niface II. (530) and others. The remedy for this
abuse was found in having recourse, more or less freely, to the support
of the civil power. The emperor Honorius upheld Boniface against his
competitor Eulalius, at the same time laying down that cases of
contested election should henceforth be decided by a fresh election; but
this would have been a dangerous method and was consequently never
applied. Theodoric upheld Symmachus against Laurentius because he had
been elected first and by a greater majority. The accepted fact soon
became law, and John II. recognized (532) the right of the Ostrogothic
court of Ravenna to ratify the pontifical elections. Justinian succeeded
to this right together with the kingdom which he had destroyed; he
demanded, together with the payment of a tribute of 3000 golden
_solidi_, that the candidate elected should not receive the episcopal
consecration till he had obtained the confirmation of the emperor. Hence
arose long vacancies of the See, indiscreet interference in the
elections by the imperial officials, and sometimes cases of simony and
venality. This bondage became lighter in the 7th century, owing rather
to the weakening of the imperial power than to any resistance on the
part of the popes.

_9th to 12th Centuries._--From the emperors of the East the power
naturally passed to those of the West, and it was exercised after 824 by
the descendants of Charlemagne, who claimed that the election should not
proceed until the arrival of their envoys. But this did not last long;
at the end of the 9th century, Rome, torn by factions, witnessed the
scandal of the posthumous condemnation of Formosus. This deplorable
state of affairs lasted almost without interruption till the middle of
the 11th century. When the emperors were at Rome, they presided over the
elections; when they were away, the rival factions of the barons, the
Crescentii and the Alberici especially, struggled for the spiritual
power as they did for the temporal. During this period were seen cases
of popes imposed by a faction rather than elected, and then, at the
mercy of sedition, deposed, poisoned and thrown into prison, sometimes
to be restored by force of arms.

Election reserved to the cardinals.

The influence of the Ottos (962-1002) was a lesser evil; that of the
emperor Otto III. was even beneficial, in that it led to the election of
Gerbert (Silvester II., in 999). But this was only a temporary check in
the process o