26 INTRODIIGTION. but when theywere low, or stood in fear of powerful contradiction, even the boldest popes would speak submissly or moderately: as, for instance, Pope Leo I., after the second Ephesine synod, when be had to do with Theodosius II., humbly supplicated and whined pitifully, but after the synod of Chalcedon, having got the emperor favourable, and most of the bishops complacent to him, he ranted bravely. And we may observe, that even Pope Gregory VII., who swaggered so boisterously against the Emperor Henry, was yet calm and mild in his contests with our William the Conqueror, who had a spirit good enough for him, and was far out of his reach. And popes of high spirit and bold face (such as Leo I., Gelasius I., Nic. I., Gregory II., Gregory VII., Innocent III., Boniface VIII., Julius II., Paul IV., Sixtus V., Paulus V., &c.), as they ever aspired to screw papal authority to the highest peg, so would they strain their language in commendation of their see as high as their times would bear. But other popes, of meeker and modester disposition (such as Julius I., Anastasius II., Gregory I., Leo II., Adrian VI., &c.), were content to let things stand as they found them, and to speak in the ordinary style of their times; yet so that few have let their authority to go backward or decline. We may observe, that the pretences and language of popes have varied according to several periods, usually growing higher as their state grew looser from danger of opposition or control. In the first times, while the emperors were Pagans, their pretences were suited to their condition, and could not soar high; they were not then so mad as to pretend to any temporal power, and a pittance of spiritual eminency contented them. When the empire was divided, they could sometimes be more haughty and peremptory, as being in the west, shrouded under the wing of the emperors there (who commonly affected to improve their authority, in competition to that of other bishops), and at dis- tance from the reach of the eastern emperor.' The cause of Athanasius having produced the Sardican canons,* concerning the revision of some causes by the popes, by colour of them they hugely enlarged their authority and raised their style, especially in the west, where they had great advantages of augment- ing their power. When the western empire was fallen, their influence upon that part of the empire which came under protection of the eastern empérors rendering them able to do service or disservice to those em- perors, they, according to the state of times and the need of them, talked more big or more tamely. ' P. Nic. ad Imp. Mich., pp. 511, 513. « Passed by a council held at Sardica, anno 347.- -En.
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