CHAPTER XVI - THE PAPAL SUPREMACY—GREGORY VII TO CALIXTUS II

THE reign of Gregory VII was of such a character as to mark an era, even in the course of the papacy. It was the papacy that had restored the Western Empire. It was by the pope that Charlemagne was proclaimed emperor. Charlemagne, and his successors for a long period, received from the hands of the pope the imperial crown. For a while, indeed, because of the anarchy of the times, the popes had been enabled even to choose, as well as to crown, the emperor. But, for a long period, up to the time of Gregory VII the papacy in itself had grown so utterly degraded that instead of the popes choosing the emperors, to the emperors had fallen the choosing of the popes. It was the one settled purpose of Gregory VII to reverse this order, and to make the papacy again supreme.ECE 336.1

2. It is upon this issue that the name of Hildebrand first appears in the history. When, because of his enormous cruelties and oppressions, Pope Gregory VI was rejected by the people, and even by the clergy of Rome, and, in behalf of clergy and people, had to be deposed and exiled by the emperor Henry, Hildebrand, who was then but a monk, publicly censured the Council of Sutri, which had granted to the emperor the power to depose the pope. About that time the monk Hildebrand took up his residence at the monastery of Cluny, in Burgundy, of which he soon became abbot. When Leo IX had been chosen pope by the emperor and his Diet at Worms, as he was on his journey to Rome, he stopped at the monastery of Cluny. There Hildebrand attacked Leo with his purpose of subjecting the authority of the emperor to that of the popes. Thus far on his journey, Leo had traveled as pope, in papal garb, with four bishops as his attendants. Hildebrand persuaded him to lay all this aside—not to renounce the office of pope itself, but only the recognition of its bestowal by the emperor. He persuaded him to make the rest of the journey as a simple pilgrim, and to present himself thus at Rome to the people as dependent alone upon their voice for the pontifical office.ECE 336.2

3. Hildebrand was so successful in the abbey of Cluny in imposing upon Leo his scheme, that he followed up this success by abandoning his abbey, and his abbacy, and going with Leo to Rome, and remaining permanently there. Whether Hildebrand had then, or even for some time later, framed the purpose to be pope himself, on the throne, can not certainly be affirmed. But it can with certainty be affirmed that he had formed the fixed determination that, wherever he might be, and whatever he might be, so far as his power could be made to go, the papacy should be supreme. And in Rome, though not pope upon the throne, Hildebrand became pope behind the throne. He maintained his power over Leo IX. At the death of Leo, he was the ambassador who went to Germany and secured the appointment of Victor II. He was so successful in holding steadily this onward course, that in became a matter of public notoriety that Hildebrand was the pope of the pope. In the time of Alexander II, to Hildebrand, Cardinal Damiana wrote: “You make this one Lord: that one makes you God.” “I am subject more to the lord of the pope than to the lord pope.”ECE 337.1

4. Another purpose to which Hildebrand was devoted, and which was essential to his grand scheme of the supremacy of the papacy, was the absolute and universal celibacy of the clergy. Monkery was, of course, always opposed to the marriage relation. All of the clergy who were monks, were therefore celibate. And all the popes who were also monks had steadily warred against marriage; and the popes who were not monks rigidly maintained what those had done who were monks. In 748 Boniface, the monk, who was the papal missionary to Germany, after a long war against the married clergy in France, in which he was firmly supported by Charles Martel and his son Carloman, was obliged to confess that the married clergy, though driven out from all Church connection, were “much more numerous than those who as yet had been forced to compliance with the rules. Driven from the churches, but supported by the sympathizing people, they performed their ministry among the fields and in the cabins of the peasants, who concealed them from the ecclesiastical authorities. This is not the description of mere sensual worldlings, and it is probable that by this time persecution had ranged the evil-disposed on the winning side. Those who thus exercised their ministry in secret and in wretchedness, retaining the veneration of the people, were therefore men who believed themselves honorably and legitimately married, and who were incapable of sacrificing wife and children for worldly advantage or in blind obedience to a rule which to them was novel, unnatural, and indefensible.”—Lea. ^{1[Page 338] “History of Sacerdotal Celibacy.” Chap. ix, par. 14.}ECE 337.2

