[549] The consuls—often twelve in number—were the chief magistrates of the typical Italian commune.
[550] Otto III., emperor 983-1002. Otto is noted chiefly for his visionary project of renewing the imperial splendor of Rome and making her again the capital of a world-wide empire.
[551] James Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire (new ed., New York, 1904), pp. 207-208. For the reference to Dante see the Inferno, Canto X.
[552] James H. Robinson, Readings in European History (Boston, 1904), Vol. I., p. 244.
[553] Gregory IX., (1227-1241).
[554] Frederick was excommunicated and anathematized on sixteen different charges, which the Pope carefully enumerated. All who were bound to him by oath of fealty were declared to be absolved from their allegiance.
[555] At the Council of Lyons, in 1245, the Emperor was again excommunicated. The ensuing paragraph comprises a portion of Pope Innocent IV.'s denunciation of him upon that occasion.
[556] Charles IV. was himself king of Bohemia, so that for the present the Emperor was also one of the seven imperial electors.
[557] James Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire (new ed., New York, 1904), p. 234.
[558] Frankfort lay on the river Main, a short distance east of Mainz. "It was fixed as the place of election, as a tradition dating from East Frankish days preserved the feeling that both election and coronation ought to take place on Frankish soil."—James Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire (new ed., New York, 1904), p. 243.