Viscount James Bryce Bryce

[1] The author has in preparation, and hopes before long to complete and publish, a set of chronological tables which may be made to serve as a sort of skeleton history of mediÆval Germany and Italy.

[2] Reckoning the Anti-pope Felix (A.D. 356) as Felix II.

[3] Crowned Emperor, but at Bologna, not at Rome.

[4] According to the vicious financial system that prevailed, the curiales in each city were required to collect the taxes, and when there was a deficit, to supply it from their own property.

[5] See the eloquent passage of Claudian, In secundum consulatum Stilichonis, 129, sqq., from which the following lines are taken (150-60):—

'HÆc est in gremio victos quÆ sola recepit,

Humanumque genus communi nomine fovit,

Matris, non dominÆ, ritu; civesque vocavit

Quos domuit, nexuque pio longinqua revinxit.

Hujus pacificis debemus moribus omnes

Quod veluti patriis regionibus utitur hospes:

Quod sedem mutare licet: quod cernere Thulen

Lusus, et horrendos quondam penetrare recessus:

Quod bibimus passim Rhodanum, potamus Oronten,

Quod cuncti gens una sumus. Nec terminus unquam

RomanÆ ditionis erit.'

[6] In the Roman jurisprudence, ius sacrum is a branch of ius publicum.

[7] Tertullian, writing circ. A.D. 200, says: 'Sed quid ego amplius de religione atque pietate Christiana in imperatorem quem necesse est suspiciamus ut eum quem Dominus noster elegerit. Et merito dixerim, noster est magis CÆsar, ut a nostro Deo constitutus.'—Apologet. cap. 34.

[8] See the book of Optatus, bishop of Milevis, Contra Donatistas. 'Non enim respublica est in ecclesia, sed ecclesia in republica, id est, in imperio Romano, cum super imperatorem non sit nisi solus Deus:' (p. 999 of vol. ii. of Migne's PatrologiÆ Cursus completus.) The treatise of Optatus is full of interest, as shewing the growth of the idea of the visible Church, and of the primacy of Peter's chair, as constituting its centre and representing its unity.

[9] 'Addiderat consilium coercendi intra terminos imperii.'—Tac. Ann. i. 2.

[10] Tac. Ann. ii. 9.

[11] Stilicho, the bulwark of the Empire, seems to have been himself a Vandal by extraction.

[12] Of course not the consulship itself, but the ornamenta consularia.

[13] Jornandes, De Rebus Geticis, cap. 28.

[14] Tac. Hist. i. and iv.

[15] 'Vester quidem est populus meus sed me plus servire vobis quam illi prÆesse delectat. Traxit istud a proavis generis mei apud vos decessoresque vestros semper animo Romana devotio, ut illa nobis magis claritas putaretur, quam vestra per militiÆ titulos porrigeret celsitudo: cunctisque auctoribus meis semper magis ambitum est quod a principibus sumerent quam quod a patribus attulissent. Cumque gentem nostram videamur regere, non aliud nos quam milites vestros credimus ordinari.... Per nos administratis remotarum spatia regionum: patria nostra vester orbis est. Tangit Galliam suam lumen orientis, et radius qui illis partibus oriri creditur, hic refulget. Dominationem vobis divinitus prÆstitam obex nulla concludit, nec ullis provinciarum terminis diffusio felicium sceptrorum limitatur. Salvo divinitatis honore sit dictum.'—Letter printed among the works of Avitus, Bishop of Vienne. (Migne's Patrologia, vol. lix. p. 285.)

This letter, as its style shews, is the composition not of Sigismund himself, but of Avitus, writing on Sigismund's behalf. But this makes it scarcely less valuable evidence of the feelings of the time.

[16] 'Referre solitus est (sc. Ataulphus) se in primis ardenter inhiasse: ut obliterato Romanorum nomine Romanum omne solum Gothorum imperium et faceret et vocaret: essetque, ut vulgariter loquar, Gothia quod Romania fuisset; fieretque nunc Ataulphus quod quondam CÆsar Augustus. At ubi multa experientia probavisset, neque Gothos ullo modo parere legibus posse propter effrenatam barbariem, neque reipublicÆ interdici leges oportere sine quibus respublica non est respublica; elegisse se saltem, ut gloriam sibi de restituendo in integrum augendoque Romano nomine Gothorum viribus quÆreret, habereturque apud posteros RomanÆ restitutionis auctor postquam esse non potuerat immutator. Ob hoc abstinere a bello, ob hoc inhiare paci nitebatur.'—Orosius, vii. 43.

[17] Athaulf formed only to abandon it.

[18] See, among other passages, Varro, De lingua Latina, iv. 34; Cic., Pro Domo, 33; and in the Corpus Iuris Civilis, Dig. i. 5, 17; l. 1, 33; xiv. 2, 9; quoted by Ægidi, Der FÜrstenrath nach dem Luneviller Frieden. The phrase 'urbs Æterna' appears in a novel issued by Valentinian III.

Tertullian speaks of Rome as 'civitas sacrosancta.'

[19] Lact. Divin. Instit. vii. 25: 'Etiam res ipsa declarat lapsum ruinamque rerum brevi fore: nisi quod incolumi urbe Roma nihil istiusmodi videtur esse metuendum. At vero cum caput illud orbis occident, et ??? esse coeperit quod SibyllÆ fore aiunt, quis dubitet venisse iam finem rebus humanis, orbique terrarum? Illa, illa est civitas quÆ adhuc sustentat omnia, precandusque nobis et adorandus est Deus coeli si tamen statuta eius et placita differri possunt, ne citius quam putemus tyrannus ille abominabilis veniat qui tantum facinus moliatur, ac lumen illud effodiat cuius interitu mundus ipse lapsurus est.'

Cf. Tertull. Apolog. cap. xxxii: 'Est et alia maior necessitas nobis orandi pro imperatoribus, etiam pro omni statu imperii rebusque Romanis, qui vim maximam universo orbi imminentem ipsamque clausulam sÆculi acerbitates horrendas comminantem Romani imperii commeatu scimus retardari.' Also the same writer, Ad Scapulam, cap. ii: 'Christianus sciens imperatorem a Deo suo constitui, necesse est ut ipsum diligat et revereatur et honoret et salvum velit cum toto Romano imperio quousque sÆculum stabit: tamdiu enim stabit.' So too the author—now usually supposed to be Hilary the Deacon—of the Commentary on the Pauline Epistles ascribed to S. Ambrose: 'Non prius veniet Dominus quam regni Romani defectio fiat, et appareat antichristus qui interficiet sanctos, reddita Romanis libertate, sub suo tamen nomine.'—Ad II Thess. ii. 4, 7.

[20] For example, by the 'restitutio natalium,' and the 'adrogatio per rescriptum principis,' or, as it is expressed, 'per sacrum oraculum.'

[21] Even the Christian Emperors took the title of Pontifex Maximus, till Gratian refused it: ????st?? e??a? ???st???? t? s??a ???sa?.—Zosimus, lib. iv. cap. 36.

[22] 'Maiore formidine et callidiore timiditate CÆsarem observatis quam ipsum ex Olympo Iovem, et merito, si sciatis.... Citius denique apud vos per omnes Deos quam per unum genium CÆsaris peieratur.'—Tertull. Apolog. c. xxviii.

Cf. Zos. v. 51: e? ?? ??? p??? t?? ?e?? tet????e? d?d?e??? ?????, ?? ?? ?? e???? pa??de?? ??d?d??ta? t? t?? ?e?? f??a????p?? t?? ?p? t? ?see?? s???????. ?pe? d? ?at? t?? t?? as????? ????esa? ?efa???, ??? e??a? ?e?t?? a?t??? e?? t?? t?s??t?? ????? ??aa?te??.

[23] Tac. Ann. i. 73; iii. 38, etc.

[24] It is curious that this should have begun in the first years of the Empire. See, among other passages that might be cited from the Augustan poets, Virg. Georg. i. 42; iv. 462; Hor. Od. iii. 3, 11; Ovid, Epp. ex Ponto, iv. 9. 105.

[25] Hence Vespasian's dying jest, 'Ut puto, deus fio.'

[26] ?p?? ?? ? as??e?? ?, ??e? ? ???.—Herodian.

[27] If the accounts we find of the Armorican republic can be trusted.

[28] Odoacer or Odovaker, as it seems his name ought to be written, is usually, but incorrectly, described as a King of the Heruli, who led his people into Italy and overthrew the Empire of the West; others call him King of the Rugii, or Skyrri, or Turcilingi. The truth seems to be that he was not a king at all, but the son of a Skyrrian chieftain (Edecon, known as one of the envoys whom Attila sent to Constantinople), whose personal merits made him chosen by the barbarian auxiliaries to be their leader. The Skyrri were a small tribe, apparently akin to the more powerful Heruli, whose name is often extended to them.

[29] ?????st?? ? ???st?? ???? ????sa? ?????a p???? t?? as??e?a? ??a?e?t?s?a? t?? ?? ... ?????ase t?? ????? ?p?ste??a? p?ese?a? ?????? s?a????sa? ?? ?d?a? ?? a?t??? as??e?a? ?? d???, ?????? d? ?p????se? ???? ?? a?t????t?? ?p' ?f?t????? t??? p??as?. t?? ??t?? ?d?a??? ?p' a?t?? p??e??s?a? ??a??? ??ta s??e?? t? pa?' a?t??? p???ata p???t???? ???? ???? ?a? s??es?? ??? ?a? ?????. ?a? de?s?a? t?? ??????? pat?????? te a?t? ?p?ste??a? ???a? ?a? t?? t?? ?t???? t??t? ?fe??a? d?????s??.—Malchus ap. Photium in Corp. Hist. Byzant.

[30] Not king of Italy, as is often said. The barbarian kings did not for several centuries employ territorial titles; the title 'king of France,' for instance, was first used by Henry IV. Jornandes tells us that Odoacer never so much as assumed the insignia of royalty.

[31] Sismondi, Histoire de la Chute de l'Empire Occidentale.

[32] 'Nil deest nobis imperio vestro famulantibus.'—Theodoric to Zeno: Jornandes, De Rebus Geticis, cap. 57.

[33] 'Unde et pÆne omnibus barbaris Gothi sapientiores exstiterunt GrÆcisque pÆne consimiles.'—Jorn. cap. 5.

[34] Theodoric (Thiodorich) seems to have resided usually at Ravenna, where he died and was buried; a remarkable building which tradition points out as his tomb stands a little way out of the town, near the railway station, but the porphyry sarcophagus, in which his body is supposed to have lain, has been removed thence, and may be seen built up into the wall of the building called his palace, situated close to the church of Sant' Apollinare, and not far from the tomb of Dante. There does not appear to be any sufficient authority for attributing this building to Ostrogothic times; it is very different from the representation of Theodoric's palace which we have in the contemporary mosaics of Sant' Apollinare in urbe.

In the German legends, however, Theodoric is always the prince of Verona (Dietrich von Berne), no doubt because that city was better known to the Teutonic nations, and because it was thither that he moved his court when transalpine affairs required his attention. His castle there stood in the old town on the left bank of the Adige, on the height now occupied by the citadel; it is doubtful whether any traces of it remain, for the old foundations which we now see may have belonged to the fortress erected by Gian Galeazzo Visconti in the fourteenth century.

[35] 'Igitur Chlodovechus ab imperatore Anastasio codicillos de consulatu accepit, et in basilica beati Martini tunica blatea indutus est et chlamyde, imponens vertici diadema ... et ab ea die tanquam consul aut (=et) Augustus est vocitatus.'—Gregory of Tours, ii. 58.

[36] Sir F. Palgrave (English Commonwealth) considers this grant as equivalent to a formal ratification of Clovis' rule in Gaul. Hallam rates its importance lower (Middle Ages, note iii. to chap. i.). Taken in connection with the grant of south-eastern Gaul to Theodebert by Justinian, it may fairly be held to shew that the influence of the Empire was still felt in these distant provinces.

[37] Even so early as the middle of the fifth century, S. Leo the Great could say to the Roman people, 'Isti (sc. Petrus et Paulus) sunt qui te ad hanc gloriam provexerunt ut gens sancta, populus electus, civitas sacerdotalis et regia, per sacram B. Petri sedem caput orbis effecta latius prÆsideres religione divina quam dominatione terrena.'—Sermon on the feast of SS. Peter and Paul. (Opp. ap. Migne tom. i. p. 336.)

[38] 'Ius Romanum est adhuc in viridi observantia et eo iure prÆsumitur quilibet vivere nisi adversum probetur.'—Maranta, quoted by Marquard Freher.

[39] 'Denique gens Francorum multos et foecundissimos fructus Domino attulit, non solum credendo, sed et alios salutifere convertendo,' says the emperor Lewis II in A.D. 871.

[40] Martin, as in earlier times Sylverius.

[41] A singular account of the origin of the separation of the Greeks and Latins occurs in the treatise of Radulfus de Columna (Ralph Colonna, or, as some think, de Coloumelle), De translatione Imperii Romani (circ. 1300). 'The tyranny of Heraclius,' says he, 'provoked a revolt of the Eastern nations. They could not be reduced, because the Greeks at the same time began to disobey the Roman Pontiff, receding, like Jeroboam, from the true faith. Others among these schismatics (apparently with the view of strengthening their political revolt) carried their heresy further and founded Mohammedanism.' Similarly, the Franciscan Marsilius of Padua (circa 1324) says that Mohammed, 'a rich Persian,' invented his religion to keep the East from returning to allegiance to Rome. It is worth remarking that few, if any, of the earlier historians (from the tenth to the fifteenth century) refer to the Emperors of the West from Constantine to Augustulus: the very existence of this Western line seems to have been even in the eighth or ninth century altogether forgotten.

[42] Anastasius, VitÆ Pontificum Romanorum i. ap. Muratori.

[43] Letter in Codex Carolinus, in Muratori's Scriptores Rerum Italicarum, vol. iii. (part 2nd), addressed 'Subregulo Carolo.'

[44] Letter in Cod. Carol. (Mur. R. S. I. iii. [2.] p. 96), a strange mixture of earnest adjurations, dexterous appeals to Frankish pride, and long scriptural quotations: 'Declaratum quippe est quod super omnes gentes vestra Francorum gens prona mihi Apostolo Dei Petro exstitit, et ideo ecclesiam quam mihi Dominus tradidit vobis per manus Vicarii mei commendavi.'

