and a half the imperial vacancy, in order to carry on his CHAP. IV negotiations and secure the highest bidder. Among the possible candidates were the three sons of Lewis the German,- Carloman, Charles the Fat, and Lewis the Younger; the son of the dead emperor, Louis the Stammerer; Duke Boso of Arles, who had married the only daughter of Lewis II; and Lambert of Spoleto. Carloman, regarding himself as the legitimate heir of the Emperor Lewis II, who had bequeathed to him his Italian dominion, hastened to render himself master of Lombardy, whose crown he received at Pavia. Believing that he was now certain of the imperial honor, Carloman immediately addressed John VIII with reference to his coronation; but the Pope promptly informed him that several preliminaries were necessary. His first duty was to have an understanding with his brothers. After that, the Pope would send an embassy to him, which would inform him what concessions he must make in perpetuity to the See of St. Peter. When a formal" charter methodically arranged in chapters " had been duly signed, the Pope would again send legates to conduct the King in a suitable manner to Rome, where they would together agree as to the things necessary to be done for "the strengthening of the Republic and the safety of the people." It was the first time that the Holy See had ever spoken in such a tone. The independence of the "Republic," the right of the Pope to withhold the imperial crown, the necessity of purchasing it by "concessions,” - all these were innovations in the attitude of the Papacy. Carloman appears to have acquiesced in the recognition of the papal claims, for we read in a letter of John VIII, addressed to him: "We have expected you every day, with so much the more eagerness, because you have promised, as the price of the increase of your dignity, to raise us and our Church, tried by the assaults. of so many adversaries, higher than have any of the emperors and kings, your predecessors." But, upon reflection, Carloman had changed his mind. The terms of the Pope seemed to him too exacting, and since A. D. 888-1002 A. D. 888-1002 CHAP. IV he was already in possession of Northern Italy, it appeared to him quite possible to force the Holy See to make easier conditions. To this end, he put himself in relation with the enemies of John VIII, particularly Bishop Formosus, a friend of the German party and afterward Pope; Lambert, Duke of Spoleto; and Adalbert, Marquis of Tuscany. Sorely pressed by these opponents, who took possession of Rome and subjected the city to their power, John VIII was obliged to escape to Genoa, whence he went by ship to France, in order to seek support from Louis the Stammerer. The double policy of John VIII There," by the authority of the Holy Spirit," he offered to the King the imperial crown, but under conditions which Louis would not accept. After his failure to negotiate with Louis, he returned to Italy, accompanied by Duke Boso, whom he would gladly have crowned emperor, but for the obstacles thrown in his way by the Germans. The reluctance of John VIII to confer the imperial crown upon Carloman, which was now weakened by the failure of his attempt to bestow that honor upon the King of France, had arisen from the perception that the recognition of the German prince,—by far the strongest of the Carlovingians then living, might impair the prestige of the Papacy and subject it to the will of a master. This risk the Pope was not disposed to incur, and was determined to avoid it by previous assurances and concessions. What he especially desired was, to take the initiative in the selection of an emperor, and in such a manner as to impress Christendom with the idea that the Empire was the gift of the Papacy. In this sense, he wrote to Anspert, Archbishop of Milan, after the death of Charles the Bald: "It is absolutely necessary that . . . you receive no king without our consent, for the prince whom we destine for the Empire ought to be, first and above all, called and chosen by us." It was for this reason that he had made his journey into France, in the hope of securing the acceptance of Louis the Stammerer, whom the Holy Spirit had designated to the Pope as the most fitting recipient of the imperial crown. 1 A. D. 888-1002 The refusal of the young King of France was for John VIII CHAP. IV a cruel experience. The political wisdom of the French court, to which Charles the Bald had not listened, had utterly frustrated the designs of the Pope and left him overwhelmed with disappointment and embarrassment. Practically confined to a choice between the sons of Lewis the German, John VIII now resolved to take a desperate chance. In the illusory hope of conciliating the East and effecting a final reunification of Christendom under the guidance of the Papacy, he pursued a dilatory policy in the West, while opening secret negotiations with the Emperor Basil at Byzantium. with Charles the Fat Re-established in Rome by the protection of Duke Boso, Negotiations whom he adopted as a "glorious son" and used as a foil to stimulate the ambition of Carloman and Charles the Fat, John VIII now adopted the policy of creating a rivalry between the two brothers. His preference was undoubtedly for Charles, whose torpid nature rendered him the