OTTO III, Emperor and King of Germany. - O. III was not yet 3 years old when he succeeded his father, Otto II; nevertheless he was crowned a few days later, at Christmas of 983. His minority, which was to last more than 13 years, began under unpleasant auspices, because the errors of Otto II were ripening their fruits; in fact, under the blows of the Slavs the right bank of the Elbe was lost; the political and missionary work of Henry I in that region was annihilated; Bohemia withdrew from German dominion; the duke of Bavaria, Henry the Quarrelsome, for a moment took the child away from his mother and sought to seize the crown; he counted on the help of the king of France, Lothair, who wanted to take advantage of the minority of O. III in order to reunite Lorraine with his kingdom.
The crown of O. III was saved thanks to the ability of the regent, his mother, Theophano, an intelligent and prudent woman, who by her prudence knew how to repair the defects of her husband and to compensate for the unpopularity he enjoyed in Germany. The unexpected death of Lothair, the support of the episcopate, and dynastic loyalty, which checkmated the Bavarian opposition, represented so many favorable circumstances. Theophano wisely renounced Sicilian adventures and gave proof of moderation in the affairs of Rome, allowing the Romans to choose Pope John XV for themselves and the Crescenzi to recover their dignity as patricians. She also knew how to pacify the Slavic frontiers on the Elbe and to limit Czech ambitions by supporting the Duke of Poland. In reality the merit of her policy must be attributed to her counselor, the archbishop of Mainz, Willigis, thanks to whom the same line of conduct was able to survive the death of Theophano, under the regency of her mother-in-law, the empress Adelaide, with whom Theophano had closely cooperated in life. The struggle against the Slavs remained the order of the day until the maturity of O. III (966).
Six years of personal government (996-1002) sufficed for him to bring the ambitions of the Saxon dynasty to their apogee, and also to compromise them by their temerarious breadth. The son of a Greek woman and of an exceptionally cultured Saxon, O. III did not hesitate long between the Mediterranean and Eastern dreams of his father and the anti-Slavic policy of his mother. Nourished on classical culture, formed under the beneficial influence of holy persons, such as Gerbert, St. Adalbert, St. Nilus, O. was a mystic, dreaming of a universal empire, in which he would advance the Kingdom of Christ. Rome exercised an irresistible attraction over him. Seduced by it, he wished to dominate it; but Germanic atavism reclaimed its rights and the brutality of Otto I reappeared in his method, with alternating phases of asceticism and gentleness. Few characters are as complex as that of O. III. He imposed a German pope on the Romans, Gregory V, from whom he received the imperial crown on 21 May 996. He broke with the utmost rigor a revolt fomented by the Crescenzi, and his muddled policy in southern Italy came close to procuring for him as many setbacks as for his father, who aimed higher and had a broader vision.
The Emperor found in Gerbert of Aurillac, whom he elected pope, under the name Sylvester II, without notifying the Romans, a colleague suited to his measure. By common accord, Pope and Emperor, the two suns of the world, worked for the establishment of the Christian Empire. Hungary, baptized and united directly to Rome, became the "Apostolic Crown." The autonomy of the Polish and Czech Churches attested to the universal character, ever more Roman and ever less German, of the ideal of O. III, who gave himself the title: "Roman, Saxon, Italian, servant of the Apostles, by the grace of God, august emperor of the world." He intended to adhere to all traditions; he proceeded solemnly to the exhumation of the body of Charlemagne, at Aachen, on 19 May of the year 1000, the day of Pentecost; he took upon himself, it is said, the golden cross of the great Emperor, and the legend spread of a mysterious message from Charles to his imitator. O. III likewise wished to marry a Greek princess and thus to concentrate in himself the rights of the Empire of the East and of the West. Above all he dreamed of the greatness of Rome, where he habitually resided from 999; he renewed at court the ancient and Byzantine ceremonial. A servant of the Apostles, he considered himself the lieutenant of St. Peter.
But from the end of the reign the preludes of an inevitable competition between the two heads of the Christian world were already manifesting themselves. Rome itself, ungrateful, hostile above all to German influence, rose up and forced the Emperor to withdraw to Monte Gargano, whence he did not come out except to die (24 Jan. 1002). The insults with which the Lombards greeted his remains were the death knells of the dream of universal domination, to bring about which O. left no heirs.
Bibliography17 works
Guglielmo Mollat