440 Ontlmes of European History to protect a friendly one from the oppression of neighboring lords. These excursions were very distracting, especially to a ruler who left behind him in Germany a rebellious nobility that always took advantage of his absence to revolt. Otto's successors dropped their old title of king of the East Franks as soon as they had been duly crowned by the Pope at Rome, and assumed the magnificent and all-embracing designa- tion, " Emperor Ever August of the Romans." ^ Their " Holy Roman Empire," as it came to be called later, which was to endure, in name at least, for more than eight centuries, was obviously even less like that of the ancient Romans than was Charlemagne's. As kings in Germany and Italy they had prac- tically all the powers that they enjoyed as emperors. The title of Emperor was of course a proud one, but it gave the German kings no additional power except the fatal right that they claimed of taking part in the election of the Pope. We shall find that, instead of making themselves feared at home and building up a great state, the German emperors wasted their strength in a long struggle with the popes, who proved themselves in the end far stronger, and eventually reduced the Empire to a mere shadow. Section 74. The Church and its Property In order to understand the long struggle between the em- perors and the popes, we must stop a moment to consider the condition of the Church in the early Middle Ages. It seemed to be losing all its strength and dignity and to be falling apart, just as Charlemagne's empire had dissolved into feudal bits. This was chiefly due to the vast estates of the clergy. Kings, princes, and rich landowners had long con- sidered it meritorious to make donations to bishoprics and 1 Henry II (1002-1024) and his successors, not venturing to assume the title of Emperor till crowned at Rome, but anxious to claim Rome as attached to the German crown, began to call themselves, before their coronation, " King of the Romans."
