THE BEGINNINGS OF THE TEMPORAL SOVEREIGNTY OF THE POPES

CHAPTER XI

THE CONSTITUTION OF LOTHAIRE

The Pope’s relations with Charlemagne and with his own subjects do not appear to have been sensibly affected by the restoration of the empire. The Romans stood in wholesome awe of the imposing person of the Frankish king, and the Pope, in some measure, reaped the benefit of this attitude. However, when Charlemagne died, on 28th January 814, the Roman nobles began to assert themselves, conspiring to get rid of the Pope by assassinating him. It evidently did not occur to them to assail so firmly established an institution as the temporal pontificate. It was the administration of this particular Pope which was distasteful to them, and they resolved to attack him in person.

But this conspiracy came to nought. The pontifical police discovered it, and the numerous conspirators were arrested, tried for the crime of high treason, condemned to death, and executed. This event caused a remarkable sensation at the court of Louis the Pious. The Frankish law, it was said, was much less severe. Had not the Pope exceeded his power in allowing sentences of death to be dealt out with so liberal a hand? He ought, at any rate, to have consulted the emperor. What would become of the imperial authority at Rome if such things were permitted to take place without any reference to it?

Possibly Louis may have seen, in the Pope’s attitude, a kind of protest against the manner of his accession to the empire. For Leo had had no part in the matter, and was therefore inclined to ignore an emperor whom he had not consecrated.

However this may have been, Bernard, the young king of Italy, and Gerald, count of the Eastern Marches (Austria), were commissioned to go to Rome and enquire into the affair. Gerald afterwards betook himself to the imperial court with his report of the proceedings. The Pope, in self-defence, sent three ambassadors to France, and their explanations or excuses seem to have afforded Louis satisfaction. Nevertheless, the disturbances at Rome continued. A revolt took place in the country, and the domus cultae was attacked and plundered. It is probable that this was an act of revenge on the militia for having assisted in putting down the conspirators. Moreover, the continual development of these latifundia entailed a number of dispossessions which were regarded by those who suffered them as unjust usurpations. When the rural colonies had been burned, the insurgents marched upon Rome demanding redress. Pope Leo was seriously threatened, but the rebels were dispersed by Winigis, Duke of Spoleto, whom King Bernard had sent to his assistance. The ringleaders were banished to France.

Such was the situation when Leo III passed away, the 12th June 816. The clergy, always in evidence at election times, were quite convinced of the propriety of choosing a more popular and accommodating pontiff than the late Pope. Their approbation fell on the deacon Stephen, the son of a noble family, and protégé of Pope Hadrian. His biographer tells us that he was much liked by the Romans. In accordance with custom, his consecration took place on the Sunday following his election (22nd June). He at once showed himself to be peaceably disposed and anxious to smooth away all traces of past discord, and freely to accept the imperial protection. He began his reign by obliging the Romans to swear allegiance to the emperor, and then sent notice of his election to the Frankish court, announcing at the same time his intention of meeting Louis. This interview actually took place at Rheims in the month of October. It resulted in the settlement of many questions, of which only two seem to have been of much consequence. Louis and his wife Ermengarde were crowned by the Pope with crowns of gold, which he had brought with him for the purpose. Thus the Roman ideas of propriety were satisfied. Whether this ceremony counted for much in the opinion of their contemporaries is doubtful, but it nevertheless constituted a second precedent, and confirmed the predominance of the papacy over the empire. Moreover, Stephen brought back with him the exiles who were in France, perhaps those of the 799 insurrection, or perhaps only those banished after the last revolt.

Stephen’s pontificate thus opened with good prospects of peace. But, alas for the frailty of human plans, the month of January 817 had not come to an end when the new Pope was called to follow his predecessor.

On the very day of his death (25th January), the priest Pascal, abbot of one of the monasteries of the Vatican, was elected in his place. He was not of the aristocracy, and seems to have been inspired with the spirit of Leo III rather than that of Hadrian. As soon as his consecration had been accomplished, he sent to inform the emperor of his accession, protesting that he had been elected against his will.

Shortly afterwards, another papal envoy, the nomenclator Theodore, was dispatched to Louis the Pious, to request an official renewal of the compact between the Carolingian House and the papacy. This agreement had already been recorded several times, under the preceding kings and Popes, but not one of these important documents has been preserved. The compact between Louis the Pious and Pope Pascal, is the oldest of which we know the terms. It contains a confirmation of the rights of the Roman Church over those Italian territories which, in one way or another, were included in its domain, the city of Rome, Roman Tuscia as defined before 787, the district of Perugia, ancient Campania, Tibur, the whole of the Exarchy, Pentapolis, including Ancona, Umana, and Osimo, the territory of Sabina, Lombard Tuscia, as surrendered by Charlemagne, the rent formerly paid to the palace at Pavia by the rest of Lombard Tuscia and the duchy of Spoleto, and, finally, the territories beyond the Liris and the ecclesiastical estates in Southern Italy, i.e. domains over which the Pope had theoretical rather than practical rights. The emperor undertakes to guarantee all these possessions or claims, and promises, besides, to allow the Pope a free hand in governing, and only to interfere in the event of violence or unjust oppression on the part of the potentiores, which evidently means the pontifical government itself. He also renounces any right of intervention in the election of the Pope, which is to be conducted in conformity with the canons, and carried by unanimous consent. The Pope, must, however, immediately after his consecration, send representatives to the Frankish king, charged to renew the friendly alliance.

