CHAP. IV A. D. 888-1002 The partnership of Otto III and Sylvester II wars and conflicts should end in universal peace and happiness. Crossing the Alps to be crowned as emperor at Rome, he was met by a deputation of Romans, informing him that the Papacy was vacant, and requesting him to nominate a pope. His cousin, Bruno, whom he designated, under the name of Gregory V, crowned him Emperor on May 21, 996, and it appeared as if the approaching millennium of the Christian era was to witness the culmination of the Holy Roman Empire in the plenitude of the Emperor's lofty theory. Germany was, for a time, pleased with the prospect; the French bishops, previously rent with dissensions, submissively accepted the papal decrees; reforms were instituted everywhere, and it seemed to be the beginning of a new age of peace and prosperity for both the Empire and the Church, when the Crescentius of that day suddenly raised an insurrection at Rome, deposed and expelled Gregory, and set up as pope a Greek bishop, John Philagathos, under the name of John XVI. In February, 998, Otto descended upon Rome; John XVI, captured in his hasty flight across the country, was blinded and mutilated; Crescentius, who had fortified himself in the tomb of Adrian, was taken and decapitated; and Rome was once more beaten into submission by the imperial soldiers. Gregory V having died, Otto raised to the papal throne, Gerbert of Aurillac, under the name of Sylvester II. prodigy of learning, according to the opinion of his time, the new pope was, perhaps, the most remarkable man of his generation. He was to be to the new Constantine what the first Sylvester had been to his prototype, and together they were to reconstruct the world; but it was the Pope, and not the Emperor, who proved to be the predominating influence in this partnership. Becoming more and more visionary as his power seemed more secure, Otto was filled with a deep sense of his high mission. Descended from emperors of the East as well as of the West, and imbued with the religious teaching of his ecclesiastical guardians, he combined in his mystical concep A. D. 888-1002 tions a profound reverence for the sacred character of the CHAP. IV imperial office and a zealous devotion to the Church. In order to prepare himself for the great work he had undertaken, he made pilgrimages to many holy places; and, in the year 1000, paid a visit to Aachen, for the purpose of drawing inspiration from the glorious memories of Charles the Great. To deepen his impressions, he caused the great stone in the floor of the cathedral to be lifted, and there so runs the story he discovered the form of the dead monarch, clad in his imperial robes, and sitting erect upon his throne, with his crown upon his head and his sceptre in his hand, as if he were still ruling the world. Filled with faith and enthusiasm, Otto determined that the imperial residence should henceforth be at Rome, whose glorious past he was about to resuscitate. There, upon the Aventine, he built his palace, filling his court with gorgeously decorated officers bearing Greek and Latin titles. All the splendors of ancient Byzantium were assembled about his person. Of his numerous imperial crowns, that of iron recalled the military glory of the Caesars, while that of gold and gems bore the proud inscription: "Roma caput mundi regit frena rotundi." The ascent of the Emperor to the capitol was celebrated with great ceremony, begun in garments of pure white, and ended in the midst of solemn music in vestments of glittering gold; his arrival being acclaimed in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, while those present prostrated themselves upon the earth in silent prayer for the master of the world. of Otto's power While Otto III was indulging in these vagaries, Pope Syl-, The collapse vester, mature in years and earnest in spirit, was studiously building up the interests of the Church. New missionary efforts in the East had extended Christianity in Poland and Hungary, whose chiefs were founding new kingdoms and seeking to establish their independence of Germany by vassalage to the Papacy. When, later, Duke Stephen was, recognized by Sylvester as hereditary King of Hungary, and Boleslav as King of Poland, with the assent of Otto, A. D. 888-1002 CHAP. IV Germany protested against the cosmopolitan policy of the young emperor, by which the work of Otto the Great was sacrificed, and independent rival states were allowed to grow. up on that eastern frontier which had been esteemed the legitimate field of German expansion. While Otto was vainly engaged in calming the disturbance in Germany, Italy fell away from his authority; and when he returned to Rome, in 1001, it was to find himself in the midst