Sources

FOOTNOTES:

[348:1] Hatch, Growth of Church Institutions, Lond., 1887, 121; Smith and Cheetham, art. on "Metropolitan."

[348:2] Canon VI. See IV. See also Canon XIX of Council of Antioch.

[348:3] Canon IX.

[348:4] Cod. Justin, i., 4, 29.

[348:5] Guizot, Hist. of Civ. in Fr., ii., 46.

[350:1] See article on Theodore Torens in Dict. of Nat. Biog.

[350:2] Boniface (d. 735) was the greatest.

[350:3] Hauck, Kircheng. Deutschl., ii.

[350:4] This office was held by Hincmar (d. 882), the greatest man of his time. Prichard, Life and Times of Hincmar, 1849; Noorden, Hincmar, Erzbischof von Rheims, 1863.

[352:1] Hatch, Growth of Church Institutions, contends that the parish was of German origin, and not Roman.

[353:1] Acta Sanctorum; Greg. of Tours, Hist. of France; Mon. Ger.; Mansi; Harduin; Hefele, iii., iv.; Lecky; Guizot; Balmes.

[353:2] Greg. of Tours; Milman; Lecky; Hallam; Gibbon.

[354:1] Butler, Lives of Saints; Lecky.

[355:1] Schaff, iv., 331.

[355:2] Greg. of Tours.

[355:3] Hefele, iii., 341.

[355:4] Ibid., iv., 323.

[356:1] See the effort of Nicholas I. to protect the divorced wife of King Lothair. Greenwood, bk. vii., ch. 4.

[356:2] Lecky, ii., 335; Schaff, iv., 333; Brace, ch. 11.

[356:3] Philem. 10-21; 1 Tim. vi., 1-2; Eph. vi., 5-7; Col. iii., 22; Tit. ii., 9; 1 Pet. ii., 18.

[357:1] Lea, Stud. in Ch. Hist., 524.

[357:2] Lactantius, Inst. Div., vi., 12; Apostolic Constitutions, iv., 9.

[357:3] Baronius, Ann., 284, No. 15.

[357:4] Inst. Div., v., 14, 15.

[357:5] De Joseph Patriarch., ch. iv., § 20, 21.

[357:6] City of God, xix., 15.

[357:7] Apostolic Constitutions, viii., 38.

[357:8] Ibid., viii., 13, 19.

[357:9] Ibid., 39.

[357:10] Sozomen, i., 9.

[357:11] Lea, Stud. in Ch. Hist., 542.

[358:1] Gregory I., Ep., x., 66; ix., 103.

[358:2] Hefele, iii., 611. Slaves and serfs were admitted to priesthood. Leo I. objected to the practice (letter 4).

[358:3] See letters of Gregory I., iv., 9, 21; vi., 32; vii., 24; ix., 36, 110.

[358:4] For a statement of his attitude toward slavery and for an example of his manumission, see book vi., letter 12; book viii., letter 21.

[358:5] Balmes; Brace, ch. 21; Schaff, iv., 334; Lecky, ii., 66.

[358:6] Brace, ch. 12.

[358:7] Hefele, iii., 349.

[358:8] Thatcher and McNeal, Nos. 240, 241.

[359:1] Brace, ch. 13.

[359:2] Hefele, iv., 698; Thatcher and McNeal, No. 242.

[360:1] Ogg, Source Book, § 39.

[360:2] Thatcher and McNeal, Nos. 240-244.

[360:3] Ibid., No. 248.

[360:4] Robinson, Readings, i., 187; Thatcher and McNeal, Nos. 245-250; Transl. and Rep., i., No. 2.

[360:5] Migne, cli., 1134; Henderson, 208.

[360:6] Munro, Urban and the Crusaders; Transl. and Rep., i., No. 2, p. 8.

[360:7] Thatcher and McNeal, cf. Nos. 243 and 244. Hefele, iv., 696.

[360:8] Fisher, Med. Europe, i., 201; Thatcher and McNeal, Nos. 248-250.

[361:1] Lea, Superstition and Force.

[361:2] Ogg, Source Book, § 33.

[361:3] Lea, Superstition and Force, 196. There are references to this form in the Salic Law.

[361:4] Greg. of Tours, quoted in Lea, 198; Thatcher and McNeal, No. 234.

[361:5] For cases, see Lea, 228, 229; Thatcher and McNeal, No. 236, 237.

[362:1] Lea, 201; Thatcher and McNeal, No. 235.

[362:2] Peter Ingens and the monk Savonarola were examples. Lea, 209.

[362:3] Lea, 75-174, gives cases.

[363:1] For other cases, see Lea; Thatcher and McNeal, Nos. 238, 239.

[363:2] Mainz, 880, Tribur, 895, Tours, 925, Auch, 1068, Grau, 1095, etc.

[363:3] Hincmar, Burckhardt of Worms, Gregory VII., Calixtus II., Eugenius II., St. Bernard, etc.

[364:1] Given in Migne, civ., 113, 250.

[364:2] Read Lea, 272.

[364:3] Lecky, ii., 84; Uhlhorn, Christ. Char. in the Anc. Ch., bk. iii.

[364:4] Chastel, Historical Studies in the Influence of Charity. Tr., Phil., 1857.

[364:5] Schaff, ii., 374; Justin Martyr, Apol., i., ch. 67.

[365:1] Milman, ii., 117.

[365:2] Smith and Cheetham, Dict. of Christ. Antiq., art. "Hospitals."

[366:1] Matt. xviii., 15-18.

[366:2] Gieseler, ii., 55.

[366:3] Moeller, ii., 115.

[367:1] Milman, i., 551.

[367:2] See Cath. Encyc. for the origin of the confessional.

[367:3] Lea, Stud. in Ch. Hist., 236.

[367:4] Ibid., 296, 416.

[367:5] Ibid., 393.

[368:1] Lea, 264, 266, 303, 343, 345, 347, 362, 382, 421.

[368:2] The anathema was used in a sense and manner similar to excommunication. See Cath. Encyc. for an excellent discussion.

[368:3] Lea, 282.

[368:4] Ibid., 298.

[368:5] Ibid., 303.

[368:6] Ibid., 337; Schaff, iv., 377.

[369:1] Lea, 428.

[369:2] Ibid., 416; Gregory the Great, bk. ii., Letter 34.

[369:3] Greg. of Tours, bk. viii., ch. 31.

