See. The name of Octavian given by Alberic to his son leads to the inference that he meant to make his power hereditary. But, suddenly, he began to educate this son for the priesthood, and, assembling the nobles in St Peter's shortly before his death, he made them swear to elect Octavian as pope on the decease of Agapetus II. They kept their word, for in this way they freed themselves from a ruler. Possibly Alberic trusted that both offices might be united, and that his son would be head of the state as well as the church. But the nobles knew this to be a delusion, especially in the case of a nature such as Octavian's. The lad was sixteen years old when his father died, received princely honours until the death of Agapetus, and was then elected pope with the name of John XII. He had inherited the ungoverned passions of his grandmother Marozia and great-grandmother Theodora, but without their intelligence and cunning. His palace was the scene of the most scandalous licence, while his public acts were those of a baby tyrant. He conferred a bishopric on a child of ten, consecrated a deacon in a stable, invoked Venus and Jupiter in his games, and drank to the devil's health. He desired to be both pope and prince, but utterly failed to be either. Before long, realizing the impossibility of holding in check Berengarius, who still ruled over the exarchate, he sought in 960 the aid of Otto I., and promised him the imperial crown. Thus the new ruler was summoned by the son of the man by whom he had Otto I. crowned emperor. been repulsed. Otto vowed to defend the church, to restore her territories, to refrain from usurping the power of the pope or the republic, and was crowned on the 2nd of February 962 with unheard-of pomp and display.
Accordingly, after being extinct for thirty-seven years, the empire was revived under different but no less difficult conditions. The politico-religious unity founded by Charlemagne had been dissolved, partly on account of the heterogeneous elements of which it was composed, and partly because other nations were in course of formation. Now too the feudal system was converting the officers of the empire into independent princes, and the new spirit of communal liberty was giving freedom to the cities. Otto once more united the empire and the church, Italy and Germany, in order to combat these new foes. But the difficulties of the enterprise at once came to light. John XII., finding a master in the protector he had invoked, now joined the discontented nobles who were conspiring with Berengarius against the emperor. But the latter hastened to Rome in November 963, assembled the clergy, nobles and heads of the people, and made them take an oath never again to elect a pope without his consent and that of his son. He also convoked a synod presided over by himself in St Peter's, which judged, condemned and deposed Pope John and elected Leo VIII. (863-65), a Roman noble, in his stead. All this was done at the direct bidding of the emperor, who thus deprived the Romans of their most valued privilege, the right of choosing Rising importance of the people. their own pope. But the people had now risen to considerable importance, and, for the first time, we find it officially represented in the synod by the plebeian Pietro, surnamed Imperiola, together with the leaders of the militia, which had also become a popular institution since Alberic's reign. It was no longer easy to keep the lower orders in subjection, and by their junction with the malcontent nobles they formed a very respectable force. On the 3rd of January 964 they sounded the battle-peal and attacked the Vatican, where the emperor was lodged. The German knights repulsed them with much slaughter, and this bloodshed proved the beginning of an endless feud. Otto departed in February, and John XII., as the chosen pope of the Romans, returned with an army of followers and compelled the defenceless Leo VIII. to seek safety in flight. Soon afterwards Leo was deposed and excommunicated by a new synod, and many of his adherents were cruelly murdered. But on the 14th of May 964 John suddenly expired; the Romans, amid violent struggles and tumults, resumed their rights, elected Benedict V., and procured his consecration in spite of the emperor's veto. Otto now appeared at the head of an army, committed fresh slaughter, besieged the city, reduced it by famine, and, after holding a council which deposed Benedict and sent him a prisoner to Hamburg, restored Leo VIII. to the papal throne.
But, although the emperor thus disposed of the papacy at his will, his arbitrary exercise of power roused a long and Another revolution. obstinate resistance, which had no slight effect upon the history of the commune. Leo VIII. died in 965, and the imperial party elected John XIII. (965-72). Upon this the nobles of the national party joined the people and there was a general revolt. The nobles were led by Pietro, prefect of Rome. As we have noted, this office seemed to be extinct during the Carolingian rule, but we again meet with it in 955, after an interval of a century and a half. The leaders of the people were twelve decarconi, a term of unknown derivation, but probably indicating chiefs of the twelve regions (dodecarchi, dodecarconi, decarconi). The new pope was seized and confined, first in the castle of St Angelo, then in a fortress in the Campagna. But the emperor quickly marched an army against Rome, and this sufficed to produce a reaction which recalled the pope (November 966), sent the prefect into exile, and put several of the rebellious nobles to death. And shortly after the emperor sacked the city. Many Romans were exiled, some tortured, others, including the twelve decarconi, killed. John XIII. died in 972 and Otto in 973.
All these events clearly prove how great a change had now taken place in the conditions of Rome. The people (plebs) had made its appearance upon the stage; the army had become democratic; the twelve regions were regularly organized under leaders. Opposed to them stood the nobles, headed by the prefect, also a noble, precisely as in Florence the nobles and the podestà were later opposed to the gilds and the people. So far, it is true, nobles and people had made common cause in Rome; but this harmony was soon to be interrupted. The feudal spirit had made its way among the Roman aristocrats, had split them into two parties and diminished their strength. It was now destined to spread, and, as it was always vigorously detested and opposed by the people elsewhere in Italy, so the same consequence was inevitable in Rome. Another notable Judices dativi. change, and a subject of unending controversy, had also occurred in the administration of justice. So far there were the judices de clero, also known as ordinary or palatine judges, and the judices de militia, also styled consules or duces. These judges generally formed a court of seven, three being de clero, four de militia, or vice versa, under the presidency of the papal or imperial missi. In criminal cases the judices de militia had the prefect or the imperial missus for their president. But there was a third order of judges called pedanei, a consulibus creati. It seems clear that the duces, being distributi per judicatus, found themselves isolated in the provinces, and to obtain assistance nominated these pedanei, who were legal experts. In Rome, with its courts of law, they were less needed, but possibly in those sections of the city where cases of minor importance were submitted to a single magistrate reference was made to the pedanei. But many changes were made under the Franks, and when the edict of Lothair (824) granted free choice of either the Roman or Germanic law, and the duces were replaced by comites and gastaldiones, chiefly of German origin, the use of legal experts became increasingly necessary. And the custom of employing them was the more easily diffused by being already common among the Franks, whose scabini were legal experts acting as judges, though not qualified to pass sentence. Thus the pedanei multiplied, came to resemble the scabini, and were designated judices dativi (a magistratu dati) or simply dativi. These were to be found in the exarchate in 838, but not in Rome until 961, when the judices de militia had ceased to exist. The great progress of the German legal procedure may then have contributed to the formation of the new office.
Meanwhile Pope John XIII. had been succeeded by Benedict VI. (973-74) and Otto I. by his son Otto II., a youth