In short, this document corresponds with the actual situation, at the moment when it was drawn up : protectorate of the Frankish monarch, liberty of the Romans in the choice of the Pope, and free exercise of the papal sovereignty, except in the case of abuse of authority.

Louis had permitted Stephen IV to officiate at his coronation at Rheims, but, like his father, he regarded the papal intervention simply as a religious consecration of rights acquired from other sources, In 817 he himself crowned his eldest son Lothaire as emperor, before a large concourse of people at Aix-la-Chapelle. At the same time he created Pepin and Louis, his two other sons, kings of Aquitaine and Bavaria. Bernard, king of Italy and grandson of Charlemagne through his deceased father Pepin, refused to accept this new arrangement. He rebelled, but with ill success. His eyes were torn out, and he died immediately afterwards, in April 818. In 822, his kingdom was entrusted to Lothaire, who set out to take possession of it. Pope Pascal, on hearing of his arrival in Italy, took the opportunity to invite him to Rome, and in virtue, undoubtedly, of an understanding with his father, he consecrated the young prince as emperor, on Easter Sunday, 5th April 823, Already, in 821, Roman legates had journeyed to Thionville, in order to be present at his marriage, But in spite of these outward amenities the conflict did not cease. The Frankish princes objected to be beholden to the Pope for their temporal authority, and the Pope refused to yield the privilege of consecrating them. He might be trusted to make the best of circumstances, and by his perseverance, finally succeeded in establishing the tradition.

The emperor had never been seen at Rome since 800, the year in which the institution was originated. Lothaire held a court of justice there, and the Abbot Farfa brought before him a grievance which he had long cherished against the pontifical administration. He won his cause, and Pascal renounced his claims to temporal power over the abbey, as well as to the right of appointing an abbot. The latter was of great importance in the Roman state. The opposition to the Pope was strengthened by the temporary presence of a young emperor, who was disinclined to submit to ecclesiastical authority, and also by the prospect of his residence in the neighborhood of Rome. The pontiff got deeper and deeper into difficulties. Those who had grievances against him, posed as champions of Lothaire and his imperial rights, and soon after the latter’s departure, two dignitaries of the first rank, the primicerius Theodore and the nomenclator Leo, were pointed out to the familia S. Petri (i.e. the militia of the agricultural colonies), as enemies of the Pope. Their disloyalty was avenged by their first having their eyes put out, and then being killed outright.

Upon hearing of this, the Emperor Louis was about to send envoys to Rome with orders to enquire into the affair. They had not started, however, when three papal legates approached, protesting that their master had had no hand in the tragedy. Louis listened to their tale, but, none the less, dispatched his envoys, the Abbot of Saint-Waast and the Count of Coire. The enquiry, however, did not lead to any important result. The Pope submitted to the formality of the purgatio per sacramentum. He swore, before a solemn assembly which included twenty-four bishops, that he had taken no part in the assassination of the two victims, but adding that, being guilty of high treason, they were deserving of death.

This was quite possible, but for all that, it was manifest that Theodore and Leo had been the victims of violence unsanctioned by law, and that the Pope was lacking in authority over his own followers, not to mention his opponents.

Pascal sent a second detachment of legates to the Emperor Louis, who, finding the whole affair somewhat embarrassing, accepted the explanations which they offered. On their return to Rome, they found the Pope suffering from an illness which terminated his career on the llth of February 824. So great was the aversion with which he was regarded, that the people refused to allow him to be buried at St. Peter’s.

A remarkably exciting election followed; the two factions—the nobles and the clergy—stood out clearly: the exercitus Romanus and the familia S. Petri, long at variance, now measured their respective forces. Neither of them had any voice in the ecclesiastical elections. Since the year 769, the papal appointment had been in the hands of the clergy only. But the clergy themselves could not agree on the practical problem of meeting the present exigencies, and the disunion became so great that two candidates were proclaimed. Happily, however, the strife did not last long. The celebrated monk Wala, an adviser of the young emperor Lothaire, happened to be in Rome at the time, and he succeeded in bringing about the election of the candidate nominated by the nobles, the arch-priest Eugene of Santa Sabina.

His first act was to send a deputation to the Emperor Louis, and he lost no time in arranging that the remains of his predecessor should be interred in a becoming manner.