more likely to be subservient, but whose ambition needed to be quickened by such means as the Pope adopted. In the execution of his plans, John VIII sent Wilbod, Bishop of Parma, on the secret mission of discreetly sounding the two brothers, with the purpose of ascertaining who would make the larger concessions to the Papacy. Before this result was accomplished, Carloman died; and the problem then remained, how to secure from his brother the highest possible price for the crown. Charles the Fat now claimed and received at Pavia the crown of Lombardy; but the demands and restrictions of the Pope were so exacting that he held aloof, and the negotiations, zealously renewed by John VIII, dragged on without result through the year 880. Finally, the reserve of Charles was suddenly broken and he announced his intention of coming immediately to Rome, to receive the imperial crown. The Pope promptly warned him in vigorous language not to come until the preliminaries which he had before imposed were duly observed and the concessions formally made. But this time Charles A. D. 888-1002 CHAP. IV did not hesitate. Through the secret confidences of a friend, a new light had suddenly dawned upon the hitherto unsuspecting king. Made aware of the Pope's secret negotiations with Byzantium, and of their failure, Charles saw that John VIII was in reality helpless; marched directly to Rome with his army, against the Pope's angry prohibition and protest; and, apparently without signing any conditions, - although oral assurances were probably given, - received the imperial crown from John VIII, in February, 881. Pope, whose diplomacy had completely miscarried, had found neither a vassal nor a protector. Relations VIII with The The revelation which had emboldened Charles the Fat to go to Rome and demand the crown, explains the calm serenity of the Pope in continuing the vacancy in the Empire, and in making his own terms in the midst of such weakness and peril. The Greek Emperor Basil I, aiming to re-establish the unity of the old Empire in the spirit of Justinian, had resolved to avail himself of the anarchy of Italy, and to recognize the spiritual supremacy of the Pope in exchange for his influence. The fleet of Byzantium had invested the coast towns of Italy, and, by judicious alliances with the Italian princes, Basil was on the point of carrying his scheme into effect, when the tide of affairs had suddenly changed and the great combination which had been formed had fallen to the ground. Even before the death of Charles the Bald, John VIII had been in secret communication with the East. When he beheld the chaos and impotence into which the Carlovingian dynasty had fallen, the danger in which the Papacy was placed, and the inconstancy and incapacity of the aspirants to the imperial dignity in the West, it was but natural that he should turn with pleasure to the hope of restoring the unity of Christendom under the more vigorous régime of the Eastern Empire, then reviving its ancient glory in the hands of a great statesman like Basil. The letters of John VIII bring to light the secret understanding which had been formed with the East, the large expectations entertained by the Pope, and the reasons for postponing the investiture of an emperor at Rome, whose CHAP. IV accession would instantly dissolve this dream of greatness. But the restoration to favor of Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople, whose craft and skill were superior even to those of John VIII, after a profession of friendship almost melo dramatic in its effusiveness, had caused the re-affirmation of the Patriarch's primacy in Christendom; John had found himself discredited; and, in 880, the papal legates had brought back to Rome the story of the machinations and perfidy with which the Pope had been duped. As John VIII was awakening from his bright dream of glory, Charles the Fat entered Rome with his army. The tempest of the Pope's wrath had already broken upon him in the letter of warning which he had received; but, perceiving that he had nothing to fear, he did not hesitate. In the Pope's eyes, his entrance into the sacred city was an act of violence as well as a step of presumption; but the humiliation was borne, and the imperial crown was conferred for the first time upon a disobedient son of the Church. Thus began the German occupation of the Empire, and with it a new chapter in the history of the Papacy. II. THE BUILDING OF THE GERMAN NATION The transfer of the imperial office from the French to the German branch of the Carlovingian family imposed upon the King of Germany a task for which he was not prepared.! We have already noticed the enforced abdication of Charles the Fat and the substitution of Arnulf in his place; but the failure of the Empire was not the result of the personal deficiencies of the Emperor alone, it was a consequence of the feudal anarchy of the time and the absence of a sufficiently vigorous national spirit to give strength to a central government. The Germans had not yet developed that conscious-, ness of nationality which was necessary to their leadership in reconstructing the Empire. The first task before the German kings was the consolidation of their kingdom, which at A. D. 888-1002 The state of in 888 Germany |