[402:2] Milman, _Lat. Christ._, iii., 189; Greenwood, bk. viii., 497. [403:1] Mabillon, _Act. Ord. St. Benedict_, vi., 30; Robinson, _Readings_, i., 259. [404:1] Milman, ii., 481. [404:2] See Chap. XVIII. [405:1] Thacher and McNeal, No. 289. [405:2] Hodgkin, _Italy and her Invaders_, viii., 273; Mombert, _Charles the Great_, 485. [406:1] Fisher, _Med. Emp._, ii., 203; Mombert, _Charles the Great_. [406:2] Henry II. was the great-grandson of Otto I. [408:1] Glaber, I., i., ch. 4. [408:2] Rudolph, King of Burgundy, and Canute, King of England and Denmark were both present at the coronation. [409:1] Steindorff, _Jahrb. d. Deutsch. Reichs unter Heinrich III._ [409:2] Thatcher and McNeal, No. 32. [409:3] Thatcher and McNeal, No. 242, 243. [410:1] Schaff, iv., 298; Milman, ii., 505. [410:2] Muratori, iii., 2, p. 345; Hefele, iv., 707; Giesebrecht, ii., 643. [410:3] Thatcher and McNeal, No. 57. [415:1] See Potthast, _Wegweiser_. CHAPTER XVIII PREPARATIONS FOR THE HILDEBRANDINE REFORMATION OUTLINE: I.--Decline of the Papacy after Nicholas I. (858-867). II.--Reform efforts before the time of Hildebrand. III.--The youth and education of Hildebrand. IV.--The Hildebrandine Popes. V.--Sources. Nicholas I., through the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals, had raised the Church above the state, made the Pope supreme in the Church, and inaugurated needed reforms.[418:1] From Nicholas I. to Hildebrand (867-1049), for about two centuries, the Popes as a rule were men of very ordinary ability and education. Many of them gained the papal office by crime, or force, or bribery, and used it for corrupt purposes. Most of the fifty Popes and six anti-Popes of this period were Italians. The chair of St. Peter was far more political and worldly than spiritual. The latter part of the ninth century Rome saw twelve Popes elected in twenty-three years. Hadrian II. (867-872), an ex-married man with a family, connected with many a domestic scandal,[418:2] succeeded Nicholas I., and defended the papal pretensions with ability and dignity. Then followed John VIII. (872-882), an active, passionate, shrewd prelate, who was killed by a relative covetous of the papal throne with its wealth and influence. Stephen VI. (896-897) in revenge caused the body of Formosus, his predecessor, to be exhumed, clad in pontifical robes, seated on the pontifical throne, tried by a synod, deposed as a usurper, the fingers with which the pontifical blessing was given cut off, and thrown into the Tiber. He, himself, was cast into prison and there strangled to death (897).