pations of the clergy were, in a great measure, occasioned by the slavish superstition of the laity, equally blind, wicked, and devout.

The zeal of the bishops to establish their independency was favourable to the projects of the court of Rome. Sergius II. the successor of Gregory IV. had taken possession of the apostolic see, in 844, without the approbation of Lothario, then emperor. Incensed

at such an insult, Lothario sent his son Lewis to Rome with troops and prelates. The pope having conducted the prince to St. Peter's gate, said to him, "I "permit you to enter, if your intentions are good; if

not, I will not suffer you to enter!" and the French soldiers being guilty of some irregularities, he actu ally ordered the gates to be shut. Lothario com. plained; Sergius was cited to appear before a council; he appeared, and justified himself in the eye of the priesthood'. Leo IV. celebrated for the courage with which he defended Rome against the Saracens, and Benedict III. elected in spite of the emperor, both lived in peace with royalty; but Nicholas I. more bold than any of his predecessors, made himself the judge of kings and of bishops, and realized the chimera of lying decretals.

A grand occasion offered in France for Nicholas to exercise that authority which he attributed to himself. Lothario, king of Lorrain, divor. A. D. 860. ced his wife Teutberge, falsely accused of incest. She was cleared by the trial of boiling water, but afterwards convicted by her own confession; if an involuntary acknowledgment, the effect of violence and fear, can be called conviction. A council held at Aix-laChapelle authorised Lothario to espouse Waldrade, a young lady whom he had seduced. The guilty parties were equally desirous of this marriage; a criminal amour had drawn them to the brink of dishonour.

25. Concil. Gal. tom. ii. Fleury, Hist. Eccles,

A. D. 862.

The

A. D. 863.

The scandal was horrible! Nicholas laid hold of the affair, and attempted to force the king to take back his first wife. For this purpose he ordered the bishops to hold a council at Mentz, along with his legates, and there to cite and judge Lothario. They confirmed the divorce, contrary to the expectations of the pontiff: a decree which so much enraged him, that he deposed the bishops of Treves and Cologne, who had been appointed to present to him the acts of the council. These bishops complained to the emperor Lewis II. He went immediately to Rome; displayed his authority, and seemed determined to repress the papal power. But he fell ill: a superstitious fear seized him; and he retired, after having approved the conduct of Nicholas, who became still more imperious. Lothario humbled himself in vain before the haughty pontiff; though he went so far as to offer to come and justify himself in person. The pope insisted, that Waldrade should first be dismissed; and a legate threatened the king with immediate excommunication, if he continued in disobedience. Lothario, intimidated, now submitted: he recalled Teutberge, and even consented that the legate should lead Waldrade in triumph to Rome. She set out on that mortifying journey, but escaped by the way; and in a short time, resumed her place both as mistress and queen. Meanwhile the unfortunate Teutberge, sinking beneath the weight of persecution and neglect, at last desired to be separated from Lothario, protesting that her marriage was void, and that Waldrade's was legitimate. But nothing could move the inflexible Nicholas: he continued obstinate26.

We may consider this pope as the forerunner of Gregory VII. and, in the same circumstances, he would likely have carried his ambition to the same height. The bishops of Treves and Cologne accused him, in an in

26. Hincmar de Divort. Lothar, et Theutberg.

vective,

vective, of making himself emperor of the whole world; and that expression, though somewhat strained, was not altogether without foundation. He asserted his dominion over the French clergy by re-establishing Rothade of Soissons, deposed by a provincial council; and he received appeals from all ecclesiastics dissatisfied with their bishops. By these means he accustomed the people to acknowledge a supreme tribunal at a distance from their own country, and consequently a foreign sway. He gave orders for the succession to the kingdom of Provence, which Charles the Bald disputed with the emperor Lewis, brother to the deceased king. "Let nobody hinder the "emperor," says he, in a letter on that subject, "to go"vern the kingdoms which he holds in virtue of a suc❝cession confirmed by the holy see, and by the crown "which the sovereign pontiff has set upon his head"."

