o the hands of seven German princes,
of whom four were laymen and three were the archbishops of Mentz,
Cologne, and Treves. And hence it is that at a later time we find that
some German princes had _elector_ for their title, as the electors of
Hanover and the electors of Brandenburg; and even that the three
clerical electors were more commonly called electors than archbishops.
It is not exactly known when this way of choosing the kings of the
Romans came in; but, as I have said, it was quite settled before the
time of which we are now speaking.

There was, then, a disputed election between Lewis of Bavaria and
Frederick of Austria; and Pope John was well pleased to stand by and
watch their quarrel, so long as they only weakened each other without
coming to any settlement of the question. But when Lewis had got the
better of Frederick, then John stepped in and told him that it was for
the pope to judge in such a case which of the two ought to be king of
the Romans. And he forbade all people to obey Lewis as king, and
declared that whatever he might have done as king should be of no
effect. But people had become used to such sentences, so that they would
not mind them unless they thought them just; and thus Pope John's
thunder was very little heeded. Although he excommunicated Lewis, the
sentence had no effect; and by this and other things (especially a
quarrel which John had with a part of the Franciscan order) people were
set on inquiring into the rights of the papacy in a way which was quite
new, so that their thoughts took a direction which was very dangerous to
the power of the popes.

Lewis answered the pope by setting up an antipope against him. But this
was a thing which had never succeeded; and so it was that John's rival
was obliged to submit, and, in token of the humblest repentance,
appeared with a rope round his neck at Avignon, where the rest of his
life was spent in confinement.

The pope on his part set up a rival emperor, Charles of Moravia, son of
that blind King John of Bohemia whose death at the battle of Cressy is
known to us from the history of England. But Charles found little
support in Germany so long as Lewis was alive.

The next pope, Benedict XII. (A.D. 1334-1342), although of himself he
would have wished to make peace with Lewis, found himself prevented from
doing so by the king of France; and his successor, Clement VI. (A.D.
1342-1352), who had once been tutor to Charles of Moravia, stron