Transcriber's Note: Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE BY JAMES BRYCE, D.C.L. _FELLOW OF ORIEL COLLEGE and PROFESSOR OF CIVIL LAW IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD_ THIRD EDITION REVISED London MACMILLAN AND CO. 1871 OXFORD: By T. Combe, M.A., E. B. Gardner, and E. Pickard Hall, PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY. PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. The object of this treatise is not so much to give a narrative history of the countries included in the Romano-Germanic Empire--Italy during the middle ages, Germany from the ninth century to the nineteenth--as to describe the Holy Empire itself as an institution or system, the wonderful offspring of a body of beliefs and traditions which have almost wholly passed away from the world. Such a description, however, would not be intelligible without some account of the great events which accompanied the growth and decay of imperial power; and it has therefore appeared best to give the book the form rather of a narrative than of a dissertation; and to combine with an exposition of what may be called the theory of the Empire an outline of the political history of Germany, as well as some notices of the affairs of mediæval Italy. To make the succession of events clearer, a Chronological List of Emperors and Popes has been prefixed[1]. The present edition has been carefully revised and corrected throughout; and a good many additions have been made to both text and notes. LINCOLN'S INN, August 11, 1870. FOOTNOTE: [1] The author has in preparation, and hopes before long to complete and publish, a set of chronological tables which may be made to serve as a sort of skeleton history of mediæval Germany and Italy. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Introductory. CHAPTER II. The Roman Empire before the Invasion of the Barbarians. The Empire in the Second Century 5 Obliteration of National distinctions 6 Rise of Christianity 10 Its Alliance with the State 10 Its Influence on the Idea of an Imperial Nationality 13 CHAPTER III. The Barbarian Invasions. Relations between the Primitive Germans and the Romans 15 Their Feelings towards Rome and her Empire 16 Belief in its Eternity 20 Extinction by Odoacer of the Western branch of the Empire 26 Theodoric the Ostrogothic King 27 Gradual Dissolution of the Empire 30 Permanence of the Roman Religion and the Roman Law 31