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.