MEDIZVAL HISTORY 
Conse- the whole unfortunate consequences. In the long run 
ur Rz it hindered rather than promoted the unity of Chris- 
viva or tendom, on account of the disastrous struggles between 
EMPIRE popes and. emperors. The attempt to unite Germany 
and ‚Italy: prevented the. establishment of a strong 
government in either, But in both countries the towns 
profited :by the weakness of the central government, 
and Germany gained in civilisation by the connexion 
with Italy, 
In Otto’s own lifetime the disadvantages of the 
revival of the Empire were not seen. The last years of 
his reign were spent in peace and prosperity, and when 
he died in 973 “the people spoke much in his praise, 
remembering with gratitude how he had ruled his sub- 
jects with fatherly mildness, and freed them from their 
enemies,” 1 
Orro II, Otto the Great was first and foremost a German 
973-983 king: his son and successor Otto IL, the son of a 
Burgundian mother, the husband of a Byzantine 
princess, was less German in his interests. Abandoning 
his father’s policy he tried to weld Germany and Italy 
together. His reign of ten years was full of disturbance. 
In Germany he had difficulty with the duke of Bavaria, 
and fresh Slavic invasions troubled the eastern frontier ; 
in South Italy he had to carry on war against the Greeks 
and the Saracens, while in Rome he had to crush the 
pretensions of Crescentius, a noble, who tried to gain 
for himself the position once held by Alberic. 
At a diet at Verona which was attended by the 
magnates of both Germany and Italy, Otto proposed 
a united war against the Mohammedans. But before 
this holy war, which would have anticipated the 
l Widukind, c. 75.