Identifier: historyofmediv00davi (find matches)
Title: A history of mediæval and modern Europe for secondary schools
Year: 1920 (1920s)
Authors: Davis, William Stearns, 1877-1930 McKendrick, Norman Shaw, 1876-
Subjects:
Publisher: Boston, New York (etc.) Houghton Mifflin company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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n a position of such securityand power that he could undertake a great expedition toRome^ — in search of nothing less than the imperial crown onceworn by Charlemagne. 37. Otto I — his revival of the Holy Roman Empire. Italywas in a most evil state on the eve of his coming. The peninsulawas torn asunder by a score of petty princelets. In the cities,usually ruled by a prince-bishop, there were still large sur\dvalsof the old Roman culture, but civilization seemed decayingeven in these its last strongholds. The Roman Papacy hadnever been in a worse plight. The papal ofiice was still held ingreat reverence throughout western Europe; but its very tem-poral importance made it the prey of utterly worldly and oftenimmoral men, who usually gained power by support of anarmed faction. When Otto undertook to march to Rome, thePapacy was held by John XII, a youth who had become Pope ^ He had already (951) made a brief expedition over tiie Alps, and assumedthe vague title, King of the Lombards.
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THE EMPIRE IN GERMANY AND ITALY 77 when only sixteen, and who was, by universal testimony, in-competent and personally degraded. Had Otto failed to inter-fere in Rome at this time, in all probability the Papacy wouldhave sunk so low in the worlds esteem, that only a miraclecould have restored its lost authority.^ In g6i, Otto I descended the Alps, a mighty German arniythundering at his heels and bearing down all opposition. Theastonished Italians bent before the shock. At Pavia, Otto wascrowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy. He thenpressed on to Rome. John XII negotiated with him and pro-mised him fair. Otto entered the Eternal City, and on Feb-ruary 2, 962, like Charlemagne, he knelt before the Pope,under the eyes of the multitude, and arose ImperatorAugustus, Lord of all the World. The Holy Roman Em-pire had been revived as an adjunct now of the Germankingship. Otto soon turned back toward the north, having no intentionof taking permanent residence in Rome; but hardly was hedepart

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