Therefore, the Archbishop of Reims traditionally had supported the ruling family and had long been central to the royal policy. But the episcopal city was headed by Adalberon of Rheims, nephew of Adalberon of Metz (a faithful prelate to the Carolingians), elected by the King Lothair in 969, but who had family ties to the Ottonians. The Archbishop was assisted by one of the most advanced minds of his time, the schoolmaster and future Pope Sylvester II Gerbert of Aurillac. Adalberon and Gerbert worked for the restoration of a single dominant empire in Europe. King Lothair, 13 years old, was under the tutelage of his uncle Otto I. But upon reaching his majority, he became independent, which defeated their plans to bring the whole of Europe under a single crown. Therefore, they turned their support from Lothair to Hugh Capet. Indeed, for the Ottonian to make France a vassal state of the empire, it was imperative that the Frankish king was not of the Carolingian dynasty, and not powerful enough to break the Ottonian tutelage. Hugh Capet was for them the ideal candidate, especially since he actively supported monastic reform in the abbeys while other contenders continued to distribute church revenues to their own partisans. Such conduct could only appeal to Reims, who was very close to the Cluniac movement. Lothair succeeded by short-lived Louis V With the support of Adalberon of Reims, Hugh became the new leader of the kingdom. In a letter Gerbert of Aurillac wrote to Archbishop Adalberon that "Lothair is king of France in name alone; Hugh is, however, not in name but in effect and deed." In 979, Lothair sought to ensure his succession by associating his eldest son with the throne. Hugh Capet supported him and summoned the great nobles of the kingdom. The ceremony took place at Compiègne, in the presence of the king, of Arnulf (an illegitimate son of the king), and of Archbishop Adalberon, under Hugh's blessing. The congregation acclaimed Louis V, following the Carolingian custom, and the archbishop anointed the new king of the Franks. The following year, Lothair, seeing the growing power of Hugh, decided to reconcile with the Emperor Otto II by agreeing to renounce Lorraine. But Hugh did not want the king and the emperor reconciled, so he quickly took the fortress of Montreuil, and then went to Rome. There he met the emperor and the pope,