[45] The exact date when Pipin received the title cannot be made out. Pope Stephen's next letter (p. 96 of Mur. iii.) is addressed 'Pipino, Carolo et Carolomanno patriciis.' And so the Chronicon Casinense (Mur. iv. 273) says it was first given to Pipin. Gibbon can hardly be right in attributing it to Charles Martel, although one or two documents may be quoted in which it is used of him. As one of these is a letter of Pope Gregory II's, the explanation may be that the title was offered or intended to be offered to him, although never accepted by him.

[46] The title of Patrician appears even in the remote West: it stands in a charter of Ina the West Saxon king, and in one given by Richard of Normandy in A.D. 1015. Ducange, s.v.

[47] After the translatio ad Francos of A.D. 800, the two Empires corresponded exactly to the two Khalifates of Bagdad and Cordova.

[48]

'Plaudentem cerne senatum

Et Byzantinos proceres, Graiosque Quirites.'

In Eutrop. ii. 135.

[49] Several Emperors during this period had been patrons of images, as was Irene at the moment of which I write: the stain nevertheless adhered to their government as a whole.

[50] I should not have thought it necessary to explain that the sentence in the text is meant simply to state what were (so far as can be made out) the sentiments and notions of the ninth century, if a writer in the Tablet (reviewing a former edition) had not understood it as an expression of the author's own belief.

To a modern eye there is of course no necessary connection between the Roman Empire and a catholic and apostolic Church; in fact, the two things seem rather, such has been the impression made on us by the long struggle of church and state, in their nature mutually antagonistic. The interest of history lies not least in this, that it shews us how men have at different times entertained wholly different notions respecting the relation to one another of the same ideas or the same institutions.

[51] Monachus Sangallensis, De Gestis Karoli; in Pertz, Monumenta GermaniÆ Historica.

[52] Monachus Sangallensis; ut supra. So Pope Gregory the Great two centuries earlier: 'Quanto cÆteros homines regia dignitas antecedit, tanto cÆterarum gentium regna regni Francorum culmen excellit.' Ep. v. 6.

[53] Alciatus, De Formula imperii Romani.

[54] Or rather, according to the then prevailing practice of beginning the year from Christmas-day, A.D. 801.

[55] An elaborate description of old St. Peter's may be found in Bunsen's and Platner's Beschreibung der Stadt Rom; with which compare Bunsen's work on the Basilicas of Rome.

[56] The primitive custom was for the bishop to sit in the centre of the apse, at the central point of the east end of the church (or, as it would be more correct to say, the end furthest from the door) just as the judge had done in those law courts on the model of which the first basilicas were constructed. This arrangement may still be seen in some of the churches of Rome, as well as elsewhere in Italy; nowhere better than in the churches of Ravenna, particularly the beautiful one of Sant' Apollinare in Classe, and in the cathedral of Torcello, near Venice.

[57] On this chair were represented the labours of Hercules and the signs of the zodiac. It is believed at Rome to be the veritable chair of the Apostle himself, and whatever may be thought of such an antiquity as this, it can be satisfactorily traced back to the third or fourth century of Christianity. (The story that it is inscribed with verses from the Koran is, I believe, without foundation.) It is now enclosed in a gorgeous casing of gilded wood (some say, of bronze), and placed aloft at the extremity of St. Peter's, just over the spot where a bishop's chair would in the old arrangement of the basilica have stood. The sarcophagus in which Charles himself lay, till the French scattered his bones abroad, had carved on it the rape of Proserpine. It may still be seen in the gallery of the basilica at Aachen.

[58] Eginhard, Vita Karoli.

[59] The coronation scene is described in all the annals of the time, to which it is therefore needless to refer more particularly.

[60] Before the end of the tenth century we find the monk Benedict of Soracte ascribing to Charles an expedition to Palestine, and other marvellous exploits. The romance which passes under the name of Archbishop Turpin is well known. All the best stories about Charles—and some of them are very good—may be found in the book of the Monk of St. Gall. Many refer to his dealings with the bishops, towards whom he is described as acting like a good-humoured schoolmaster.

[61] Baronius, Ann., ad ann. 800; Bellarminus, De translatione imperii Romani adversus Illyricum; Spanhemius, De ficta translatione imperii; Conringius, De imperio Romano Germanico.

[62] See especially Greenwood, Cathedra Petri, vol. iii. p. 109.

[63] Ann. Lauresb. ap. Pertz, M.G.H. i.

[64] Apud Pertz, M.G.H. i.

[65] VitÆ Pontif. in Mur. S.R.I. Anastasius in reporting the shout of the people omits the word 'Romanorum,' which the other annalists insert after 'imperatori.' The balance of probability is certainly in his favour.

[66] Lorentz, Leben Alcuins. And cf. DÖllinger, Das Kaiserthum Karls des Grossen und seiner Nachfolger.

[67] See a very learned and interesting tract entitled Das Kaiserthum Karls des Grossen und seiner Nachfolger, recently published by Dr. v. DÖllinger of Munich.

[68] ?p????s?????? pa?? ?a??????? ?a? ????t?? a?t??e??? ?e?????a? a?t?? t? ?a?????? p??? ???? ?a? ???sa? t? ??? ?a? t? ?spe??a.—Theoph. Chron. in Corp. Scriptt. Hist. Byz.

[69] Their ambassadors at last saluted him by the desired title 'Laudes ei dixerunt imperatorem eum et basileum appellantes.' Eginh. Ann., ad ann. 812.

[70] Harun er Rashid; Eginh. Vita Karoli, c. 16.

[71] So Pope John VIII in a document quoted by Waitz, Deutsche Verfassungs-geschichte, iii.

[72] Pertz, M.G.H. iii. (legg. I.)

[73] PÜtter, Historical Development of the German Constitution; so too Conring, and esp. David Blondel, Adv. Chiffletium.

[74] 'GrÆcia capta ferum victorem cepit,' is repeated in this conquest of the Teuton by the Roman.

[75] The notion that once prevailed that the IrminsÛl was the 'pillar of Hermann,' set up on the spot of the defeat of Varus, is now generally discredited. Some German antiquaries take the pillar to be a rude figure of the native god Irmin; but nothing seems to be known of this alleged deity: and it is more probable that the name Irmin is after all merely an altered form of the Keltic word which appears in Welsh as Hir Vaen, the long stone (Maen, a stone). Thus the pillar, so far from being the monument of the great Teutonic victory, would commemorate a pre-Teutonic race, whose name for it the invading tribes adopted. The Rev. Dr. Scott, of Westminster, to whose kindness I am indebted for this explanation, informs me that a rude ditty recording the destruction of the pillar by Charles was current on the spot a few years ago. It ran thus:—

'Irmin slad Irmin

Sla Pfeifen sla Trommen

Der Kaiser wird kommen

Mit Hammer und Stangen

Wird Irmin uphangen.'

[76] Eginhard, Ann.

[77] Most probably the Scots of Ireland—Eginhard, Vita Karoli, cap. 16.

[78] Eginhard, Vita Karoli, cap. 23.

[79] Aix-la-Chapelle. See the lines in Pertz (M.G.H. ii.), beginning,—

'Urbs Aquensis, urbs regalis,

Sedes regni principalis,

Prima regum curia.'

This city is commonly called Aken in English books of the seventeenth century, and probably that ought to be taken as its proper English name. That name has, however, fallen so entirely into disuse that I do not venture to use it; and as the employment of the French name Aix-la-Chapelle seems inevitably to produce the belief that the place is and was, even in Charles's time, a French town, there is nothing for it but to fall back upon the comparatively unfamiliar German name.

[80] Engilenheim, or Ingelheim, lies near the left shore of the Rhine between Mentz and Bingen.

[81] Eginhard, Vita Karoli, cap. 29.

[82] Eginhard, Vita Karoli, cap. 17.

[83] It is not a little curious that of the three whom the modern French have taken to be their national heroes all should have been foreigners, and two foreign conquerors.

[84] This basilica was built upon the model of the church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, and as it was the first church of any size that had been erected in those regions for centuries past, it excited extraordinary interest among the Franks and Gauls. In many of its features it greatly resembles the beautiful church of San Vitale, at Ravenna (also modelled upon that of the Holy Sepulchre) which was begun by Theodoric, and completed under Justinian. Probably San Vitale was used as a pattern by Charles's architects: we know that he caused marble columns to be brought from Ravenna to deck the church at Aachen. Over the tomb of Charles, below the central dome (to which the Gothic choir we now see was added some centuries later), there hangs a huge chandelier, the gift of Frederick Barbarossa.

[85] 'Romuleum Francis prÆstitit imperium.'—Elegy of Ermoldus Nigellus, in Pertz; M.G.H., t. i. So too Florus the Deacon,—

'Huic etenim cessit etiam gens Romula genti,

Regnorumque simul mater Roma inclyta cessit:

Huius ibi princeps regni diademata sumpsit

Munere apostolico, Christi munimine fretus.'

[86] Usage has established this translation of 'Hludowicus Pius,' but 'gentle' or 'kind-hearted' would better express the meaning of the epithet.

[87] Von Ranke discovers in this early traces of the aversion of the Germans to the pretensions of the spiritual power.—History of Germany during the Reformation: Introduction.

[88] Singularly enough, when one thinks of modern claims, the dynasty of France (Francia occidentalis) had the least share of it. Charles the Bald was the only West Frankish Emperor, and reigned a very short time.

[89] Tac. Hist. i. 4.

[90] For an account of the various applications of the name Burgundy, see Appendix, Note A.

[91] The accession of Boso took place in A.D. 877, eleven years before Charles the Fat's death. But the new kingdom could not be considered legally settled until the latter date, and its establishment is at any rate a part of that general break-up of the great Carolingian empire whereof A.D. 888 marks the crisis. See Appendix A at the end.

It is a curious mark of the reverence paid to the Carolingian blood, that Boso, a powerful and ambitious prince, seems to have chiefly rested his claims on the fact that he was husband of Irmingard, daughter of the Emperor Lewis II. Baron de Gingins la Sarraz quotes a charter of his (drawn up when he seems to have doubted whether to call himself king) which begins, 'Ego Boso Dei gratia id quod sum, et coniux mea Irmingardis proles imperialis.'

[92] Lewis had been surprised by Berengar at Verona, blinded, and forced to take refuge in his own kingdom of Provence.

[93] Alberic is called variously senator, consul, patrician, and prince of the Romans.

[94] Adelheid was daughter of Rudolf, king of Trans-Jurane Burgundy. She was at this time in her nineteenth year.

[95] Chron. Moiss., in Pertz; M.G.H. i. 305.

[96] See especially the poem of Florus the Deacon (printed in the Benedictine collection and in Migne), a bitter lament over the dissolution of the Carolingian Empire. It is too long for quotation. I give four lines here:—

'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.'

[97] Witukind, Annales, in Pertz. It may, however, be doubted whether the annalist is not here giving a very free rendering of the triumphant cries of the German army.

[98] Cf. esp. the 'Libellus de imperatoria potestate in urbe Roma,' in Pertz.

[99] 'Licet videamus Romanorum regnum in maxima parte jam 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).

[100] From the money which Otto struck in Italy, it seems probable that he did occasionally use the title of king of Italy or of the Lombards. That he was crowned can hardly be considered quite certain.

[101] 'A papa imperator ordinatur,' says Hermannus Contractus. 'Dominum Ottonem, ad hoc usque vocatum regem, non solum Romano sed et poene totius EuropÆ 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 RomanÆ effectus est ecclesiÆ.'—Thietmar. 'Acclamatione totius Romani populi ab apostolico Iohanne, filio Alberici, imperator et Augustus vocatur et ordinatur.'—Continuator Reginonis. And similarly the other annalists.

[102] I do not mean to say that the system of ideas which it is endeavoured to set forth in the following pages was complete in this particular form, either in the days of Charles or in those of Otto, or in those of Frederick Barbarossa. It seems to have been constantly growing and decaying from the fourth century to the sixteenth, the relative prominence of its cardinal doctrines varying from age to age. But, just as the painter who sees the ever-shifting lights and shades play over the face of a wide landscape faster than his brush can place them on the canvas, in despair at representing their exact position at any single moment, contents himself with painting the effects that are broadest and most permanent, and at giving rather the impression which the scene makes on him than every detail of the scene itself, so here, the best and indeed the only practicable course seems to be that of setting forth in its most self-consistent form the body of ideas and beliefs on which the Empire rested, although this form may not be exactly that which they can be asserted to have worn in any one century, and although the illustrations adduced may have to be taken sometimes from earlier, sometimes from later writers. As the doctrine of the Empire was in its essence the same during the whole Middle Age, such a general description as is attempted here may, I venture to hope, be found substantially true for the tenth as well as for the fourteenth century.

[103] Empires like the Persian did nothing to assimilate the subject races, who retained their own laws and customs, sometimes their own princes, and were bound only to serve in the armies and fill the treasury of the Great King.

[104] Od. iii. 72:—

Cf. Od. ix. 39: and the Hymn to the Pythian Apollo, I. 274. So in II. v. 214, ????t???? f??.

[105] Plato, in the beginning of the Laws, represents it as natural between all states: p??e?? f?se? ?p???e? p??? ?p?sa? t?? p??e??.

[106] See especially Acts xvii. 26; Gal. iii. 28; Eph. ii. 11, sqq.; iv. 3-6; Col. iii. 11.

[107] This is drawn out by Laurent, Histoire du Droit des Gens; and Ægidi, Der FÜrstenrath nach dem Luneviller Frieden.

[108] 'Romanos enim vocitant homines nostrÆ religionis.'—Gregory of Tours, quoted by Ægidi, from A. F. Pott, Essay on the Words 'RÖmisch,' 'Romanisch,' 'Roman,' 'Romantisch.' So in the Middle Ages, ??a??? is used to mean Christians, as opposed to ?????e?, heathens.

Cf. Ducange, 'Romani olim dicti qui alias Christiani vel etiam Catholici.'

