Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/304

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STATES


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STATES


imperial crown from John VIII in 881, likewise did nothing, and Arnulf, who was crowned emperor in 896, was compelled by illness to suspend further inter- ference. Severely did the defenceless pope have to suffer for having summoned him. Pope Stephen V had previously (891) yielded to the lu-ging of Duke Guido of Spoleto and bestowed on him the imperial crown. Stephen's successor. Pope Formosus, had been compelled to give the crown also to Guido's sou, Lambert, as the associate of his father in the empire (892) ; he thus incurred the fierce hatred of Lambert, when he afterwards summoned Arnulf to Rome and crowned him emperor. When Lambert, after the death of Formosus, entered Rome in 897, he took a horrible revenge upon the corpse of the pope through the medium of Stephen VI.

The papacy was now completely at the mercy of the struggling factions of the nobility. Benedict IV in 901 crowned as emperor Louis, King of Lower Bur- gimdy, who had been summoned by the Italian nobles. In 915 John X crowned Louis's opponent, the Marquis Berengar of Friuli. Berengar was the last to receive the imperial crown before the founding of the Roman Empire of the German Nation, At Rome itself the greatest influence was won by the family of the later Counts of Tusculum, which traced its descent to the senator and dux, Theophylactus, and whose power was for a time represented by the wife of Theophylactus, Theodora (called Seiialrix or Vesler- atrix), and her daughters Marozia and Theodora the Younger. The papacy also came under the power of these women. Alberic, the husband of Marozia, with John X, who had been raised to the papacy by the elder Theodora, defeated the Saracens on the Garig- liano (916), and thereafter called himself Consul of the Romans. After his death this rank was trans- mitted to Marozia, and, on her fall, to his son Alberic. Marozia had John X deposed, and finally had her own son by her first husband placed upon the papal chair as John XI. John XI was entirely dominated by his mother. When Marozia's son, Alberic II, finally put an end to the despotic rule of his mother (932), the Romans proclaimed him their lord and master, con- ferred on him all temporal power, and restricted the pope's authority to purely spiritual matters. Alberic, who had a palace on the Aventine, refused the Ger- man king Otto I permission to enter Rome, when the latter appeared in Upper Italy in 951. But, when Otto appeared for the second time in Italy, conditions had changed.

(2) From the Coronation of Otto I as Emperor to the end of the Hohenstaufen Line. — Alberic II clied in 954. In accordance with a promise made to him, the Romans in 955 elected to the papacy as John XII his seventeen-year-old son Octavian, who had succeeded him in the temporal power. This pontiff thus united the spiritual and temporal power, but only in the territory which had been subject to Alberic — that is substantially the old Duchy of Rome, or the "Patri- monium Petri". The Pentapolis and the exarchate were in other hands, ultimately falling to King Beren- gar of Ivrea. To obtain protection against Berengar, John XII called upon Otto I for help. Otto came and on 2 February, 962, received the imperial crown. On 1.3 February he drew up the charter (still extant in a contemiiorary caligraphic copy, i)reserv(-d in the archives of the Vatican), in which he renewed the well-known covenants of his i)r('decfss(>rs, in- creased the donations by the addition of .-ieveral new ones, and undertook to secure the canonical election of the popes. The pope was not to be consccr.uled until imperial envoys had assured themselves of the legality of the election and obtained from the pope a sworn promise of allegiance (cf. Th. Sickel, Das Privilegium Ottos I fiir die romische Kirche", Inii.s- bruck, 1S83). The neces.sary condition for the cooperation of emperor and pope was their com-


mon opposition to Berengar. This was removed when John XII, who not unreasonably feared Otto's power, entered into secret negotiations with Berengar. Otto thereupon again came to Rome, which the pope had left, and demanded of the Romans an oath that henceforth they would never again elect a pope without the express consent and sanction of the emperor. Therewith the papacy was declared subject to the emperor. This at once be- came evident, when a synod, over which Otto pre- sided, deposed the pope. But Leo VIII, who was chosen in accordance with Otto's wishes, was unable to remain at Rome without Otto. The Romans, after the death of John XII, elected Benedict V, but Otto sent him into exile at Hamburg. Other afflictions beset John XIII, to secure whose elevation the Ro- mans and Otto had acted in harmony in 966. John needed the protection of the emperor against a rebel- lious faction of the nobility, whereupon Otto appointed a prefect of Rome and enfeoffed him with drawn sword. In return the pope crowned the son of Otto I (Otto II) with the imperial crown in the next year (967), and later married him to the Greek princess Theophano. Otto II had to render the same protec- tion to the popes of his time. John XIH's successor, Benedict VI, was imprisoned and murdered in the Castle of S. Angelo by hostile nobles. The Frank who was chosen in hLs place (Boniface VII) had to flee to Constantinople, but the position of Benedict VII, who was raised to the papacy with the consent of Otto II, remained uncertain until Otto in 980 oame to Rome, where, after his defeat near Capo Colorme, he died (983) and was buried in St. Peter's. Boniface VII, who returned from Constantinople, had during the minority of Otto's son displaced John XIV, the successor of Benedict VII, and exposed him to death by starvation in the Castle of S. Angelo. And beside John XV, who was made pope after the fall of Boni- face VII, the dux, Crescentius, under the usurped title of "Patrician", ruled over Rome, so that the times of an Alberic seemed to have returned.

John V therefore earnestly desired the arrival of a German army. It appeared in 996 under the com- mand of the sixteen-year-old Otto III. As John had died before Otto entered Rome, the German king, whom the Romans had asked to propose a candidate, designated, on the advice of the princes, his relative, the young Bruno, who was then elected at Rome and graced the papal chair as Gregory V (996-99). Cre- scentius was besieged in the Castle of S. Angelo and beheaded. Gregory V, who crowned Otto III em- peror, was the first German pope. His successor, the first French pope, also designated by Otto, was the learned Sylvester II, near whom on the .\ventine the emperor desired permanently to make his residence, that he might govern the West as the Roman emperors had once done. The old Roman law and a ceremonial fashioned after Byzantine forms were to be put into effect. But these plans soon came to naught. Only a few years later, in 1002, the youthful and visionary emperor, bitterly disillusioned, died in his camp out- side Rome, which had risen against him. And, when Sylvester II also passed away in 1003, John Crescen- tius, the son of I he Crescentius who had been beheaded by Otto 111, having [losses.sed himself of I he patriciate, seized the govcrnnicnt at Home. .Vftor his death the Counts of Tusculum licgan to contend with the Cre- scenlians for the sui)rem:icy, and, in ojiposition to the pope set up hv their oiipoiieiits, raised one of their own followers to the pajial chair as Kenodict \'11I; the lat- ter w;is recognized !is the lawful pope by Henry II, whom he crowned emperor at Rome on 14 February, 1014. An intimate friendship united Benedict and Henry. T(>g<'thcr they planned a reform of the (Church, which unfurluiialely Wius not carried out. Benedict was sucieeded by his brother, John XIX, a man less worthy of the lionour, wln' had previously