We have seen again how the Lombards erred by adopting Catholic Christianity and thus entangling themselves in the policy of Papal Rome.

Both Goths and Lombards committed the mistake of sparing the Eternal City; or it may be more accurate to say that neither of them were strong enough to lay hands of violence upon the sacred and mysterious metropolis and hold it as their seat of monarchy against the world.

So long as Rome remained independent, neither Ravenna nor Pavia could head a kingdom in the peninsula.

Meanwhile Rome lent her prestige to the advancement of a spiritual power which, subject to no dynastic weakness, with the persistent force of an idea that cannot die, was bent on subjugating Europe.

The Papacy needed Italy as the basis of its operations, and could not brook a rival that might reduce the See of S.Peter to the level of an ordinary bishopric.