[369:4] Gieseler, ii., 199, n. 12; Hefele, iv., 693-695; Schaff, iv., 380.

[370:1] Harduin, vi., 885.

[370:2] Gregory I. is usually credited with introducing this mass.

[370:3] Moeller, ii., 113.

[371:1] Hefele, iii., 758, 764; iv., 89, 111, 126, 197, 513, 582; Mansi, xiv., 82.

[371:2] Mon. Ger. Scrip., vi.-ix., 45-187; Wattenbach, Deutschl. Geschichtsq., i., 134.

[371:3] Hefele, iii., 745.

[371:4] Stephenson, Latin Hymns of the An.-Sax. Church; Trench, Sacred Latin Poets; Chandler, Hymns of the Prim. Ch.; Mant., Anc. Hymns from the Rom. Breviary; Cazwell, Lyra Catholica; Neale, Mediæv. Hymns; Schaff, Christ. in Song.

[371:5] This is the practice of the Greek Church to-day, and also in several Protestant bodies.

[372:1] Hopkins and Rimbault, The Organ, its Hist. and Const., 1855. See art. in Smith and Cheetham.

[372:2] See art. in Smith and Cheetham.

[372:3] Tertullian, Ad. Mort., iii.; Vulgate iii., 16; Rev. i., 20; xxviii., 7.

[372:4] Rom. xvi., 25; 1 Cor. xiii., 2.

[372:5] Eph. v., 22.

[373:1] 1 Cor. ch. xi.

[374:1] The catechumens, pagans, and heretics were not admitted. From the words used in dismissing the catechumens, when the mysteries were about to be celebrated,—Ite, missa est,—probably arose the use of the word "mass."

[374:2] Acts ii., 38-41; viii., 16, 37, 38; xix., 3-5; Matt. xxviii., 19.

[375:1] This robe, after being worn for some time, was frequently hung up in the church after the ceremony to remind the baptised one of his new status.

[375:2] Acts viii., 12-17, xix., 5, 6.

[375:3] Council of Elvira (306), canon 38. See Tertullian for one of the earliest explanations.

[376:1] Matt. xviii., 17, 18; 1 Cor. v.; 2 Cor. ii., 6-10.

[376:2] Mansi, Coll. Concil., xiv., 33d canon of Council of Chalons (813).

[376:3] The best known of these books was compiled under the direction of Theodore, the Archbishop of Canterbury (669-690). It is given in Haddan and Stubbs, iii., 173. The Venerable Bede also made a similar collection. Ibid., 326. See quotations in Schaff, iv., 374. See Marshall, The Penitential Discip. of the Prim. Ch., Lond., 1814; new ed. in Lib. of Cath. Theol., Oxf., 1844.

[377:1] Haddan and Stubbs, iii., 371.

[377:2] See Green, Indulgences, etc., Lond., 1872, and Gibbings, The Taxes of the Apost. Pen., Dub., 1872.

[377:3] See Mark vi., 13; Jas. v., 14, 15; Tertullian, Ad. Scap., 4; Chrysostom, Hom., 32.

[379:1] Mabillon, Act. St. Benedict, v., Pref.; Mansi, xix., 169-179.

[379:2] See [Chap. XIV.] for a full account of the origin of image-worship.

[380:1] Cod. Theod., ix., 17, 7.

[380:2] This statement is given in Baronius.

[380:3] Lea, Stud. in Ch. Hist., 305.

[380:4] Greg. of Tours, bk. i., ch. 84.

CHAPTER XVII
THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE AND THE PAPACY

Outline: I.—Decline of the Empire under the later Carolingians. II.—Preparations to restore the Empire on a German basis. III.—Otto the Great creates the Holy Roman Empire. IV.—Holy Roman Empire attains its height under Henry III. V.—Results of the creation of the Holy Roman Empire. VI.—Sources.

The Empire created by Charles the Great rapidly declined under the later Carolingians. The causes for this dissolution were:

1. The principle of division of rule, which was practised before the time of Charles the Great, and endorsed by him, produced five divisions of the Empire within thirty years. This was fatal to stability and permanency.

2. The disintegration of the Empire into national states resulted from the growing differences of race, language, institutions, and laws.[384:1]

3. Powerful feudal dukedoms arose such as Bavaria on the Danube, the barrier against the East; Swabia on the upper Danube and Rhine; Franconia on the Rhine and Main north of Swabia; Saxony on the Ems, Weser, and Elbe north of Franconia; Burgundy, a kingdom south-west of Swabia; Aquitania in southern France;

Brittany in north-western France; Normandy in northern France; and others.

4. The rulers who succeeded Charles the Great were, as compared with him, men of very inferior ability.

5. The poor roads made it almost impossible to keep in touch with all parts of the wide Empire. The well-built roads of the Romans had generally fallen into decay, simply because there was no longer a corps of trained engineers to keep them up.

6. The scarcity of money likewise prevented the ruler from securing the services of a great body of able officers, and also made it impossible for him to support a standing army to enforce his will everywhere.

7. The barbarian invasions from the east and the north brought in the Northmen, Slavs, and the Hungarians, while the Saracens were attacking Italy and southern France.[385:1]

Before the ninth century closed, the territorial unity of the Empire of Charles the Great was broken up. Charles the Bald (875-877) ruled France as king, held Italy as Emperor, and sought to gain control of Germany but was prevented by death from doing so. Charles the Fat (881-888) held Germany as king, controlled Italy as Emperor, and was invited to assume the French crown because Charles the Simple, a weak-minded boy of six, could not cope with the marauding Northmen. Charles the Fat, the last legitimate East Frankish male descendant of Charles the Great, accepted the proffered throne (885) and thus reunited all the parts of the Empire of Charles the Great except Burgundy. But Charles the Fat was too weak to hold the reins of government over so

vast an area. He bought off the Northmen by a disgraceful treaty (886) to the disgust of the French, was driven out of Italy (887), and then, deposed and deserted by his German subjects, he crawled off to an unregrettable death on his Swabian estates (888).[386:1] This was the last union of France and Germany under one ruler until Napoleon the Great carved out his vast Empire in western Europe.