[109] As a reviewer in the Tablet (whose courtesy it is the more pleasant to acknowledge since his point of view is altogether opposed to mine) has understood this passage as meaning that 'people imagined the Christian religion was to last for ever because the Holy Roman Empire was never to decay,' it may be worth while to say that this is far from being the purport of the argument which this chapter was designed to state. The converse would be nearer the truth:—'people imagined the Holy Roman Empire was never to decay, because the Christian religion was to last for ever.'

The phenomen may perhaps be stated thus:—Men who were already disposed to believe the Roman Empire to be eternal for one set of reasons, came to believe the Christian Church to be eternal for another and, to them, more impressive set of reasons. Seeing the two institutions allied in fact, they took their alliance and connection to be eternal also; and went on for centuries believing in the necessary existence of the Roman Empire because they believed in its necessary union with the Catholic Church.

[110] Augustine, in the De Civitate Dei. His influence, great through all the Middle Ages, was greater on no one than on Charles.—'Delectabatur et libris sancti Augustini, prÆcipueque his qui De Civitate Dei prÆtitulati sunt.'—Eginhard, Vita Karoli, cap. 24.

[111] 'Quapropter universorum precibus fidelium optandum est, ut in omnem gloriam vestram extendatur imperium, ut scilicet catholica fides... veraciter in una confessione cunctorum cordibus infigatur, quatenus summi Regis donante pietate eadem sanctÆ pacis et perfectÆ caritatis omnes ubique regat et custodiat unitas.' Quoted by Waitz (Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte, ii. 182) from an unprinted letter of Alcuin.

[112] A curious illustration of this tendency of mind is afforded by the descriptions we meet with of Learning or Theology (Studium) as a concrete existence, having a visible dwelling in the University of Paris. The three great powers which rule human life, says one writer, the Popedom, the Empire, and Learning, have been severally entrusted to the three foremost nations of Europe: Italians, Germans, French. 'His siquidem tribus, scilicet sacerdotio imperio et studio, tanquam tribus virtutibus, videlicet naturali vitali et scientiali, catholica ecclesia spiritualiter mirificatur, augmentatur et regitur. His itaque tribus, tanquam fundamento, pariete et tecto, eadem ecclesia tanquam materialiter proficit. Et sicut ecclesia materialis uno tantum fundamento et uno tecto eget, parietibus vero quatuor, ita imperium quatuor habet parietes, hoc est, quatuor imperii sedes, Aquisgranum, Arelatum, Mediolanum, Romam.'—Jordanis Chronica; ap. Schardius Sylloge Tractatuum. And see DÖllinger, Die Vergangenheit und Gegenwart der katholischen Theologie, p. 8.

[113] 'Una est sola respublica totius populi Christiani, ergo de necessitate erit et unus solus princeps et rex illius reipublicÆ, statutus et stabilitus ad ipsius fidei et populi Christiani dilatationem et defensionem. Ex qua ratione concludit etiam Augustinus (De Civitate Dei, lib. xix.) quod extra ecclesiam nunquam fuit nec potuit nec poterit esse verum imperium, etsi fuerint imperatores qualitercumque et secundum quid, non simpliciter, qui fuerunt extra fidem Catholicam et ecclesiam.'—Engelbert (abbot of Admont in Upper Austria), De Ortu et Fine imperii Romani (circ. 1310).

In this 'de necessitate' everything is included.

[114] See note f, p. 32.

[115] This is admirably brought out by Ægidi, Der FÜrstenrath nach dem Luneviller Frieden.

[116] See the original forgery (or rather the extracts which Gratian gives from it) in the Corpus Iuris Canonici, Dist. xcvi. cc. 13, 14. 'Et sicut nostram terrenam imperialem potentiam, sic sacrosanctam Romanam ecclesiam decrevimus veneranter honorari, et amplius quam nostrum imperium et terrenum thronum sedem beati Petri gloriose exaltari, tribuentes ei potestatem et gloriÆ dignitatem atque vigorem et honorificentiam imperialem.... Beato Sylvestro patri nostro summo pontifici et universali urbis RomÆ papÆ, et omnibus eius successoribus pontificibus, qui usque in finem mundi in sede beati Petri erunt sessuri, de prÆsenti contradimus palatium imperii nostri Lateranense, deinde diadema, videlicet coronam capitis nostri, simulque phrygium, necnon et superhumerale, verum etiam et chlamydem purpuream et tunicam coccineam, et omnia imperialia indumenta, sed et dignitatem imperialem prÆsidentium equitum, conferentes etiam et imperialia sceptra, simulque cuncta signa atque banda et diversa ornamenta imperialia et omnem processionem imperialis culminis et gloriam potestatis nostrÆ.... Et sicut imperialis militia ornatur ita et clerum sanctÆ RomanÆ ecclesiÆ ornari decernimus.... Unde ut pontificalis apex non vilescat sed magis quam terreni imperii dignitas gloria et potentia decoretur, ecce tam palatium nostrum quam Romanam urbem et omnes ItaliÆ seu occidentalium regionum provincias loca et civitates beatissimo papÆ Sylvestro universali papÆ contradimus atque relinquimus.... Ubi enim principatus sacerdotum et ChristianÆ religionis caput ab imperatore coelesti constitutum est, iustum non est ut illic imperator terrenus habeat potestatem.'

The practice of kissing the Pope's foot was adopted in imitation of the old imperial court. It was afterwards revived by the German Emperors.

[117] DÖllinger has shewn in a recent work (Die Papst-Fabeln des Mittelalters) that the common belief that Gregory II excited the revolt against Leo the Iconoclast is unfounded.

So Anastasius, 'Ammonebat (sc. Gregorius Secundus) ne a fide vel amore Romani imperii desisterent.'—VitÆ Pontif. Rom.

[118] Of this curious seal, a leaden one, preserved at Paris, a figure is given upon the cover of this volume. There are very few monuments of that age whose genuineness can be considered altogether beyond doubt; but this seal has many respectable authorities in its favour. See, among others, Le Blanc, Dissertation historique sur quelques Monnoies de Charlemagne, Paris, 1689; J. M. Heineccius, De Veteribus Germanorum aliarumque nationum sigillis, Lips. 1709; Anastasius, VitÆ Pontificum Romanorum, ed. Vignoli, RomÆ, 1752; GÖtz, Deutschlands Kayser-MÜnzen des Mittelalters, Dresden, 1827; and the authorities cited by Waitz, Deutsche Verfassungs-geschichte, iii. 179, n. 4.

[119] 'PrÆterea mirari se dilecta fraternitas tua quod non Francorum set Romanorum imperatores nos appellemus; set scire te convenit quia nisi Romanorum imperatores essemus, utique nec Francorum. A Romanis enim hoc nomen et dignitatem assumpsimus, apud quos profecto primum tantÆ culmen sublimitatis effulsit,' &c—Letter of the Emperor Lewis II to Basil the Emperor at Constantinople, from Chron. Salernit. ap. Murat. S.R.I.

[120] 'Illam (sc. Romanam ecclesiam) solus ille fundavit, et super petram fidei mox nascentis erexit, qui beato ÆternÆ vitÆ clavigero terreni simul et coelestis imperii iura commisit.'—Corpus Iuris Canonici, Dist. xxii. c. 1. The expression is not uncommon in mediÆval writers. So 'unum est imperium Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti, cuius est pars ecclesia constituta in terris,' in Lewis II's letter.

[121] 'Merito summus Pontifex Romanus episcopus dici potest rex et sacerdos. Si enim dominus noster Iesus Christus sic appellatur, non videtur incongruum suum vocare successorem. Corporale et temporale ex spirituali et perpetuo dependet, sicut corporis operatio ex virtute animÆ. Sicut ergo corpus per animam habet esse virtutem et operationem, ita et temporalis iurisdictio principum per spiritualem Petri et successorum eius.'—St. Thomas Aquinas, De Regimine Principum.

[122] 'Nonne Romana ecclesia tenetur imperatori tanquam suo patrono, et imperator ecclesiam fovere et defensare tanquam suus vere patronus? certe sic.... Patronis vero concessum est ut prÆlatos in ecclesiis sui patronatus eligant. Cum ergo imperator onus sentiat patronatus, ut qui tenetur eam defendere, sentire debet honorem et emolumentum.' I quote this from a curious document in Goldast's collection of tracts (Monarchia Imperii), entitled 'Letter of the four Universities, Paris, Oxford, Prague, and the "Romana generalitas," to the Emperor Wenzel and Pope Urban,' A.D. 1380. The title can scarcely be right, but if the document is, as in all probability it is, not later than the fifteenth century, its being misdescribed, or even its being a forgery, does not make it less valuable as an evidence of men's ideas.

[123] So Leo III in a charter issued on the day of Charles's coronation: '... actum in prÆsentia gloriosi atque excellentissimi filii nostri Caroli quem auctore Deo in defensionem et provectionem sanctÆ universalis ecclesiÆ hodie Augustum sacravimus.'—JaffÉ Regesta Pontificum Romanorum, ad ann. 800.

So, indeed, Theodulf of Orleans, a contemporary of Charles, ascribes to the Emperor an almost papal authority over the Church itself:—

[124] Perhaps at no more than three: in the time of Charles and Leo; again under Otto III and his two Popes, Gregory V and Sylvester II; thirdly, under Henry III; certainly never thenceforth.

[125] The Sachsenspiegel (Speculum Saxonicum, circ. A.D. 1240), the great North-German law book, says, 'The Empire is held from God alone, not from the Pope. Emperor and Pope are supreme each in what has been entrusted to him: the Pope in what concerns the soul; the Emperor in all that belongs to the body and to knighthood.' The Schwabenspiegel, compiled half a century later, subordinates the prince to the pontiff: 'Daz weltliche Schwert des Gerichtes daz lihet der Babest dem Chaiser; daz geistlich ist dem Babest gesetzt daz er damit richte.'

[126] So Boniface VIII in the bull Unam Sanctam, will have but one head for the Christian people. 'Igitur ecclesiÆ unius et unicÆ unum corpus, unum caput, non duo capita quasi monstrum.'

[127] St. Bernard writes to Conrad III: 'Non veniat anima mea in consilium eorum qui dicunt vel imperio pacem et libertatem ecclesiÆ vel ecclesiÆ prosperitatem et exaltationem imperii nocituram.' So in the De Consideratione: 'Si utrumque simul habere velis, perdes utrumque,' of the papal claim to temporal and spiritual authority, quoted by Gieseler.

[128] 'Sedens in solio armatus et cinctus ensem, habensque in capite Constantini diadema, stricto dextra capulo ensis accincti, ait: "Numquid ego summus sum pontifex? nonne ista est cathedra Petri? Nonne possum imperii iura tutari? ego sum CÆsar, ego sum imperator."'—Fr. Pipinus (ap. Murat. S.R.I. ix.) l. iv. c. 47. These words, however, are by this writer ascribed to Boniface, when receiving the envoys of the emperor Albert I, in A.D. 1299. I have not been able to find authority for their use at the jubilee, but give the current story for what it is worth.

It has been suggested that Dante may be alluding to this sword scene in a well-known passage of the Purgatorio (xvi. l. 106):—

[129] See especially Peter de Andlo (De Imperio Romano); Ralph Colonna (De translatione Imperii Romani); Dante (De Monarchia); Engelbert (De Ortu et Fine Imperii Romani); Marsilius Patavinus (De translatione Imperii Romani); Æneas Sylvius Piccolomini (De Ortu et Authoritate Imperii Romani); Zoannetus (De Imperio Romano atque ejus Iurisdictione); and the writers in Schardius's Sylloge, and in Goldast's Collection of Tracts, entitled Monarchia Imperii.

[130] Letter of Lewis II to Basil the Macedonian, in Chron. Salernit. in Mur. S.R.I.; also given by Baronius, Ann. Eccl. ad ann. 871.

[131] 'Ad summum dignitatis pervenisti: Vicarius es Christi.'—Wippo, Vita Chuonradi (ap. Pertz), c. 3.

[132] Letter in Radewic, ap. Murat, S.R.I.

[133] Lewis IV is styled in one of his proclamations, 'Gentis humanÆ, orbis Christiani custos, urbi et orbi a Deo electus prÆesse.'—Pfeffinger, Vitriarius Illustratus.

[134] In a document issued by the Diet of Speyer (A.D. 1529) the Emperor is called 'Oberst, Vogt, und Haupt der Christenheit.' Hieronymus Balbus, writing about the same time, puts the question whether all Christians are subject to the Emperor in temporal things, as they are to the Pope in spiritual, and answers it by saying, 'Cum ambo ex eodem fonte perfluxerint et eadem semita incedant, de utroque idem puto sentiendum.'

[135] 'Non magis ad Papam depositio seu remotio pertinet quam ad quoslibet regum prÆlatos, qui reges suos prout assolent, consecrant et inungunt.'—Letter of Frederick II (lib. i. c. 3).

[136] Liber Ceremonialis Romanus, lib. i. sect. 5; with which compare the Coronatio Romana of Henry VII, in Pertz, and Muratori's Dissertation in vol. i. of the Antiquitates ItaliÆ Medii Ævi.

[137] See Goldast, Collection of Imperial Constitutions; and Moser, RÖmische Kayser.

[138] The abbot Engelbert (De Ortu et Fine Imperii Romani) quotes Origen and Jerome to this effect, and proceeds himself to explain, from 2 Thess. ii., how the falling away will precede the coming of Antichrist. There will be a triple 'discessio,' of the kingdoms of the earth from the Roman Empire, of the Church from the Apostolic See, of the faithful from the faith. Of these, the first causes the second; the temporal sword to punish heretics and schismatics being no longer ready to work the will of the rulers of the Church.

[139] A full statement of the views that prevailed in the earlier Middle Age regarding Antichrist—as well as of the singular prophecy of the Frankish Emperor who shall appear in the latter days, conquer the world, and then going to Jerusalem shall lay down his crown on the Mount of Olives and deliver over the kingdom to Christ—may be found in the little treatise, Vita Antichristi, which Adso, monk and afterwards abbot of Moutier-en-Der, compiled (cir. 950) for the information of Queen Gerberga, wife of Louis d'Outremer. Antichrist is to be born a Jew of the tribe of Dan (Gen. xlix. 17), 'non de episcopo et monacha, sicut alii delirando dogmatizant, sed de immundissima meretrice et crudelissimo nebulone. Totus in peccato concipietur, in peccato generabitur, in peccato nascetur.' His birthplace is Babylon: he is to be brought up in Bethsaida and Chorazin.