The Frankish court was very much taken up with the affairs of Rome, which, since the death of Charlemagne, ten years before, had been gradually growing more and more confused. Plots, insurrections, risings, and summary executions, all these were common talk, and for the second time in one generation the people had before them the pitiable sight of a Pope compelled to vindicate his character by taking a public oath. To make matters still worse, party strife arose, an infliction which had occurred but rarely during the last three centuries. The root of the evil obviously lay in the conflicting interests and ambitions of the clergy and the nobles. This situation was not peculiar to Rome, but in other places the sovereign power was strong enough to insist on peace, while at Rome the authority was held by one of two rival parties, and moreover by just the one less able to wield it successfully. Hence arose intrigues, schisms, violence, and abuse of power. To the Emperor Louis it seemed that the best way out of the difficulty was to make his sovereign power felt at Rome in a visible and palpable form, for up to that time, his authority there had been of a distant and intermittent nature. He would not, however, forcibly attack the papal sovereignty, which, after all, did not proceed merely from the concessions of his predecessors, who had not so much originated as guaranteed it, and which, although under the gracious protection of the Frankish princes, was also sustained by tradition as well as by the dignity of its representative.

Lothaire was sent to Rome under the escort of Wala. It was a recognized fact that the present disturbances resulted from the obstinacy or the weakness of the Popes Leo III and Pascal, as well as from the rapacity of their officials. Many of the properties which had been amalgamated with the pontifical estates were restored to their original owners.

The widows of Theodore, Horus, and Sergius, the murdered officials, were given compensation, and the exiles were recalled. A code of laws of which the text is still preserved, was drawn up, to protect the rights of the individual. The Pope was treated with formal respect, but there can be no doubt that the new measures were, on the whole, directed against him. They may be summed up under five heads concerning: Ist, the imperial protection; 2nd, the individual rights; 3rd, the choice of functionaries; 4th, the organization of the protectorate; 5th, the papal election.

Ist. On the first point it is declared that those who are under the special protection of the Pope and the emperor are inviolable. This must be taken to mean that the papal authorities have no power to bring about the execution of one of the imperial protégés. As the imperial protection was of the wide-spreading order, the Roman nobles and the ecclesiastical dignitaries found themselves exempt from the fear of execution for the crime of treason, a form of punishment which had been much abused in the past.

2nd. The Romans should be judged according to the law of their choice, i.e. Roman, Salic, or Lombard. These last two, being less lavish with capital punishment than the Roman law, were probably preferred by some.

3rd. The Roman magistrates should present themselves before the emperor, not to be invested by him, but in order that he might know their names and their numbers, and admonish them as to the exercise of their functions.

4th. Two misi should be instituted, one by the Pope, the other by the emperor. They should be in permanent residence at Rome, and every year should report to the emperor on the working of the administration. They should listen to complaints and retail them to the Pope, and if the latter should not do them justice, the emperor should be called upon to intervene.

5th. The election of the Pope should be in the hands of the Romans alone. The laity as well as the clergy should vote, notwithstanding the decision of the Council of 769; finally, before his consecration, the chosen candidate should take a formal oath before the imperial missus and the people.

Secondary provisions prohibit plundering, and enjoin on all the Romans obedience to the Pope, whether or not they may be under the special protection of the emperor.

The difference, not to say the contrast, between these enactment and the state of things which we have been observing, is obvious. The election of the Pope was henceforth to be subject to the confirmation of the emperor. This rule was not formally expressed, but we know from subsequent history that it became a stringent though unwritten law. The right of choosing functionaries was restricted to the Pope, but the emperor considered himself in a position to keep them, if he so desired, at his beck and call, to admonish, and above all, inspect them, and, if necessary, to reform their decisions. Certain privileged persons were exempt from the papal jurisdiction, and submitted only to that of the emperor. Finally, the latter was to be ever present in the person of his missus who kept a keen watch over the whole affairs of Rome.

Pope Eugenius III not only accepted this reform, but, of his own accord, instituted another in the ecclesiastical domain. In November 826, he assembled in conclave a council of his immediate assistants, sixty-two bishops in all, and together they drew up a code of some forty-five disciplinary rules to meet the exigencies of the present situation.

The reign of this excellent and conscientious Pope was all too short. He died in the month of August 827, and, before many weeks had passed, his successor, the deacon Valentine, followed his example. The Romans then elected the priest Gregory, who bore the title of St. Mark, but he was not ordained until his appointment had been ratified by an imperial representative. This detail is suppressed by the Liber Pontificalis, which, on the other hand, gives a full description of the two elections of 827, showing that, in both of them, the lay nobility took part from the outset, and that they were concerned in the choice of the individual Pope, as well as in his enthronement at the Lateran. According to the verdict of the Council of 709, they had no right to share in the matter until both these acts had been accomplished, and then they were permitted to sign the deed of election. Thus the principle of the lay participation in the appointment of the pontiff was preserved, and to say that he had been elected a sacerdotibus seu proceribus et omni clero necnon et optmatibus vel cuncto populo Romano, was, theoretically, correct. This is the formula employed in the Liber Pontificalis with reference to Leo III and Pascal; there is no special mention of Hadrian and Stephen IV in this connection; and in regard to Eugenius II the vague expression a Romanis cunctis electus is used. After the time of Valentine, however, this part of the papal history is always given in detail and in such a way as to render prominent the part played by the lay aristocracy, so prominent, indeed, that often