The lands of Dietrich became one scene of desolation. Sixty priests were flayed alive. The rebels were, nevertheless, completely beaten by Dietrich and Riddag in a pitched battle near Tangermünde. The emperor, however, more just than his father had been, deprived the cruel Dietrich of his government, and bestowed it on Hodo. Riddag and his cousin, the above-mentioned graf Dedo, remained in Meissen, whence Riddag was afterwards expelled by the Bohemians. It was regained by his cousin and successor, the brave Eckhart, whose exploits were equalled by those of Bernhard Billung, who had returned from Italy in order to oppose the Abodriti on the western frontier. The obstinacy with which the Slavs, notwithstanding the terrible defeats, still held out, is proved by the fact of Brandenburg having been first retaken in 994.
The peaceable conversion of the Bohemians and Poles chiefly contributed to the gradual but complete subjection of the Slavs on the frontiers. The independence of Bohemia and Poland was only possible so long as the powerful Slavonic pagan states existed to their rear. This support was now lost. Poland was already Christianised, and the bishop of Prague, Adalbert, was a celebrated Bohemian saint. It was also about this period that Christianity took firm footing in Denmark, although not without fierce struggles.
Great changes took place also at this period in France. Lothair died (986 A.D.), and in the following year his only son, Louis V. Charles of Lorraine, Lothair’s brother, aspired to the throne, but was excluded by the Capetian party. The disesteem in which he was held on account of his licentious habits, and the refusal of assistance from Germany, where the emperor, dissatisfied with the conduct of Lothair, no longer favoured the Carlovingians, rendered him defenceless; he fell into the hands of his rival, Hugh Capet, and died in prison (993 A.D.). His son Otto, the last of the Carlovingian race, died, neglected and despised (1004 A.D.).
OTTO III (983-1002 A.D.)
The death of Otto II, which was occasioned by the hardships he had undergone at Basantello, took place in Italy (983 A.D.). His son Otto III, a child three years of age, was named as his successor, under the joint guardianship of Theophano and Adelheid, who gave him such a learned education that he received the appellation of the Wunderkind, on account of the precocity of his intellect.
Henry the Wrangler, who aspired to the throne, and seized the person of the young monarch, had already, by his conduct, estranged from himself his countrymen the Saxons; the memory of the cruelties practised by his father also rendered him unpopular in Bavaria, and he was speedily reduced to submission by the Franconian party, at whose head stood Willigis, the learned archbishop of Mainz. He was the son of a wheelwright, and adopted a wheel for the arms of the archbishopric, with these words, “Willigis, Willigis, remember thy origin.” Next in rank to this spiritual head of the empire stood Conrad, duke of Franconia and Swabia, and Henry, duke of Bavaria. Henry the Wrangler was compelled to deliver up the emperor, and to take the oath of allegiance to him, in consideration of which he was restored to the dukedom of Bavaria, on the death of Henry Minor. The mere of Austria was granted to Leopold I, grandson to Adalbert of Babenberg, whom Hatto had betrayed. This brave markgraf displayed so much activity that in 983 he had driven the Hungarians from the Ems, taken their royal castle of Mölk, and compelled them to keep within the limits of modern Hungary. Their king Geisa followed the example of the sovereigns of Bohemia and Poland, and received baptism from the hands of Pilgerin, bishop of Passau; he also sought to preserve peaceful relations with the Germanic Empire; Christianity, nevertheless, first became the national religion during the reign of his son, St. Stephen, who ascended the throne in 997 A.D., and died in 1038 A.D. This monarch married Gisela, the daughter of Henry the Wrangler, a union that strengthened his alliance with Germany. Leopold planted numerous German colonists in lower Austria, the country regained by him from the Hungarians, which was visited by fresh missionaries, who there left imperishable records of their zeal.
The sceptre of Germany was no sooner again held by a child, than the clergy and the great vassals of the empire sought to regain the power of which they had been deprived during the preceding reigns. The youthful emperor, guided by his mother and grandmother, who greatly favoured the clergy, bestowed upon them rich lands and benefices. Peace was certainly maintained throughout the empire, the dukes contenting themselves with confirming their power in the interior of the state, unopposed by the emperor. War was, however, still carried on, on the Slavonic frontier, where Otto was occasionally allowed to appear in person, in order that he might have opportunity by deeds of valour to gain his spurs.
OTTO III MAKES AND UNMAKES POPES
Theophano and Adelheid, whose thoughts were ever directed towards Italy, their native land, had not been idle in their endeavours to rouse the ambition of the youthful Otto, who, on attaining his majority, aspired to the sovereignty of that country, where after the death of Otto II the Italian party again rose in opposition to that of the emperor. Crescentius, who had usurped unlimited power in Rome, caused the pope, John XIV, to be assassinated, and expelled his successor, John XV, who convoked an extraordinary council at Rheims (995 A.D.).
[996-1000 A.D.]
The German bishops and the pope, enraged at this conduct, unanimously condemned him at the council at Rheims, and he was compelled to yield. The pope expired during the following year, and the emperor marched into Italy for the purpose of regulating the affairs of the church. Crescentius was speedily overcome and pardoned. Otto, fired by youthful enthusiasm, imagined that the future happiness of the world was to be secured by a closer union of the imperial with the papal power, and with his own hand, although himself scarcely out of his boyhood, placed the tiara on the head of Bruno, the son of Otto of Carinthia, who was then in his four-and-twentieth year, and who received the name of Gregory V.
Scarcely had the emperor quitted Rome, than Crescentius again raised the banner of insurrection, inflamed all the dark and fiendlike passions of the Roman populace, already indignant at the assumption of the tiara by a stranger, and elected another Italian wretch, John XVI, pope. The emperor instantly returned, and re-entering Rome, where his presence alone sufficed to calm the uproar, caused the pretender to the popedom to be deprived of sight, and to be led through the city mounted on an ass. Crescentius, who had vainly thrown himself into the Engelburg, was executed (998 A.D.). The well-founded hopes of the German party were, however, doomed to be frustrated by Italian wiles, and it is only left for us to imagine what Europe might have become, had these two noble-minded youths been entrusted for a longer period with her temporal and spiritual welfare.
The Pope, Gregory V, expired suddenly in 999 A.D. His death was, with great justice, ascribed to poison. Gerbert became his successor, under the name of Silvester II. His deep science and learning caused him to be generally regarded as a wizard.
The death of Gregory, the friend of his youth, caused a deep dejection to prey upon the mind of the emperor, which was also worked upon by the exhortations of two Italian enthusiasts, the saints Romwald and Nilus, who gained great power over him, and who, being the fellow-countrymen of Crescentius, reproved him most particularly for the severity with which he had treated that traitor, which severity they denounced as a crime.