When the line of the Carolingian rulers, called into existence by papal coronation in 800, ended with the death of the last legitimate descendant in the male line, Charles the Fat, in 888, a new problem confronted western Europe. The right of appointing a new Emperor reverted to Rome and the Pope. The Empire of Charles the Great fell asunder and from it emerged four kingdoms.[386:2] West France chose Odo of Eudes as king. East France, or Germany, elected Arnulf. The kingdom of Burgundy was divided between two rival rulers. Italy, except the southern part which was still loyal to Constantinople, was also divided between the parties of Berengar of Friuli[386:3] and Guido of Spoleto.[386:4] The former was chosen king by the estates of Lombardy, the latter was crowned Emperor by the Pope Stephen VI. and not long afterwards, to insure the permanency of the imperial title in his family, had his son Lambert crowned co-Emperor in 894 by Pope Formosus.[386:5]

Of all the various knights who appeared in different parts of the Empire immediately after 888, the strongest and most able was Arnulf, a bastard nephew of Charles the Fat, but a warrior of renown, who was raised on the East Frankish throne by the disgusted nobles in 888. A descendant of Charles the Great, he was, for a very brief period, looked upon as the head of the Carolingian Empire. Odo of Eudes, the Count of Paris, placed his royal crown in the hands of Arnulf and received it back as a royal vassal. Berengar of Italy also did homage to Arnulf and received his kingdom as a fief. Soon, however, local kings set up by the people arose and Arnulf restricted his rule to Germany and Italy.[387:1] He defeated the predatory Northmen, checked the inroads of the warlike Magyars, and by storming Rome compelled the Corsican Pope Formosus to crown him as Emperor (896).[387:2] Then he turned his attention to the boy Emperor in Italy, the Duke of Spoleto, but was smitten by disease and hastened back to Germany (d. 899).[387:3] Italy was thus left to sixty years of tumult and anarchy. With the death of his son, Louis the Child, in 911, the Carolingian dynasty passed away in Germany. In 987 the powerful French barons set aside the Carolingian heir and elected Hugh Capet, the Duke of France, as king of the feudal monarchy and the Archbishop of Rheims crowned him.[387:4] The Carolingian Empire was at an end. For more than

half a century now the imperial crown was a reward in the Pope's hands to be bestowed upon this or that Italian noble for "value received."[388:1]

The first half of the tenth century seemed to be the very nadir of political order and conscious culture. It is almost impossible for a modern mind to comprehend the torrents of barbaric destruction sweeping in over western Europe from all sides. As compared with the Teutonic invasion of the Roman Empire five centuries before, the onslaught was more sudden and fiercer while the internal resistance was much more poorly organised and consequently weaker. For several centuries these forces had been gathering. Charles the Great had held the torrent in check. But not long after the dissolution of his Empire the onslaught began. The merciless Saracens roamed the Mediterranean Sea as its masters, laid waste the Christian seacoast towns, and even sacked Rome itself, the seat of Empire and Christian rule. The Danes and Northmen swept the North Sea, the English Channel, the Atlantic coast, and pierced France and Germany by their rivers, almost to the heart, killing, robbing, and taking captives. They even boldly passed Gibraltar into the Mediterranean and fell upon Provence and Italy, where they left an indelible impression.

Meantime on land the Slavic barbarians, the Wends, the Czechs, and the Obotrites, rebelled against the German yoke and threatened the whole north-eastern border of the Empire. Behind them were the Poles and Russians. Farther south came the unruly Hungarian tribes which "dashed over Germany like the flying spray of a new wave of barbarism, and carried

the terror of the battle-axes to the Apennines and the ocean."[389:1] These blows from all sides knocked out the foundations of the imperial structure, already weakened to the point of dissolution by internal decay, and it fell. As a result reliance for protection on a common defence and imperial organisation was abandoned. Feudalism replaced the Empire. The strong built fortress castles, the weak became their vassals. Local authorities—counts, dukes, lords, bishops, and abbots—saw new duties and new opportunities. They took a firmer hold, converted a delegated into an independent power, a personal into a territorial jurisdiction. Recognition of a distant, weak imperial or royal authority was only nominal and feeble at that. The grand dream of a mighty, universal Christian Empire was being rapidly lost in the decentralising forces, and in the increasing localisation of all powers. During this period of weakness and confusion, the mediæval Church, instead of standing forth as the source of strength and intelligence, instead of making further gains of a political and ecclesiastical character for the See of St. Peter, seemed to fall into "a death-sleep of moral and spiritual exhaustion."[389:2] The Papacy as a religious organisation almost disappears from view. The commanding spirits of Gregory the Great and of Nicholas the Great were utterly forgotten. The victories gained through the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals were not followed up. A really great Pope at this time might easily have realised all the dreams of Innocent III., but none such wore the papal tiara.

With the death of Louis the Child (911), Germany

was confronted by a serious problem.[390:1] Would the powerful German dukes set up independent kingdoms? Or would they invite Charles the Simple, the genuine Carolingian sovereign of France, to include Germany in a reunited Frankish empire? Or would they create a German monarchy on an independent basis? The German nobles met at Forchheim to consider the situation. Charles the Simple was not even thought of—a significant fact, because it showed that the imperial idea was at a low ebb in Germany. The instinct of nationality was beginning to be felt. The nobles urged the beloved and honoured old Duke of Saxony, Otto, to accept the crown of a feudal monarchy, but he declined and urged the election of Conrad of Franconia. Conrad accepted the responsible honour and was crowned and anointed by the Archbishop of Mainz without reference to the papal power. His reign (911-918) was filled with wars against the powerful dukes who objected to the rigid enforcement of his royal rights and the consequent curtailment of their prerogatives. The clergy, on the contrary, upheld the king because they clearly saw that their interests would be best cared for by a simple, strong government. When Conrad died (918) he had made little headway toward the creation of a powerful centralised monarchy.[390:2]

The nobles of Saxony and Franconia met in 919 and chose Henry, the son of Conrad, Duke of Saxony, as king (919-936).[390:3] To the Archbishop of Mainz, who wanted to crown him, Henry said: "Enough for me that I am raised so far above my sires as to be chosen

and called king through the grace of God and your devotion; let the sacred unction and crown be for better men than I." Had he seen too much of kings crowned and ruled by priests? At least his action pleased the whole assembly. By wise concessions he forced Swabia and Bavaria to accept him as king and rewon Lorraine as a part of the German kingdom. He thrust back the terrible Magyars, conquered the Danes, and humbled the Bohemians. He reformed and reorganised the military system and protected the kingdom by building fortified towns along the northern and eastern frontiers. When he died all the German people were under one rule, peace reigned throughout the kingdom, feudalism had received a check, trade was flourishing, the position of the freemen was improved, and the German kingdom had been established on a firm basis independent of the Empire. But death alone, perhaps, prevented him from claiming the imperial crown.[391:1]

Under Otto the Great, however, the old Empire was to revive and become very active, but on a German foundation. The traditions of the Carolingian house, the Italian puppet Emperors, the Papacy, and the law, philosophy, theology, and education of the day all helped to keep the idea of Empire alive.[391:2] Otto, born in 912, was the son of the Saxon king Henry I. and Matilda, who traced her descent to Charles the Great. He spent his youth at the court and in the wars of his father, and was regarded as haughty, overbearing, and ambitious. He married Edith, the daughter of the King of the Anglo-Saxons (929).

