and bishop, and consecrated as Leo VIII., but not recognized by the strictly hierarchical party,
because he surrendered the freedom of the papacy to the empire. The Romans swore that they would
never elect a pope again without the emperor’s consent. Leo confirmed this in a formal document.^282
The anti-imperial party readmitted John XII., who took cruel revenge of his enemies, but
was suddenly struck down in his sins by a violent death. Then they elected an anti-pope, Benedict
V., but he himself begged pardon for his usurpation when the emperor reappeared, was divested
of the papal robes, degraded to the order of deacon, and banished to Germany. Leo VIII. died in
April, 965, after a short pontificate of sixteen months.
The bishop of Narni was unanimously elected his successor as John XIII. (965–972) by the
Roman clergy and people, after first consulting the will of the emperor. He crowned Otho II. emperor
of the Romans (973–983). He was expelled by the Romans, but reinstated by Otho, who punished
the rebellious city with terrible severity.
Thus the papacy was morally saved, but at the expense of its independence or rather it had
exchanged its domestic bondage for a foreign bondage. Otho restored to it its former dominions
which it had lost during the Italian disturbances, but he regarded the pope and the Romans as his
subjects, who owed him the same temporal allegiance as the Germans and Lombards.
It would have been far better for Germany and Italy if they had never meddled with each
other. The Italians, especially the Romans, feared the German army, but hated the Germans as
Northern semi-barbarians, and shook off their yoke as soon as they had a chance.^283 The Germans
suspected the Italians for dishonesty and trickery, were always in danger of fever and poison, and
lost armies and millions of treasure without any return of profit or even military glory.^284 The two
nations were always jealous of each other, and have only recently become friends, on the basis of
mutual independence and non-interference.
Protest Against Papal Corruption.
The shocking immoralities of the popes called forth strong protests, though they did not
shake the faith in the institution itself. A Gallican Synod deposed archbishop Arnulf of Rheims as
a traitor to king Hugo Capet, without waiting for an answer from the pope, and without caring for
the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals (991). The leading spirit of the Synod, Arnulf, bishop of Orleans,
made the following bold declaration against the prostitution of the papal office: "Looking at the
actual state of the papacy, what do we behold? John [XII.] called Octavian, wallowing in the sty
of filthy concupiscence, conspiring against the sovereign whom he had himself recently crowned;
then Leo [VIII.] the neophyte, chased from the city by this Octavian; and that monster himself,
after the commission of many murders and cruelties, dying by the hand of an assassin. Next we see
the deacon Benedict, though freely elected by the Romans, carried away captive into the wilds of
Germany by the new Caesar [Otho I.] and his pope Leo. Then a second Caesar [Otho II.], greater
(^282) Baronius, ad ann. 964, pronounced the document spurious, chiefly because it is very inconvenient to his ultramontane
doctrine. It is printed in Mon. Germ. iv.2 (Leges, II. 167), and in a more extensive form from a MS. at Treves in Leonis VIII.
privilegium de investituris, by H. J. Floss, Freib., 1858. This publication has changed the state of the controversy in favor of a
genuine element in the document. See the discussion in Hefele, IV. 622 sqq.
(^283) This antipathy found its last expression and termination in the expulsion of the Austrians from Lombardy and Venice,
and the formation of a united kingdom of Italy.
(^284) Ditmar of Merseburg, the historian of Henry II., expresses the sentiment of that time when he says (Chron. IV. 22):
"Neither the climate nor the people suit our countrymen. Both in Rome and Lombardy treason is always at work. Strangers who
visit Italy expect no hospitality: everything they require must be instantly paid for; and even then they must submit to be
over-reached and cheated, and not unfrequently to be poisoned after all."