Vita Caroli
The Election of Charles as King of the Romans
King John denounces Louis of Bavaria as a false emperor at the papal court in Avignon, and the electors subsequently choose Charles of Moravia as king of the Romans.
After this, King John entered the papal court at Avignon to see Pope Benedict and negotiated with him to such an extent that, with all the electors summoned, John himself proposed in their presence that Louis of Bavaria was no true emperor, since he stood against the holy Roman Church, the mother of Christendom, and had placed a certain Franciscan brother to crown himself as pope.1 And so the electors, proceeding immediately to the election, chose Charles, margrave of Moravia, as king of the Romans under favorable auspices.
Read the original Latin
Post hoc rex Johannes intravit curiam Avinionis ad papam Benedictum et cum eo practicavit in tantum, ut ipse coram omnibus electoribus vocatis insinuaret, qualiter Ludovicus de Bavaria non esset verus imperator, cum ipse staret contra sacrosanctam Romanam ecclesiam, christianitatis matrem, et quendam fratrem Minorum ad coronandum se in papam posuisset. Et sic statim electores ad eleccionem procedentes, Karolum, marchionem Moravie, in regem Romanorum felicibus auspiciis elegerunt.
Notes
- 1 ↩fratrem Minorum: literally 'brother of the Minors,' i.e., a Franciscan. The claim that Louis installed an antipope is historically contested; the text presents John's accusation as reported speech within indirect statement.
Vita Caroli (Autobiography of Emperor Charles IV) companion
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