long afterwards, the elective principle came into operation. At first, the election of Emperor was made. by the Germanic Diet; but, from the middle of the thirteenth century down to modern times, it devolved on the high dignitaries of the Church and the Princes of the Empire. The place of election was Frankfort on the Main, to which city the electors or their delegates were summoned by the Archbishop of Mentz. All strangers, even sovereigns and foreign ambassadors, were jealously excluded from access to the city on the occasion. But, in reality, it was by the Pope alone that the Imperial dignity could be conferred; inasmuch as the prince who was elected King became Emperor only on his receiving the Imperial crown at the hands of His Holiness. Thus, by the Alemannic law, it was enacted that "the Germans elect the King; and when, by the will of those who have elected him, he is consecrated and enthroned at Aix-la-Chapelle, he then receives the power and name of King. But when the Pope consecrates him, then he has the plenary power of the Empire, and the name of Emperor." 1

In the letter of Pope Innocent III. to King Otho IV. and the princes of the Empire, A.D. 1201, the Pope, addressing Otho, says, "By the authority of Almighty God, conferred upon us in the person of Blessed Peter, we receive thee as King, and we order, that henceforward royal reverence and obedience be paid thee; and, all preliminaries prescribed by law and custom being observed, we shall invite thy royal majesty to receive the crown of the Roman empire, and, God granting, we shall solemnly confer it upon thee, by the hands of our humility." Here the Pope speaks in the spirit of the "Germani eligunt regem.

"Juris Alemannici," cap. xviii. n. 1-3.

Quando ipse consecratur, et collocatur in solio Aquisgranensi, ex eorum voluntate qui ipsum elegere, tunc accipit potestatem et nomen Regis. Quando autem Papa eum consecravit, tunc plenariam habet imperii potestatem, et nomen Imperatoris."

Baluze, "Epistolæ Innocentii III.," Epist. 32. "Auctoritate Dei Omnipotentis, nobis in Beato Petro collata, te in regem recipimus, et

age, which invested the Head of the Church with such extraordinary powers in matters temporal.

Again, as in the cases of Charlemagne, Louis le Débonnaire, Lothaire I., and others, we find the Pope of the day confirming the right of succession in the eldest son of the reigning Emperor, by anointing him King, and thus sanctioning his association with his father in the Empire.

But we have a still further proof of the paramount authority of the Popes in the Middle Ages, in the fact that it was from them that the Germanic princes, in a certain sense, derived their power of electing the King, and expectant Emperor. This historical fact stands forth in a clear light, as incontestably proved by several authentic official documents. From these let us take the following extracts:

In a letter of Pope Innocent III. to the Duke of Carinthia, A.D. 1201, the following passage occurs: "Wherefore, we acknowledge in those princes (Electors of the Holy Roman Empire) the right and power of electing the King, to be afterwards promoted Emperor, as we ought to recognize it in those to whom it belongs by right and ancient custom; especially as this right and power has come to them from the Apostolic See,1 which transferred the Roman Empire from the Greeks to the Germans, in the person of Charles the Great. But the princes, too, must acknowledge, and they do acknowledge, that the right and authority of examining the person elected King, and of promoting him to the Empire, belong to us, who anoint, consecrate, and crown him." 2

regalem tibi præcipimus de cætero reverentiam et obedientiam exhiberi ; præmissisque omnibus quæ de jure sunt et consuetudine præmittenda, regiam magnificentiam ad suscipiendam Romani imperii coronam vocabimus, et eam tibi, dante Domino, humilitatis nostræ manibus, solemniter conferemus."

1 "Right and power," jus et potestas, are thus taken together, and used in the singular number, in the original.

2 "Epistolæ Innocentii PP. III.," epist. 62. This letter is the more

When Rudolph of Hapsburg, as Emperor-elect, confirmed and guaranteed, in the most ample manner, the territories and privileges of the Holy See to Pope Nicholas III., A.D. 1279, the Pontiff required, that the Imperial diploma should be approved and ratified, in a solemn deed by the Princes of the Empire. That deed was accordingly executed by them; and in it they acknowledge, in language most emphatic, however florid, that their electoral rights and power are derived from the See of Peter; and, further, they show the complete accord of the Church and the Empire at that period. The exact statement which they give of the actual territories of the Papacy at the time-now six centuries ago-is of no small interest, especially as the territories, set forth by them, so closely coincide with the possessions of the Holy See in modern times."1