When Henry I. died in 936 the nobles and bishops met at Aachen in the old cathedral and formally

elected Otto I. as King of Germany. As Otto entered the cathedral a few weeks later to be coronated the Archbishop of Mainz cried out: "The man chosen by God, nominated by our master Henry, and declared king by all the princes." He was then crowned, anointed, and girded with the royal sword by the Archbishop. In the coronation festival that followed the German dukes for the first time acted as the king's servants. The coronation was very significant because it showed Otto's attitude toward the Church, indicated the lofty position of the royal crown and the subjection of the dukes, revealed the possibility of a strong, united German kingdom under right management, and proved the popularity and opportunity of Otto I. as King of the Germans.[392:1]

Otto took Charles the Great as his model and sought to transform the loose federal state of his father into a strong, compact monarchy by reducing the power of his vassals. By quelling the various rebellious dukes Otto made them his own appointees, and was recognised as the master of the German nation. The name "Deutsch" began to be applied to his subjects and their tongue. He manifested no less activity in foreign affairs as is shown in his invasion of France to compel homage from Hugh the Great, his son-in-law; in his conquest of the Slavs between the Elbe and the Oder; and in his reduction of the unstable Danes to submission.

Otto was ready now to give his attention to Italian affairs. Adelaide, the beautiful young widow of the son of King Hugh of Provence, had refused to marry Adalbert, the son of Berengar II., King of Lombardy,

hence was cast into prison and cruelly treated. She escaped with the aid of the Bishop of Reggio and appealed to the mighty German sovereign for deliverance.[393:1] Otto, touched with chivalrous sympathy, and seeing an opening for the realisation of imperial ambitions, marched with a great force into Lombardy (951). Berengar was forced to hold his kingdom as a vassal of the German crown. Otto, a widower at this time, then married his fair protégée. Civil war in Germany compelled him to give up his journey to Rome, however, and instead to return home. Otto's son, Ludolph, who feared that his father's recent marriage with the fair widow might deprive him of the German crown, plotted with the old Archbishop of Mainz and discontented German nobles, to secure the throne. The resulting war involved the whole kingdom and shook Otto's power and ability to the roots. The approach of a common foe, however, the terrible Magyars, led the nation to rally around Otto. In the decisive battle of Lechfeld (955) the Huns were effectively checked and began to settle the lands which they still occupy.[393:2] Otto was now unquestionably the most powerful monarch in Europe. Such rulers as Louis IV. of France and the King of Burgundy sought his friendship and aid. His own people began to call him "The Great."

The way seemed to be open at last for the realisation of Otto's imperial dreams. He was a descendant of Charles the Great in the female line. He was the complete master of a large part of the Empire with the northern capital in it. He had already taken the crown of Lombardy. On the battlefield of Lechfeld

(955) his victorious troops saluted him as "Imperator Augustus, Pater Patræ."[394:1] He had likewise proved himself a most worthy champion of the Church by allowing the Church to crown him; by enriching the German Church, giving it a better organisation, and subjecting it to his will; and by labouring zealously to convert the heathen on his borders.[394:2]

Italian affairs called him thither a second time. Berengar after recovering his throne was ruling as a tyrant in the north and had violated a portion of the patrimony of St. Peter. Mohammedan corsairs were devastating the south. The rest of Italy was full of anarchy and desolated by the feuds of a crowd of petty nobles most of whom were scrambling for the imperial crown. A row of inferior Popes had brought the Papacy itself into disrepute. Thus the solicitations of his family, the approval of his people and nobles, the cry of the oppressed Italians, the expectation of the nobility, and the request of Pope John XII. and influential churchmen, all impelled him to realise his own wish.

Therefore, in 957, Otto sent Ludolph with a large force against Berengar. The Crown Prince died in the midst of victory. Then Otto had his little son crowned as Otto II. in 961 and crossed the Alps with a big army. All resistance vanished before this new Charles the Great. In a general diet of the Lombard kingdom Berengar was deposed and at Pavia the German monarch was formally crowned "King of Italy." Early in 962 he triumphantly entered the Eternal City. The Pope gave him hearty greeting, held services of thanksgiving, and gave a great feast in his honour. On the

following Sunday the imperial coronation occurred in the church of St. John Lateran.[395:1] The King promised to protect and defend the Church[395:2]; the Pope to be an obedient subject of the Emperor; and the people to choose no future Pope without Otto's consent. Otto was then anointed by the Pope, the imperial crown was put on his brow, the imperial robe was adjusted, and the imperial sword was buckled on while the populace shouted "Long live Otto, Emperor Augustus." The head of that race which Charles the Great had converted by the sword had revived the Empire, the policy, and the traditions of that renowned ruler.

The papal policy of Emperor Otto I. was soon revealed. He granted to the Church the most famous and the most important "constitution" since that of Lothair (824) in which all the grants of Pepin, Charles the Great, and Louis the Pious were confirmed and the rights of the Emperor in papal elections clearly defined.[395:3] Otto had no sooner reached northern Italy to subdue the irrepressible Berengar and his sons, however, than Pope John renounced his allegiance to his new master, conspired with Berengar, and even incited the heathen Magyars to invade Germany.[395:4] The Emperor refused to believe these plots until confirmed by his own messengers and even then excused the young Pontiff by remarking: "He is only a boy; the example of good men will reform him."[395:5] He then hastened to Rome to begin that work.

