the time to develop among them a lofty doctrine of marriage.
IV.—We have said that the downfall of the Roman Empire brought as one of its consequences a great increase of ecclesiastical power. The famous description of the Papacy as "the ghost of the Roman Empire sitting crowned on the tomb thereof" is as true as it is eloquent. To the barbarian races who settled within the Empire the Popes of Rome seemed to succeed to the prestige and authority of the Augusti. To the suffering populations, who had been reduced to servitude by the conquerors, the Popes appeared as champions and protectors. They earned their supremacy by their services alike to the Germans, whom they brought within the pale of the Church, and to the provincials, for whom they kept alive the saving traditions of civilisation. The religion and the law of the Empire persisted through the great catastrophe, but both underwent a transformation.
Mediæval Christianity and the Canon Law