Adso's book may be found printed in Migne, t. ci. p. 1290.

[140] S. Thomas explains the prophecy in a remarkable manner, shewing how the decline of the Empire is no argument against its fulfilment. 'Dicendum quod nondum cessavit, sed est commutatum de temporali in spirituale, ut dicit Leo Papa in sermone de Apostolis: et ideo discessio a Romano imperio debet intelligi non solum a temporali sed etiam a spirituali, scilicit a fide Catholica RomanÆ EcclesiÆ. Est autem hoc conveniens signum nam Christus venit, quando Romanum imperium omnibus dominabatur: ita e contra signum adventus Antichristi est discessio ab eo.'—Comment. ad 2 Thess. ii.

[141] See note z, page 119. The Papal party sometimes insisted that both swords were given to Peter, while the imperialists assigned the temporal sword to John. Thus a gloss to the Sachsenspiegel says, 'Dat eine svert hadde Sinte Peter, dat het nu de paves: dat andere hadde Johannes, dat het nu de keyser.'

[142] 2 Thess. ii. 7.

[143] St. Augustine, however, though he states the view (applying the passage to the Roman Empire) which was generally received in the Middle Ages, is careful not to commit himself positively to it.

[144] Jordanis Chronica (written towards the close of the thirteenth century).

[145] Compare with this the words which Pope Hadrian I. had used some twenty-three years before, of Charles as representative of Constantine: 'Et sicut temporibus Beati Sylvestri, Romani pontificis, a sanctÆ recordationis piissimo Constantino magno imperatore, per eius largitatem sancta Dei catholica et apostolica Romana ecclesia elevata atque exaltata est, et potestatem in his HesperiÆ partibus largiri dignatus est, ita et in his vestris felicissimis temporibus atque nostris, sancta Dei ecclesia, id est, beati Petri apostoli germinet atque exsultet, ut omnes gentes quÆ hÆc audierint edicere valeant, 'Domine salvum fac regem, et exaudi nos in die in qua invocaverimus te;' quia ecce novus Christianissimus Dei Constantinus imperator his temporibus surrexit, per quem omnia Deus sanctÆ suÆ ecclesiÆ beati apostolorum principis Petri largiri dignatus est.'—Letter XLIX of Cod. Carol., A.D. 777 (in Mur. Scriptores Rerum Italicarum).

This letter is memorable as containing the first allusion, or what seems an allusion, to Constantine's Donation.

The phrase 'sancta Dei ecclesia, id est, B. Petri apostoli,' is worth noting.

[146] The church in which the opening scene of Boccaccio's Decameron is laid.

[147] So Kugler (Eastlake's ed. vol. i. p. 144), and so also Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, in their New History of Painting in Italy, vol. ii. pp. 85 sqq.

[148] Domini canes. Spotted because of their black-and-white raiment.

[149] There is of course a great deal more detail in the picture, which it does not appear necessary to describe. St. Dominic is a conspicuous figure.

It is worth remarking that the Emperor, who is on the Pope's left hand, and so made slightly inferior to him while superior to every one else, holds in his hand, instead of the usual imperial globe, a death's head, typifying the transitory nature of his power.

[150] Although this was of course never his legal title. Till 1806 he was 'Romanorum Imperator semper Augustus;' 'RÖmischer Kaiser.'

[151] PÜtter, Dissertationes de Instauratione Imperii Romani; cf. Goldast's Collection of Constitutions; and the proclamations and other documents collected in Pertz, M.G.H. legg. I.

[152] PÜtter (De Instauratione Imperii Romani) will have it that upon this mistake, as he calls it, of Otto's, the whole subsequent history of the Empire turned; that if Otto had but continued to style himself 'Francorum Rex,' Germany would have been spared all her Italian wars.

[153] 'Iohannes episcopus, servus servorum Dei, omnibus episcopis. Nos audivimus dicere quia vos vultis alium papam facere: si hoc facitis, da Deum omnipotentem excommunico vos, ut non habeatis licentiam missam celebrare aut nullum ordinare.'—Liudprand, ut supra. The 'da' is curious, as shewing the progress of the change from Latin to Italian. The answer sent by Otto and the council takes exception to the double negative.

[154] 'Cives fidelitatem promittunt hÆc addentes et firmiter iurantes nunquam se papam electuros aut ordinaturos prÆter consensum atque electionem domini imperatoris Ottonis CÆsaris Augusti filiique ipsius Ottonis.'—Liudprand, Gesta Ottonis, lib. vi.

[155] 'In timporibus adeo a dyabulo est percussus ut infra dierum octo spacium eodem sit in vulnere mortuus,' says the chronicler, crediting with but little of his wonted cleverness the supposed author of John's death, who well might have desired a long life for so useful a servant.

He adds a detail too characteristic of the time to be omitted—'Sed eucharistiÆ viaticum, ipsius instinctu qui eum percusserat, non percepit.'

[156] Corpus Iuris Canonici, Dist. lxiii., 'In synodo.' A decree which is probably substantially genuine, although the form in which we have it is evidently of later date.

[157] Cf. St. Peter Damiani's lines—

[158] There was a separate chancellor for Italy, as afterwards for the kingdom of Burgundy.

[159] Liudprand, Legatio Constantinopolitana.

[160] 'Sancti imperii nostri olim servos principes, Beneventanum scilicet, tradat,' &c. The epithet is worth noticing.

[161] Liudprand calls the Eastern Franks 'Franci Teutonici' to distinguish them from the Romanized Franks of Gaul or 'FrancigenÆ,' as they were frequently called. The name 'Frank' seems even so early as the tenth century to have been used in the East as a general name for the Western peoples of Europe. Liudprand says that the Greek Emperor included 'sub Francorum nomine tam Latinos quam Teutonicos.' Probably this use dates from the time of Charles.

[162] Conring, De Finibus Imperii.

[163] Basileus was a favourite title of the English kings before the Conquest. Titles like this used in these early English charters prove, it need hardly be said, absolutely nothing as to the real existence of any rights or powers of the English king beyond his own borders. What they do prove (over and above the taste for florid rhetoric in the royal clerks) is the impression produced by the imperial style, and by the idea of the emperor's throne as supported by the thrones of kings and other lesser potentates.

[164] The coins of Crescentius are said to exhibit the insignia of the old Empire.—Palgrave, Normandy and England, i. 715. But probably some at least of them are forgeries.

[165] Proclamation in Pertz, M.G.H. ii.

[166] 'Imperator antiquam Romanorum consuetudinem iam ex magna parte deletam suis cupiens renovare temporibus multa faciebat quÆ diversi diverse sentiebant.'—Thietmar, Chron. ix.; ap. Pertz, M.G.H. t. iii.

[167] Annales Quedlinb., ad ann. 1002.

[168] Henry had already entered Italy in 1004.

[169] Annales Beneventani, in Pertz, M.G.H.

[170] See Appendix, Note A.

[171] 'Roma per sedem Beati Petri caput orbis effecta.'—See note i, p. 32.

[172] 'Claves tibi ad regnum dimisimus.'—Pope Stephen to Charles Martel, in Codex Carolinus, ap. Muratori, S.R.I. iii. Some, however, prefer to read 'ad rogum.'

[173] Corpus Iuris Canonici, Dist. lxiii. c. 22.

[174] Dist. lxiii. c. 30. This decree is, however, in all probability spurious.

[175] 'Nos elegimus merito et approbavimus una cum annisu et voto patrum amplique senatus et gentis togatÆ,' &c., ap. Baron. Ann. Eccl., ad ann. 876.

[176] 'Divina vos pietas B. principum apostolorum Petri et Pauli interventione per vicarium ipsorum dominum Ioannem summum pontificem... ad imperiale culmen S. Spiritus iudicio provexit.'—Concil. Ticinense, in Mur., S.R.I. ii.

[177] Strictly speaking, Henry was at this time only king of the Romans: he was not crowned Emperor at Rome till 1084.

[178] Letter of Gregory VII to William I, A.D. 1080. I quote from Migne, t. cxlviii. p. 568.

[179] 'Gradum statim post Principes Electores.'—Frederick I's Privilege of Austria, in Pertz, M.G.H. legg. ii.

[180] Hohenstaufen is a castle in what is now the kingdom of WÜrtemberg, about four miles from the GÖppingen station of the railway from Stuttgart to Ulm. It stands, or rather stood, on the summit of a steep and lofty conical hill, commanding a boundless view over the great limestone plateau of the Rauhe Alp, the eastern declivities of the Schwartzwald, and the bare and tedious plains of western Bavaria. Of the castle itself, destroyed in the Peasants' War, there remain only fragments of the wall-foundations: in a rude chapel lying on the hill slope below are some strange half-obliterated frescoes; over the arch of the door is inscribed 'Hic transibat CÆsar.' Frederick Barbarossa had another famous palace at Kaiserslautern, a small town in the Palatinate, on the railway from Mannheim to Treves, lying in a wide valley at the western foot of the Hardt mountains. It was destroyed by the French and a house of correction has been built upon its site; but in a brewery hard by may be seen some of the huge low-browed arches of its lower story.

[181] A great deal of importance seems to have been attached to this symbolic act of courtesy. See Art. I of the Sachsenspiegel.

[182] Letter to the German bishops in Radewic; Mur., S.R.I., t. vi. p. 833.

[183] A picture in the great hall of the ducal palace (the Sala del Maggio Consiglio) represents the scene. See Rogers' Italy.

[184] Psalm xci.

[185] Document of 1230, quoted by Von Raumer, v. p. 81.

[186] Speech of archbishop of Milan, in Radewic; Mur. vi.

[187] Frederick's election (at Frankfort) was made 'non sine quibusdam ItaliÆ baronibus.'—Otto Fris. i. But this was the exception.

[188] See also post, Chapter XVI.

[189] 'Senatus Populusque Romanus urbis et orbis totius domino Conrado.'

[190] Otto of Freysing.

[191] Later in his reign, Frederick condescended to negotiate with these Roman magistrates against a hostile Pope, and entered into a sort of treaty by which they were declared exempt from all jurisdiction but his own.

[192] See the first note to Shelley's Hellas. Sismondi is mainly answerable for this conception of Barbarossa's position.

[193] They say rebelliously, says Frederick, 'Nolumus hunc regnare super nos ... at nos maluimus honestam mortem quam ut,' &c.—Letter in Pertz. M.G.H. legg. ii.

[194]

'De tributo CÆsaris nemo cogitabat;

Omnes erant CÆsares, nemo censum dabat;

Civitas Ambrosii, velut Troia, stabat,

Deos parum, homines minus formidabat.'

Poems relating to the Emperor Frederick of Hohenstaufen, published by Grimm.

[195] Charles the Great was canonized by Frederick's anti-pope and confirmed afterwards.

[196] Acta Concil. Hartzhem. iii., quoted by Von Raumer, ii. 6.

[197] Poems relating to Frederick I, ut supra.

[198] The carroccio was a waggon with a flagstaff planted on it, which served the Lombards for a rallying-point in battle.

[199] LÜbeck, Hamburg, Bremen, and Frankfort.

[Since this was first written Frankfort has been annexed by Prussia, and her three surviving sisters have, by their entrance into the North German confederation, lost something of their independence.]

[200] The legend is one which appears under various forms in many countries.

[201] 'Pruzzi,' says the biographer of St. Adalbert, 'quorum Deus est venter et avaritia iuncta cum morte.'—M.G.H. t. iv.

It is curious that this non-Teutonic people should have given their name to the great German kingdom of the present.

[202] Conring, De Finibus Imperii. It is hardly necessary to observe that the connection of Hungary with the Hapsburgs is of comparatively recent origin, and of a purely dynastic nature. The position of the archdukes of Austria as kings of Hungary had nothing to do legally with the fact that many of them were also chosen Emperors, although practically their possession of the imperial crown had greatly aided them in grasping and retaining the thrones of Hungary and Bohemia.

[203] Cf. Pfeffel, AbrÉgÉ Chronologique.

[204] Letter of Frederick I to Otto of Freising, prefixed to the latter's History. This king is also called Sweyn.

[205] See Appendix, Note B.

[206] Albertus Stadensis apud Conringium, De Finibus Imperii.

[207] There is an allusion to this in the poems of the Cid. Arthur Duck, De Usu et Authoritate Iuris Civilis, quotes the view of some among the older jurists, that Spain having been, as far as the Romans were concerned, a res derelicta, recovered by the Spaniards themselves from the Moors, and thus acquired by occupatio, ought not to be subject to the Emperors.

[208] One of the greatest of English kings appears performing an act of courtesy to the Emperor which was probably construed into an acknowledgment of his own inferior position. Describing the Roman coronation of the Emperor Conrad II, Wippo (c. 16) tells us 'His ita peractis in duorum regum prÆsentia Ruodolfi regis BurgundiÆ et Chnutonis regis Anglorum divino officio finito imperator duorum regum medius ad cubiculum suum honorifice ductus est.'

[209] Letter in Otto Fris. i.: 'Nobis submittuntur Francia et Hispania, Anglia et Dania.'

[210] Letter in Radewic says, 'Regnum nostrum vobis exponimus.... Vobis imperandi cedat auctoritas, nobis non deerit voluntas obsequendi.'

[211] The alleged instances of homage by the Scots to the Saxon and early Norman kings are almost all complicated in some such way. They had once held also the earldom of Huntingdon from the English crown, and some have supposed (but on no sufficient grounds) that homage was also done by them for Lothian.

[212] Selden, Titles of Honour, part i. chap. ii.

[213] Edward refused upon the ground that he was 'rex inunctus.'

[214] Sigismund had shortly before given great offence in France by dubbing knights.

[215] Sigismund answered, 'Nihil se contra superioritatem regis prÆtexere.'

[216] Selden, Titles of Honour, part i. chap. ii. Nevertheless, notaries in Scotland, as elsewhere, continued for a long time to style themselves 'Ego M. auctoritate imperiali (or papali) notarius.'