Pope John at once sent legates to Otto promising amendment and accusing the Emperor of having broken his solemn promise. Otto excused his actions and, after the custom of the age, challenged the Pope to settle the dispute either by the wager of a solemn oath or by the ordeal of battle. Both offers were refused and Otto took Rome. John "seized most of the treasures of St. Peter and sought safety in flight."[396:1] Otto, at the request of the Roman clergy and people, called an ecclesiastical council in St. Peter's to try him (963). John XII. was proved guilty of the whole category of mediæval crimes: celebrating mass without communing himself, ordaining a bishop in a stable, accepting bribes for ordination, consecrating a ten-year-old bishop, neglecting the repair of churches, being guilty of adultery and incest, making the Lateran a brothel, going out hunting with the nobles, putting out the eyes of his own godfather, Benedict, cruelly murdering the archdeacon John, setting fire to houses like Nero, wearing the armour of a warrior in Rome, drinking to the devil's health, neglecting matins and vespers, never signing himself with the cross, and even invoking the aid of Venus, Jupiter, and other demons when gambling.

Thrice John was summoned to appear before the council in order to clear himself of the charges. At the request of the council the Emperor wrote a letter addressed to the "Pontiff and Universal Pope John" asking him to appear:

Having arrived in Rome on the service of God, and having inquired of your sons the bishops and clergy, and of the people of your Church, why you have forsaken

them, such scandalous and obscene things have been reported to us concerning you, that if the like had been told us of a common mountebank we should have hesitated to repeat them. But that you may not be wholly ignorant of what it is that is said of you, we will specify a few of these things only; for if we would enumerate all, the daylight would fail before we would make an end of writing. Know, then, that you are accused—not by individuals but by the unanimous voice of clergy and laity—of homicide, sacrilege, perjury, and incest. It is also said of you, that in your sports you have called upon the names of Jupiter, Venus, and other demons of the old world. We therefore do earnestly entreat your paternity that you delay not to return to Rome, and to purge yourself from these heinous crimes, and if perchance you should stand in fear of the rude multitude, we are ready to pledge our oath that nothing contrary to canonical rule and order shall be done against you.[397:1]

But the fiery young Pope contemptuously replied: "John, bishop, the servant of all the servants of God, to all the bishops: We hear that you design to elect a new Pope. If you do, in the name of Almighty God I excommunicate you and forbid you to confer orders or to celebrate mass." In a spicy answer Otto asked John to mend both his Latin and his morals, and promised him a safe conduct to the council, but "the Pope was gone out hunting" and did not receive it. The council then formally deposed John as a "monster of iniquity" and unanimously chose the papal secretary, a layman, as Pope Leo VIII.[397:2] Thus the new Emperor had deposed one Pope, by what must certainly be

pronounced an illegal method, and had elected another—a power never claimed by Charles the Great.[398:1] This, apparently, was Otto's interpretation of his oath to protect the Holy See. The ancient relation of the Empire to the Papacy was thus re-established.

The Romans, fickle as usual, soon wearied of a German yoke, and, at a favourable opportunity, broke out in furious rebellion against the Emperor and his Pope, but were subdued with terrible revenge. When at length Otto left Rome to capture Berengar's son Adalbert, they at once attacked the defenceless Pope and recalled John XII., who wreaked sweet and cruel vengeance on the leaders of the imperial faction. An obsequious synod reversed all the decrees of deposition. When John XII. was killed in crime, the Romans, without consulting the Emperor as they had promised, at once elected Pope Benedict V. Once more Otto appeared before Rome with a huge army to assert his rights and to enforce his policy. The city surrendered, the new Pope begged for mercy, and was banished to Germany. Leo VIII. was recalled. "When I drop my sword, I will drop Leo," boasted the Emperor. The Emperor's sword had come to be the basis of papal power. A Church council was summoned and declared that the Emperor had a full right to the kingdom of Italy, that he could name his successor, and that the election of a Pope must accord with his will. After that great victory Otto returned to Germany, where his approval was soon asked for the election of Leo VIII.'s successor, the respectable John XIII. Again the customary rebellion against the new occupant of St. Peter's chair recalled Otto to Rome. There he

remained five years and won a distinct victory for both his papal, and his imperial policy.

Otto's foreign policy as Emperor was not unlike that of his great predecessor, Charles the Great, and his renowned successor, Napoleon the Great, namely, to unite the East and the West. The hand of an eastern princess was wooed for himself but without success.[399:1] His son proved a better lover and married the ambitious Theophano (972).[399:2] The Empire was extended by conquests. Lotharingia was won without war. The restoration of the West Franks to the Empire was attempted. Burgundy became a vassal kingdom.[399:3] The Danes, Slavs, and Magyars were held in subjugation. An effort was made by Otto to extend his sway over southern Italy.

Like Charles the Great, Otto gave considerable attention to education. Germany, at that time being on the frontier, was inferior in culture to Italy, Spain, France, and England. Otto, who knew the Frankish and Slavic dialects, attempted to learn Latin late in life. He attracted a number of educated men and celebrated wits to his court such as Widukind, the historian; Ratherius, the theologian; Luitprand, the humourist and diplomat; Gerbert, the omniscient scholar; Archbishop Bruno, Otto's brother and a great classical scholar; and John of Gorz, the grammarian and Bible student.[399:4] Learning was not appreciated, however, and these scholars were looked upon with jealousy and suspicion.[399:5]

The resemblances and differences between Otto the Great and Charles the Great were very striking. Both were Teutons—one a Frank, the other a Saxon. Both as kings carved out the foundations for an Empire with the sword. Both were coronated as Emperor at Rome by the Pope and posed as champions of the Church. Both assumed the Italian crown. Both used the same method in propagating Christianity among the heathen on their borders. Both assumed the right to rule the Church from Pope to priest. Both subjected the powerful nobles and established an absolute, personal government, though Otto's position in Germany and Europe was less commanding and less autocratic than his predecessor's. Both produced an intellectual renascence. Both deserve to be called the "Great." But neither their kingdoms nor their Empires were coterminous, though their capitals were identical, namely, Rome and Aachen. Otto's Empire was founded on narrower geographical limits, hence had a less plausible claim to be the heir of Rome's universal dominion. Charles tried one Pope, while Otto deposed two and had his own candidates elected. Otto took more pains to preserve his Empire than Charles. Otto's Empire was less ecclesiastical and also less Roman. Charles ruled all the Franks and Italy, Otto only the Eastern Franks and Italy. Charles ruled over Latin Christendom, while Otto only a portion of it. Charles was head of the "heerban";

Otto of a feudal state. Otto produced no great capitularies like Charles. Otto's Empire was less splendid, but more peaceful, prosperous, and lasting, because placed on a better social basis. Otto's own life and court were on a far loftier plane than was true of Charles, yet Charles was both the greater warrior and the greater statesman. The Roman Empire of Charles after one hundred and fifty years was revised as the Holy Roman Empire of Otto. The latter was substantially as well as technically the continuation of the former.

