Note 838 — Chapter VIII · THE BISHOP.

Since A.D. 924 there had been in fact no Emperor of Germany, and the empire itself might seem to have been resolved anew into its original and discordant elements. From the year 904, when the elder Theodora succeeded in placing Sergius the Third upon the papal throne, the faction of that profligate woman and her daughters had completely disposed of all the dignities of the city, and the bed of the Theodoras or Marozia was the best introduction to the Chair of St. Peter.