The third of the scholars of the 8th century whose name is often still mentioned was Ver gilius, bishop of Salzburg, who had been an Irish missionary of the name of Fergal or Ferghil. He was received with great favor by Pepin, then mayor of the palace, and his talents and learning led to his being made abbott of Saint Peter's at Salzburg. He was deeply interested in mathematics and astronomy and his teachings that there were antipodes led to his being tned in the ecclesiastical courts, not, however, because of the scientific doctrine, but because it was said that this involved the denial that men had all come from a single origin. Vergilius succeeded in showing that his teaching was not contrary to Scripture and it was after this that he was made bishop of Salzburg. He was canonized in the 13th cen tury by Gregory IX. There seems no doubt that his belief in the existence of people on the other side of the earth and that the earth itself was a sphere was due to his knowledge of the accounts of some of the Irish expeditions that had probably found their way in times of storm if not voluntarily across the Atlantic.
The century closed with a woman, Irene, the only woman who ever occupied the position of empress, in the fullest sense of the word, Basileus, in the Eastern Empire. While she had taken a determined stand against the Icono clastic party which was disturbing both Church and State, she is distinctly one of the least worthy rulers of history. French historians have not
hesitated to declare that she was as given to intrigue as Catherine de Medici, and spared not even her oWn son in her ambition. She schemed again.st his marriage to Rotrud, a daughter of Charlemagne, and forced hini to marry an Armenian totally unsuitable to become his consort. She sanctioned his bigamy with a wonsan of the court in the hope of ruining his career, and is even said to have blinded him before confining him to prison where he died. She did not long enjoy the fruit of her ambition (797-802), but was deposed by Nice phorus and passed the end of her life on the island of Lesbos in poverty and contempt.
The Pope and the people of Rome took ad vantage of the accession of Irene as the formal empress to repudiate the Eastern Empire and to make a formal break with Constantinople. They declared that a wontan could not be Cwsar and Augustus, and thus the path was laid open for a new era and a Western Empire. Pepin, as king of France, had come at the request of Pope Stephen III to save Italy from the Lombards, and was hailed as ruler though he received only the name of patrician which Charles inherited from him. This office was changed to that of emperor, and Pope Leo crowned Charlemagne as emperor in the last' days of the 8th century.