Page:Cambridge Medieval History Volume 3.pdf/48

Rh days spent in conferring about the interests of the Church, the ceremony of the imperial coronation took place in the cathedral of Notre-Dame. The Pope significantly set on Louis's head a diadem which he had brought with him from Rome and anointed him with the holy oil. The Empress Ermengarde was also crowned and anointed, and a few days later Stephen, accompanied by the imperial missi, again turned towards Rome, perhaps bearing with him the diplomas by which Louis confirmed the Roman Church in its privileges and possessions. Thus once more a seal was set upon the alliance between the Papacy and the Empire. At the same time, the subsequent relations of Louis the Pious with the Holy See shew the Emperor's constant anxiety for the observance of the twofold principle that the Emperor is the protector of the Pope, but that in return for his protection he has the right to exercise his sovereign authority throughout Italy, even in Rome itself, and, in particular, to give his assent to the election of a new pontiff. On the death of Stephen IV (24 January 817) Paschal I hastened to inform Louis of his election and to renew with him the agreement arrived at with his predecessors. The sending of Lothar to Italy as king with the special mission of governing the country, and his coronation in 823 at the hands of Paschal I, were a further guarantee of the imperial authority. Hence, no doubt, arose a certain discontent among the Roman nobles and even among the Pope's entourage which shewed itself in the execution of the primicerius Theodore and his son-in-law, the nomenclator Leo, who were first blinded and then beheaded in the Lateran palace, as guilty of having shewn themselves in all things too faithful to the party of the young Emperor Lothar. Paschal was accused of having allowed or even ordered this double execution, and two missi were sent to Rome to hold an inquiry into the matter, an inquest which, however, led to no result, for the Pope sent ambassadors of his own to Louis, with instructions to clear their master by oath from the accusations levelled against him.

On the death of Paschal I (824), as soon as the election of his successor, Eugenius II, had been announced to Louis, then at Compiègne, he sent Lothar to Italy to settle with the new Pope measures securing the right exercise of the imperial jurisdiction in the papal state. This mission of Lothar's led to the promulgation of the Constitutio Romana of 824, intended to safeguard the rights of all living under the protection of the Emperor and the Pope." Missi sent by both authorities were to superintend the administration of true justice. The Roman judges were to continue their functions, but were to be subject to imperial control. The Roman people were given leave to choose under what law they would live, but were required to take an oath of fealty to the Emperor. The measures thus taken and the settlement agreed upon were confirmed in writing by the Pope, who pledged himself to observe them. On his death, and after the brief pontificate of Valentine,