Meanwhile the Great gave to the Roman Church the priority over all the other churches of the Occident, and she thus rose in reality to be a universal institution. Gregory II defied the decree of Leo the Isaurian against the worship of images, and although the dis sension did not go beyond the limns of a re ligious controversy and the popes remained loyal to the emperor, as they preferred his rule to that of the Lombards, the papacy became con scious of its power and under inter meddled in the nomination of the kings, conse crating the substitution of the dynasty of Pepin le Bref for that of the Merovingians.
The Lombard kings of most importance were Alboin, Autari, Agilulf, and then through the means of Theodolind began tie conversion of the nation to Catholicism ;— Rotari, who pub lished the Edict, a territorial law •binding for both conqueror and conquered; Litstprand, Rachi, Astolfus, Desiderius. The latter two strove bitterly with the popes; Astolfus oc cupied the Exarchate and threatened Rome. Stephen appealed to Pepin who confiscated Astolfus' conquests and gave them to the Church. In this way the Pope arrogated to him self the domination in Rome, in the Exarchase and in Pentapolis, in the name of the jurisdic tion of Saint Peter. Desiderius quarreled with Adrian I who appealed to Charlemagne. The latter conquered the Lombard kingdom except Beneventum, and renewed Pepin's donation to the Church. The Lombard kingdom, however, maintained its individuality, its union with the kingdom of the Franks being only personal and dynastic.
Charlemagne waged many campaigns in Italy; and little by little he substituted Frank ish counts and marquises for the Lombard dukes, giving them authority to preside at the tribunals and in the administration, and to pro claim a conscription in time of war. He obliged the dukes of Beneventum to recognize his sov ereignty, and in the year 799 obtained from Pope Leo III the imperial crown, this dignity having lapsed in the Orient at the death of Con stantine VI, and the Pope was only too anxious to assure to himself the protection of the ruler of what was now nearly the whole Occident. Thus the Catholic world had two universal in stitutions : one the papacy; the other, the new empire, consecrated by the Pope.
Under Charlemagne's weak successors the Carlovingian monarchy became divided into sev eral kingdoms which were frequently at war. be tiveen themselves. Charles the Fat reunited them, but in 887 he was deposed. The mon archy was then divided into five states, one of which was the feudal kingdom of Italy. With the weakening of the sovereign authority the 'local governments instituted by Charlemagne were transformed into hereditary principalities.
'Thus arose the feudal aristocracy, the chief cause of the weakness of these monarchies. The feudal kingdom of Italy was continually dis turbed by this proud and rebellious nobility, until through the instrumentality of Otto I, in 952, it became a fief of the Geman crown. Dur ing this time the imperial throne was often vacant.
Meanwhile the duchy of Beneventum had been divided into the Lombard states of Ben eventum, Salerno and Capua. The Greeks, through the machinations of the Arabs, lost 'Sicily, but reconquered a great part of Apulia; 'Naples, Gaeta and Amalfi had become autono mous duchies under the suzerainty of Byzan tium. Rome was in a state of anarchy through local factions. Lacking imperial aid the papacy lost political authority. The islands of Venice became autonomous states under the suzerainty of Byzantium. Toward the end of the 7th century they formed a duchy which at the begin ning of the 9th century had its capital at Rialto, an island that thus imposed its pre-eminence on the rest, and later took the name of Venice. ' Otto I in the year 961 assumed the govern ment of the Italian kingdom, and in 962 re ceived the imperial crown at Rome. The Pope had need of protection against the adverse fac tion and the king rose to the highest political supremacy. The coronation with the iron crown ;—a custom introduced by Berengarius I— and the coronation as emperor became from thence forth essential, consequent and complementary to the title of king of Germany; but the title to universal political supremacy came to the em peror through the Pontifical consecration, and this stirred up bitter strife in subsequent times.
The policy of the House of Saxony (Otto I, II and III, and Henry II) toward Italy was determined by three aims: to weaken the power of the feudal laity by placing it in opposition with the feudal ecclesiasticism; to establish the sovereignty over Rome by making the pontiff a vassal; to conquer southern Italy. With the first was associated the granting of the rights of supremacy and administration to certain bishops; hence the temporal jurisdiction over cities and its consequent restriction of the power of the count, which power was thus restricted to the county or state, and sometimes this epis copal jurisdiction extended to the whole county, and thus its limits coincided with those of the spiritual jurisdiction. As for Rome, its au thority was uncertain, as it varied according to the power of the emperor; and in southern 'Italy the expeditions sent thither had 'been un successful. The succession of Henry II in Italy was contested vainly by Arduin, assisted by the feudal secular party.