Otho I

(or the Great) OF GERMANY, next to Charlemagne the greatest European prince of the Middle Ages, noted alike in secular and ecclesiastical history in the former for his valuable service to German unity and influence, and in the latter for the support he gave to the papacy, and for the independence which he maintained towards the popes— was the son of the emperor Henry I, and was born in 912. He was carefully trained for successorship to the throne, and enjoyed the esteem of his associates and of the people. On the death of his father in A.D. 936 he was crowned king of the Germans. He immediately engaged in a series of eventful and generally triumphant wars, in the course of which he reduced the power of the dukes, -and conquered and converted the heathen Danes, Weinds. Bohemians, and Hungarians. He also interfered in the French dissensions, and thus acquired influence among that people, while at home he strengthened his individual power by gathering around him the leaders of the nation, and especially the best of the clergy. When his throne had been secured beyond venture, he turned his attention to Italy for the purpose of making his power felt over the entire domain of Charlemagne. Otho appeared first as the champion of Adelaide, the young widow of king Lothaire, who had been imprisoned and otherwise ill-used by Berenigar, the poisoner of Lothaire, and the usurper of the Italian crown. Otho liberated Adelaide, whom he married at Pavia in the year 951, and forgave Berengar. and allowed him to retain the sovereignty of Italy, but as his vassal. Otho then returned to Germany. After some years, fresh complaints from pope John XII (q.v.) of the tyranny of Berengar, who was then waging war against the papal throne, induced Otho to recross the Alps, and to go to the rescue of the pope in his extreme hour of need. Otho defeated Berengar and his son and colleague Adalbert. He was thereupon himself acknowledged by a diet held at Milan as king of Italy, and crowned by the archbishop with the iron crown of the Longobards in the church of St. Ambrose at the close of 961. In the following year Otho repaired to Rome, where pope John XII crowned him emperor of the West. as being the successor of Charlemagne, Feb. 2, 962. "Never did a more important event in history take place, making less impression on those who witnessed it, and being less commemorated by subsequent historians, than the coronation of Otho I at Rome in the year 962. By the coronation of Charles 162 years earlier, the first foundations had been laid for the empire; by the coronation of Otho that empire itself was founded afresh, and from that time forward it had an uninterrupted existences (Reichel, The Roman See in the Middle Ages, p. 124). For a short period the spiritual and temporal heads of Christendom seemed to be happily united, but the fickle pope, influenced either by mistrust or jealousy, soon again interrupted that happy concord by concocting anew intrigues with Alberia, the son of Berengar. Otho, who heard complaints from many quarters against the pope's licentiousness and tyranny, first remonstrated with him by means of an envoy. John pleaded his youth as an excuse, and promised amendment, which, however, never took place. Invited by the Romans themselves, the emperor now returned to Rome with an army, and the pope fled. The Romans having sworn that they would never elect another pope without the concurrence of the emperor and his son, he held a synod, in the year 963, in the church of St. Peter, and here many grave charges were variously preferred against the absent pontiff, who was deposed Dec. 4, and Leo VIII (q.v.) declared his successor. Fresh wars were the result of this step. Popes and antipopes contested the possession of Rome. No sooner had Otho departed from Rome than John re-entered the city and drove away Leo, and as papal incumbent once more practiced many acts of cruelty, this time seeking revenge upon those who had favored the exaltation of his rival. The struggle for the possession of Rome lasted for three years, and was ended only by the death of John and Berengar. The election of John's successor was held without the emperor's consultation, though it had been especially stipulated that Otho's wishes should be heeded. This brought Otho again to Rome, which he besieged and took. He banished the pope elect, Benedict V (q.v.), and reinstated Leo VIII. The year after, when this pope died, Otho instituted John XIII (q.v.). The Romans revolted against this action as soon as the emperor had turned his back on their city, and Otho was again obliged to return in 966 and put down this insurrection. He hanged thirteen leaders, and many others he condemned to severe punishment. His presence at Rome he turned into service to himself by causing his son Otho, then a child of six years, to be anointed and crowned as his colleague and emperor by the pope, in order-that the claims of his house. to the throne might have the sanction of the Church. He also in 972 married his son to the princess Theophania, under whose powerful influence Eastern manners and luxury were introduced at the German court. Otho died at Minsleben, in Thuringia, May 7, 973, and was buried at Miagdeburg. He left the character of a great and just ruler, who had extended the limits of the empire, and restored the prestige of the imperial power more nearly to the rank which it occupied under Charlemagne than any other emperor. He appointed counts-palatine, founded cities, bishoprics, and monasteries, and did good service to the empire in reorganizing the shaken foundations of its power in Europe. Otho's policy towards the see of Rome is worthy of notice, for while he showed himself zealous for the interests of the Church, endowed abbeys and convents, and honored deserving men among the clergy, yet he always asserted his sovereign right in temporal matters, and in the elections of the popes, a right of choice which his successors continued to exercise for a long time afterwards (until the pontificate of Gregory VII). See Vehse. Lebens Kaiser Otto's dero Grossen (Dresden, 1827); Luitprand, Historia Othonzis in Afonumz. Ger2mss. Script. voL iii; Ranke, in Jahrbiicher des deutschen Reichs, vol. i, pt. i; Luden, Gesch. d. deutsch. Volkes, vol. iii, vii; Baxmann, Gesch. der Politik der Pdpste (see Index in vol. ii); Ch. Histories by Neander, Gieseler, Kurtz. Niedner (Indices); Reichel, The See of Rome in the Middle Ages, p. 121 sq.; Milman, Latin Christianzity, 3:175 sq.; Piper, Evangelisches Jcahrbuch, 1852, p. 111 sq.; Gibbon, Declize and Fall (Milman's ed.), v. 55, 59, 419; Lewis, Hist. of Germany (N. Y. 1874), p. 126 sq.; Zeller, Hist. de Allgemaine (Paris, 1873). — SEE PAPACY.