emperor’s consent; that the bishops elected by the clergy and the people shall not be consecrated until the emperor shall have confirmed the election, with the exception, however, of certain prelacies, the investiture of which the emperor cedes to the archbishops; that Otho, king of the Germans, and his successors in the kingdom of Italy, shall have the power in perpetuity of selecting those who shall reign after them; and that of nominating the popes, as well as the archbishops and bishops who receive from these princes their investiture “by the cross and the ring.” ¹²² Bellarmine, says John XII, was almost the most vicious of the popes. Fait feri omnium deterrimus. De Rom. pontif. 6. 2. e. 29. ¹²³ Ann. Eccles. ad. aim. 964. ¹²⁴ Liutprand. I. 6. c. ult.—Vita Joannis xii. vol. 3. Rer. ltd. 1. ii. pa. 328. ¹²⁵ See Pleffell. Abr. Chron. of the History of the Public Rights of Germany, ann. 964; Koch’s Sketch of the Revolutions of Europe. 3d period etc. With the exception of these last words the act is delivered down to us in Grotius’s decree; yet some Italian authors consider it apocryphal, without, assigning any other reason for this opinion than the enormous extent¹²⁶ which this constitution seems to confer on the imperial power. We may, however, assert in this place, that though the authenticity of this text be not very rigororously insisted on, the testimony of contemporary historians¹²⁷ invariably proves, that Otho obliged Leo VIII. to subscribe an explicit recognition of the imperial rights. ¹²⁶ These decrees are inventions in which we find exorbitant concessions to the imperial power, as well in the spiritualities as temporalities of the Church of Rome. Cardinal Baronius in his Ecclesiastical Annals, 964, father Pagi in his Critique on Baronius, and others, have wisely rejected similar impostures. Muratori’s Annals of Italy, year 964. vol. 6. p. 410. ¹²⁷ Liutprand. 1. 6, c. 6.—See vol. Pannom. 1. 8. c. 136; Grationi Decretum dis. c. 73; De Marca Concord. 1. 8, c. 12; St Marc. Abd. Hist, of Italy, vol. 4. dog. 1167, 1185. The recent revolt of John XII. sufficed to excite in the emperor an anxiety for this new guarantee: and Leo, his own creature, had no power of placing restrictions to it. The act was such as Otho willed it to be and this prince, a conqueror and a benefactor, would not rest satisfied with an ambiguous formula.