Charles the Great and Otto the Great both called councils in Rome to try Popes. But now the Pope has attained such a pre-eminence that he cites the Emperor to appear before him to justify his conduct. Verily the Papacy, with the aid of Damiani and Hildebrand, had got out of the quagmire which almost engulfed it in the tenth and the eleventh centuries. At the same time the imperial right to choose Popes, which had so long been exercised and which had been recognised again and again by the Popes themselves, was taken out of the Emperor's hands and entirely controlled by the Roman cardinals.

Sources


FOOTNOTES:

[418:1] See [Chapter XVI.]

[418:2] The Pope's wife was still living at the time of his election. His daughter, a maiden of forty, was abducted by the son of Bishop Aresenius. When threatened with punishment, the abductor murdered the Pope's wife and daughter. See Schaff, iv., 277.

[419:1] Robinson, Readings, i., 245.

[419:2] Alzog, ii., § 187; Hefele, iv., 575; Gregorovius, iii., 282; Pertz, v., 297; Migne, vol. 136, 827, 852; Robinson, Readings, i., 251.

[419:3] See [Chapter XVII.]