executed all the important Affairs of the Commonwealth, and commanded all the Armies in time of War; and the Kings (fpending their Days in Sloth and Idlenefs) tarried at Home, content with the bare Title of a King; Matters at laft were brought to fuch a pafs, that during the Reign of Childerick the 18th King, Pipin, Mayor of the Palace, who in the King's Name had waged great and long Wars, and had overcome and reduced the Saxons to Terms of Submiffion) finding a fit Occafion to affume the Regal Title which was offer'd him, did not let it flip: Especially seeing himself at the head of a great and victorious Army, that efpoufed his Interefts. Of which we have the Teftimony of many Authors. First Otto Frifingius, Chron. 5. cap. 12. and his Tranfcriber Godf. Viterb. Part. 16. who write thus. --- "The Kings of France, before the Time of Pipin "the Great, (formerly Mayor of the Palace) cr were in a manner but Titular Princes, having very little to do with the Government

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of the Realm. Sigibertus fays almost the "fame thing fub Anno 662. ---- From this time, (fays he) the Kings of the Franks degenerating from their ancient Wisdom and Fortitude, enjoy'd little more than the bare Name of King: They did indeed bear the Title according to Cuftom,as being of the ancient Regal Race; but neither acted, nor difpofed of any thing: The whole Administration and Power of the Kingdom, was lodg'd in the CC Hands of the Mayor of the Palace.

Yet in reading fuch-like Authorities, we ought to take this Obfervation along with us. That fince Pipin and his Sons laboured (as 'tis probable they did) under a great Load of En

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vy, for having violently wrefted the Royal Dignity from King Childerick, they made it their Bufinefs to find out and employ plaufible ingenious Hiftorians, who magnified the Cowardlinefs of Childerick and his Predeceffors, upbraiding them with Sloath and Idlenefs, beyond what they deferv'd. And among such as these, we may reckon Eguinarthus, Chancellor to Charles the Great, and one that did him special Service of this Nature; who in the beginning of his Book writes thus. The Family of CC the Merovingians, out of which the Franks used to Elect their Kings, is fupposed to have ss lafted as long as to Hilderic; who by the Ap65 pointment of Pope Stephen, was depofed, fhaven, and thruft into a Monaftery. Now cc tho' it may be faid to have ended in him, yet in truth, for a long time before, it ceased to have any Value or Excellency, bating the bare empty Title of King. For both the "Riches and Power of the Kingdom, were at the Difpofition of the Prefects of the Palace, commonly called Majores Domus; with whom was alfo lodg'd the Authority of the Empire: Neither was there any thing left remaining to the King, but only that contenting him"felf with the Title, he fhould fit on a Throne, wearing his Hair and Beard very long, and reprefenting the Perfon of a Ruler; fometimes giving the first and laft Audience to σε Ambaffadors from Foreign Parts, and returning fuch Anfwers as were made for him, as if they proceeded immediately from himself. But befides the unprofitable Name of a King, and a precarious Allowance for his private Expences, (which the Mayor of the Palace was pleafed out of Bounty to give him) he

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"had nothing that he could call his own, except one Village of very fmall Revenue, "where he had a little Houfe, and a few Servants, barely fufficient for his Neceffary OcCC cafions, &c.

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Sigebertus, fub Anno 662. taking Eguinarthus for his Pattern, inveighs against the former Kings in almoft the fame Contumelious Terms. "Whose Custom (says he) it was, indeed, to make an Appearance like a Prince, according to what had been usual to their Family; but neither to act, nor difpofe of any thing, cc only to tarry at Home, and to Eat and Drink "like Irrational Creatures. As if the like Sloth and Cowardise ought to be imputed to all the former Kings,among whom we nevertheless find many brave Men, fuch as Clodoveus, who not only defeated a great Army of Germans, which had made an Irruption into France, in a great Battel near Tolbiacum; but alfo drove the remainder of the Romans out of the Confines of Gallia. What shall we fay of Childebert and Clotharius, who rooted the Vifigoths and Oftrogoths out of Provence and Aquitain, where they had feated themselves? In the Hiftories of all which Princes, there is no mention made of any Mayor of the Palace, but curforily, and by the By, as one of the King's Servants. This we may fee in Gregorius, lib. 5. cap. 18. where he speaks of Gucilius. Lib. 6. cap. 9. and cap. 45. Lib. 7. cap. 49. And we find this Employment to have been not only in the King's Palace, but also in the Queen's; For the fame Gregorius, lib. 7. cap. 27. mentions one Waddo as Mayor of the Palace,in the Court of Queen Riguntha: And in very many other Places of their Hiftories, we find both Gregorius and Aimoinus making

making mention of thefe Masters of the Court, and the King's Houfe.

Now the first beginning of the great Authority of thefe Præfecti Regii, was (as we told you before) during the Reign of King Clotharius the Second, about the Year of our Lord 588. that is, about 130 Years after the conftituting the Francogallican Kingdom; which we may alfo learn from the before-mention'd Hiftorian, so often quoted by Venericus.

Yet there are two other Hiftorians, (tho' not of equal Credit) Sigibertus and Trithemius, who refers the beginning of fo great a Power in the Mayor of the Palace, to the Reign of Clo tair the Third; whofe Magifter Palatii was one Ebroinus, a Man of extraordinary Wickedness and Cruelty: But however this may be, we find Hiftorians calling them by several other Appellations; fuchas Comites Domus Regia, Prafecti Aula, Comites Palatii, &c.

CHAP. XIII.

Whether Pipin was created King by the Pope, or by the Authority of the Francogallican Council.

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Aving in the former Chapter given an Account, that after the Expulfion of Childeric, (a ftupid Prince, in whom the Line of the Merovingians ended) Pipin, from being Mayor of the Palace, was created King; It will be worth our Enquiry, to know by whofe Au

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thority the Kingdom was conferr'd upon him. For Pope Gelafius fays thus, Cap. 15. Quest. 6.

A Roman Pope, viz. Zacharias, depofed CC the King of the Franks, not fo much because of his evil Actions, as because he was ftupid, and unfit for the exercise of fo great a Truft; and in his ftead, fubftituted Pipin, Father of "Charles the Emperor: Abfolving all the "Franks from their Qath of Allegiance to "Childeric.

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And there is fcarce an Author, who does not acquiefce in this Teftimony of one Pope, concerning the Power of another: Thus Ado, Lambertus, Rhegino, Sigibertus, Aimoinus, Laudulphus, nay, even Venericus Vercellenfis, (in the Book which we formerly quoted) cites thefe Words out of the Epiftle of Pope Gregory the VIIth, to Herman Bishop of Metz,; viz. " A certain Pope of Rome depofed the King of the Franks from his Kingdom, not fo much for "his Wickedness, as his being unfit for fo great a Power; and after having abfolved all the Franks from the Oath of Fidelity they had "fworn to him, placed Pipin in his room. Which Otto Frifingius, lib. Chron. 5. cap. 23, and Godfrey, Chron. Part. 17. laying prefently hold of, break out into this Exclamation From this Action, the Popes of Rome derive an Authority of changing and depofing Princes, &c.

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But pray let us enquire whether the Truth of this Story, as to the Matter of Fact, be fufficiently proved and attefted. For in the first place, 'tis manifeft, That not one of all that great Number of Kings of the Franks, which we have inftanced to have been. Elected or Abdicated, was either created or abdicated by the Pope's