Otto I., before making his journey to Rome in 961, had his son Otto II. crowned King of Germany at Aachen.[401:1] Six years later (967) he was coronated at Rome as Emperor. He was educated by Ekkehard of St. Gall, the court chaplain, in literature, history, and science, and by Count Huodo in knightly accomplishments. For the age his moral character was exceptionally high and he possessed refined, scholarly tastes. In 971 he married Theophano, a royal princess of the Eastern Empire.[401:2] When Otto I. died in 973 in the Saxon monastery at Memleben, Otto II., at the age of eighteen, became sole king and Emperor for ten years.

Otto II. continued his father's domestic policy of breaking down the power of the German dukes. In foreign affairs he subdued the rebellious Danes (974), held the Bohemians in check, invaded France and took Lorraine (978), subjected Poland to German rule (979), and attempted to drive the Greeks and Saracens out of southern Italy; but his early death prevented the fulfilling of his threat to reunite Sicily with the Empire.

His papal policy was a continuation of that of his father. When the papal usurper Boniface VII. imprisoned and strangled Pope John XIII. and then fled with the Church treasures to Constantinople (974), young Otto set Benedict VII. on the chair of St. Peter and assured him a quiet reign for nine years. Upon the Pope's death (983) the youthful Emperor elevated the Bishop of Pavia to the papal throne as John XIV. When Otto II. died at the premature age of twenty-eight in Verona after "a short and troubled reign,"[402:1] Boniface VII. returned from the East to Rome, murdered the Pope, and reassumed the papal tiara unresisted. The usurper died in eleven months, however, and then the cowardly Romans avenged themselves on his dead body.[402:2]

Otto II. left behind him a son of three and a very active widow. The young heir to the honours and burdens of the German crown and to the imperial throne likewise had his mind filled with the glorious history of Greece and the Eastern Empire by his Grecian mother. John the Greek inspired within him a love for the classics. Bernard, a German monk, gave him a monastic education which showed itself during the remainder of his life. Gerbert, a Clugniac monk, the greatest scholar of his day, taught him history, literature, rhetoric, and science, and fired him with a holy, ascetic zeal to become a great, just Christian Emperor.

During Otto III.'s minority (983-996) the government was wielded by his mother Theophano (984-991) and his grandmother Adelaid (991-996). At the age of

sixteen the last of the Ottomans, half Saxon and half Greek, the plaything of women, scholars, and monks, the pious young dreamer of a world Empire, started for Rome to be crowned Emperor (996). His father had had him elected king at Verona in 983 and coronated at Aachen. On his way now to the Eternal City, accompanied by a coterie of German nobles and churchmen, he stopped at Pavia to receive the homage of the Lombard princes. At Ravenna a messenger from the Roman clergy, senate, and people announced the death of Pope John XV. and asked Otto to name a successor—a very significant fact. The young ruler appointed his cousin and court chaplain, Bruno, who became the first German Pope. Bruno was only twenty-four, but noted for his piety, austere morals, and fiery temper. He hastened to Rome and was installed with great joy as Gregory V. "The news that a scion of the imperial house, a man of holiness, of wisdom and virtue, is placed upon the chair of Peter," wrote Abbo of Fleury to a friend, "is news more precious than gold and costly stones."[403:1] This was the first instance where a northerner, a German, was elevated to the See of St. Peter. A few weeks after the papal coronation Otto entered Rome and received the imperial crown from the youthful Pontiff. He held a council to settle Church affairs and called a diet of civil authorities to settle the government and then returned to Germany.

Within a year, however, a rebellion in Rome against Gregory V. recalled Otto III. (997). The Pope had fled to Pavia, called a council, and excommunicated the leader of the insurrection, Crescentius. An anti-Pope

had been elected, John XVI., formerly the Emperor's teacher and a court favourite. Otto reached Rome with a large army, caught the fleeing papal usurper, deposed him, put out his eyes, cut off his nose and ears, and sent him through the streets of Rome on an ass. Crescentius was beheaded, and with him a dozen conspirators.[404:1] Gregory V. was restored to his dignity only to die within a year (999). As his successor Otto chose Gerbert, his old teacher, who became Sylvester II., the idealist and reformer.[404:2]

Otto III. was occupied a great deal with dreams about a world Empire. He inherited from his mother the ambition to rule the East and from his father the right to rule the West. His teachers inspired him with a desire to become the Christian Emperor of the world with the Pope as his chief assistant, and coloured his whole career by giving him a monastic view of life. He made frequent visits to sacred shrines where he remained weeks at a time. In Rome he built his palace purposely beside a monastery. The idea of a holy crusade to Jerusalem was in his mind. He felt called upon to reform the Papacy, which he enriched by large grants and strengthened by privileges, and he selected most of his chief officials from the churchmen. He called himself the "servant of Jesus Christ" and the "servant of the Apostle."

After having taken Rome and appointed two Popes, Otto attempted to put his imperial fancies into practice. Rome was made his permanent residence and capital from which to rule the world as "Emperor of the Romans." On the Aventine a great palace was built—a thing not even thought of by Charles the Great.