of open rebellion. The unreality of his beautiful dream suddenly burst upon his mind; and, broken in spirit, at the age of only twentytwo, on January 23, 1002, after wandering about Italy in despair of his cause, he died at Paterno, not far from Rome. In the next year Sylvester II also passed away. The irides- 1 cent bubble of the compact between the Empire and the Papacy was dissolved into thin air. All that really remained of the Empire was the German kingship, now left vacant by the fact that Otto had no son; while the Papacy, deprived of its German support, fell into the greedy hands of the Roman aristocracy, to be fought for, sold, and subjected to new humiliations. Documents Literature AUTHORITIES In addition to the collections of documents already named, for the present chapter, see Böhmer, Regesta Chronologica-diplomatica Regum atque Imperatorum Romanorum inde a Conrado I usque ad Henricum V (911-1313), Frankfort, 1831; Böhmer-Ottenthal, Regesta Imperii (919– 1024); the Jahrbücher des deutschen Reichs, edited by Breslau, Hirsch, Köpke, and Waitz for the reigns included in this chapter; Ficker, Forschungen zur Reichs- und Rechtsgeschichte Italiens, Innsbruck, 18681874, and Beiträge zur Urkundenlehre, Innsbruck, 1878; Stumpf, Die Reichskanzler, Innsbruck, 1865, completed by Ficker, 1883. For the Greek writers, see Niebuhr, Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae, Bonn, 1828-1855. Many Italian documents are found in the Archivio Storico Italiano, first series, Florence, 1842-1854, to which there is a general index. On the period generally, Giesebrecht, Geschichte der deutschen Kaiserzeit, Braunschweig, 1865-1895; Ranke, Weltgeschichte, Bd. VII, Leipzig, 1886; Niehues, Geschichte des Verhältnisses zwischen Kaiserthum und Papstthum im Mittelalter, Münster, 1877-1887; Sybel, Die deutsche Nation und das Kaiserreich, Düsseldorf, 1862; Ficker, Deutsches On the special relations of the Papacy and the Empire, see Langen, 66 The coronation of Otto I is treated by Diemand, Das Ceremoniell der Kaiserkrönungen von Otto I bis Friedrich II, Munich, 1894. Otto's compact with the Papacy, or Privilegium of 962," is discussed by Th. Sickel, Das Privilegium Otto I für die römische Kirche vom Jahre 962, Innsbruck, 1883, which contains the original text and facsimile; Bayet, in the Revue Historique, May, 1884, pp. 161, 165; Sackur Das römische Pactum Ottos I in the N. Archiv, Bd. XXV, 1900, pp. 409, 424. The mission of Liutprand is described by Schlumberger, Un empereur byzantin au Xe siècle, Paris, 1890. The same writer's L'épopée byzantine à la fin du Xe siècle, Paris, 1896, contains an account of the marriage of Otto II and Theophano. Moltmann, Theophano, die Gemahlin Ottos II in ihrer Bedeutung für die Politik Ottos I und Ottos II, Schwerin, 1878, considers the political significance of this marriage. Matthaei, Die Händel Ottos II mit Lothar von Frankreich (978–980), Halle, 1882, has discussed the invasion of Lotharingia by the King of France, and the revenge of Otto II. CHAP. IV A. D. 888-1002 13 Abasement of the Empire and the Papacy CHAPTER V THE CONFLICT OF THE EMPIRE AND THE PAPACY THE period which immediately followed the awakening from the dreams of Otto III and the death of Sylvester II was one of extreme abasement both for the Empire and the Papacy. It appeared for a time as if all practical power was to be thenceforth in the hands of the feudal magnates. Castles multiplied, violence increased, and the bishops and abbots who had been raised to power by the policy of Otto I had become as grasping and refractory as the temporal princes. Marriage was still permitted among the clergy, and the ecclesiastical fiefs, like the purely secular, were becoming hereditary, with the result that no real distinction existed between them. The state of Germany was so turbulent and so menaced by its ambitious neighbors on the east that two years passed before the new German king could appear in Italy, where Ardoin, Marquis of Ivrea, had already set up an Italian kingdom; and twelve years elapsed in the struggle to overthrow him before the imperial diadem was at last received. At Rome, a third Crescentius exercised the despotism of that powerful family, naming popes and treating them as puppets; until the counts of Tusculum pushed him aside, only to take his place and continue his practices. The Empire had become a nullity, and the Papacy had fallen into general disrepute. All the great work of the past appeared to have been undone and Europe delivered over to the will of its local despots. But two great movements, based upon opposing theories, were to redeem the central power from the degradation into which it had fallen, only to rend it asunder when it was ¡ restored. |