null and void, and interdicted Gerbert. His successor, Gregory V., threatened the kingdom of France
with a general interdict unless Arnulf was restored. Gerbert, forsaken by king Robert I., who needed
the favor of the pope, was glad to escape from his uncomfortable seat and to accept an invitation
of Otho III. to become his teacher (995). Arnulf was reinstated in Rheims.
§ 65. The Second Degradation of the Papacy from Otho I to Henry III. a.d. 973–1046.
I. The sources for the papacy in the second half of the tenth and in the eleventh century are collected
in Muratori’s Annali d’ Italia (Milano 1744–49); in Migne’s Patrol., Tom. CXXXVII.-CL.;
Leibnitz, Annales Imp. Occid. (down to a.d. 1005; Han., 1843, 3 vols.); Pertz,. Mon. Germ.
(Auctores), Tom. V. (Leges), Tom. II.; Ranke, Jahrbucher des deutschen Reiches unter dem
Sächs. Hause (Berlin 1837–40, 3 vols.; the second vol. by Giesebrecht and Wilmans contains
the reigns of Otho II. and Otho III.). On the sources see Giesebrecht, Gesch. der deutschen
Kaiserzeit, II. 568 sqq.
II. Stenzel: Geschichte Deutschlands unter den Fränkischen Kaisern. Leipz., 1827, 1828, 2 vols.
C. F. Hock (R.C.): Gerbert oder Papst Sylvester und sein Jahrhundert. Wien, 1837.
C. Höfler (R.C.): Die deutschen Päpste. Regensb., 1839, 2 vols.
H. J. Floss (R.C.): Die Papstwahl unter den Ottonen. Freib., 1858.
C. Will: Die Anfänge der Restauration der Kirche im elften Jahrh. Marburg, 1859–’62, 2 vols.
R. Köpke und E. Dümmler: Otto der Grosse. Leipz. 1876.
Comp. Baronius (Annal.); Jaffe (Reg. 325–364); Hefele (Conciliengeschichte IV. 632 sqq., 2d ed.);
Gfrörer (vol. III., P. III., 1358–1590, and vol. IV., 1846); Gregorovius (vols. III. and IV.); v.
Reumont (II. 292 sqq.); Baxmann (II. 125–180); and Giesebrecht (I. 569–762, and II. 1–431).
The reform of the papacy was merely temporary. It was followed by a second period of disgrace,
which lasted till the middle of the eleventh century, but was interrupted by a few respectable popes
and signs of a coming reformation.
After the death of Otho, during the short and unfortunate reign of his son, Otho II. (973–983),
a faction of the Roman nobility under the lead of Crescentius or Cencius (probably a son of pope
John X. and Theodora) gained the upper hand.^287 He rebelled against the imperial pope, Benedict
VI., who was murdered (974), and elected an Italian anti-pope, Boniface VII., who had soon to flee
to Constantinople, but returned after some years, murdered another imperial pope, John XIV. (983),
and maintained himself on the blood-stained throne by a lavish distribution of stolen money till he
died, probably by violence (985).^288
During the minority of Otho III., the imperialists, headed by Alberic, Count of Tusculum,
and the popular Roman party under the lead of the younger Crescentius (perhaps a grandson of the
infamous Theodora), contended from their fortified places for the mastery of Rome and the papacy.
Bloodshed was a daily amusement. Issuing from their forts, the two parties gave battle to each other
(^287) He is called Crescentius de Theodora, and seems to have died in a convent about 984. Some make him the son of
Pope John X. and the elder Theodora, others, of the younger Theodora. See Gregorovius, III. 407 sqq; von Reumont, II. 292
sqq.; and the genealogy of the Crescentii in Höfler, I. 300.
(^288) Gerbert (afterwards pope Sylvester II.) called this Bonifacius a "Malefactor," (Malifacius) and "horrendum monstrum,
cunctos mortales nequitia superans, etiam prioris pontificis sanguine cruentus."Gregorovius, III. 410.