The destruction of the Roman Empire and disbanding of
its armies made an entirely new situation in Italy. The Popes were, for
the most part, good men, but they did not dream at that time of
controlling the counsels of kings and dictating affairs of State. Even
the story of Pope Leo the Great overawing the King of the Huns, Attila,
and turning his army away from Italy, is a mere legend of medieval
writers, and is at variance with the nearer authorities. The northern
tribes themselves were to a great extent, and for some centuries, of the
Arian faith, and took no advice from Rome. In a word, it would be stupid
to expect Christian leaders of the early Middle Ages to press the cause
of peace. The northern peoples, who would in time form the nations of
Europe, were essentially violent and warlike, and would have recognised
no pacific counsels in that imperfect stage of their religious
development.
Where the historian may and must censure the Church is in its adoption
of militarism for its own purposes. Pope Gregory the Great found Italy
in a chaotic and pitiful condition, and no doubt he acted, on the whole,
rightly in organising its military defence. The more serious
circumstance was that he began to receive immense estates, as gifts or
legacies, in all parts of Italy as the property of the Roman Church, and
from that time either a Papal army or the employment of the army of
some friendly monarch was necessary in order to protect these estates.
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