[217] It is not necessary to prove this letter to have been the composition of Frederick or his ministers. If it be (as it doubtless is) contemporary, it is equally to the purpose as an evidence of the feelings and ideas of the age. As a reviewer of a former edition of this book has questioned its authenticity, I may mention that it is to be found not only in Hoveden, but also in the 'Itinerarium regis Ricardi,' in Ralph de Diceto, and in the 'Chronicon Terrae Sanctae.' [See Mr. Stubbs' edition of Hoveden, vol. ii. p. 356.]

[218] Liutprand, Legatio Constantinopolitana. Nicephorus says, 'Vis maius scandalum quam quod se imperatorem vocat.'

[219] Otto of Freising, i.

[220] 'Isaachius a Deo constitutus Imperator, sacratissimus, excellentissimus, potentissimus, moderator Romanorum, Angelus totius orbis, heres coronÆ magni Constantini, dilecto fratri imperii sui, maximo principi AlemanniÆ.' A remarkable speech of Frederick's to the envoys of Isaac, who had addressed a letter to him as 'Rex AlemaniÆ' is preserved by Ansbert (Historia de Expeditione Friderici Imperatoris):—'Dominus Imperator divina se illustrante gratia ulterius dissimulare non valens temerarium fastum regis (sc. GrÆcorum) et usurpantem vocabulum falsi imperatoris Romanorum, hÆc inter cÆtera exorsus est:—"Omnibus qui sanÆ mentis sunt constat, quia unus est Monarchus Imperator Romanorum, sicut et unus est pater universitatis, pontifex videlicet Romanus; ideoque cum ego Romani imperii sceptrum plusquam per annos XXX absque omnium regum vel principum contradictione tranquille tenuerim et in Romana urbe a summo pontifice imperiali benedictione unctus sim et sublimatus, quia denique Monarchiam prÆdecessores mei imperatores Romanorum plusquam per CCCC annos etiam gloriose transmiserint, utpote a Constantinopolitana urbe ad pristinam sedem imperii, caput orbis Romam, acclamatione Romanorum et principum imperii, auctoritate quoque summi pontificis et S. catholicÆ ecclesiÆ translatam, propter tardum et infructuosum Constantinopolitani imperatoris auxilium contra tyrannos ecclesiÆ, mirandum est admodum cur frater meus dominus vester Constantinopolitanus imperator usurpet inefficax sibi idem vocabulum et glorietur stulte alieno sibi prorsus honore, cum liquido noverit me et nomine dici et re esse Fridericum Romanorum imperatorem semper Augustum."'

Isaac was so far moved by Frederick's indignation that in his next letter he addressed him as 'generosissimum imperatorem AlemaniÆ,' and in a third thus:—

'Isaakius in Christo fidelis divinitus coronatus, sublimis, potens, excelsus, hÆres coronÆ magni Constantini et Moderator Romeon Angelus nobilissimo Imperatori antiquÆ RomÆ, regi AlemaniÆ et dilecto fratri imperii sui, salutem,' &c., &c. (Ansbert, ut supra.)

[221] Baronius, ad ann.

[222] See Appendix, Note C.

[223] Godefr. Viterb., Pantheon, in Mur., S.R.I., tom. vii.

[224] DÖnniges, Deutsches Staatsrecht, thinks that the crown of Italy, neglected by the Ottos, and taken by Henry II, was a recognition of the separate nationality of Italy. But Otto I seems to have been crowned king of Italy, and Muratori (Ant. It. Dissert. iii.) believes that Otto II and Otto III were likewise.

[225] See Appendix, note A.

[226] Some add a fifth crown, of Germany (making that of Aachen Frankish), which they say belonged to Regensburg—Marquardus Freherus.

[227] 'Dy erste ist tho Aken: dar kronet men mit der Yseren Krone, so is he Konig over alle Dudesche Ryke. Dy andere tho Meylan, de is Sulvern, so is he Here der Walen. Dy drÜdde is tho Rome; dy is guldin, so is he Keyser over alle dy Werlt.'—Gloss to the Sachsenspiegel, quoted by Pfeffinger. Similarly Peter de Andlo.

[228] Cf. Gewoldus, De Septemviratu imperii Romani. One would expect some ingenious allegorizer to have discovered that the crown of Burgundy must be, and therefore is, of copper or bronze, making the series complete, like the four ages of men in Hesiod. But I have not been able to find any such.

[229] Hence the numbers attached to the names of the Emperors are often different in German and Italian writers, the latter not reckoning Henry the Fowler nor Conrad I. So Henry III (of Germany) calls himself 'Imperator Henricus Secundus;' and all distinguish the years of their regnum from those of the imperium. Cardinal Baronius will not call Henry V anything but Henry III, not recognizing Henry IV's coronation, because it was performed by an antipope.

[230] Life of S. Adalbert (written at Rome early in the eleventh century, probably by a brother of the monastery of SS. Boniface and Alexius) in Pertz, M.G.H. iv.

[231] Given by Glaber Rudolphus. It is on the face of it a most impudent forgery: 'Ne quisquam audacter Romani Imperii sceptrum prÆpostere gestare princeps appetat neve Imperator dici aut esse valeat nisi quem Papa Romanus morum probitate aptum elegerit, eique commiserit insigne imperiale.'

[232] Universal and undisputed in the West, which, for practical purposes, meant the world. The denial of the supreme jurisdiction of Peter's chair by the eastern churches affected very slightly the belief of Latin Christendom, just as the existence of a rival emperor at Constantinople with at least as good a legal title as the Teutonic CÆsar, was readily forgotten or ignored by the German and Italian subjects of the latter.

[233] Odious especially for the inscription,—

[234] MediÆval history is full of instances of the superstitious veneration attached to the rite of coronation (made by the Church almost a sacrament), and to the special places where, or even utensils with which it was performed. Everyone knows the importance in France of Rheims and its sacred ampulla; so the Scottish king must be crowned at Scone, an old seat of Pictish royalty—Robert Bruce risked a great deal to receive his crown there; so no Hungarian coronation was valid unless made with the crown of St. Stephen; the possession whereof is still accounted so valuable by the Austrian court.

Great importance seems to have been attached to the imperial globe (Reichsapfel) which the Pope delivered to the Emperor at his coronation.

[235] Whether the poem which passes under the name of Gunther Ligurinus be his work or that of some scholar in a later age is for the present purpose indifferent.

[236] Zedler, Universal Lexicon, s. v. Reich.

[237] It does not occur before Frederick I's time in any of the documents printed by Pertz; and this is the date which Boeclerus also assigns in his treatise, De Sacro Imperio Romano, vindicating the terms 'sacrum' and 'Romanum' against the aspersions of Blondel.

[238] Pertz, M.G.H., tom. iv. (legum ii.)

[239] Ibid. iv.

[240] Radewic. ap. Pertz.

[241] Blondellus adv. Chiffletium. Most of these theories are stated by Boeclerus. Jordanes (Chronica) says, 'Sacri imperii quod non est dubium sancti Spiritus ordinatione, secundum qualitatem ipsam et exigentiam meritorum humanorum disponi.'

[242] Marquard Freher's notes to Peter de Andlo, book i. chap. vii.

[243] So in the song on the capture of the Emperor Lewis II by Adalgisus of Benevento, we find the words, 'Ludhuicum comprenderunt sancto, pio, Augusto.' (Quoted by Gregorovius, Geschichte der Stadt Rom im Mittelalter, iii. p. 185.)

[244] Goldast, Constitutiones.

[245] Pertz, M.G.H., legg. ii.

[246] 'Apostolic majesty' was the proper title of the king of Hungary. The Austrian court has recently revived it.

[247] Moser, RÖmische Kayser.

[248] Urban IV used the title in 1259: Francis I (of France) calls the Empire 'sacrosanctum.'

[249] Cf. 'Holy Russia.'

[250] It is almost superfluous to observe that the beginning of the title 'Holy' has nothing to do with the beginning of the Empire itself. Essentially and substantially, the Holy Roman Empire was, as has been shewn already, the creation of Charles the Great. Looking at it more technically, as the monarchy, not of the whole West, like that of Charles, but of Germany and Italy, with a claim, which was never more than a claim, to universal sovereignty, its beginning is fixed by most of the German writers, whose practice has been followed in the text, at the coronation of Otto the Great. But the title was at least one, and probably two centuries later.

[251] I quote from the Liber Augustalis printed among Petrarch's works the following curious description of Frederick: 'Fuit armorum strenuus, linguarum peritus, rigorosus, luxuriosus, epicurus, nihil curans vel credens nisi temporale: fuit malleus Romanae ecclesiae.'

As Otto III had been called 'mirabilia mundi,' so Frederick II is often spoken of in his own time as 'stupor mundi Fridericus.'

[252] 'QuÀ entro È lo secondo Federico.'—Inferno, canto x.

[253] The interregnum is by some reckoned as the two years before Richard's election; by others, as the whole period from the death of Frederick II or that of his son Conrad IV till Rudolf's accession in 1273.

[254] Surnamed, from his scientific tastes, 'the Wise.'

[255] Hapsburg is a castle in the Aargau on the banks of the Aar, and near the line of railway from Olten to ZÜrich, from a point on which a glimpse of it may be had. 'Within the ancient walls of Vindonissa,' says Gibbon, 'the castle of Hapsburg, the abbey of KÖnigsfeld, and the town of Bruck have successively arisen. The philosophic traveller may compare the monuments of Roman conquests, of feudal or Austrian tyranny, of monkish superstition, and of industrious freedom. If he be truly a philosopher, he will applaud the merit and happiness of his own time.'

[256] Corpus Iuris Canonici, Decr. Greg. i. 6, cap. 34, Venerabilem: 'Ius et authoritas examinandi personam electam in regem et promovendam ad imperium, ad nos spectat, qui eum inungimus, consecramus, et coronamus.'

[257] 'Illis principibus,' writes Innocent, 'ius et potestatem eligendi regem [Romanorum] in imperatorem postmodum promovendum recognoscimus, ad quos de iure ac antiqua consuetudine noscitur pertinere, prÆsertim quum ad eos ius et potestas huiusmodi ab apostolica sede pervenerit, quÆ Romanum imperium in persona magnifici Caroli a GrÆcis transtulit in Germanos.'—Decr. Greg. i. 6, cap. 34, Venerabilem.

[258] Its influence, however, as DÖllinger (Das Kaiserthum Karls des Grossen und seiner Nachfolger) remarks, first became great when this letter, some forty or fifty years after Innocent wrote it, was inserted in the digest of the canon law.

[259] Vid. supra, pp. 52-58.

[260] Upon this so-called 'Translation of the Empire,' many books remain to us: many more have probably perished. A good although far from impartial summary of the controversy may be found in Vagedes, De Ludibriis AulÆ RomanÆ in transferendo Imperio Romano.

[261] 'Vacante imperio Romano, cum in illo ad sÆcularem iudicem nequeat haberi recursus, ad summum pontificem, cui in persona B. Petri terreni simul et coelestis imperii iura Deus ipse commisit, imperii prÆdicti iurisdictio regimen et dispositio devolvitur.'—Bull Si fratrum (of John XXI, in A.D. 1316), in Bullar. Rom. So again: 'Attendentes quod Imperii Romani regimen cura et administratio tempore quo illud vacare contingit ad nos pertinet, sicut dignoscitur pertinere.' So Boniface VIII, refusing to recognize Albert I, because he was ugly and one-eyed ('est homo monoculus et vultu sordido, non potest esse Imperator'), and had taken a wife from the serpent brood of Frederick II ('de sanguine viperali Friderici'), declared himself Vicar of the Empire, and assumed the crown and sword of Constantine.

[262] Avignon was not yet in the territory of France: it lay within the bounds of the kingdom of Arles. But the French power was nearer than that of the Emperor; and pontiffs many of them French by extraction sympathized, as was natural, with princes of their own race.

[263] Quoted by Moser, RÖmische Kayser, from Chron. Hirsang.: 'Regni vires temporum iniuria nimium contritÆ vix uni alendo regi sufficerent, tantum abesse ut sumptus in duos reges ferre queant.'

[264] At Rupert's death, under whom the mischief had increased greatly, there were, we are told, many bishops better off than the Emperor.

[265] 'Proventus Imperii ita minimi sunt ut legationibus vix suppetant.'—Quoted by Moser.

[266] Albert I tried in vain to wrest the tolls of the Rhine from the grasp of the Rhenish electors.

[267] The Æthelings of the line of Cerdic, among the West Saxons, and the Bavarian Agilolfings, may thus be compared with the AchÆmenids of Persia or the heroic houses of early Greece.

[268] Wippo, describing the election of Conrad the Franconian, says, 'Inter confinia MoguntiÆ et WormatiÆ convenerunt cuncti primates et, ut ita dicam, vires et viscera regni.' So Bruno says that Henry IV was elected by the 'populus.' So Gunther Ligurinus of Frederick I's election:—

So Amandus, secretary of Frederick Barbarossa, in describing his election, says, 'Multi illustres heroes ex Lombardia, Tuscia, Ianuensi et aliis ItaliÆ dominiis, ac maior et potior pars principum ex Transalpino regno.'—Quoted by Mur. Antiq. Diss. iii. And see many other authorities to the same effect, collected by Pfeffinger, Vitriarius illustratus.

[269] Alciatus, De Formula Romani Imperii. He adds that the Gauls and Italians were incensed at the preference shewn to Germany. So too Radulfus de Columna.

[270] Quoted by Gewoldus, De Septemviratu Sacri Imperii Romani, himself a violent advocate of Gregory's decree, though living as late as the days of Ferdinand II. As late as A.D. 1648 we find Pope Innocent X maintaining that the sacred number Seven of the electors was 'apostolica auctoritate olim prÆfinitus.' Bull Zelo domus in Bullar. Rom.

[271] Sometimes we hear of a decree made by Pope Sergius IV and his cardinals (of course equally fabulous with Otto's). So John Villani, iv. 2.

[272] In 1152 we read, 'Id iuris Romani Imperii apex habere dicitur ut non per sanguinis propaginem sed per principum electionem reges creentur.'—Otto Fris. Gulielmus Brito, writing not much later, says (quoted by Freher),—

[273] Innocent III, during the contest between Philip and Otto IV, speaks of 'principes ad quos principaliter spectat regis Romani electio.'

