The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

62 RISE OF THE TEMPORAL SUPREMACY.with the puppets who had stood up in his room. A courseof policy was adopted, consisting of alternate cajolery andbrowbeating, in which the emperors had decidedly theworst of it.Their privilege of giving a valid and legal rightto the tiara was wrested from them ; and the popes manoeuvredso successfully as to keep the imperial prerogativein abeyance till the times of Otho the Great. Inimitableadroitness did the Papacy display in turning to accountthe troubles of the times.Like a knowing trader at a commercialcrisis with plenty of ready cash in hand, the popesdid such an amount of business in Peter'sname, that theyvastly increased the credit and revenues of his see. Sowisely did they lay out their available stock of influence,that theirhouse now became, and for some time afterwardscontinued to be, the first establishment in Europe. Of themany bidders for a share in the trade of the great Fisherman,none were admitted into the concern but such asbrought with them, in some shape or other, good solid capital; and thus the business went on every day improving.Monarchs were aided, but on allsuch occasions the popestook care that the chair of Peter should receive in returnsevenfold what it gave.The posterity of Charlemagne at this time contestedwith one another, in a sanguinary war, their rights to thethrone of their illustrious father. By large presents, andyet larger promises, Charles the Bald was fortunate enoughto engage the reigning pontiff, John VIIL, in his interests.From that moment the contest was no longer doubtful.Charles was proclaimed Emperor by the Pope in A.D. 876.A service so important deserved to be suitably acknowledged.The monarch's gratitude for his throne was embodiedin an act, by which he surrendered forhimself and hissuccessors all right of interfering in the election to the pontificalchair.Henceforward, till the middle of the tenth century,the imperial sanction was dispensed with, and the pontiffsmounted the chair of Peter without acknowledging inthe matter either king or kaisir. In this the pontificate