The ceremonies of the Byzantine court were introduced—a long retinue of servants, an imperial guard, and a very formal etiquette. The young ruler refused to eat with his nobles and loved to sit proudly on a gaudy throne arrayed in costly purple while his servants meekly satisfied every whim. He likewise aped the Roman Emperors in magnifying the office of patrician and city prefect, by calling himself "Consul" and by thinking of reviving the senate. Dreaming of conquests beyond the seas, he appointed a naval prefect. Germany and Italy were united under one chancellor and each ruled with troops from the other. Germany,[405:1] Lombardy, Greece, Naples, and the rest of the world were to be reduced to subject provinces of the restored Empire. To receive the sacred sanction of his most renowned predecessor, Charles the Great, for these mighty ideas, Otto III. opened his tomb in the cathedral at Aachen in the year 1000 and from the body of the powerful Teuton carried away holy relics.[405:2]

Early in 1000 the turbulent Romans broke out in a fresh rebellion and the world Empire was destroyed about as easily as a child's house of blocks. Besieged for three days in his palace, Otto at last addressed the discontented mob in these words:

Are you my Romans? For you I left my country and my friends. For love of you I have sacrificed my Saxons and all the Germans, my blood. I have adopted you as my sons; I have preferred you to all. For you I have had stirred up against me the envy and hatred of all. And now you have rejected your father; you have destroyed my friends by a cruel death; you have excluded me whom

you should not exclude, because I will never suffer those to be exiled from my affections whom I embrace with paternal love.[406:1]

Soon he fled from Rome never to return, and tried to raise an army in Germany but failed. The Germans refused to sacrifice their blood and wealth for a useless chimera and even threatened to elect a new king. Then he appealed to Italy for assistance, but Venice alone promised aid and that was small. Otto III.'s universal rule dwindled to the little mountain of Paterno—like Napoleon's St. Helena—and there he died in 1002 in the arms of the faithful Sylvester II. at the age of 22, childless and deserted, and his body was carried over the Alps to rest by the side of Charles the Great. And the youthful Pope survived the young Emperor just a twelvemonth.

The direct line of Otto the Great was at an end. Henry II., the Saint, who was in Otto III.'s service in Rome (1001) and received the royal and imperial insignia at the young Emperor's death pending a new election, claimed the German throne as the next in descent.[406:2] By satisfactory promises to the lay and secular princes he defeated his rivals and was crowned German King at Mainz (1002).

In his political policy Henry II. followed in the path already formed. He subdued the strong internal foes in Germany, pacified the neighbouring peoples, provided for the union of Burgundy with Germany, assumed the iron crown of Lombardy, and accepted the imperial crown at Rome in 1014. His ecclesiastical policy was very pronounced. He was a devout and ascetic champion of the Papacy and stood stoutly for reforms

such as the abolition of simony, the denunciation of the marriage of priests and the correction of monastic abuses. He urged the enforcement of these necessary changes through a general council and laboured for peace. In all these endeavours he had the sincere co-operation of Pope Benedict VIII. The bishopric of Bamberg was created during this rule.

Conrad II. (1024-1039) aimed to build up a powerful centralised Germany and through it to rule the Empire. Though compelled to fight formidable internal conspiracies all his life, yet he succeeded in making the crown the recognised and respected authority in Germany. Like Otto I. he used the lesser nobles to curb the power of the greater nobles. He forced obedience to his royal laws everywhere. To perpetuate his rule and to establish the principle of kingly heredity he had his son and heir, Henry III., crowned and coronated at Aachen (1028). Since political power depended largely upon landed wealth Henry III. received both the Duchy of Bavaria (1029) and the Duchy of Swabia (1038).

The foreign policy of Conrad II. was equally wise. He made friends of the powerful King Canute and his Danes by marrying Henry III. to Canute's daughter. The Polish King was reduced to a vassal duke and Bohemia and Lucatia were won back, while the Bulgarians were effectually held in check. He assumed the crown of Burgundy, which became an integral part of Germany (1032) and gave the crown to his son (1038). Early in his rule (1026) Conrad had entered Italy and assumed the iron crown of Lombardy. Then he made his way to Rome in 1027 on Easter day and was there crowned Emperor by Pope John XIX. in the presence of a great multitude of Romans and

Germans. Through the Normans he then extended his imperial sway over southern Italy, but ten years later he was forced to make a journey to Rome to reconquer that part of his Empire.

In Germany Conrad II. ruled the clergy with a rod of iron, filled bishoprics for purely political ends, and used the Church to build up his royal powers. In Lombardy he won over the clerical party at that time hostile to the Pope, and thus smoothed his march to Rome. In John XIX. he found one of the worst examples of the utter worldliness into which the successors of Peter could degenerate. John XIX. before his election had been only a business man, but he was a brother of the presiding Pontiff Benedict VIII., and a member of the powerful Tusculan family. By dint of money[408:1] he won the office and in one day was hurried through all the clerical orders and installed into power (1024). Hoping for a powerful ally, John XIX. had invited Conrad II. to Rome. A great Lateran Synod followed the coronation of Conrad II. on Easter day,[408:2] but apparently nothing was said about reforms in the Church, although badly needed. When Conrad died in 1039 the German Empire had reached its pinnacle of greatness. No sovereign since Charles the Great had exercised such powers, for the German and Italian princes were subject to the imperial crown and the clergy were dependent upon it.

Henry III. (1029-1056) came to the German throne with brighter prospects than any of his predecessors. What a field for an Alexander, a Cæsar, or a Napoleon! What an opportunity to cut Germany loose from the

Empire and make her the greatest power in Europe! The Polish monarchy was falling to pieces; Hungary was rent by the pagan and Christian parties; Canute's northern empire had broken down; Italy, chronically subdivided, was awaiting a master; and the young king was also Duke of Bavaria, Franconia, and Swabia. Hindesheim, a contemporary, declared that no one in the Empire mourned the loss of Conrad because such better things were expected of his son, one of the most highly cultured young men of the age.[409:1]

Henry III. continued the policy of Otto I. by seeking to increase the power of the crown at the expense of the petty rulers. Hence duchies were given to his relatives or to loyal vassals. The lesser nobility and the commons were used to counteract the influence of the lords and princes. His reign, in consequence, was disturbed by no serious insurrections. The border states were subdued—Bohemia in 1041 and Hungary in 1044.[409:2] To keep the peace and put down feuds the Truce of God was proclaimed in 1041 throughout Germany. All feuds were to cease from Wednesday eve till Monday morning and absolution from sin was the reward for keeping the Truce.[409:3] Those who purposely broke it were penalised. Burgundy extended it to the periods between Advent and Epiphany, and from Septuagesima to the first Sunday after Easter. Henry III. soon made himself master of Italy and like many a predecessor assumed the iron crown of Lombardy and then established his supremacy over the Normans in the south. Out of a rule of seventeen years he

spent but sixty-four weeks in Italy. In 1046 he was coronated Emperor at Rome and made Patrician.

