rch to an untenable system, is preparing the restoration of the
Holy See to its former independence, and to its just influence over the
minds of men.

The Popes, after obtaining a virtual independence under the Byzantine
sceptre, transferred their allegiance to the revived empire of the West.
The line between their authority and that of the emperor in Rome was
never clearly drawn. It was a security for the freedom and regularity of
the election, which was made by the lay as well as ecclesiastical
dignitaries of the city, that it should be subject to the imperial
ratification; but the remoteness of the emperors, and the inconvenience
of delay, caused this rule to be often broken. This prosperous period
did not long continue. When the dynasty of Charlemagne came to an end,
the Roman clergy had no defence against the nobles, and the Romans did
all that men could do to ruin the Papacy. There was little remaining of
the state which the Popes had formed in conjunction with the emperors.
In the middle of the tenth century the Exarchate and the Pentapolis were
in the power of Berengarius, and Rome in the hands of the Senator
Alberic. Alberic, understanding that a secular principality could not
last long, obtained the election of his son Octavian, who became Pope
John XII. Otho the Great, who had restored the empire, and claimed to
exercise its old prerogative, deposed the new Pope; and when the Romans
elected another, sent him also into exile beyond the Alps. For a whole
century after this time there was no trace of freedom of election.
Without the emperor, the Popes were in the hands of the Roman factions,
and dependence on the emperor was better for the Church than dependence
on the nobles. The Popes appointed under the influence of the prelates,
who were the ecclesiastical advisers of the Imperial Government, were
preferable to the nominees of the Roman chiefs, who had no object or
consideration but their own ambition, and were inclined to speculate on
the worthlessness of their candidates. During the first half of the
eleventh century they recovered their predominance, and the deliverance
of the Church came once more from Germany. A succession of German Popes,
named by the emperor, opened the way for the permanent reform which is
associated with the name of Gregory VII. Up to this period the security
of the freedom of the Holy See was the protection of the emperor, and
Gregory was the last Pope who asked for the imperial con