Page:Cambridge Medieval History Volume 3.pdf/110

Rh fortnight, the Romans had elected Stephen VII. This Pope was a personal enemy of Formosus and, perhaps in co-operation with Lambert, undertook to indict his detested predecessor with a horrible travesty of the forms of law. The corpse of Formosus – if an almost contemporary tradition is to be credited – was dragged from its tomb and clothed in its pontifical vestments and a simulacrum of a judicial trial was gone through. Accused of having infringed canonical rules by his translation from Porto to Rome, of having violated an oath taken to John VIII never to re-enter Rome, and, as a matter of course, condemned, the dead Pope's body was stripped of its vestments and cast into the Tiber. All the acts of Formosus, in particular the ordinations performed by him, were declared null and void. This sinister condemnation brought about a revulsion of feeling, although opinion had been generally somewhat hostile to Formosus. A revolt broke out in Rome, Stephen VII was made prisoner and strangled; some months of confusion followed until finally, the election of John IX (June 898) restored some measure of quiet. In agreement with Lambert, the new Pope took steps to pacify opinion. The judgment pronounced against Formosus was annulled, and the priests who had been deposed as having been ordained by him were restored. A synod, held at Rome, busied itself with measures to secure the good government of the Church and the observance of canonical rule. The prescribed form for the election of a supreme Pontiff was again laid down; the choice was to be made by the clergy of Rome with the assent of the people and nobles in the presence of an official delegated by the Emperor. A great assembly held by Lambert at Ravenna also made provision for the safety of Church property and for the protection of freemen against the oppressions exercised by the counts. But on 15 October 898 the young king lost his life through a hunting accident. Lambert left no heir and Berengar profited by the situation to make himself master of the kingdom of Italy without striking a blow. By 1 December Ageltrude herself acknowledged him, receiving from him a deed confirming her in possession of her property. With the accession of Berengar a new period begins in the history of Italy, not less disturbed than the preceding one, but almost entirely unconnected with the Carolingian Empire and the Kings of Germany.

On his return from Italy in 894 Arnulf was also to find in the western part of his dominions a situation of considerable difficulty. At the diet of Worms in 895, resuming a project which the opposition of his great vassals had forced him to lay aside in the preceding year, he had caused his son Zwentibold to be proclaimed King of Lorraine. Zwentibold was a brave and active prince, often entrusted by his father with the command of military expeditions. Arnulf hoped by this means to protect Lorraine against possible attempts by the rulers of Burgundy or of the Western Kingdom, and at the same time to maintain order,