5. However gross might be the licentiousness of the unmarried clergy, to be married and live honorably with a wife was denounced as a greater sin than all this could be. It was the positive teaching of the Church that he who was guilty of practicing licentiousness, “knowing it to be wrong, was far less criminal than he who married, believing it to be right.”—Lea. ^{2[Page 338] Id., chap 12, par. 9 from end.} Such of the clergy as were not monks were designated as the “secular” clergy. And it would seem that of these there were more than there were of the monkish clergy. And in spite of the perpetual war of the monks and the popes against the marriage of the clergy, there were yet in the time of Gregory VII great numbers of these who recognized, honored, and enjoyed the marriage relation. In England, in France, in Normandy, in Germany, Burgundy, Lombardy, and the kingdom of Naples, there were large numbers of married clergy; and even in Rome itself there were some. Down to the time of Nicholas II, the whole clergy of the kingdom of Naples, from the highest to the lowest, openly and honorably lived with their lawful wives.ECE 338.1

6. “Notwithstanding the pious fervor which habitually stigmatized the wives as harlots and the husbands as adulterers, Damiani himself allows us to see that the marriage relation was preserved with thorough fidelity on the part of the women, and was compatible with learning, decency, and strict attention to religious duty by the men. Urging the wives to quit their husbands, he finds it necessary to combat their scruples at breaking what was to them a solemn engagement, fortified with all legal provisions and religious rites, but which he pronounces a frivolous and meaningless ceremony. So, in deploring the habitual practice of marriage among the Piedmontese clergy, he regards it as the only blot upon men who otherwise appeared to him as a chorus of angels, and as shining lights in the Church.” ^{3[Page 339] Id., par. 7 from end.} But all this, it was Hildebrand’s fixed purpose utterly and universally to break down. Hildebrand’s place and power in the affairs of the papacy is the secret of the councils and efforts of Leo IX, Stephen X, Nicholas II, and Alexander II against the marriage, or as they called it the “concubinage and adultery” of the clergy. It was the favoring of the marriage of the clergy that was the principal cause that Honorius II was so bitterly denounced by Cardinal Damiani.ECE 338.2

7. The day after the death of Alexander II, while Hildebrand as archdeacon was conducting the funeral service, the cry was started and was at once taken up by the multitude, “Hildebrand is pope.” St. Peter chooses the archdeacon Hildebrand.” The funeral services thus interrupted were abandoned until Hildebrand was inducted to his new office, and, clothed in purple, was seated upon the papal throne, April 22, 1073, as—GREGORY VII. His very choice of his papal name was a signal of what was to be his attitude toward the imperial authority. His chosen name of Gregory VII was the open indorsement of the pontificate of Gregory VI, who had been deposed and exiled by the emperor, which action Hildebrand, the monk, had at the time publicly censured.ECE 339.1

8. This open indorsement of the pontificate of Gregory VI by this “Caesar of the papacy” is notable also in another respect: Gregory VI was the priest John Gratian (page 323) who had accumulated so much wealth “for pious uses,” which he employed in the “pious use” of buying the papacy when it was put up at auction by that papal triplicate, Benedict IX, John XX, and Sylvester III. Therefore when Hildebrand chose the name of Gregory VII, he not only twitted the imperial authority that had deposed Gregory VI, but he put his papal indorsement upon the whole course of Gregory VI. By this, Gregory VII set the papal seal of legitimacy upon the order of things by which there came to be a Gregory VI. And by that be settled it by the highest possible papal authority that there can not be any such thing as an illegitimate attainment of the papacy. By the papacy itself there is thus certified that in her affairs, “whatever is, is right.”ECE 339.2

