bishop.
Rome was divided into twenty-eight parishes, and each parish was
governed by a cardinal priest, or presbyter, a title which, however
common or modest in its origin, has aspired to emulate the purple of
kings. Their number was enlarged by the association of the seven deacons
of the most considerable hospitals, the seven palatine judges of the
Lateran, and some dignitaries of the church. This ecclesiastical senate
was directed by the seven cardinal-bishops of the Roman province, who
were less occupied in the suburb dioceses of Ostia, Porto, Velitrae,
Tusculum, Praeneste, Tibur, and the Sabines, than by their weekly
service in the Lateran, and their superior share in the honors and
authority of the apostolic see. On the death of the pope, these bishops
recommended a successor to the suffrage of the college of cardinals,
[126] and their choice was ratified or rejected by the applause or
clamor of the Roman people. But the election was imperfect; nor could
the pontiff be legally consecrated till the emperor, the advocate of the
church, had graciously signified his approbation and consent. The
royal commissioner examined, on the spot, the form and freedom of
the proceedings; nor was it till after a previous scrutiny into the
qualifications of the candidates, that he accepted an oath of fidelity,
and confirmed the donations which had successively enriched the
patrimony of St. Peter. In the frequent schisms, the rival claims were
submitted to the sentence of the emperor; and in a synod of bishops he
presumed to judge, to condemn, and to punish, the crimes of a guilty
pontiff. Otho the First imposed a treaty on the senate and people, who
engaged to prefer the candidate most acceptable to his majesty: [127]
his successors anticipated or prevented their choice: they bestowed
the Roman benefice, like the bishoprics of Cologne or Bamberg, on their
chancellors or preceptors; and whatever might be the merit of a Frank or
Saxon, his name sufficiently attests the interposition of foreign power.
These acts of prerogative were most speciously excused by the vices of a
popular election. The competitor who had been excluded by the cardinals
appealed to the passions or avarice of the multitude; the Vatican and
the Lateran were stained with blood; and the most powerful senators, the
marquises of Tuscany and the counts of Tusculum, held the apostolic see
in a long and disgraceful servitude. The Roman pontiffs, of the ninth
and tenth cen