On the accession of Hemy III. A. D. 1039, there were no less than three popes at once, and all of them obnoxious, from the immorality of their character. The emperor hav ing deposed the various competitors, himself nominated Pope Clement II., and bound the Romans, by an oath, ne ver in future to elect a pope without the emperor's appro bation. In this he was unsuccessful ; for the next pope, Leo IX., persuaded by the celebrated Hildebrand, declined assuming the pontifical honours until authorised by the car dinals ; and Nicholas I I., who was pope during the minori ty of Henry IV., passed a decree, that the power of electing future popes should reside with the sacred college alone. The jealousy of the Emperor Henry Il I. was also excited by the rising power of Godfrey, Duke of Spoleto, who, hav ing married Matilda, heiress of Tuscany and Mantua, the emperor's niece, and having succeeded in getting his bro ther elected pope, by the name of Stephen IX , exercised an authority in Italy almost equal to that of Henry. On the death of that prince, Godfrey entertained great hopes of be ing elected king of Italy ; these ambitious expectations were, however, blasted by the death of the pope ; but God frey still continued one of the most powerful princes in Italy till his death in 1076, when his widow, Matilda, was left sole mistress of his influence and authority.
The reign of Henry III. is also remarkable for the first appearance in history, of the Norman princes in Apulia, who were afterwards the founders of the kingdoms of Na ples and Sicily ; and for the first alliance of the emperor with the republic of Venice ; which had now ceased to pay its former homage to the Grecian emperor, and had already risen to a great degree of wealth and power, having, with its t ivals the Pisans, Genoese, and the re public of Amalphi, engrossed all the commerce of Europe.
The reign of Henry I V. is distinguished by his long and violent contests with the pontiffs. During a long mi nority,in which the young emperor was entrusted to the guardianship of the popes, their power and ambition so much increased, that they openly aimed at universal do minion, and, from the subjects, became the masters of the secular princes ; and, for 70 years, the history of Italy presents little else but a series of struggles between weak and vicious monarchs, and ambitious and unprincipled priests. The history of the humiliating submission of Henry IV. to Pope Gregory VII. the haughty Hildebrand, is well known ; and the unnatural wars which the pope occasioned, by exciting Henry's sons to rebel against their father, excite more disgust than interest.
About this period a new cause of disagreement arose between the emperors and the papal see. The Countess
Matilda, widow of Guelph, duke of Bavaria, having died, bequeathed all her immense possessions to the see of Rome. Tnese consisted of the greater part of Tuscany, of Man tua, Parma, Placentia, Ferrara, Modena, Verona, Viterbo, and Orvieto, part of Umbria, Spoleto, and the marquisate of Ancona. As it was not considered lawful for a female to alienate the fiefs of the empire, the Emperor Henry V. disregarding this bequest, seized on the succession ; and, although by the convention at Worms a temporary agree ment was entered into by the Pope Pascal; yet, as we shall see afterwards, the validity of the bequest was long maintained by the church and its supporters, which occa sioned much jealousy and contention between' the empe ror and his Italian vassals.
During the reigns of the emperors of the house of Sax ony, the political state of Italy had undergone a remarka ble change. About a century before Otho I. had allowed to most of the Italian cities a regular municipal govern ment, and had left to themselves the choice of a paiticular form. In the exercise of this power they seem generally to have selected as a model the Roman republic or its co lonies, as far at least as their limited acquaintance with history would permit. At the head of their administra tion were placed two consuls, elected annually by the suf frages of the people. These magistrates, as judges, were entrusted with the care of administering justice to their fellow citizens; and, as generals, they commanded the military force of the city, when called out by order of the emperor. A third duty of the consuls was to preside in the councils of the city. Of these there were com monly two, besides the general assembly of the people. The first was called the council " de credenza," or privy council. It consisted of few persons, and was entrusted with the administration of the finances, and all the foreign relations of the community. The other council, consisting of 100 hundred or more members, was styeled the senate, or special council ; and in it were aranged the resolutions or measures, which were afterwards submitted to the de liberations of the people in their general assembly, held in the market place, or public square, which was termed a parliament. This assembly was sovereign ; but in cities there was a law, which allowed no subject to be laid before the parliament until it had first been considered by the council de credenza" and the senate. Each city was divided into four or six divisions, each provided with differ ent organized military bodies, with different standards.