Chapter XII. Temporal Power Of The Popes. I. How The Popes Acquired Temporal Power. For the clearer understanding of the origin and the gradual growth of the Temporal Power of the Popes, we may divide the history of the Church into three great epochs. The first embraces the period which elapsed from the establishment of the Church to the days of Constantine the Great, in the fourth century; the second, from Constantine to Charlemagne, who was crowned Emperor in the year 800; the third, from Charlemagne to the present time. When St. Peter, the first Pope in the long, unbroken line of Sovereign Pontiffs, entered Italy and Rome he did not possess a foot of ground which he could call his own. He could say with his Divine Master: "The foxes have holes and the birds of the air nests, but the Son of Man hath not whereon to lay his head."181 The Apostle died as he had lived, a poor man, having nothing at his death save the affections of a grateful people. [137] But, although the Prince of the Apostles owned nothing that he could call his personal property, he received from the faithful Matt. viii. 20.