[274] 'Rex BohemiÆ non eligit, quia non est Teutonicus,' says a writer early in the fourteenth century.

[275] The names and offices of the seven are concisely given in these lines, which appear in the treatise of Marsilius of Padua, De Imperio Romano:—

It is worth while to place beside this the first stanza of Schiller's ballad, Der Graf von Hapsburg, in which the coronation feast of Rudolf is described:—

It is a poetical licence, however (as Schiller himself admits), to bring the Bohemian there, for King Ottocar was far away at home, mortified at his own rejection, and already meditating war.

[276] The electoral prince (KurfÜrst) of Hessen-Cassel. His retention of the title has this advantage, that it enables the Germans readily to distinguish electoral Hesse (Kur-Hessen) from the Grand Duchy (Hessen-Darmstadt) and the landgraviate (Hessen Homburg). [Since the above was written (in 1865) this last relic of the electoral system has passed away, the Elector of Hessen having been dethroned in 1866, and his territories (to the great satisfaction of the inhabitants, whom he had worried by a long course of petty tyrannies) annexed to the Prussian kingdom, along with Hanover, Nassau, and the free city of Frankfort. Count Bismarck, as he raises his master nearer and nearer to the position of a Germanic Emperor, destroys one by one the historical memorials of that elder Empire which people had learned to associate with the Austrian house.]

[277] Goethe, whose imagination was wonderfully attracted by the splendours of the old Empire, has given in the second part of Faust a sort of fancy sketch of the origin of the great offices and the territorial independence of the German princes. Two lines express concisely the fiscal rights granted by the Emperor to the electors:—

[278] This line is said to be as old as the time of Otto III.

[279] See esp. Ægidi, Der FÜrstenrath nach dem Luneviller Frieden, and the passages by him quoted.

[280] The archbishop of Mentz addresses Conrad II on his election thus: 'Deus quum a te multa requirat tum hoc potissimum desiderat ut facias iudicium et iustitiam et pacem patriÆ quÆ respicit ad te, ut sis defensor ecclesiarum et clericorum, tutor viduarum et orphanorum.'—Wippo, Vita Chuonradi, c. 3, ap. Pertz. So Pope Urban IV writes to Richard: 'Ut consternatis Imperii Romani inimicis, in pacis pulchritudine sedeat populus Christianus et requie opulenta quiescat.' Compare also the 'Edictum de crimine lÆsÆ maiestatis' issued by Henry VII in Italy: 'Ad reprimenda multorum facinora qui ruptis totius debitÆ fidelitatis habenis adversus Romanum imperium, in cuius tranquillitate totius orbis regularitas requiescit, hostili animo armati conentur nedum humana, verum etiam divina prÆcepta, quibus iubetur quod omnis anima Romanorum principi sit subiecta, scelestissimis facinoribus et rebellionibus demoliri,' &c.—Pertz, M.G.H., legg. ii. p. 544.

See also a curious passage in the Life of St. Adalbert, describing the beginning of the reign at Rome of the Emperor Otto III, and his cousin and nominee Pope Gregory V: 'LÆtantur cum primatibus minores civitatis: cum afflicto paupere exultant agmina viduarum, quia novus imperator dat iura populis; dat iura novus papa.'

[281] 'Imperator est monarcha omnium regum et principum terrenorum ... nec insurgat superbia Gallicorum quÆ dicat quod non recognoscit superiorem, mentiuntur, quia de iure sunt et esse debent sub rege Romanorum et Imperatore.'—Speech of Boniface VIII. It is curious to compare with this the words addressed nearly five centuries earlier by Pope John VIII to Lewis, king of Bavaria: 'Si sumpseritis Romanum imperium, omnia regna vobis subiecta existent.'

[282] So Alfonso, king of Naples, writes to Frederick III: 'Nos reges omnes debemus reverentiam Imperatori, tanquam summo regi, qui est Caput et Dux regum.'—Quoted by Pfeffinger, Vitriarius illustratus, i. 379. And Francis I (of France), speaking of a proposed combined expedition against the Turks, says, 'CÆsari nihilominus principem ea in expeditione locum non gravarer ex officio cedere.'—For a long time no European sovereign save the Emperor ventured to use the title of 'Majesty.' The imperial chancery conceded it in 1633 to the kings of England and Sweden; in 1641 to the king of France.—Zedler, Universal Lexicon, s. v. MajestÄt.

[283] For with the progress of society and the growth of commerce the old feudal customs were through the greater part of Western Europe, and especially in Germany, either giving way to or being remodelled and supplemented by the civil law.

[284] 'Imperator est animata lex in terris.'—Quoted by Von Raumer, v. 81.

[285] Thus we are told of the Emperor Charles the Bald, when he confirmed the election of Boso, king of Burgundy and Provence, 'Dedit Bosoni Provinciam (sc. Carolus Calvus), et corona in vertice capitis imposita, eum regem appellari iussit, ut more priscorum imperatorum regibus videretur dominari.'—Regin. Chron. Frederick II made his son Enzio (that famous Enzio whose romantic history every one who has seen Bologna will remember) king of Sardinia, and also erected the duchy of Austria into a kingdom, although for some reason the title seems never to have been used; and Lewis IV gave to Humbert of DauphinÉ the title of King of Vienne, A.D. 1336.

[286] It is probably for this reason that the Ordo Romanus directs the Emperor and Empress to be crowned (in St. Peter's) at the altar of St. Maurice, the patron saint of knighthood.

[287] See especially Gerlach Buxtorff, Dissertatio ad Auream Bullam; and Augustinus Stenchus, De Imperio Romano; quoted by Marquard Freher. It was keenly debated, while Charles V and Francis I (of France) were rival candidates, whether any one but a German was eligible. By birth Charles was either a Spaniard or a Fleming; but this difficulty his partisans avoided by holding that he had been, according to the civil law, in potestate of Maximilian his grandfather. However, to say nothing of the Guidos and Berengars of earlier days, the examples of Richard and Alfonso are conclusive as to the eligibility of others than Germans. Edward III of England was, as has been said, actually elected; Henry VIII was a candidate. And attempts were frequently made to elect the kings of France.

[288] The mediÆval practice seems to have been that which still prevails in the Roman Catholic Church—to presume the doctrinal orthodoxy and external conformity of every citizen, whether lay or clerical, until the contrary be proved. Of course when heresy was rife it went hard with suspected men, unless they could either clear themselves or submit to recant. But no one was required to pledge himself beforehand, as a qualification for any office, to certain doctrines. And thus, important as an Emperor's orthodoxy was, he does not appear to have been subjected to any test, although the Pope pretended to the right of catechizing him in the faith and rejecting him if unsound. In the Ordo Romanus we find a long series of questions which the Pontiff was to administer, but it does not appear, and is in the highest degree unlikely, that such a programme was ever carried out.

The charge of heresy was one of the weapons used with most effect against Frederick II.

[289] Honorius II in 1229 forbade it to be studied or taught in the University of Paris. Innocent IV published some years later a still more sweeping prohibition.

[290] See Von Savigny, History of Roman Law in the Middle Ages, vol. iii. pp. 81, 341-347.

[291] Charles the Bold of Burgundy was a potentate incomparably stronger than the Emperor Frederick III from whom he sought the regal title.

[292] Cf. Sismondi, RÉpubliques Italiennes, iv. chap. xxvii.

[293] See Dante, Paradiso, canto vi.

[294]

'Vieni a veder la tua Roma, che piange

Vedova, sola, e di e notte chiama:

"Cesare mio, perchÈ non m' accompagne?"'

Purgatorio, canto vi.

[295] Purgatorio, canto vii.

[296] Inferno, canto xxxiv.

[297] Not that the doctors of the civil law were necessarily political partisans of the Emperors. Savigny says that there were on the contrary more Guelfs than Ghibelines among the jurists of Bologna.—Roman Law in the Middle Ages, vol. iii. p. 80.

[298] Cf. Palgrave, Normandy and England, vol. ii. (of Otto and Adelheid). The Ordo Romanus talks of a 'Camera IuliÆ' in the Lateran palace, reserved for the Empress.

[299] See notes to Chron. Casin. in Muratori, S.R.I. iv. 515.

[300] Zu aller Zeiten Mehrer des Reichs.

[301] NovellÆ Constitutiones.

[302] Marquard Freher. The question whether the seven electors vote as singuli or as a collegium, is solved by shewing that they have stepped into the place of the senate and people of Rome, whose duty it was to choose the Emperor, though (it is naÏvely added) the soldiers sometimes usurped it.—Peter de Andlo, De Imperio Romano.

[303] Thus Charles, in a capitulary added to a revised edition of the Lombard law issued in A.D. 801, says, 'Anno consulatus nostri primo.' So Otto III calls himself 'Consul Senatus populique Romani.'

[304] Francis II, the last Emperor, was one hundred and twentieth from Augustus. Some chroniclers call Otto the Great Otto II, counting in Salvius Otho, the successor of Galba.

[305] See p. 45 and note to p. 143.

[306] NÜrnberg herself was not of Roman foundation. But this makes the imitation all the more curious. The fashion even passed from the cities to rural communities like some of the Swiss cantons. Thus we find 'Senatus populusque Uronensis.'

[307] See Palgrave, Normandy and England, i. p. 379.

[308] Æneas Sylvius, De Ortu et Authoritate Imperii Romani.

[309] Thus some civilians held Constantine's Donation null; but the canonists, we are told, were clear as to its legality.

[310] 'Et idem dico de istis aliis regibus et principibus, qui negant se esse subditos regi Romanorum, ut rex FranciÆ, AngliÆ, et similes. Si enim fatentur ipsum esse Dominum universalem, licet ab illo universali domino se subtrahant ex privilegio vel ex prÆscriptione vel consimili, non ergo desunt esse cives Romani, per ea quÆ dicta sunt. Et per hoc omnes gentes quÆ obediunt S. matri ecclesiÆ sunt de populo Romano. Et forte si quis diceret dominum Imperatorem non esse dominum et monarcham totius orbis, esset hÆreticus, quia diceret contra determinationem ecclesiÆ et textum S. evangelii, dum dicit, "Exivit edictum a CÆsare Augusto ut describeretur universus orbis." Ita et recognovit Christus Imperatorem ut dominum.'—Bartolus, Commentary on the Pandects, xlviii. i. 24; De Captivis et postliminio reversis.

[311] Peter de Andlo, multis locis (see esp. cap. viii.), and other writings of the time. Cf. Dante's letter to Henry VII: 'Romanorum potestas nec metis ItaliÆ nec tricornis SiciliÆ margine coarctatur. Nam etsi vim passa in angustum gubernacula sua contraxit undique, tamen de inviolabili iure fluctus Amphitritis attingens vix ab inutili unda Oceani se circumcingi dignatur. Scriptum est enim

So Fr. Zoannetus, in the sixteenth century, declares it to be a mortal sin to resist the Empire, as the power ordained of God.

[312] Æneas Sylvius Piccolomini (afterwards Pope Pius II), De Ortu et Authoritate Imperii Romani. Cf. Gerlach Buxtorff, Dissertatio ad Auream Bullam.

[313] It has hitherto been the common opinion that the De Monarchia was written in the view of Henry's expedition. But latterly weighty reasons have been advanced for believing that its date must be placed some years later.

[314] Suggesting the celestial hierarchies of Dionysius the Areopagite.

[315] Quoting Aristotle's Politics.

[316] 'Non enim cives propter consules nec gens propter regem, sed e converso consules propter cives, rex propter gentem.'

[317] 'Reges et principes in hoc unico concordantes, ut adversentur Domino suo et uncto suo Romano Principi,' having quoted 'Quare fremuerunt gentes.'

[318] Especially in the opportune death of Alexander the Great.

[319] Cic., De Off., ii. 'Ita ut illud patrocinium orbis terrarum potius quam imperium poterat nominari.'

[320] 'Si Pilati imperium non de iure fuit, peccatum in Christo non fuit adeo punitum.'

[321] There is a curious seal of the Emperor Otto IV (figured in J. M. Heineccius, De veteribus Germanorum atque aliarum nationum sigillis), on which the sun and moon are represented over the head of the Emperor. Heineccius says he cannot explain it, but there seems to be no reason why we should not take the device as typifying the accord of the spiritual and temporal powers which was brought about at the accession of Otto, the Guelfic leader, and the favoured candidate of Pope Innocent III.

The analogy between the lights of heaven and the princes of earth is one which mediÆval writers are very fond of. It seems to have originated with Gregory VII.

[322] Typifying the spiritual and temporal powers. Dante meets this by distinguishing the homage paid to Christ from that which his Vicar can rightfully demand.

[323] Hist. Eccl. l. ix. c. 6: t?? d? f??a?, ?? ??? ???? t?de ?p??e??e?, ???? t?? s??e??? ??????? a?t?? ???eta?, ?a? ?p?t?tte? t?? ???? p???e??.

[324] See the two Lives of St. Adalbert in Pertz, M.G.H., iv., evidently compiled soon after his death.

[325] Another letter of Petrarch's to John Colonna, written immediately after his arrival in the city, deserves to be quoted, it is so like what a stranger would now write off after his first day in Rome:—'In prÆsens nihil est quod inchoare ausim, miraculo rerum tantarum et stuporis mole obrutus ... prÆsentia vero, mirum dictu, nihil imminuit sed auxit omnia: vere maior fuit Roma maioresque sunt reliquiÆ quam rebar: iam non orbem ab hac urbe domitum sed tam sero domitum miror. Vale.'

[326] The idea of the continuance of the sway of Rome under a new character is one which mediÆval writers delight to illustrate. In Appendix, Note D, there is quoted as a specimen a poem upon Rome, by Hildebert (bishop of Le Mans, and afterwards archbishop of Tours), written in the beginning of the twelfth century.

[327] In writing this chapter I have derived much assistance from the admirable work of Ferdinand Gregorovius, Geschichte der Stadt Rom im Mittelalter. Unfortunately no English translation of it exists; but I am informed by the author that one is likely ere long to appear.

[328] Republican forms of some sort had existed before Arnold's arrival, but we hear the name of no other leader mentioned; and doubtless it was by him chiefly that the spirit of hostility to the clerical power was infused into the minds of the Romans.