Nicholas died in 867; but his principles had taken such deep root, that Adrian II. his successor, though more moderate, and desirous of peace, thought his condescension great in permitting Lothario to come to Rome, in order to justify himself or do penance. Charles the

Bald and Lewis the German waited with im

patience for the excommunication of their A. D. 868. nephew, persuaded that they should then have a right to seize his dominions. Thus the blind ambition of princes favoured the exercise of a power, which they ought to have foreseen might be turned against themselves; which afterwards became the scourge of royalty, and made every crowned head tremble.

Lothario while at Rome, employed all possible means to soften the pope: he received the communion from his hand, after having sworn he never had any criminal commerce with Waldrade, since the prohibition of Nicholas, nor ever would have any in future28. He died at Placentia, in his way home. This accident was considered as a just vengeance; as a mark of the divine displeasure

27. Epist. Nicol. Pap. 28. Adon. Chron. Lotharii. Rez. Gest. Rom. against

VOL. I.

R

against perjury, and rendered the proof by the eucharist still more important.

The emperor Lewis II. brother of Lothario, ought legally to have succeeded to his dominions; but he being at that time employed in expelling the Saracens, who had plundered Italy, and consequently not in a condition to assert his right by arms, Charles the Bald laid hold of the succession, and retained it notwithstanding the remonstrances of the pope. "The arms which God has put in our hands," writ Adrian, "are prepared for "his defence29!" Charles was more afraid of the arms of his brother the German, with whom he found it necessary to share the kingdom, though the nobility and clergy of Lorrain had voluntarily submitted to him.

The pope still continued his remonstrances in favour of the emperor, hoping at least to obtain something from him; but they were disregarded by the French monarch who had now thrown off much of his piety, and answered, in a spirited manner by the famous Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims. This bold and independent prelate desired the pope to call to mind, that respect and submission which the ancient pontiffs had always paid to princes: he bid him know that his dignity gave him no right over the government of kingdoms; that he could not be at the same time pope and king: that the choice of sovereigns. belongs to the people; that anathemas ill applied have no effect upon the soul; and that free men are not to be enslaved by a bishop of Rome.

Adrian affected to despise these arguments, and continued for sometime his menaces, both against Hincmar and the king; but, finding them ineffectual, he changed his tone, and wrote several flattering letters to Charles, promising him the empire on the death of his nephew, then in a languishing condition. This project in favour of the French monarch was executed under John VIII. Adrian's successor. The emperor Lewis II. died with

29. Epist. Adrian.

30. Fleury, Hist. Eccles.

out

tector.

Lewis the German claimed

out male heirs. A. D. 875. the succession, and the imperial dignity, as the elder brother of Charles: but the pope preferred the claim of Charles for political reasons; which, with the court of Rome, never fail to take place of equity. Lewis seemed fast approaching to his end, and had three sons, among whom his dominions must be divided. Charles was a younger man, and had only one son; he therefore appeared the most proper person to chuse as a proHe crossed the Alps at the head of his army, and accordingly received the imperial crown as a present from the pope; but much in the same manner that many presents of the like kind are obtained in our days, by paying roundly for it. In an assembly at A. D. 876. Pavia, the bishops, abbots, and Italian nobles, recognized him in the following words: "Since the "divine favour, through the merits of the holy apostles, "and of their vicar pope John, has raised you to the empire, according to the judgment of the Holy Ghost, "we elect you unanimously for our protector and lord3."

On the death of Lewis the German, a prince of considerable abilities both as a warrior and politician, Charles the Bald, always ambitious and imprudent, attempted to seize that part of Lorrain which he had granted to his brother, and was deservedly defeated32. His three nephews, Carloman, Lewis and Charles, preserved their possessions by maintaining a strict union among themselves. The first had Bavaria, the second

Saxony, and the third Suabia.

About this time the Saracens renewed their ravages in Italy. They took and plundered Comachio.

A. D. 877.

Pope John had recourse to the emperor; and desired him" to remember the hand that had given him. "the empire; lest," added he, "if driven to despair, we should change our opinion!" ciently intelligible, had its effect.

That menace, suffThough France was

31. lbid.

32. Annal. Fuldens.

then