included in his grant, and this was an event of fo public a nature, that particular proofs of it are quite unneceffary.

For the information of thofe of my readers, who are leaft acquainted with hiftory, I fhall refer them to Mezeray's hiftory of France, vol. 1. page 216, or to John Bulteel's tranflation, at the year 756, and fhall tranfcribe one paffage from Mofheim's church history, and one from Sigonius his. de regno Italia.

Mofheim Cent. viii. vol. i. page 353. "The ter"rified pontiff Stephen II. addreffes himself to "his powerful patron and protector Pepin, repre"fents to him his deplorable condition, and im

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plores his affiftance; the French Monarch em"barks with zeal, in the caufe of the fuppliant pontiff, croffes the Alps, A. D. 754 with a nume"rous army; and having defeated Aiftulphus, (Aiftulphus was king of the Lombards), obliged him, by a folemn treaty, to deliver up to the fee "of Rome, the Exarchate of Ravenna, Pentapolis, "and all the cities, caftles and territories, which "he had feized in the Roman dukedom. It was "not, however, long before the Lombard prince

violated, without remorfe, an engagement, "which he had entered into with reluctance. In "the year 755 he laid fiege to Rome for the fecond "time, but was again obliged to fue for peace, by "the victorious arms of Pepin, who returned in

"to Italy, and, forcing the Lombard to execute "the treaty he had fo audacioufly violated, made

a new grant of the Exarchate and of Pentapolis to "the Roman pontiff and his fucceffors in the apof"tolic fee of St Peter. And thus was the bishop "of Rome raised to the rank of a temporal prince."

Mofheim thus tells us, that it was in the year 755, that the king of the Lombards laid fiege to Rome, which Pepin obliged him to raise before he gave the grant of their temporal dominions to Pope Stephen II, and his fucceffors, He is not minute enough in his narrative, to tell us in what time of the year the fiege was laid, nor when it was raised. But Sigonius a civil hiftorian of high character and a Roman Catholic, informs us, that this fiege was laid in the end of autumn 755, that Pepin did not leave France until the end of that autumn, and that it was in the following year 756, that he gave the grant of their temporal dominions to the Roman pontiffs. Every year is marked on the mar gin of Sigonius's hiftory oppofite to the tranfactions of the year, fo that, at one glance, the reader fees in what year the events happened, which he

narrates.

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In Hift. de regno Italia, lib. 3. page 79. oppofite to the year 755, in the margin, he writes thus. Jam autumnus per nonam indictionem, magna "ex parte procefferat; cum Pipinus paratum ex"ercitum ducere ad faltus Alpium cœpit." Which

is thus expreffed in the English language. "Now "the autumn had, in a great part paffed through "the ninth indiction, when Pepin began to lead "the army which he had mustered, to the paffes " of the Alps."

In the following page oppofite to the year 756, on the margin, he writes thus. "Interim Aiftulphus per aliquot dies, diligenter obfeffus extre"mum expugnationis, atque excidii periculum timens, legatos cum liberis mandatis ad Pipinum "de compofitione mifit. Qui in colloquium pro"greffi Aiftulfum pacem petere dixerunt, eamS8 que non Exarchatu folum, et Pentapoli reftituenda, fed Camactico etiam adjungendo præfto "effe redimere, addiderunt; conditione a Pipino accepta inde fœdus fcriptum, atque jurejurando, "obfidibusque firmatum. Quibus rebus perfectis,

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Pipinus Exarchatum, Pentapolimque iterum St.. "Petro, et fuccefforibus ejus in perpetuum poffi"denda conceffit, atque ita fcribam referre ipfas "donationes in tabulas juffit. Neque ita multo poft "Fulrado abate, qui ab Aistulfo fingula acciperet, "et pontifici affignaret, relicto, ipfe Franciam "repetivit. Fulradus cum procuratoribus Aistul"fi in Exarchatum, Pentapolim progreffus omnes "urbes peter Ferrariam, Faventiam, et Cabal"lum recepit, et obfidibus de unaquaque fumptis, ac primoribus fecum earum ductis, Roman adiit, 46 atque

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atque fingularum urbium claves una cum tabulis ipfis donationis in confeffione St. Petri depofuit."

This paffage may be thus expreffed in the English language: "In the mean time, Aiftulfus ha"ving been closely befieged for fome days; and "fearing the extreme danger of an affault and of

being totally cut off, fent ambaffadors to Pepin, "with ample powers, to treat of a capitulation. "Who having entered upon a conference, faid "that Aiftulfus defired a peace, and added, that "he is ready to purchase it, not only by reftoring "the Exarchate and Pentapolis; but alfo by ad

ding to them Comachio. Pepin having accept"ed the condition, an agreement was inftantly "written and confirmed by an oath and hoftages. "When these things were finished, Pepin gave a "new grant of the Exarchate and Pentapolis to "St Peter and his fucceffors to be poffeffed by "them for ever, and commanded a writer to ex"tend these grants in writing, in the above terms. Very foon after he returned to France, having "left the abbot Fulradus, who fhould receive every one of these towns from Aistulfus, and dif

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pone them to the pontiff. Fulradus having

gone unto the Exarchate and Pentapolis with "the procurators of Aiftulfus, received all the ci"ties excepting Ferraria, Faventia, and Caballum, "and having taken hoftages from every one of them, and having led, along with him, the

"chief

"chief men of them, went to Rome and depofited "the keys of every one of these cities, together with "the title-deeds themselves of the grant, on the "altar of St Peter.

In the year 755, Pepin made a peace with Aiftulphus king of the Lombards, upon his engaging to give up to the Pope the Exarchate of Ravenna and Pentapolis. Though Aiftulphus confirmed his engagement by a moft folemn oath, and by delivering to Pepin forty hostages for his performance of it, whom he carried with him to France, yet when he returned to France Aiftulphus not only refused to veft the Pope with his temporal dominions, but again attacked Rome in the following year. Thus by refufing to perform his engagement, the time when the Pope was first raised to the rank of a temporal prince, was brought down to the year 756, the precife time predicted in this verse. And the king of the Lom

bards, without knowing or intending it, was the blind inftrument, in the hand of God of meafuring out the 657 years of this prophecy; for if he had performed his engagement to Pepin, the Pope would have been a temporal prince in the year 755, one year too early for this prediction. For thefe facts the reader is defired to confult Sigonius, de regno Italia, lib. iii page 79.

Having thus, both from the prophetic prediction and from the hiftorical account of the event afcer