[329] The series of papal coins is interrupted (with one or two slight exceptions) from A.D. 984 (not long after the time of Alberic) to A.D. 1304. In their place we meet with various coins struck by the municipal authorities, some of which bear on the obverse the head of the Apostle Peter, with the legend Roman. Pricipe: on the reverse the head of the Apostle Paul, legend, Senat. Popul. Q. R. Gregorovius, ut supra.

[330] Rienzi called himself Augustus as well as tribune; 'tribuno Augusto de Roma.' (He pretended, or his friends pretended for him—it was at any rate believed—that he was an illegitimate son of the Emperor Henry the Seventh.) He cited, on his appointment, the Pope and cardinals to appear before the people of Rome and give an account of their conduct; and after them the Emperor. 'Ancora citao lo Bavaro (Lewis the Fourth). Puoi citao li elettori de lo imperio in Alemagna, e disse "Voglio vedere che rascione haco nella elettione," che trovasse scritto che passato alcuno tempo la elettione recadeva a li Romani.'—Vita di Cola di Rienzi, c. xxvi (written by a contemporary). I give the spelling as it stands in Muratori's edition.

[331] The Germans called this hill, which is the highest in or near Rome, conspicuous from a beautiful group of stone-pines upon its brow, Mons Gaudii; the origin of the Italian name, Monte Mario, is not known, unless it be, as some think, a corruption of Mons Malus.

It was on this hill that Otto the Third hanged Crescentius and his followers.

[332] I quote this from the Ordo Romanus as it stands in Muratori's third Dissertation in the Antiquitates ItaliÆ medii Ævi.

[333] Great stress was laid on one part of the procedure,—the holding by the Emperor of the Pope's stirrup for him to mount, and the leading of his palfrey for some distance. Frederick Barbarossa's omission of this mark of respect when Pope Hadrian IV met him on his way to Rome, had nearly caused a breach between the two potentates, Hadrian absolutely refusing the kiss of peace until Frederick should have gone through the form, which he was at last forced to do in a somewhat ignominious way.

[334] A remarkable speech of expostulation made by Otto III to the Roman people (after one of their revolts) from the tower of his house on the Aventine has been preserved to us. It begins thus: 'Vosne estis mei Romani? Propter vos quidem meam patriam, propinquos quoque reliqui; amore vestro Saxones et cunctos Theotiscos, sanguinem meum, proieci; vos in remotas partes imperii nostri adduxi, quo patres vestri cum orbem ditione premerent numquam pedem posuerunt; scilicet ut nomen vestrum et gloriam ad fines usque dilatarem; vos filios adoptavi: vos cunctis prÆtuli.'—Vita S. Bernwardi; in Pertz, M. G. H., t. iv.

(It is from this form 'Theotiscus' that the Italian 'Tedesco' seems to have been derived.)

[335] The Leonine city, so called from Pope Leo IV, lay between the Vatican and St. Peter's and the river.

[336] It would seem that Otto was deceived, and that in reality they are the bones of St. Paulinus of Nola.

[337] The only other of the Teutonic Emperors buried in Italy were, so far as I know, Lewis the Second (whose tomb, with an inscription commemorating his exploits, is built into the wall of the north aisle of the famous church of S. Ambrose at Milan), Henry the Sixth and Frederick the Second, who lie at Palermo, Conrad IV, buried at Foggia, and Henry the Seventh, whose sarcophagus may be seen in the Campo Santo of Pisa, a city always conspicuous for her zeal on the imperial side.

Six Emperors lie buried at Speyer, three or four at Prague, two at Aachen, two at Bamberg, one at Innsbruck, one at Magdeburg, one at Quedlinburg, two at Munich, and most of the later ones at Vienna.

[338] See note s, p. 178.

[339] See p. 117.

[340] These highly curious frescoes are in the chapel of St. Sylvester attached to the very ancient church of Quattro Santi on the Coelian hill, and are supposed to have been executed in the time of Pope Innocent III. They represent scenes in the life of the Saint, more particularly the making of the famous donation to him by Constantine, who submissively holds the bridle of his palfrey.

[341] The last imperial coronation, that of Charles the Fifth, took place in the church of St. Petronius at Bologna, Pope Clement VII being unwilling to receive Charles in Rome. It is a grand church, but the choir, where the ceremony took place, seems to have been 'restored,' that is to say modernized, since Charles' time.

[342] The name of Cenci is a very old one at Rome: it is supposed to be an abbreviation of Crescentius. We hear in the eleventh century of a certain Cencius, who on one occasion made Gregory VII prisoner.

[343] Thus in the church of San Lorenzo without the walls there are several pointed windows, now bricked up; and similar ones may be seen in the church of Ara Coeli on the summit of the Capitol. So in the apse of St. John Lateran there are three or four windows of Gothic form: and in its cloister, as well as in that of St. Paul without the walls, a great deal of beautiful Lombard work. The elegant porch of the church of Sant' Antonio Abate is Lombard. In the apse of the church of San Giovanni e Paolo on the Coelian hill there is an external arcade exactly like those of the Duomo at Pisa. Nor are these the only instances.

The ruined chapel attached to the fortress of the Caetani family—the family to which Boniface the Eighth belonged, and whose head is now the first of the Roman nobility—is a pretty little building, more like northern Gothic than anything within the walls of Rome. It stands upon the Appian Way, opposite the tomb of CÆcilia Metella, which the Caetani used as a stronghold.

[344] A good deal of the mischief done by Robert Guiscard, from which the parts of the city lying beyond the Coliseum towards the river and St. John Lateran never recovered, is attributed to the Saracenic troops in his service. Saracen pirates are said to have once before sacked Rome. Genseric was not a heathen, but he was a furious Arian, which, as far as respect to the churches of the orthodox went, was nearly the same thing. He is supposed to have carried off the seven-branched candlestick and other vessels of the Temple, which Titus had brought from Jerusalem to Rome.

[345] We are told that one cause of the ferocity of the German part of the army of Charles was their anger at the ruinous condition of the imperial palace.

[346] Under the influence, partly of this anti-pagan spirit, partly of his own restless vanity, partly of a passion to be doing something, Pope Sixtus the Fifth did a great deal of mischief in the way of destroying or spoiling the monuments of antiquity.

[347] These campaniles are generally supposed to date from the ninth and tenth centuries. I am informed, however, by Mr. J. H. Parker, of Oxford, whose antiquarian skill is well known, that he is led to believe by an examination of their mouldings that few or none, unless it be that of San Prassede, are older than the twelfth century.

This of course applies only to the existing buildings. The type of tower may be, and indeed no doubt is, older.

Somewhat similar towers may be observed in many parts of the Italian Alps, especially in the wonderful mountain land north of Venice, where such towers are of all dates from the eleventh or twelfth down to the nineteenth century, the ancient type having in these remote valleys been adhered to because the builder had no other models before him. In the valley of Cimolais I have seen such a campanile in course of erection, precisely similar to others in the neighbouring villages some eight centuries old.

The very curious round towers of Ravenna, some four or five of which are still standing, seem to have originally had similar windows, though these have been all, or nearly all, stopped up. The Roman towers are all square.

[348] The Palatine hill seems to have been then, as it is for the most part now, a waste of stupendous ruins. In the great imperial palace upon its northern and eastern sides was the residence of an official of the Eastern court in the beginning of the eighth century. In the time of Charles, some seventy years later, this palace was no longer habitable.

[349] Such as we see it in the later and lesser churches of basilica form.

[350] It was thus that most of the earlier Teutonic Emperors, and notably Charles and Otto, professed to have obtained the crown; although practically it was partly a matter of conquest and partly of private arrangement with the Pope. In later times, the seven Germanic princes were recognized as the legally qualified electoral body, but their appearance on the stage was a result of the confusion of the German kingdom with the Roman Empire, and in strictness they had nothing to do with the Roman crown at all. The right to bestow it could only—on principle—belong to some Roman authority, and those who felt the difficulty were driven to suppose a formal cession of their privilege by the Roman people to the seven electors. See p. 227 supra: and cf. Matthew Villani (iv. 77), 'Il popolo Romano, non da se, ma la chiesa per lui, concedette la elezione degli Imperadori a sette principi della Magna.'

[351] That which Dante, Arnold of Brescia, and the rest really have in common with the modern Italian 'party of movement' is their hostility to the temporal power of the Popes.

[352] See Dean Stanley's Lectures on the History of the Eastern Church, Lecture II.

[353] It is not without interest to observe that the council of Basel shewed signs of reciprocating imperial care by claiming those very rights over the Empire to which the Popes were accustomed to pretend.

[354] The councils of Basel and Florence were not recognized from first to last by all Europe, as was the council of Constance. When the assembly of Trent met, the great religious schism had already made a general council, in the true sense of the word, impossible.

[355] 'E pero venendo gl'imperadori della Magna col supremo titolo, e volendo col senno e colla forza della Magna reggiere gli Italiani, non lo fanno e non lo possono fare.'—M. Villani, iv. 77.

Matthew Villani's etymology of the two great faction names of Italy is worth quoting, as a fair sample of the skill of mediÆvals in such matters:—'La Italia tutta e divisa mistamente in due parti, l'una che seguita ne' fatti del mondo la santa chiesa—e questi son dinominati Guelfi; cioÈ, guardatori di fÈ. E l'altra parte seguitano lo 'mperio o fedele o enfedele che sia delle cose del mondo a santa chiesa. E chiamansi Ghibellini, quasi guida belli; cioÈ, guidatori di battaglie.'

[356] 'Nam quamvis Imperatorem et regem et dominum vestrum esse fateamini, precario tamen ille imperare videtur: nulla ei potentia est; tantum ei paretis quantum vultis, vultis autem minimum.'—Æneas Sylvius to the princes of Germany, quoted by Hippolytus a Lapide.

[357] See Ægidi, Der FÜrstenrath nach dem Luneviller Frieden; a book which throws more light than any other with which I am acquainted on the inner nature of the Empire.

[358] The two immediately preceding Emperors, Albert II (1438-1439) and Frederick III, father of Maximilian (1439-1493), had been Hapsburgs. It is nevertheless from Maximilian that the ascendancy of that family must be dated.

[359] Reichsregiment.

[360] Wenzel had encouraged the leagues of the cities, and incurred thereby the hatred of the nobles.

[361] The Germans, like our own ancestors, called foreign, i. e. non-Teutonic nations, Welsh. Yet apparently not all such nations, but only those which they in some way associated with the Roman Empire, the Cymry of Roman Britain, the Romanized Kelts of Gaul, the Italians, the Roumans or Wallachs of Transylvania and the Principalities. It does not appear that either the Magyars or any Slavonic people were called by any form of the name Welsh.

[362] The German crown was received at Aachen, the ancient Frankish capital, where may still be seen, in the gallery of the basilica, the marble throne on which the Emperors from the days of Charles to those of Ferdinand I were crowned. It was upon this chair that Otto III had found the body of Charles seated, when he opened his tomb in A.D. 1001. After Ferdinand I, the coronation as well as the election took place at Frankfort. An account of the ceremony may be found in Goethe's Wahrheit und Dichtung. Aachen, though it remained and indeed is still a German town, lay in too remote a corner of the country to be a convenient capital, and was moreover in dangerous proximity to the West Franks, as stubborn old Germans continue to call them. As early as A.D. 1353 we find bishop Leopold of Bamberg complaining that the French had arrogated to themselves the honours of the Frankish name, and called themselves 'reges FranciÆ,' instead of 'reges FranciÆ occidentalis.'—Lupoldus Bebenburgensis, apud Schardium, Sylloge Tractatuum.

[363] ErwÄhlter Kaiser. See Appendix, Note C.

[364] Romanorum rex (after Henry II) till the coronation at Rome.

[365] But the Emperor was only one of many claimants to this kingdom; they multiplied as the prospect of regaining it died away.

[366] The latter does not occur, even in English books, till comparatively recent times. English writers of the seventeenth century always call him 'The Emperor,' pure and simple, just as they invariably say 'the French king.' But the phrase 'Empereur d'Almayne' may be found in very early French writers.

[367] See Moser, RÖmische Kayser; Goldast's and other collections of imperial edicts and proclamations.

[368] The so-called 'Wahlcapitulation.'

[369] The electors long refused to elect Charles, dreading his great hereditary power, and were at last induced to do so only by their overmastering fear of the Turks.

[370] Nearly all the Hapsburgs seem to have wanted that sort of genial heartiness which, apt as it is to be stifled by education in the purple, has nevertheless been possessed by several other royal lines, greatly contributing to their vitality; as for instance by more than one prince of the houses of Brunswick and Hohenzollern.

[371] See this brought out with great force in the very interesting work of Padre Tosti, Prolegomeni alla Storia Universale della Chiesa, from which I quote one passage, which bears directly on the matter in hand: 'Il grido della riforma clericale aveva un eco terribile in tutta la compagnia civile dei popoli: essa percuoteva le cime del laicale potere, e rimbalzava per tutta la gerarchia sociale. Se l'imperadore Sigismondo nel concilio di Costanza non avesse fiutate queste consequenze nella eresia di Hus e di Girolamo di Praga, forse non avrebbe con tanto zelo mandati alle fiamme que' novatori. Rotto da Lutero il vincolo di suggezione al Papa ed ai preti in fatti di religione, avvenne che anche quello che sommetteva il vassallo al barone, il barone al imperadore si allentasse. Il popolo con la Bibbia in mano era prete, vescovo, e papa; e se prima contristato della prepotenza di chi gli soprastava, ricorreva al successore di San Pietro, ora ricorreva a se stesso, avendogli commesse Fra Martino le chiavi del regno dei Cieli.'—vol. ii. pp. 398, 9.

[372] It was not till the end of the eleventh century that transubstantiation was definitely established as a dogma.

[373] See the passages quoted in note m, p. 98; and note g, p. 110.

[374] Henry VIII of England when he rebelled against the Pope called himself King of Ireland (his predecessors had used only the title 'Dominus HiberniÆ') without asking the Emperor's permission, in order to shew that he repudiated the temporal as well as the spiritual dominion of Rome.

