[234] Mediæval history is full of instances of the superstitious veneration attached to the rite of coronation (made by the Church almost a sacrament), and to the special places where, or even utensils with which it was performed. Everyone knows the importance in France of Rheims and its sacred _ampulla_; so the Scottish king must be crowned at Scone, an old seat of Pictish royalty--Robert Bruce risked a great deal to receive his crown there; so no Hungarian coronation was valid unless made with the crown of St. Stephen; the possession whereof is still accounted so valuable by the Austrian court. Great importance seems to have been attached to the imperial globe (Reichsapfel) which the Pope delivered to the Emperor at his coronation. [235] Whether the poem which passes under the name of Gunther Ligurinus be his work or that of some scholar in a later age is for the present purpose indifferent. [236] Zedler, _Universal Lexicon_, s. v. _Reich_. [237] It does not occur before Frederick I's time in any of the documents printed by Pertz; and this is the date which Boeclerus also assigns in his treatise, _De Sacro Imperio Romano_, vindicating the terms 'sacrum' and 'Romanum' against the aspersions of Blondel. [238] Pertz, _M. G. H._, tom. iv. (legum ii.) [239] Ibid. iv. [240] Radewic. _ap._ Pertz. [241] Blondellus adv. Chiffletium. Most of these theories are stated by Boeclerus. Jordanes (_Chronica_) says, 'Sacri imperii quod non est dubium sancti Spiritus ordinatione, secundum qualitatem ipsam et exigentiam meritorum humanorum disponi.' [242] Marquard Freher's notes to Peter de Andlo, book i. chap. vii. [243] So in the song on the capture of the Emperor Lewis II by Adalgisus of Benevento, we find the words, 'Ludhuicum comprenderunt sancto, pio, Augusto.' (Quoted by Gregorovius, _Geschichte der Stadt Rom im Mittelalter_, iii. p. 185.) [244] Goldast, _Constitutiones_. [245] Pertz, _M. G. H._, legg. ii. [246] 'Apostolic majesty' was the proper title of the king of Hungary. The Austrian court has recently revived it. [247] Moser, _Römische Kayser_. [248] Urban IV used the title in 1259: Francis I (of France) calls the Empire 'sacrosanctum.' [249] Cf. 'Holy Russia.' [250] It is almost superfluous to observe that the beginning of the title 'Holy' has nothing to do with the beginning of the Empire itself. Essentially and substantially, the Holy Roman Empire was, as has been shewn already, the creation of Charles the Great. Looking at it more technically, as the monarchy, not of the whole West, like that of Charles, but of Germany and Italy, with a claim, which was never more than a claim, to universal sovereignty, its beginning is fixed by most of the German writers, whose practice has been followed in the text, at the coronation of Otto the Great. But the title was at least one, and probably two centuries later. CHAPTER XIII. FALL OF THE HOHENSTAUFEN.