The House of Franconia succeeded the House of Saxony, in the person of four princes, -Conrad II, Henry III, IV, V. Conrad II 'placed the minor feudal secular party in opposi tion to the feudal ecclesiastical party, granting to the former the right of heredity and the in alienability' of tenure, by this means strength ening the middle ranks and decreasing the power of the great feudal ecclesiastical and secular par ties. During the minority of Henry IV (through the efforts of Hildebrand) the Church began its emancipation from subjugation to the empire, and rendered itself independent of the imperial power and of the civil factions, by en trusting the election of the Pope to the College of Cardinals.
When Hildebrand became Pope, Gregory VII instituted a political theocracy and formu lated the principle that the Pontificate held supremacy over the empire, and consequently over all Catholic powers, spiritual and tem poral; and as Henry IV pursued the traditional policy of the emperors, which was in direct contradiction to that of the Pope. there arose between the two institutions the most char acteristic contest of the Middle Ages. Then it took form in the question of ecclesiastical in vestiture, for the Pope would not grant to the secular princes this concession. This contest lasted during the reigns of Henry IV and Henry V, and came to an end at the Concordat of Worms, which did not determine the chief question — which of the two powers was su preme — but only the accessory question of in vestiture, establishing exclusive right of the Pope to spiritual investiture, and that of the king to temporal investiture.
These dissensions were advantageous to the Lombard cities. Owing to the comfortable, peaceful life they enjoyed because of the recon struction of the walls, and the somewhat mild rule of the episcopal government, their popula tion increased in the 10th and 11th centuries, and the middle ranks, whose party had been strengthened 'by Conrad II, formed new social classes, which resumed the profession of arms. During the contest for the rights of investiture the Urban aristocracy, alone, or combined with the wealthier portion of the bourgeoisie, ac quired the political rights of the local authori ties. Thus arose a new civic order, the Com monalty, who attained the position of consuls and the consilia. But all this was done without the sanction of the sovereign, and therefore was not as yet a legitimate institution.
Meanwhile, in southern Italy, in the .11th century, arose the Norman principalities of Drengot and Altavilla. These, under Robert Guiscard and Roger, took Apulia and Calabria from Byzantium, Sicily from the Arabs, sub jected Salerno and Benevento, and in order to legitimize their conquests received investiture from the Church. Roger II completed the con
quests by the subjugation of all the other states of southern Italy and of Abruzzi, and obliged the popes to recognize his royal title.
With the fall of the House of Franconia there arose in Germany a dynastic contest be tween the Guelfs (House of Bavaria) and the Ghibellines (House of Suabia) for the succes sion to the throne. Lothair of Saxony succeeded Henry V, then came Conrad of Franconia, then Frederick Barbarossa. These wished to recover their rights as kings of Italy and as emperors; whence their contest with the Commonalty of upper Italy who formed, in defense of their autonomous authority, the first Lombard League, and with Pope Alexander III — for at that time, two popes 'having been elected by two parties in the College of Cardinals, King Frederick thought he had the right to suppress the schism and thus he reopened the question of supremacy between Pope and emperor. He made peace with the Pope at Venice in 1177, but even then the only question settled was that of the legitimacy of Alexander. He came to an agreement with the Lombard League at Constance in 1183, and in this way the emperor recognized the autonomous authority of the Commonalty with the reservation to the sov ereign of the right of investiture of consuls and the right of appellate jurisdiction. The Altavilla family being extinct, Henry, son of Barbarossa, obtained the throne of Sicily by law of descent; at the death of his father suc ceeded him, but died in 1197, leaving a son four years old, the future Frederick IL In 1198 Innocent III rose to the papacy and 'resumed the policy of Gregory VII, marking the apogee of theocracy. The Guelfs and Ghibellines fought for the succession in Ger many; the former being victorious under Otto IV; assisted by the Pope. But the usual dis sensions arose between Otto and Innocent, the Pope placing the king of Sicily, Frederick, in opposition to the emperor. Frederick was vic tenons and obtained the imperial crown from Honorius The Commonalty, meanwhile, had become almost the chief political party in upper and central Italy; the counts of Savoy, the mar quises of :Lunigiana and Montferrat and some other princes being the few that remained of the feudal party. The rights reserved to the sovereign by the Treaty of Constance were al ready denied; the Commonalty had become an independent republic. It extended its territory the smaller neighboring communes — which it treated as subjects — to the rural communes and to the feudal proprietors of the country, obliging them to reside temporarily in the city.