He was ordained by order of Belisarius while Silverius was still alive; his elevation was due to Theodora, who, by an appeal at once to his ambition and, it is said, to his covetousness, had induced him to promise to disallow the council of Chalcedon, in connexion with the "three chapters" controversy.
A Herredag, or Assembly of Nobles, was held at Copenhagen on the 2nd of July 1530, ostensibly to mediate between the two conflicting confessions, but the king, from policy, and the nobility, from covetousness of the estates of the prelates, made no attempt to prevent the excesses of the Protestant rabble, openly encouraged by Tausen.
Dante was perhaps too severe on Robert, whom he described as a re da sermone (word king), and contemporary critics accused him of covetousness, a fault partly excused by his pressing need of money to pay the expenses of his perpetual wars.
As Harnack says, "There is no trace of any tendency beyond the immediate purpose of maintaining the true Christian life in the church and warning it against covetousness and against an unbrotherly spirit.
