new laws to a new world. What law, that stern and
terrible power which kills, binds, and holds together, signifies in
human affairs, has indeed been experienced by few periods so fully as by
that with which we have now to deal.

A synod, assembled in St. Peter's on December 23d, again pronounced all
three popes deposed, and a canonical pope had consequently to be
elected. Like Otto III before his coronation, Henry had also at his side
a man who was to wear the tiara and to confer the crown upon himself.

Adalbert of Hamburg and Bremen having refused the papacy, the King chose
Suidger of Bamberg. The royal command was all that was required to place
the candidate on the sacred chair. Henry, however, would not violate any
of the canonical forms. As King of Germany he possessed no right either
over that city or yet over the papal election. The right must first be
conferred upon him, and this was done by a treaty which he had already
concluded with the Romans at Sutri. "Roman Signors," said Henry at the
second sitting of the synod on December 24th, "however thoughtless your
conduct may hitherto have been, I still accord you liberty to elect a
pope according to ancient custom; choose from among this assembly whom
you will."

The Romans replied: "When the royal majesty is present, the assent to
the election does not belong to us, and, when it is lacking, you are
represented by your _patricius_. For in the affairs of the republic the
patricius is not patricius of the pope, but of the emperor. We admit
that we have been so thoughtless as to appoint idiots as popes. It now
behooves your imperial power to give the Roman republic the benefit of
law, the ornament of manners, and to lend the arm of protection to the
Church."

The senators of the year 1046, who so meekly surrendered the valuable
right to the German King, heeded not the shades of Alberic and the three
Crescentii; since these--their patricians--would have accused them of
treason.

The Romans of these days were, however, ready for any sacrifice so that
they obtained freedom from the Tusculum tyranny. Nothing more clearly
shows the utter depth of their exhaustion and the extent of their
sufferings than the light surrender of a right which it had formerly
cost Otto the Great such repeated efforts to extort from the city. Rome
made the humiliating confession that she possessed no priest worthy of
the papacy, that the clergy in the city were rude and utter simonists.