The Church and the Empire | Page 6

century there seemed
little chance of the accomplishment of these reforms. If the great

secular potentates were likely to cling to the practice of investiture in
order to keep a hold over a body of landowners which, whatever their
other obligations, controlled perhaps one-third of the lands in Western
Christendom; yet the Kings of the time were not unsympathetic to
ecclesiastical reform as interpreted by Cluny. In France both Hugh
Capet (987-96) and Robert (996-1031) appealed to the Abbot of Cluny
for help in the improvement of their monasteries, and this example was
followed by some of their great nobles. In Germany reigned Henry II
(1002-24), the last of the Saxon line, who was canonised a century after
his death by a Church penetrated by the influences of Cluny. It was the
condition of the Papacy which for nearly half a century postponed any
attempt at a comprehensive scheme of reform. Twice already in the
course of the tenth century had the intervention of the German King,
acting as Emperor, rescued the see of Rome from unspeakable
degradation. But for nearly 150 years (904-1046), with a few short
interludes, the Papacy was the sport of local factions. At the beginning
of the eleventh century the leaders of these factions were descended
from the two daughters of the notorious Theodora; the Crescentines
who were responsible for three Popes between 1004 and 1012, owing
their influence to the younger Theodora, while the Counts of Tusculum
were the descendants of the first of the four husbands who got such
power as they possessed from the infamous Marozia. The first Tusculan
Pope, Benedict VIII (1012-24), by simulating an interest in reform,
won the support of Henry II of Germany, whom he crowned Emperor;
but in 1033 the same faction set up the son of the Count of Tusculum, a
child of twelve, as Benedict IX. It suited the Emperor, Conrad II, to use
him and therefore to acknowledge him; but twice the scandalised
Romans drove out the youthful debauchee and murderer, and on the
second occasion they elected another Pope in his place. But the
Tusculan influence was not to be gainsaid. Benedict, however, sold the
Papacy to John Gratian, who was reputed a man of piety, and whose
accession as Gregory VI, even though it was a simoniacal transaction,
was welcomed by the party of reform. But Benedict changed his mind
and attempted to resume his power. Thus there were three persons in
Rome who had been consecrated to the papal office. The Archdeacon
of Rome appealed to the Emperor Conrad's successor, Henry III, who
caused Pope Gregory to summon a Council to Sutri. Here, or shortly

afterwards at Rome, all three Popes were deposed, and although
Benedict IX made another attempt on the papal throne, and even as late
as 1058 his party set up an anti-pope, the influence of the local factions
was superseded by that of a stronger power.
[Sidenote: Imperial influence.]
But the alternative offered by the German Kings was no more
favourable in itself to the schemes of the reformers than the purely
local influences of the last 150 years. As Otto I in 963, so Henry III in
1046 obtained from the Romans the recognition of his right, as
patrician or princeps, to nominate a candidate who should be formally
elected as their bishop by the Roman people; and as Otto III in 996, so
Henry III now used his office to nominate a succession of men, suitable
indeed and distinguished, but of German birth. This was not that
freedom of the Church from lay control nor the exaltation of the papal
office through which that freedom was to be maintained. Indeed, so
long as fear of the Tusculan influence remained, deference to the
wishes of the German King, who was also Emperor, was indispensable,
and when that King was as powerful as Henry III it was unwise to
challenge unnecessarily and directly the exercise of his powers.
[Sidenote: Leo IX (1048-54).]
But Henry, although, like St. Henry at the beginning of the century, he
kept a strong hand on his own clergy, was yet thoroughly in sympathy
with what may be distinguished as the moral objects of the reformers;
and, indeed, the men whom he promoted to the Papacy were drawn
from the class of higher ecclesiastics who were touched by the Cluniac
spirit. Henry's first two nominees were short-lived. His third choice was
his own cousin, Bruno, Bishop of Toul, who accepted with reluctance
and only on condition that he should go through the canonical form of
election by the clergy and people of Rome. On his way to Rome, which
he entered as a pilgrim, he was joined by the late chaplain of Pope
Gregory VI, Hildebrand, who had been in retirement at Cluny since his