gathering that might have demanded the wisest hand. FOOTNOTES: [153] 'Iohannes episcopus, servus servorum Dei, omnibus episcopis. Nos audivimus dicere quia vos vultis alium papam facere: si hoc facitis, da Deum omnipotentem excommunico vos, ut non habeatis licentiam missam celebrare aut nullum ordinare.'--Liudprand, _ut supra_. The 'da' is curious, as shewing the progress of the change from Latin to Italian. The answer sent by Otto and the council takes exception to the double negative. [154] 'Cives fidelitatem promittunt hæc addentes et firmiter iurantes nunquam se papam electuros aut ordinaturos præter consensum atque electionem domini imperatoris Ottonis Cæsaris Augusti filiique ipsius Ottonis.'--Liudprand, _Gesta Ottonis_, lib. vi. [155] 'In timporibus adeo a dyabulo est percussus ut infra dierum octo spacium eodem sit in vulnere mortuus,' says the chronicler, crediting with but little of his wonted cleverness the supposed author of John's death, who well might have desired a long life for so useful a servant. He adds a detail too characteristic of the time to be omitted--'Sed eucharistiæ viaticum, ipsius instinctu qui eum percusserat, non percepit.' [156] _Corpus Iuris Canonici_, Dist. lxiii., '_In synodo_.' A decree which is probably substantially genuine, although the form in which we have it is evidently of later date. [157] Cf. St. Peter Damiani's lines-- 'Roma vorax hominum domat ardua colla virorum, Roma ferax febrium necis est uberrima frugum, Romanæ febres stabili sunt iure fideles.' [158] There was a separate chancellor for Italy, as afterwards for the kingdom of Burgundy. [159] Liudprand, _Legatio Constantinopolitana_. [160] 'Sancti imperii nostri olim servos principes, Beneventanum scilicet, tradat,' &c. The epithet is worth noticing. [161] Liudprand calls the Eastern Franks 'Franci Teutonici' to distinguish them from the Romanized Franks of Gaul or 'Francigenæ,' as they were frequently called. The name 'Frank' seems even so early as the tenth century to have been used in the East as a general name for the Western peoples of Europe. Liudprand says that the Greek Emperor included 'sub Francorum nomine tam Latinos quam Teutonicos.' Probably this use dates from the time of Charles. [162] Conring, _De Finibus Imperii_. [163] Basileus was a favourite title of the English kings before the Conquest. Titles like this used in these early English charters prove, it need hardly be said, absolutely nothing as to the real existence of any rights or powers of the English king beyond his own borders. What they do prove (over and above the taste for florid rhetoric in the royal clerks) is the impression produced by the imperial style, and by the idea of the emperor's throne as supported by the thrones of kings and other lesser potentates. [164] The coins of Crescentius are said to exhibit the insignia of the old Empire.--Palgrave, _Normandy and England_, i. 715. But probably some at least of them are forgeries.