For a full review of this question, see Gallican Church; Investiture; Temporal Power.
III. The Eh tiir.i) nf the Pope. — In the 2d and 3d cen- turies the bishops of Rome were, like all the bishops of the ancient Church, elected by the clergy and the peo- ple. When Christianity was declared to be the religion of the state, the emperors claimed a share in the elec- tion of the pope. The clergy of Rome greatly disliked the interference of the emperors in the election of their bishops, and. after the destruction of the Western Roman empire in 499, a Roman synod under bishop Sym- machus vindicated to the Roman clergy the exclusive right of electing the bishop. Three years later, 502, the Roman synod declared a decree issued by Odoacer, who as successor of the Roman emperor demanded that no bishop of Rome should be elected " sine nostra consulta- tione," to be an unwarranted encroachment upon the rights of the Church. That Odoacer paid no attention to these resolutions is proved by the fact that in 514 he had a share in the election of Felix III. The Gothic kings Theodoric and his successors, as well as Justinian I and the Byzantine emperors, likewise disregarded the occasional protests of the Roman bishops. They are known to have appointed or confirmed several popes — as Vigilius, Pelagius I, and Pelagius II. The so-called Liber diurnus, a collection of formulas of the Roman Curia, which relates to the time from the 6th to the 8th century, and received its present shape in the 8th century, expressly mentions that the Roman bishops elected by the clergy and the people were confirmed by the Greek emperor, or his representative, the exarch of Ravenna. The weak rule of the last Longobardian kings, and the impotence of the emperors in Constanti- nople, greatly favored the endeavors of the popes to ex- clude altogether the influence of princes from the papal elections. During the reign of Pepin the Short and Charlemagne the elections were entirely free, and the report that a Roman synod under Adrian I conferred upon Charlemagne the right of confirming the elected pope is a forgery. The popes of this time only notified Pepin and Charles of the result of the elections. The baneful influence which was soon after obtained by the Roman nobility upon the elections of the popes in- duced again an interference of the imperial power, and in 824 Lothaire, the son of Louis le Debonnaire, entered into an agreement with Eugenius II, according to which the consecration of a newly elected pope was not to take place without the concurrence of an imperial delegate. This agreement remained in force throughout the fol- lowing century. In the 10th century Otho the Great rescued the Church from the most disgraceful condition in which it had yet found itself, and rid it of some of the most, wicked popes which have ever disgraced the see of Rome. It was quite common in the Church then to look upon the emperor as the chief pillar of re- form, and it is therefore not to be wondered at that a greater influence was accorded to him than had been possessed by any of his predecessors. When he entered the city of Rome, the people, according to Luitprand, had to take an oath :< numquam se papam electuros aut ordinaturos prater consensum atque electionem domini imperatoris Ottonis Ca^saris August i filiique regis Otto- nis." After the Synod of Sutri had, in 104G, deposed
POPE
408
POPE
all the three popes, the Roman people conferred upon
Henry III. for himself and his successors, I
■'•in electione semper ordinandi pontificis principatum."
Henry availed himself of this in the appointment ofthe
German popes Clemenl II. Leo IX. ami Victor II. for
which lif consulted only his German advisers
had been an affair ofthe German empire. After the
death of Henry III. the influence of Hildebtand upon
the popes ei that time - i brought on the beginning
of a new sera in the history of the papacy. One ol the events which mark the beginning eft his new sera i- the radical change which was made in the papal elections by the famous decree of Nicholas 11 and the Lateran Synod in 1059. The essential points ofthe decree are the transfer ofthe papal election in the cardinal-bish- ops, i he total abolil ion of the former concurrence of the Roman people and nobility, and virtual abolition ofthe former imperial right; for the words "salvo debito honore et reverentia" do not appear to imply more I han the nghl of the emperor to demand a notification of the result efth,' election. The emperors were to possess the insignificant rights which were left to them only as a personal privilege, for tin- conferring of which evi ry tew . mperor had i" make an application. The decree ef Nicholas I was further developed and defined by that (if Alexander ill and the Lateral! Synod of 117'.'. which made the validity of the papal election contingent upon a two-thirds vote ofthe cardinals. The defeat ofthe emperor Frederick Barbarossa in his struggle with the papacy put an end forever to even the nominal rights .if tin' emperors in regard to the papal elections. The first provisions concerning the conclave were made by Gregory X .and the Council of Lynns in 1274 The town for holding the conclave (q. v.) was not to he ex- clusively Rome, hut t lie city in which the pope died; and in case this city was under an interdict, the next adjacent city. The place for the conclave was the epis- copal palace. The provisions ofthe decree of Gregory X w.-re -.mew hat. though imt essentially, modified by Clement V (1305 1314) and (lenient VI (1342-1356).