that time forward it had an uninterrupted existence" (Keichel, The Roman See in the Middle Ages, p. 124). For a short period the spiritual and temporal heads of Christendom seemed to be happily united, but the fickle pope, influenced either by mistrust or jealousy, soon again interrupted that happy concord by concoct- ing anew intrigues with Alberia, the son of Beren- gar. Otho, who heard complaints from many quarters against the pope's licentiousness and tyranny, first re- monstrated with him by means of an envoy. John pleaded his youth as an excuse, and promised amend- ment, which, however, never took place. Invited by the Romans themselves, the emperor now returned to Rome with an army, and the pope fled. The Ro- mans having sworn that they would never elect an- other pope without the concurrence of the emperor and his son, he held a synod, in the year 9G3, in the church of St. Peter, and here many grave charges ■were vari- ously preferred against the absent pontiff, who was de- posed Dec. 4, and Leo VIII (q. v.) declared his successor. Fresh wars were the result of this step. Popes and an- tipopes contested the possession of Rome. No sooner had Otho departed from Rome than John re-entered the city and drove away Leo, and as papal incumbent once more practiced many acts of cruelty, this^time seeking revenge upon those who had favored the exal- tation of his rival. The struggle for the possession of Rome lasted for three years, and was ended onh' by the death of John and Berengar. The election of John's successor was held without the emperor's consultation, though it had been especially stipulated that Otho's wishes should be heeded. This brought Otho again to Rome, which he besieged and took. He banished the pope elect, Benedict V (q. v.), and reinstated Leo VIII. The year after, when this pope died, Otho instituted John XIII (q. v.). The Romans revolted against this action as soon as the emperor had turned his back on their city, and Otho was again obliged to return in 9G6 and put down this insurrection. He hanged thir- teen leaders, and many others he condemned to severe punishment. His presence at Rome he turned into ser- vice to himself by causing his son Otho, then a child of six years, to be anointed and crowned as his colleague and emperor by the pope, in order that the claims of his house to the throne might have the sanction of the Church. He also in 972 married his son to the princess Theophania, under whose powerfiU influence Eastern manners and luxur}' were introduced at the German court. Otho died at Minsleben, in Thuringia, May 7, 973, and was buried at Magdeburg. He left the charac- ter of a great and just ruler, who had extended the lim- its of the empire, and restored the prestige of the impe- rial power more nearly to the rank which it occupied under Charlemagne than any other emperor. He ap- pointed counts-palatine, founded cities, bishoprics, and monasteries, and did good service to the empire in re- organizing the shaken foundations of its power in Eu- rope. Otho's policy towards the see of Rome is worthy of notice, for while he showed himself zealous for the interests of the Church, endowed abbej'S and convents, and honored deserving men among the clergy, yet he always asserted his sovereign right in temporal matters, and in the elections of the popes, a right of choice which his successors continued to exercise for a long time after- wards (until the pontificate of Gregory VII). See Vehse, Lehen Kaiser Otto's der Grossen (Dresden, 1827) ; Luit- prand, Ilistoria Othonis in Monum. Germ. Script, vol. iii ; Ranke, in Jahrhiicher des deutschen Reichs, vol. i, pt. i ; Luden, Gesch. d. deutsch. Voiles, vol. iii, vii ; Baxmann, Gesch. der Politik der Pdpste (see Index in vol. ii) ; Ch. Histories by Neandcr, Gieseler, Kurtz, Niedner (In- dices) ; Reichel, The See of Rome in the Middle Ages, p. 121 sq.; Milman, Latin Christianity, iii, 175 sq.; Piper, Kvangelisches Jahrhuch, 1852, p. Ill sq.; Gibbon, De- cline and Fall (Milman's ed.), v, 55, 59, 419 ; Lewis, Hist, of Germany (N. Y. 1874), p. 12G sq. ; Zeller, IliM. de i'Allemagne (Paris, 1873). See Papacy. (J. H. W.)
OTHO
481
OTHO
Otho II OF Germany, son of the preceding, and ruler from 973 to 983, deserves no special notice at our hand. He was largely engaged in suppressing sedition at Rome, and in settling the interminable strife of the Italian princes. He was intent in the latter part of his reign in collecting a large army against the Saracens, whom he wished to expel from Sicily; but he died be- fore the plan had reached execution. See Giesebrecht, Jahrbucher des deutschen Reichs (Berlin, 18i0).
Otho III OF Gerjiany, son of the preceding, was emperor from 983 to 1002. He was born in 980, and was crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle first, and at Rome in 996, whither he had been called by pope John XV to quell the insurrection of Crescentius, a remarkable char- acter of the Middle Ages, who aspired to re-establish the Roman republic under a nominal allegiance to the Eastern emperors. Pope John XV dying in the mean time, Gregory V assumed the pontificate, and it was this pope who crowned Otho HI. After the restoration of peace the emperor returned to Germany; but the re- newed rebellion of Crescentius, who drove Gregory from the papal throne, and instituted a Calabrian Greek as antipope under the title of John XVI, compelled Otho to return to Italy, where success, as usual, attended his measures. Crescentius, who had thrown himself into St. Angelo, was seized and beheaded, together with twelve of his chief adherents; the antipope imprisoned, Gregorj' restored ; and on the speedy death of the latter, Otho's old tutor, Gherbert, archbishop of Ravenna, was raised to the papacy under the title of Sylvester II. Otho, elated with his success, took up his residence at Rome, where he organized the government, erected new buildings, and showed every disposition, notwithstand- ing the ill-concealed dissatisfaction of the Romans, to convert their city into the capital of the Western em- pire. The near approach of the year 1000, to Avhich so many alarming prophecies were then believed to point as the end of the world, induced Otho to undertake a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, where he founded an archbishopric. On his return, after visiting Charle- magne's grave at Aix-la-Chapelle, and removing the consecrated cross suspended from the emperor's neck, he again repaired to Rome to consolidate his schemes of establishing a Roman empire. Tlie insurrection of the Romans frustrated his plans, and, escaping from Rome at the risk of his life, he withdrew to Ravenna to await the arrival of powerful re-enforcements from Germany; but before they had crossed the Alps he died, in 1002, apparenth' from poison, said to have been administered to him by the widow of Crescentius, who, it is believed, had deliberately set herself to win his affections that she might have an opportunity of avenging the death of her husband. With Otho HI the male branch of the Saxon imperial house became ex- tinct. See Wilman, Jahrbucher des devtschen Reichs vnter Kaiser Otto III (Bcrl. 1840), and the histories re- ferred to in the article Otho I. (J. H. W.)