to see its effective power restored, the belief that with- CHAP. VI. out it the world could never be right, might seem better grounded than it had been before the coronation of Charles. Then the imperial name had recalled only the Motives for faint memories of Roman majesty and order: now it was reviving the Empire. also associated with the golden age of the first Frankish Emperor, when a single firm and just hand had guided the State, reformed the Church, repressed the excesses of local power: when Christianity had advanced against heathendom, civilizing as she went, fearing neither Hun nor Saracen. One annalist tells us that Charles was elected lest the pagans should insult the Christians, if the name of Emperor should have ceased among the Christians.'1 The motive would be bitterly enforced by the calamities of the last fifty years. In a time of disintegration, confusion, strife, all the longings of every wiser and better soul for unity, for peace and law, for some bond to bring Christian men and Christian states together against the common enemy of the faith, were but so many cries for the restoration of the Roman Empire. These were the feelings that on the field of Merseburg broke forth in the shout of 'Henry the Emperor': these the hopes of the Teutonic host when A.D. 933. after the great deliverance of the Lechfeld they greeted i Chron. Moiss., in Pertz, M. G. H. i. 305. So Pope John VIII, when summoning Charles the Bald into Italy, says, 'Et hanc terram, quae sui imperii caput est, ad libertatem reducat, ne quando dicant gentes: Ubi est imperator illius?' Letter in Mansi, Concil. xvii. 29. See especially the poem of Florus the Deacon (printed in the Benedictine collection and in Migne, cxix. pp. 249–253), a bitter lament over the dissolution of the Carolingian Empire, from which I take four lines (p. 251): — 'Quid faciant populi quos ingens alluit Hister, Quos Rhenus Rhodanusque rigant, Ligerisve, Padusve, Quos omnes dudum tenuit concordia nexos, Foedere nunc rupto divortia moesta fatigant?' CHAP. VI. Condition of Italy. Otto, conqueror of the Magyars, as 'Imperator, Pater The anarchy which an Emperor was needed to heal was at its worst in Italy, desolated by the feuds of a crowd of petty princes. A succession of infamous Popes, raised by means yet more infamous, the paramours and sons of Theodora and Marozia, had disgraced the chair of the Apostle, and though Rome herself might be lost to decency, Western Christendom was roused to anger. The rule of Alberic had been succeeded by the wildest confusion, and calls were heard for the renewal of that imperial authority which all admitted in theory," and which nothing but the resolute opposition of Alberic himself had prevented Otto from claiming in 951. From the Eastern Empire, to which Italy was more than once tempted to turn, nothing could be hoped; its dangers from foreign enemies were aggravated by the plots of the court and the seditions of the capital; it was becoming more and more alienated from the West by the Photian schism and the question regarding the Procession of the Holy Ghost, which that quarrel had started. Germany was extending and consolidating herself, had escaped domestic perils, and might think of reviving ancient claims. No one could be more willing to revive them than Otto the Great. His ardent spirit, after waging a successful struggle against the turbulent magnates of his German realm, had engaged him in wars with the surrounding nations, and was now captivated by the vision. of a wider sway and a loftier world-embracing dignity. Nor was the prospect which the papal offer opened up less I Widukind, Annales (bk. iii. c. 49), in Pertz, M. G. H., Script. iii. p. 459. It may, however, be doubted whether the annalist is not here giving a very free rendering of the triumphant cries of the German army. m Cf. esp. the 'Libellus de imperatoria potestate in urbe Roma,' in Pertz, M. G. H., Script. iii. pp. 719-722. welcome to his people. Aachen, their capital, was the CHAP. VI. ancestral home of the house of Pipin: their sovereign, although himself a Saxon by race, titled himself king of the Franks, in opposition to the Frankish rulers of the Western branch, whose Teutonic character was disappearing among the Romanized inhabitants of Gaul. They held themselves in every way the true representatives of the Carolingian power, and accounted the period since Arnulf's death nothing but an interregnum which had suspended but not impaired their rights over Rome. For so long,' says a writer of the time, 'as there remain kings of the Franks, so long will the dignity of the Roman Empire not wholly perish, seeing