Diploma Ottonianum

The privilege Ottonianum (also Pactum Ottonianum ) is a February 13, 962 Pope John XII. by Emperor Otto I. granted privilege. It confirmed the Pippi niche donation and the existence of the Papal States, but also determines that henceforth the Pope had to make an oath of allegiance before his ordination to the Emperor.

Content

In the renewal of Pippi niches donations Otto I. securitized first the Territories, and rights of the Roman Church, beginning with the city and Dukat of Rome, this city and the Exarchate of Ravenna, Emilia, Pentapolis and Sabina, possessions in Tuscia, in the Campagna and to the south of line of Luni to Istria, the duchies of Spoleto and Benevento, but also patrimonies in Benevento, Naples, Calabria and Sicily. As in the earlier pacts also went in Ottonianum the claim area especially in the Byzantine, partly occupied by Saracens south of Italy far beyond the former facilities of the Apostolic See also. In so circumscribed Papal States to the Pope, the permanent rule and the protection of the emperor guaranteed.

However, Otto I renewed it - as the sometimes literal borrowings from Carolingian Vorurkunden make it clear - no more than the promises of his Carolingian predecessors. The document did not contain any obligations of the emperor, actively recover the meantime partly lost previous areas for the Pope. Not confirmed also by the papal side was complaining existence of the Donation of Constantine.

A second part regulated the election of a pope: The Pope should canonically chosen ( according to canon law ) by the Roman clergy and people, but are not consecrated until after taking a Treueeids before imperial envoys.

In the overall analysis can therefore be seen as an attempt Otto I the privilege Ottonianum to secure a greater influence on the papacy.

Otto I was in the same year (February 2, 962) in Rome by Pope John XII. crowned emperor. This restituted he simultaneously the Roman Empire.