t and
unlimited power of the bishop of Rome, which anticipated all that the
greatest of his successors were, centuries later, actually to effect.
The time had not, however, yet come for the establishment of the papal
world-dominion. For, while the power of Charlemagne's successors was
decaying, the papacy itself became involved in the confusion of the
party strife of Italy and of the city of Rome, and was plunged in
consequence into such an abyss of degradation (the so-called
Pornocracy), that it was in danger of forfeiting every shred of its
moral authority over Christendom.

(b) _Central Period of the Middle Ages. Dominance of the Roman Spirit in
the Church._--After the accession of the House of Saxony (919), the
national ecclesiastical system, founded upon the principles of
Carolingian law, developed in Germany with fresh energy. The union in
962 by Otto I. of the revived Empire with the German kingship brought
the latter into uninterrupted contact with the papacy. The revelation of
the antagonism between the German conception of ecclesiastical affairs
and Roman views of ecclesiastical law was sooner or later inevitable.
This was most obvious in the matter of appointment to bishoprics. At
Rome canonical election was alone regarded as lawful; in Germany, on the
other hand, developments since the time of Charlemagne had led to the
actual appointment of bishops being in the hands of the king, although
the form of ecclesiastical election was preserved. For the transference
of a bishopric a special legal form was evolved--that of investiture,
the king investing the bishop elect with the see by delivering to him
the ring and pastoral staff. No one found anything objectionable in
this; investiture with a bishopric was parallel with the appointment by
a territorial proprietor to a patronal church.

The practice customary in Germany was finally transferred to Rome
itself. The desperate position of the papacy in the 11th century obliged
Henry III. to intervene. When, on the 24th of December 1046, after three
rival popes had been set aside, he nominated Suidgar, bishop of Bamberg,
as bishop of Rome before all the people in St Peter's, the papacy was
bestowed in the same way as a German bishopric; and what had occurred in
this case was to become the rule. By procuring the transference of the
patriciate from the Roman people to himself Henry assured his influence
over the appointment of the popes, and accordingly also nominated