So the Statute of Appeals is careful to deny and reject the authority of 'other foreign potentates,' meaning, no doubt, the Emperor as well as the Pope.

[375] Matthias, brother of Rudolf II, reigned from 1612 till 1619.

[376] De Ratione Status in Imperio nostro Romano-Germanico.

[377] Even then the Roman pontiffs had lapsed into that scolding, anile tone (so unlike the fiery brevity of Hildebrand, or the stern precision of Innocent III) which is now seldom absent from their public utterances. Pope Innocent the Tenth pronounces the provisions of the treaty, 'ipso iure nulla, irrita, invalida, iniqua, iniusta, damnata, reprobata, inania, viribusque et effectu vacua, omnino fuisse, esse, et perpetuo fore.' In spite of which they were observed.

This bull may be found in vol. xvii. of the Bullarium. It bears date Nov. 20th, A.D. 1648.

[378] The Imperial Chamber (Kammergericht) continued, with frequent and long interruptions, to sit while the Empire lasted. But its slowness and formality passed that of any other legal body the world has yet seen, and it had no power to enforce its sentences. The Aulic council was little more efficient, and was generally disliked as the tool of imperial intrigue.

[379] The 'matricula' specifying the quota of each state to the imperial army could not be any longer employed.

[380] Erbfeind des heiligen Reichs.

[381] Only the envoys of the several states were present at Utrecht in 1713.

[382] Quoted by Ludwig HaÜsser, Deutsche Geschichte.

[383] The distinction is well expressed by the German 'Reich' and 'Kaiserthum,' to which we have unfortunately no terms to correspond.

[384] So the Elector of Saxony proposed in 1532 that Albert II, Frederick III, and Maximilian having been all of one house, Charles V's successor should be chosen from some other.—Moser, RÖmische Kayser. See the various attempts of France in Moser. The coronation engagements (Wahlcapitulation) of every Emperor bound him not to attempt to make the throne hereditary in his family.

[385] In 1658 France offered to subsidize the Elector of Bavaria if he would become Emperor.

[386] Whether an Evangelical was eligible for the office of Emperor was a question often debated, but never actually raised by the candidature of any but a Roman Catholic prince. The 'exacta Æqualitas' conceded by the Peace of Westphalia might appear to include so important a privilege. But when we consider that the peculiar relation in which the Emperor stood to the Holy Roman Church was one which no heretic could hold, and that the coronation oaths could not have been taken by, nor the coronation ceremonies (among which was a sort of ordination) performed upon a Protestant, the conclusion must be unfavourable to the claims of any but a Catholic.

[387]

[388] The following nine reasons for the long continuance of the Empire in the House of Hapsburg are given by Pfeffinger (Vitriarius Illustratus), writing early in the eighteenth century:—

• 1. The great power of Austria.
• 2. Her wealth, now that the Empire was so poor.
• 3. The majority of Catholics among the electors.
• 4. Her fortunate matrimonial alliances.
• 5. Her moderation.
• 6. The memory of benefits conferred by her.
• 7. The example of evils that had followed a departure from the blood of former CÆsars.
• 8. The fear of the confusion that would ensue if she were deprived of the crown.
• 9. Her own eagerness to have it.

[389] The Pope undertook a journey to Vienna to mollify Joseph, and met with a sufficiently cold reception. When he saw the famous minister Kaunitz and gave him his hand to kiss, Kaunitz took it and shook it.

[390] 'You are in your own house: be the master.'

[391] Joseph II was foiled in his attempt to assert them.

[392] Goethe spent some time in studying law at Wetzlar among those who practised in the Kammergericht.

[393] Cf. PÜtter, Historical Developement of the Political Constitution of the German Empire, vol. iii.

[394] Frederick the Great said of the Diet, 'Es ist ein Schattenbild, eine Versammlung aus Publizisten die mehr mit Formalien als mit Sachen sich beschÄftigen, und, wie Hofhunde, den Mond anbellen.'

[395] Cf. HaÜsser, Deutsche Geschichte; Introduction.

[396] Quoted by HaÜsser.

[397] Rotteck and Welcker, Staats Lexikon, s. v. 'Deutsches Reich.'

[398] Deutschlands Erwartungen vom FÜrstenbunde, quoted in the Staats Lexikon.

[399] Wahrheit und Dichtung, book i. The RÖmer Saal is still one of the sights of Frankfort. The portraits, however, which one now sees in it, seem to be all or nearly all of them modern; and few have any merit as works of art.

[400] Jordanis Chronica, ap. Schardium, Sylloge Tractatuum.

[401] In an address by Napoleon to the Senate in 1804, bearing date 10th Frimaire (1st Dec.), are the words, 'Mes descendans conserveront longtemps ce trÔne, le premier de l'univers.' Answering a deputation from the department of the Lippe, Aug. 8th, 1811, 'La Providence, qui a voulu que je rÉtablisse le trÔne de Charlemagne, vous a fait naturellement rentrer, avec la Hollande et les villes ansÉatiques, dans le sein de l'Empire.'—Œuvres de NapolÉon, tom. v. p. 521.

'Pour le Pape, je suis Charlemagne, parce que, comme Charlemagne, je rÉunis la couronne de France À celle des Lombards, et que mon Empire confine avec l'Orient.' (Quoted by Lanfrey, Vie de Napoleon, iii. 417.)

'Votre SaintetÉ est souveraine de Rome, mais j'en suis l'Empereur.' (Letter of Napoleon to Pope Pius, Feb. 13th, 1806. Lanfrey.)

'Dites bien,' says Napoleon to Cardinal Fesch, 'que je suis Charlemagne, leur Empereur [of the Papal Court] que je dois Être traitÉ de mÊme. Je fais connaitre au Pape mes intentions en peu de mots, s'il n'y acquiesce pas, je le rÉduirai À la mÊme condition qu'il Était avant Charlemagne.' (Lanfrey, Vie de Napoleon, iii. 420.)

[402] Napoleon said on one occasion, 'Je n'ai pas succÉdÉ a Louis Quatorze, mais À Charlemagne.'—Bourrienne, Vie de NapolÉon, iv. In 1804, shortly before he was crowned, he had the imperial insignia of Charles brought from the old Frankish capital, and exhibited them in a jeweller's shop in Paris, along with those which had just been made for his own coronation;—(Bourrienne, ut supra.) Somewhat in the same spirit in which he displayed the Bayeux tapestry, in order to incite his subjects to the conquest of England.

[403] 'Je n'ai pu concilier ces grands interÊts (of political order and the spiritual authority of the Pope) qu'en annulant les donations des Empereurs FranÇais, mes predecesseurs, et en rÉunissant les États romains À la France.'—Proclamation issued in 1809: Œuvres, iv.

[404] See Appendix, Note C.

[405] Pope Pius VII wrote to the First Consul, 'Carissime in Christo Fili noster ... tam perspecta sunt nobis tuÆ voluntatis studia erga nos, ut quotiescunque ope aliqua in rebus nostris indigemus, eam a te fidenter petere non dubitare debeamus.'—Quoted by Ægidi.

[406] Let us place side by side the letters of Hadrian to Charles in the Codex Carolinus, and the following preamble to the Concordat of A.D. 1801, between the First Consul and the Pope (which I quote from the Bullarium Romanum), and mark the changes of a thousand years.

'Gubernium reipublicÆ [GallicÆ] recognoscit religionem Catholicam Apostolicam Romanam eam esse religionem quam longe maxima pars civium GallicÆ reipublicÆ profitetur.

'Summus pontifex pari modo recognoscit eandem religionem maximam utilitatem maximumque decus percepisse et hoc quoque tempore prÆstolari ex catholico cultu in Gallia constituto, necnon ex peculiari eius professione quam faciunt reipublicÆ consules.'

[407] Cf. Heeren, Political System, vol. iii. 273.

[408] He had arch-chancellors, arch-treasurers, and so forth. The Legion of Honour, which was thought important enough to be mentioned in the coronation oath, was meant to be something like the mediÆval orders of knighthood: whose connexion with the Empire has already been mentioned.

[409] Napoleon's feelings towards Germany may be gathered from the phrase he once used, 'Il faut depayser l'Allemagne.'

[410] Thus in documents issued by the Emperor during these two years he is styled 'Roman Emperor Elect, Hereditary Emperor of Austria' (erwÄhlter RÖmischer Kaiser, Erbkaiser von Oesterreich).

[411] This Act of Confederation of the Rhine (Rheinbund) is printed in Koch's TraitÉs (continued by SchÖll), vol. viii., and Meyer's Corpus Iuris Confoederationis GermanicÆ, vol. i. It has every appearance of being a translation from the French, and was no doubt originally drawn up in that language. Napoleon is called in one place 'Der nÄmliche Monarch, dessen Absichten sich stets mit den wahren Interessen Deutschlands Übereinstimmend gezeigt haben.' The phrase 'Roman Empire' does not occur: we hear only of the 'German Empire,' 'body of German states' (StaatskÖrper), and so forth. This Confederation of the Rhine was eventually joined by every German State except Austria, Prussia, Electoral Hesse, and Brunswick.

[412] Histoire des TraitÉs, vol. viii. The original may be found in Meyer's Corpus Iuris Confoederationis GermanicÆ, vol. i. p. 70. It is a document in no way remarkable, except from the ludicrous resemblance which its language suggests to the circular in which a tradesman, announcing the dissolution of an old partnership, solicits, and hopes by close attention to merit, a continuance of his customers' patronage to his business, which will henceforth be carried on under the name of, &c., &c.

[413] Koch (SchÖll), Histoire des TraitÉs, vol. xi. p. 257, sqq.; HaÜsser, Deutsche Geschichte, vol. iv.

[414] Great Britain had refused in 1806 to recognize the dissolution of the Empire. And it may indeed be maintained that in point of law the Empire was never extinguished at all, but lives on as a disembodied spirit to this day. For it is clear that, technically speaking, the abdication of a sovereign can destroy only his own rights, and does not dissolve the state over which he presides.

[415] 'Les États d'Allemagne seront independans et unis par un lien federatif.'—Histoire des TraitÉs, xi. p. 257.

[416] The late king of Prussia was actually elected Emperor by the revolutionary Diet at Frankfort in 1848. He refused the crown.

[417] [Since the above was written (in A.D. 1865) sudden and momentous changes have been effected in Germany by the war of 1866; the Prussian kingdom has been enlarged by the annexation of Hanover, Hessen-Cassel, Nassau, and Frankfort; the establishment of the North German Confederation has brought all the states north of the Main under Prussian control; while even the potentates of the south have virtually accepted the hegemony of the house of Hohenzollern. It was the author's intention to have added here a chapter examining these changes by the light of the past history of Germany and the Empire, and tracing out the causes to which the success of Prussia is to be ascribed. But at this moment (July 15th, 1870) the French Emperor declares war against Prussia, and there rises to meet the challenge an united German people,—united for the time, at least, by the folly of the enemy who has so long plotted for and profited by its disunion. Whatever the result of the struggle may be, it is almost certain to alter still further the internal constitution of Germany; and there is therefore little use in discussing the existing system, and tracing the progress hitherto of a development which, if not suddenly arrested, is likely to be greatly accelerated by the events which we see passing.]

[418] See Louis Napoleon's letter to General Forey, explaining the object of the expedition to Mexico.

[419] One may also compare the retention of the office of consul at Rome till the time of Justinian: indeed it even survived his formal abolition. The relinquishment of the title 'King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland,' seriously distressed many excellent persons.

[420] I speak, of course, of the Papacy as an autocratic power claiming a more than spiritual authority.

[421] 'Ipsa enim ecclesia charior Deo est quam coelum. Non enim propter coelum ecclesia, sed e converso propter ecclesiam coelum.' From the tract entitled 'A Letter of the four Universities to Wenzel and Urban VIII,' quoted in an earlier chapter.

[422] Von Raumer, Geschichte der Hohenstaufen, v.

[423] Meaning thereby not the citizens of Rome in her republican days, but the Italo-Hellenic subjects of the Roman Empire.

[424] Take, among many instances, those of the preface to Giesebrecht, Die Deutsche Kaiserzeit; and Rotteck and Welcker's Staats Lexikon. The German newspapers are indeed sufficient illustration.

[425] See especially Von Sybel, Die Deutsche Nation und das Kaiserreich; and the answers of Ficker and Von Wydenbrugk.

[426] Modified of course by the canon law, and not superseding the feudal law of land.

[427] Mommsen, RÖmische Geschichte, iii. sub. fin.

[428] Waitz (Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte) says that the phrase 'semper Augustus' may be found in the times of the Carolingians, but not in official documents.

[429] There is some reason to think that towards the end of the Empire people had begun to fancy that 'erwÄhlter' did not mean 'elect,' but 'elective.' Cf. note m, p. 362.

[430] These expressions seem to have been intended to distinguish the kingdom of the Eastern or Germanic Franks from that of the Western or Gallicized Franks (FrancigenÆ), which having been for some time 'regnum Francorum Occidentalium,' grew at last to be simply 'regnum FranciÆ,' the East Frankish kingdom being swallowed up in the Empire.

[431] It is right to remark that what is stated here can be taken as only generally and probably true: so great are the discrepancies among even the most careful writers on the subject, and so numerous the forgeries of a later age, which are to be found among the genuine documents of the early Empire. Goldast's Collections, for instance, are full of forgeries and anachronisms. Detailed information may be found in Pfeffinger, Moser, and PÜtter, and in the host of writers to whom they refer.

[432] We in England may be thought to have made some slight movement in the same direction by calling the united great council of the Three Kingdoms the Imperial Parliament.

[433] Although to be sure the Burgundian dominions had all passed from the Emperor to France, the kingdom of Sardinia, and the Swiss Confederation.

[434] Nevertheless, Otto II was crowned Emperor, and reigned for some time along with his father, under the title of 'Co-Imperator.' So Lothar I was associated in the Empire with Lewis the Pious, as Lewis himself had been crowned in the lifetime of Charles. Many analogies to the practice of the Romano-Germanic Empire in this respect might be adduced from the history of the old Roman, as well as of the Byzantine Empire.

[435] Maximilian had obtained this title, 'Emperor Elect,' from the Pope. Ferdinand took it as of right, and his successors followed the example.

[436] See note d, p. 270.