that it will abide in its kings.'" The recovery of Italy was therefore to German eyes a righteous as well as a glorious design, approved by the Teutonic Church which had lately been negotiating with Rome on the subject of missions to the heathen, embraced by the people, who saw in it an accession of strength to their young kingdom. Everything smiled on Otto's enterprise, and the connection which was destined to bring so much strife and woe to Germany and to Italy was welcomed by the wisest of both countries as the beginning of a better era. Otto the Great into Whatever were Otto's own feelings, whether or not Descent of misgivings were within him lest he might be sacrificing, as modern writers have thought that he did sacrifice, the Italy. greatness of his German kingdom to the lust of universal dominion, he shewed no hesitation in his acts. Descending from the Alps with an overpowering force, he was 'Licet videamus Romanorum regnum in maxima parte iam destructum, tamen quamdiu reges Francorum duraverint qui Romanum imperium tenere debent, dignitas Romani imperii ex toto non peribit, quia stabit in regibus suis.'- Liber de Antichristo, addressed by Adso, abbot of Moutier-en-Der, to Queen Gerberga (circa A.D. 950), ap. Migne, ci. p. 1290. CHAP. VI. His corona tion at Rome, A.D. 962. acknowledged as king of Italy at Pavia; and, having first taken an oath to protect the Holy See and respect the liberties of the city, advanced to Rome. There, with Adelheid his queen, he was crowned in the church of St. John Lateran by John XII, on the day of the Purification, the second of February, A.D. 962. The details of his election and coronation are unfortunately still more scanty than in the case of his great predecessor. Most of our authorities dwell chiefly on the Pope's part in the act, yet it is plain that the consent of the people was still thought an essential part of the ceremony, and that Otto rested after all on his host of conquering Saxons. Be this as it may, there was neither question raised nor opposition made in Rome. The usual courtesies and promises were exchanged between Emperor and Pope, the latter owning himself a subject, and the citizens swore for the future to elect no pontiff without Otto's consent. • From the money which Otto struck in Italy, it seems that he did occasionally use the title of king of Italy or of the Lombards. That he was crowned is perhaps not absolutely certain. P‘A papa imperator ordinatur,' says Hermannus Contractus. Dominum Ottonem, ad hoc usque vocatum regem, non solum Romano sed et poene totius Europae populo acclamante imperatorem consecravit Augustum.'Annal. Quedlinb., ad ann. 962. Benedictionem a domno apostolico Iohanne, cuius rogatione huc venit, cum sua coniuge promeruit imperialem ac patronus Romanae effectus est ecclesiae.' - Thietmar, ii. c. 7 (Pertz, M. G. H., Script. iii. p. 747). Acclamatione totius Romani populi ab apostolico Iohanne, filio Alberici, imperator et Augustus vocatur et ordinatur.' - Continuator Reginonis, s. a. 962 (Pertz, M. G. H., Script. i. p. 625). And simi. larly the other annalists. CHAPTER VII THEORY OF THE MEDIAEVAL EMPIRE CHAP. VII. Why the revival of the Empire THESE were the events and circumstances of the time: let us now look at the causes. The restoration of the Empire by Charles may seem to be sufficiently accounted for by the width of his conquests, by the peculiar connec- was desired. tion which already subsisted between him and the Roman Church, by his commanding personal character, by the temporary vacancy of the throne at Constantinople. The causes of its revival under Otto must be sought deeper. Making every allowance for the favouring incidents which have already been dwelt upon, there must have been some further influence at work to draw him and his successors, Saxon and Frankish kings, so far from home in pursuit of a barren crown, to lead the Italians to accept the dominion of a stranger and a barbarian, to make the Empire itself appear through the whole Middle Age not what it seems now, a gorgeous anachronism, but an institution divine and necessary, having its foundations in the very nature and order of things. The Empire of the elder Rome had been splendid in its life, yet its judgement was written in the misery to which it had brought the provinces, and the helplessness that had invited the attacks of the barbarian. Now, as we at least can see, it had long been dead, and the course of events was adverse to its revival. Its actual representatives, the Roman people, were a turbulent rabble, sunk in a profligacy notorious even in that rude age. Yet not the less for all this did men cling |