noster Leo Papa Domino nostro Carolo Regi, relate to the message; and the words below, Beate Petre, dona vitam Leoni Papae & victoriam Carolo regi dona, are a prayer that in this undertaking God would preserve the life of the Pope, and give victory to the King over the Romans.  The three keys in the lap of Peter signify the keys of the three parts of his Patrimony,