Like Charles the Great and Otto the Great Henry III. assumed the headship of the Church. The Papacy, at that time, was a three-headed monster which needed a Hercules to slay it. Benedict IX., another member of the Tusculum family, elected Pope when a boy of eighteen (1033), had led a life of indescribable crime and, in consequence, had been driven from the city (1044) but returned and in 1046 held the Vatican.[410:1] Sylvester III. was elected anti-Pope when Benedict IX. was driven out and lived in St. Peter's. Gregory VI. literally bought the papal throne of Benedict IX. (1045) for 1000 pounds of silver and bribed the people into approval. He took up his residence at St. Maria Maggiore.[410:2] Learning of these disorders, Henry III. went to Italy and in 1046 held the Council of Sutri in which Gregory VI. acknowledged his guilt, divested himself of his papal insignia and begged forgiveness. Benedict IX. and Sylvester III. were declared usurpers, simoniacs, and intruders, hence they were deposed. Benedict IX. hid himself for future trouble, Sylvester III. returned to his bishopric and Gregory VI. was sent into exile in Germany. The Bishop of Bamberg, a German, was chosen Pope in a council held in Rome and assumed the title of Clement II. (1046) and immediately coronated Henry III. and his wife with the imperial honours.[410:3] This is the beginning of a series of German Popes who were to do much to purify and strengthen the Church. Before Henry died three such Popes were elected. Clement II. soon assembled

a council in Rome to extirpate simony and to that end had several canons enacted. But his reign of less than a year, was too short to accomplish much. Henry III. died in 1056 with his great Empire full of trouble from border wars and rebellious nobles. The Empire was on the wane and his son took up a crown of difficulties.

On Germany the effects of the creation of the Holy Roman Empire were very marked. It established the recognised right of the German King to wear the Italian and imperial crowns and made Aachen, Milan, and Rome the coronation cities. It tended to weaken the allegiance of the Germans to their king when he became Emperor and spent most of his time, together with German wealth and blood, in Italy. It fused the German King and the Roman Emperor into a product different from either and effected the whole subsequent history of both Germany and the Empire. The two systems were very different: one was centralised, the other local; one rested upon a "sublime theory," the other grew out of anarchy; one was ruled by an absolute monarch, the other by a limited monarch; one was based on the equality of all citizens, the other founded on inequality. As a result of the fusion both offices lost and won certain attributes and the product was a "German Emperor" who was the necessary head of feudalism which became so deeply rooted that it took ages to throw it off. To help on the process of disintegration Otto the Great allowed the five great duchies to be subdivided and thus created a second order of nobility and greatly increased the number of nobles. In short Germany was weakened, impoverished, divided, and stunted. The denationalisation of Germany was continued until 1870. What

might not have been the splendid career of Germany had Otto the Great and his successors devoted their time and talent to the creation of a powerful German national state as did the French and English kings? It must be added, however, that this peculiar relation with Italy opened the way for learning, art, and a more refined civilisation in the North and that, in turn, Germany became the schoolmaster of Poland and Bohemia and perpetuated the language, literature, and law of Rome.

On Italy the Holy Roman Empire left a deep and permanent impression. It gave Italy a long line of foreign rulers who seldom cared much for her real interests and only sought to exploit her for selfish ends. It prevented the establishment of a powerful national state as a republic, or as a monarchy, under some native noble, or a Pope, until 1859. On the contrary it encouraged decentralisation and local division of the people. Italy became the scene, cause, and victim of countless wars and invasions by foreign rulers; or of innumerable local contests which sapped the nation of all strength and ambition.

On the Empire the results were plainly seen. The Empire of the Cæsars and of Charles the Great was revived on a German basis with a German Emperor and kept alive till 1806 when Napoleon dealt it a death-blow. Its earlier extent and later claims were never realised. It was forced into a continual struggle for its existence with the Italian republics and German dukes, with the Papacy, and with the national states of Europe. The three theories about the relation of the world-empire to the world-church received final development.

1. The Holy Empire, or ideal theory, united the

Church and the state, the cross and the sceptre, to attain their legitimate boundaries, namely, the world. Hence the Papacy and the Empire were but two sides of the same thing and their two heads co-operated to rule the same regions and peoples, but in different spheres. The Pope ruled the souls of men; the Emperor their bodies; but both were necessary, equal, and established by God. It was a confusion of these two powers and ideas that produced such mediæval anachronisms as churchmen who were worldly princes with large estates, who led their flocks to war, and who became the prime ministers of kings; and secular rulers who appointed Church officials and called and presided over councils. This was the theory held by dreamers and theorists, but it was never realised.

2. The papal theory made the Pope alone God's representative on earth and maintained that the Emperor received his right to rule from St. Peter's successor. For historical proof of the genuineness of this position attention was called to the power of the keys, the Donation of Constantine, the coronation of Pepin, the restoration of the Empire in the West. Such figures as the sun and the moon, the body and the soul, etc., were used with telling effect by the clerical party who advanced this theory. It was upheld by Nicholas I., Hildebrand, Alexander III., Innocent III., and culminated with Boniface VIII. at the jubilee of 1300 when, seated on the throne of Constantine, girded with the imperial sword, wearing a crown, and waving a sceptre, he shouted to the throng of loyal pilgrims: "I am Cæsar—I am Emperor."

3. The imperial theory put the Emperor above the Pope as God's vice-regent on earth and reduced the Pope to the position of chief bishop in the Empire. It

was held that historical evidence to support this position could be found in the Jewish theocracy; the words of Jesus and the apostles about civil power; the seniority of the Empire over the Papacy; the attitude of Constantine and later Emperors; the work of Charles the Great, Otto the Great, and their illustrious successors. This theory was defended by the Emperors, kings, civil lawyers, and members of the imperial party.

So far as the Papacy was concerned the Holy Roman Empire created a rival world-ruler with whom for five hundred years the Popes were in almost endless strife. Under powerful rulers like Otto the Great the Papacy was subjected to the Empire more absolutely than in the day of Charles the Great. Under the great German Emperors much was done to reform the Church and to advance its interests and influence in the world. Each Emperor took a coronation oath to defend and protect the Church against heretics, schismatics, infidels, pagans, and all other enemies, and that obligation was as a rule faithfully and loyally kept. But all things considered was the Papacy stronger or weaker, better or worse, for the creation of the Holy Roman Empire? Does the fact that the Papacy declined with the decay and death of the Empire suggest a necessary dependence of the former on the latter?