Page:Readings in European History Vol 1.djvu/287

 I Germany and Italy 251 lunders. Yet there is good reason to assume that he gives us a tolerably correct general impression of the situation in Italy and Rome as Otto found it. Marozia, mentioned below, belonged to a powerful Roman family, and, through her energy and ambition, had become the leader of the so-called senatorial party in Rome. Alberic, her son by her first husband, succeeded, as will appear in the selections given below, to her power; he ruled Rome, and quietly controlled the popes for more than a score of years until his death in 954. He was in turn followed by his son Octavian, who as a boy of six- teen sought to combine the position which his father had held with the papal office. Finally he decided to call in Otto the Great to help him out of his difficulties. 1 The pope having died, the lady senatress Marozia [in 931] ordained her son John to the most sacred seat ; wherefore he is called John XI. Rome was ruled by the power of a woman's hand ; as we read in the words of the prophets, " Women shall rule Jerusalem." Again the Hungarians came to Rome, and appeared before the gate of St. John, and the Romans went forth and fought with the people of the Hungarians. And the Hungarians cut down the Roman nobles so that they lay unburied by the very doors of the church. Then the Hungarians came to the city of Reatina, and Joseph, the wise Lombard, went forth from the gates with a great army of the Lombards. He put some of the Hungarians to the sword and took many alive. Then the Hungarians saw that the strength of their people was growing less in every way. They returned to their Qwn country, and came no more to Italy for pillage. . . . 1 An excellent brief account of the tangled history of Italy during the period in question will be found in Emerton, Mediceval Europe, pp. 115- 128 and 135-144. Corrections of Benedict's inaccuracies are given in Gregorovius, History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages, Vol. IV, pp. 276 sqq. The Hunga- rians driven out of Italy by the Lom- bards.