Ii Imperial Period

The emperor's arbitrary exercise of power roused a long and obstinate resistance. When Leo VIII. died in 965, the imperial party elected John XIII. (965-972), who tried to create a party of nobles to offset the power of the party of Alberic. Upon this there was a general revolt. The nobles were led by Peter, prefect of Rome. The leaders of the people were 12 decarconi, a term of unknown derivation but probably indicating chiefs of the 12 regions. The new pope was seized and imprisoned; but the emperor quickly marched against Rome, and this was sufficient to produce a reaction which recalled the pope (Nov. 966), sent the prefect into exile and put several of the rebellious nobles to death. Shortly after the emperor sacked the city; many Romans were exiled, some tortured, others, including the 12 decarconi, killed.

The Crescentii.

Pope John XIII. was succeeded by Benedict VI. (973-974) and Otto I. by his son Otto II., a youth of i8. Thereupon the Romans, who had supported the election of another pope, and were in no awe of the new emperor, rose to arms under the command of Crescentius, a rich and powerful noble. They not only seized Benedict VI. by force, but strangled him in the castle of St. Angelo. The factions then successively elected popes who were either exiled or persecuted, and one of them is said to have been murdered. During this turmoil the anti-imperial party, led by Crescentius II., son of the Crescentius mentioned above, had taken possession of the government. Crescentius assumed the title of patrician and sought to imitate Alberic. Fortunately for him, the reigning pope was a detested tyrant, and the emperor Otto III. a child entirely guided by his mother. But the emperor was backed by a powerful party, and on coming to Rome in 996 was able, although only aged 15, to quell the rebellion, oust Crescentius from public life, and elect as successor to John XV. his own cousin, Gregory V. (996-999). This first German pope surrounded himself with compatriots, and by raising them to lofty posts even in the tribunals excited a revolt that drove him from the throne (Sept. 29, 996). Crescentius, being master of the castle of St. Angelo, resumed the title of patrician, expelled the German judges, reconstituted the government and created a new pope. The following year Otto III. came to Rome, and his party opened the gates to him. Although deserted by nearly all his adherents, Crescentius held the castle valiantly against its besiegers, until, on April 29, 998, he was forced to make terms, and the imperialists, violating their pledges, first put him to torture and then hurled him from the battlements.

Thus Otto III. was enabled to establish his mastery of Rome. He wished to reconstitute a Romano-Byzantine empire with Rome for his capital. Nevertheless he was German, and during his reign Germanic institutions made progress in Rome and many families of feudal barons arose. The Church made grants of lands, cities and provinces in the feudal manner, while the bishops, like feudal barons, became actual counts. Meanwhile the Roman barons were growing more and more powerful, and were neither submissive nor faithful to the emperor. On the contrary, they resented his attitude as a master of Rome, and, when he sub jected Tivoli to the Holy See, attacked both him and the pope with so much vigour as to put both to flight (Feb. 16, iooi By the emperor's death in Jan. 1002 the family of the Ottos became extinct ; the papacy then began to decline, and the nobles, divided into an imperial and an anti-imperial party, were again predominant. They reserved to themselves the office of patrician, and, electing popes from their own ranks, obtained enlarged privileges and power. John Crescentius was elected patrician; one of his kinsmen was invested with the office of prefect, and the new pope John XVIII. (1003-09) was one of his creatures. His power lasted for ten years, until his death in 1012. Pope Sergius IV. having died the same year, the count of Tusculum compassed the election of Benedict VIII. (1012-24), one of his own kin. This pope expelled the Crescentii, changed the prefect and re served the title of patrician for Henry II. whom he consecrated emperor on Feb. 14, 1014. He also succeeded in placing his own brother, Romano, at the head of the republic with the title of "Senator of all the Romans." The prefect still retained his authority, and the emperor was by right supreme judge; but when a violent revolt broke out the emperor only stayed to suppress it and then went to Germany in disgust. The pope, aided by his brother, conducted the government with energy; he awed the party of Crescentius and waged war against the Saracens in the south. When he died in 1024 there was a repetition of the same events that had followed the death of Alberic, and with no less fatal consequences. Benedict's brother, Romano, head of the republic, was, although a layman, elected pope. He took the name of John XIX. (1024-33), and in 1027 conferred the imperial crown on Conrad the Salic. The latter abolished the Lotharian edict of 824 and decreed that throughout Rome and its territory justice should be administered solely by the Justinian code.