[256] _Corpus Iuris Canonici_, Decr. Greg. i. 6, cap. 34, _Venerabilem_: 'Ius et authoritas examinandi personam electam in regem et promovendam ad imperium, ad nos spectat, qui eum inungimus, consecramus, et coronamus.' [257] 'Illis principibus,' writes Innocent, 'ius et potestatem eligendi regem [Romanorum] in imperatorem postmodum promovendum recognoscimus, ad quos de iure ac antiqua consuetudine noscitur pertinere, præsertim quum ad eos ius et potestas huiusmodi ab apostolica sede pervenerit, quæ Romanum imperium in persona magnifici Caroli a Græcis transtulit in Germanos.'--Decr. Greg. i. 6, cap. 34, _Venerabilem_. [258] Its influence, however, as Döllinger (_Das Kaiserthum Karls des Grossen und seiner Nachfolger_) remarks, first became great when this letter, some forty or fifty years after Innocent wrote it, was inserted in the digest of the canon law. [259] Vid. supra, pp. 52-58. [260] Upon this so-called 'Translation of the Empire,' many books remain to us: many more have probably perished. A good although far from impartial summary of the controversy may be found in Vagedes, _De Ludibriis Aulæ Romanæ in transferendo Imperio Romano_. [261] 'Vacante imperio Romano, cum in illo ad sæcularem iudicem nequeat haberi recursus, ad summum pontificem, cui in persona B. Petri terreni simul et cœlestis imperii iura Deus ipse commisit, imperii prædicti iurisdictio regimen et dispositio devolvitur.'--Bull _Si fratrum_ (of John XXI, in A.D. 1316), in _Bullar. Rom._ So again: 'Attendentes quod Imperii Romani regimen cura et administratio tempore quo illud vacare contingit ad nos pertinet, sicut dignoscitur pertinere.' So Boniface VIII, refusing to recognize Albert I, because he was ugly and one-eyed ('est homo monoculus et vultu sordido, non potest esse Imperator'), and had taken a wife from the serpent brood of Frederick II ('de sanguine viperali Friderici'), declared himself Vicar of the Empire, and assumed the crown and sword of Constantine. [262] Avignon was not yet in the territory of France: it lay within the bounds of the kingdom of Arles. But the French power was nearer than that of the Emperor; and pontiffs many of them French by extraction sympathized, as was natural, with princes of their own race. CHAPTER XIV. THE GERMANIC CONSTITUTION: THE SEVEN ELECTORS. [Sidenote: Territorial Sovereignty of the Princes.] [Sidenote: Adolf, 1292-1298.] [Sidenote: Albert I, 1298-1308.] [Sidenote: Henry VII, 1308-1314.] [Sidenote: Lewis IV, 1314-1347.]