292 FOURTH PERIOD. A.D. 590 TO 1049.
in Rome scarcely a man acquainted with letters, — without which, as it is written, one may scarcely be a doorkeeper in the house of God, — with what face may he who hath himself learnt nothing set himself up for a teacher of others? In the simple priest ignorance is bad enough ; but in the high priest of Rome, — in him to whom it is given to pass in review the faith, the lives, the morals, the discipline, of the whole body of the priesthood, yea, of the universal church, ignorance is in nowise to be tolerated. . . . Why should he not be subject in judgment to those who, though lowest in place, are his superiors in virtue and in wisdom ? Yea, not even he, the prince of the apostles, declined the rebuke of Paul, though his inferior in place, and, saith the great pope Gregory [I.], ' if a bishop be in fault, I know not any one such who is not subject to the holy see; but if faultless, let every one understand that he is the equal of the Roman pontiff himself, and as well qualified as he to give judg ment in any matter/ " 1
The secretary of this council and the probable framer of this remarkable speech was Gerbert, who became archbishop of Rheims, afterwards of Ravenna, and at last pope under the name of Sylvester II. But pope John XV. (or his master Crescentius) declared the proceedings of this council null and void, and interdicted Gerbert. His successor, Gregory V., threatened the kingdom of France with a general interdict un less Arnulf was restored. Gerbert, forsaken by king Robert I., who needed the favor of the pope, was glad to escape from his uncomfortable seat and to accept an invitation of Otho III. to become his teacher (995). Arnulf was reinstated in Rheims.
1 The acts of this Synod were first published in the Magdeburg Centuries, then byMansi, Cone. XIX. 107, and Pertz, Man. V. 658. Baronius pronounced them spurious, and interspersed them with indignant notes; but Mansi (p. 107) says : " Censent vulgo omnes, Gerbertwn reipsa et sincere recitasse acta concilii vere kabiti." See Gieseler, Greenwood (Book VIII. ch. 6), and Hefele (IV. 637 sqq.). Hefele pronounces the speech schismatical.
65. THE SECOND DEGRADATION OF THE PAPACY. 293
§ 65. The Second Degradation of the Papacy from Otho I. to Henry III. A. D. 973-1046.
I. The sources for the papacy in the second half of the tenth and in the
eleventh century are collected in Muratori's Annali d' Italia (Milano 1744-49) ; in Migiie's Patrol., Tom. CXXXVII.-CL. ; Leibnitz, Annales Imp. Occid. (down to A. D. 1005 ; Han., 1843, 3 vols. ) ; Pertz, Mon. Germ. (Auctores), Toin. V. (Leges), Tom. II. ; Ranke, Jahrbiicher des deutschcn Rciches unter dem Sachs. Ilause (Berlin 1837-40, 3 vols. ; the second vol. by Giesebrecht and Wilmans contains the reigns of Otho II. and Otho III.). On the sources see Giesebrecht, Gcxch. der deutschcn Kaiserzeit, II. 568 sqq.
II. STENZEL : Geschichte Deutschlands unter den Frankischcn Kaisern.
Leipz., 1827, 1828, 2 vols.
C. F. HOCK (R. C.) : Gerbert oder Papst Sylvester und sein Jahrhundert. Wien, 1837.
C. HOFLER (R. C.) : Die deutschcn Pdpste. Regcnsb., 1839, 2 vols.
H. J. FLOSS (R. C.) : Die Papstwahl unter den Ottonen. Freib., 1858.
C. WILL : Die An/tinge der Restauration der Kirche im elf ten Jahrh. Mar burg, 1859-'62, 2 vols.
R. Koi'KE und E. DUMMLER: Otto der Grosse. Leipz. 1876.
Comp. BARONIUS (Anna!.) ; JAFFE (Rcy. 325-364) ; HEFELE (Conciliengcschichte IV. 632 sqq., 2d ed.) ; GFRORER (vol. III., P. III., 1358- 1590, and vol. IV., 1846); GREGOROVIUS (vols. III. and IV.); v. REUMONT (II. 292 sqq.); BAXMANN (II. 125-180); and GIESE BRECHT (I. 569-762, and II. 1-431).
The reform of the papacy was merely temporary. It was fol lowed by a second period of disgrace, which lasted till the middle of the eleventh century, but was interrupted by a few respectable popes and signs of a coming reformation.
After the death of Otho, during the short and unfortunate reign of his son, Otho II. (973-083), a faction of the Roman nobility under the lead of Crescentius or Cencius (probably a sou of pope John X. and Theodora) gained the upper hand.1 He rebelled against the imperial pope, Benedict VI., who was
1 He is called Crescentius de Theodora, and seems to have died in a convent about 984. Some make him the sou of Pope John X. and the elder Theodora, others, of the younger Theodora. See Gregorovius, III. 407 sqq ; von Reumont, II. 292 sqq. ; and the genealogy of the Crescentii in Hofler, I. 300.