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 frequent at that time. The estrangement between Charles and the Papal See was not of long duration, but the Emperor always maintained his opinion as to the necessity of Church reform.

Shortly after his reconciliation with the Pope, the Emperor, who had for some time been at war with Duke Rudolph IV of Austria and Louis, King of Hungary, concluded a treaty (1364) with the former prince by which the succession to the Bohemian crown was—in the case of the extinction of the reigning family—assured to the house of Austria, whilst the Austrian duke assured the succession to his lands to the Bohemian kings should the dynasty of Habsburg become extinct. As a similar treaty had already been concluded between the King of Hungary and the Duke of Austria, Hungary was included in this agreement, which may be considered as the origin of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, such as it exists at the present day.

In the following year (1365) Charles proceeded on a journey to Avignon to visit Pope Urban V. The purpose of this visit is unknown, but it is probable that the Emperor again wished to attract the Pope's attention to the question of Church reform, and to what seemed to the Emperor directly connected with this question, the transfer of the papal court from Avignon to Rome. This appears for a long time to have been a change on which the Emperor had set his whole heart, and he was undoubtedly influenced by a serious concern for the welfare of the Church. It was for this purpose that Charles had at one time attempted to obtain the papal throne for Ernest of Pardubic, Archbishop of Prague, who would probably have willingly acceded to the Avishes of the King of Bohemia, by restoring the seat of papacy to Rome.

A great majority of the cardinals, particularly those who were of French nationality, strongly opposed the transfer of the papal court, as they did not wish to leave their own country, and were also influenced by the state of insecurity prevalent in Italy at that time.

From Avignon Charles made a short excursion to Aries, to be crowned there as King of Arles, a former dependency