They say that, in conferring the Empire on Germany, the Roman mother Church "has honoured her with a terrestrial name of dignity which is above every name of those who temporally reign upon earth;" and has established princes in her, who, supported by the authority of the said Church, are the electors of him who holds the reins of the Roman Empire. "In order, then," they continue, "that all matter of dissension and scandal, or any occasion of ill-feeling, may cease to exist between the Church and the Empire," they, in the name of their princedom, in and through all particulars, approve and ratify all that has been ratified and confirmed by their lord, Rudolph, King of the Romans, ever august, to their most holy father and lord, Pope Nicholas III., with respect to the acknowledgments, concessions, and acts or deeds, as well of the other Emperors and Kings, as of the King himself, and especially with regard to the

important, that it is embodied in the Corpus Juris Canonici, in the Decretals of Pope Gregory IX., lib. i. tit. vi. cap. xxxiv.

"By the diplomas of Rudolph," says Sismondi, "the States of the Church reached the extent which they have preserved to the present day" ("Annals of Italy," tom. ii. p. 252).

fidelity, obedience, honour, and reverence, due by the Roman Emperors and Kings to the Roman Pontiffs, and to the Church herself, and also with regard to the possessions, prerogatives, and rights of the same Church. They next specify in detail all the territories of the Church thus confirmed-an enumeration which it is unnecessary to repeat here, especially as these coincide pretty closely with the Pontifical States, as settled by the Treaty of Vienna in 1815. To this parchment deed, dated A.D. 1279, are attached, by silken cords, nine seals, viz., those of Henry, Archbishop of Treves; Sigfrid, Archbishop of Cologne; Werner, Archbishop of Mentz; Louis, Count Palatine of the Rhine and Duke of Bavaria; John, Duke of Saxony; Albert, Duke of Saxony; John, Marquis of Brandenburg; Otho, Marquis of Brandenburg; and Gerard, Marquis of Brandenburg.1

Occasionally, when the usual election was prevented by wars and disturbances, the choice, as we have seen, was vested in the Sovereign Pontiff, by whom the Emperor was nominated as well as crowned. This great power in the hands of the Pope appears to have been generally recognized in the Middle Ages. By common consent, he was the arbiter of princes and kingdoms; and, as such, in a few grave cases, he deposed unworthy sovereigns and released their subjects from their allegiance. Of this extreme exercise of his authority, a few remarkable instances will be noticed. further on.

1 From the original deed in the Vatican Library; apud Theiner, "Codex Diplomaticus Dominii Temporalis S. Sedis;" No. 393, tom. i. p. 247. In the year 1356, the Emperor Charles IV. issued the Golden Bull, so called from a golden seal attached to it by silk cords, after the manner of Papal Bulls. This Bull, also called "Caroline," after the Emperor, regulates all, even the most minute, details to be observed in the election of Emperor. It confines the privilege of voting to the Archbishops of Mentz, Treves, and Cologne, and the Duke of Saxony, the Count Palatine of the Rhine, the Marquis of Brandenburg, and the King of Bohemia. Several other princes were subsequently added.

CHAPTER XVI.

VICISSITUDES OF THE TEMPORAL POWER IN THE MIDDLE AGES.

THE subdivision and rapid decline of the great Empire of Charlemagne, after the death of its illustrious founder, were, for a long period, detrimental alike to the Temporal Power of the Popes and the spiritual interests of the Universal Church. Charlemagne's son and successor, Louis I., whose diploma we have examined, was succeeded by his son Lothaire, A.D. 841, after a troubled reign of twenty-seven years. When, three years later, on the death of Gregory IV., Sergius II. ascended the Papal throne, he was consecrated immediately on election, without reference to the Emperor, matters having been precipitated by the apprehensions arising from the violence of faction. Lothaire thereupon sent his son Louis, with an army, to invade the Papal States. When Louis arrived at Rome, the Pope received him. on the steps of Saint Peter's; and refused to open the gates of the basilica to him until he should declare that he entertained no designs hostile to the Holy See. On the prince's making this declaration, Sergius crowned him King of the Lombards, but refused to comply with his demand, that the Romans should swear fealty to him -an oath which could be claimed only by the Emperor. In the year 855, a short time before his death, Lothaire divided his dominions among his three sons. To Louis, whom he had associated with himself in the Empire, six years before, he gave Italy; to Lothaire, with the title of King, the provinces lying between the