951-962 ror the Christianity. 951-987 placing the Diadem on the brows of the Frankish Sovereign. In theory, the Imperial authority was The Empe- an Ordinance grounded upon the most exalted Defender of Christian principles, but amalgamated with the policy of the world. If the sectaries of Mahomet were combined in defence of their false faith under their Caliph, was it not equally incumbent on the followers of the Cross to confederate under one Temporal head, whose mediation should prevent the shedding of Christian blood, and whose power should protect them against every infidel enemy? Accompanied by this solemn admonition was the sword delivered by the Pontiff to the successor of the Cæsars; and such the call which Charlemagne obeyed. A glorious hypothesis, but involving mutually destructive interferences and insuperable contradictions; irreconcilable to Divine Faith, and irremovable by human ability. Yet piety and policy, the purest aspirations and the most selfish views, are all found at various periods to have encouraged this majestic vision; and after the dethronement of Charles-le-Gros, the encreasing confusion of affairs in Italy in general, and in Rome in particular, where the most profligate of men had been promoted to Saint Peter's Chair by the violences of the ferocious and profligate nobles, called loudly for a remedy. Encouraged by these openings, various Sovereigns had laboured to obtain the Imperial dig in Italy dismemberment of the Carlovingian (See vol. I. nity. Such reverence was rendered to Charle- 951–987 magne's renown, that, however imperfect the 951-962 protection afforded by his memory to his des- Emperors cendants, when on the Throne, yet any remote or after the indirect link of kindred was factiously or fondly construed to impart an inchoate claim. Thus the Empire. August Berenger"-grandson in the female p. 626-630). line of Louis-le-Debonnaire, had been nominally invested with the Imperial dignity. From a paternal ancestor, the Lombard Eric, Berenger had inherited Friuli, a Marquisate or a Duchy,—the terms are nearly convertible,—a most powerful member of the Lombard realm: not conterminous with the narrowed limits of the Austrian province now so named, but extending from the neighbourhood of Verona far into the Tridentine, and comprehending all those Sub-alpine districts on the northern side of the mountains, or included in their ramifications, whose antient unity with Italy is still manifested by their employment of the Italian tongue. Berenger possessed brilliant talents, nor were his competitors, Lambert, and Guido, and the unfortunate Hugh of Provence, destitute of merit or valour. Yet these abortive revivals were so fragmentary and unconsequential, that, during their spasmodic existence, they only mocked the Majesty of the Western Commonwealth :-none of these Sovereigns or Pretenders, acknowledged as Cæsars in any Transalpine Berenger I. and his competitors. -928 951-987 state,-none, obtaining any permanent Cisalpine authority as legitimate Emperors. 951-962 Henry the Fowler, "Advoca orum," but errone ously, reck oned as an Henry the Fowler, seated on Charlemagne's tus Roman- throne at Aix-la-Chapelle, wielding Charle-sometimes, magne's sceptre, and wearing Charlemagne's Imperial diadem, is supposed to have contemEmperor. plated the full acquisition of Charlemagne's power. The son of the Saxon Conrad rises before posterity invested with so much grandeur, and clothed with such dignity, that he has been not unfrequently quoted as an Emperor; and though he never positively employed the Imperial title in his official acts, yet the style of "Advocatus Romanorum," which he assumed, approximates closely to the assertion of such an authority, possessing at the same time a happy or unhappy ambiguity. Otho seeks to obtain the supre the whole Carlovingian Empire. Otho, inheriting his father's dominions, macy over spirit, and wisdom, entertained, from the beginning, designs even more ample. Since the homage of Attigny he had been steadily, though quietly, gaining influence in France. A supremacy over the whole Carlovingian Territory throughout Germany, and throughout the Gauls, would open the road to the portals of the Capitol, and his dealings with the Oriental Cæsars testified his anxiety to be deemed an Emperor's Peer. But the fratricidal conflicts which attain such melancholy importance during the earlier periods of Otho's reign, the 951-962 strenuous warfare he waged against the Sclavo- 951-987 nians, and the need of resisting the Magyar devastations, had hitherto allowed him but small leisure for pursuing such an enterprise. Thus embarrassed, however ardently Otho may have encouraged the hope of emulating his father, and whatever devices or plans for awakening the Imperial authority from slumber may have flitted before his fancy or occupied his thoughts, it is very possible that he might have postponed the attempt indefinitely, had he not been stimulated by a combination of circumstances equally persuasive to the statesman, and inviting to the warrior, consonant with his exalted feelings, and attractive to his imaginative mind. visions of 8 6. The Italian Peninsula, in the age im- Political dimediately succeeding the cessation of the Carlo- Italy. vingian imperial authority, may be viewed as including three leading political divisions. of Lom Lombardy, often (and perhaps more diplo- Kingdom matically) styled the kingdom of Italy, threatened or commanded all the rest. That sweetest bidding of repose, "felicissima notte," whose harmony first rejoices the weary and benighted traveller at Airolo as he descends the Saint Gothard, is a living announcement that he has entered the frontier of the Lombard conquests, far more emphatic than the neighbouring ruined tower which failed to guard them. The boundaries of Lombardy girdled all the regions where the dia 951-997 lects which Dante would have acknowledged as 951-962 appertaining to the "Volgare eloquenzia" are still spoken, from the North and Northward into and beyond the Alps, and the Saint Bernard and Mont Cenis passes; and Southward unto the Apennines; and beyond the Apennines unto the frontiers of the Exarchate and the Pentapolis, and the Duchy of Rome. Lombard Duchies, Marquisates, Counties, &c. Lombard These lands had been partitioned by the Barbarian victors, Autharis and Cleph, and their successors, amongst thirty-four Dukes; and many Marquises, those of Friuli, Tuscany, and Spoleto being the most important. Moreover an hundred Counts were placed in the several Cities, whose numbers were encreased by divisions of their territories, as well as by farther creations under the Carlovingians. A vast array of "Gastaldi" and "Capitanei," obtained their sortes or allotments, the various ranks constituting altogether a crowd of Nobles, all claiming Gothic or Teutonic origin.-No aristocracy in the West so truly realized the feudal idea, none so powerful against their Sovereign, or more intent upon controlling his authority. During three generations and four they retained their long beards and their laws. The latter, though gradually modified by the Roman jurisprudence, they never positively abandoned; for even until the Revolution a text from the "Leges Longobardorum" might be occasionally quoted, at |