9. As much as Gregory VII hated any dependence of the papacy upon the sanction of the imperial authority, the situation of the papacy just at that time compelled him to defer to the imperial authority, to court its favor, and even to solicit its approval of his elevation to the papal chair. During the greater part of the reign of his immediate predecessor there had been two popes, and consequently war; and now the emperor was ready to raise up a pope in opposition to Gregory VII. To escape such an event and its consequences, Gregory was compelled to submit to the approval of the emperor his claims to the papal seat, though he was already elected pope. The very next day after his election he sent messengers to Henry IV in Germany, to announce to him what had occurred; and “that though he had not been able to withstand the earnest desire, or rather violence, of the Roman people, he had not suffered himself to be consecrated without the approbation and consent of the king. Hereupon, Henry immediately dispatched Count Eberhard to Rome, with orders to inquire on the sport whether the election of Hildebrand was canonical; and if it was not, to cause another to be chosen in his room.”—Bower. ^{4[Page 340] “Lives of the Popes,” Gregory VII, par. 1.} Gregory was able to satisfy Count Eberhard, who returned with a favorable report to Henry, who then sent to Rome the chancellor of Italy, the bishop of Vercelli, to confirm the election of Gregory, and to assist at his consecration as pope.ECE 340.1

10. Thus Gregory VII held the papal throne undisputed by either the imperial authority or a rival pope. And thus he confessed himself and the papacy dependent upon the imperial authority for the very power which he was determined to use to lift himself and the papacy above that authority. And this is but the story of Gregory’s scheme throughout: While he was determined to exalt the papal power above the imperial, and make it supreme and absolute, yet he never for a moment thought of making the papacy independent of the imperial authority. The imperial power was to be the sword-arm of the Church, to be directed by the will of the Church, and to be wielded in behalf of the Church. This was made plain by Hildebrand in the reign of Alexander II, in a letter that he wrote to the archbishop guardian of the young emperor Henry IV, about the year 1062. He said:—ECE 340.2

“The royal and sacerdotal powers are united in Jesus Christ, in heaven. They should equally form an indissoluble union on earth; for each has need of the assistance of the other to rule the people. The priesthood is protected by the strength of royalty; and royalty is aided by the influence of the priesthood. The king bears the sword to strike the enemies of the Church; the pope bears the thunders of anathema to crush the enemies of the sovereign. Let the throne and the Church then unite, and the whole world will be subjected to their law.” ^{5[Page 341] De Cormenin’s “History of the Popes,” Alexander II.}ECE 341.1

11. This theory, more fully stated, is that “as God, in the midst of the celestial hierarchy, ruled blessed spirits in paradise, so the pope, His vicar, raised above priests, bishops, metropolitans, reigned over the souls of mortal men below. But as God is Lord of earth as well as of heaven, so must he (the imperator coelestis) be represented by a second earthly viceroy, the emperor (imperator terrenus), whose authority shall be of and for this present life. And as in this present world the soul can not act save through the body, while yet the body is no more than an instrument and means for the soul’s manifestation, so must there be a rule and care of men’s bodies as well as of their souls, yet subordinated always to the well-being of that which is the purer and the more enduring. It is under the emblem of soul and body that the relation of the papal and imperial power is presented to us throughout the Middle Ages.ECE 341.2

12. “The pope, as God’s vicar in matters spiritual, is to lead men to eternal life; the emperor, as vicar in matters temporal, must so control them in their dealings with one another that they may be able to pursue undisturbed the spiritual life, and thereby attain the same supreme and common end of everlasting happiness. In the view of this object his chief duty is to maintain peace in the world, while toward the Church his position is that of advocate, a title borrowed from the practice adopted by churches and monasteries of choosing some powerful baron to protect their lands and lead their tenants in war. The functions of advocacy are twofold: at home to make the Christian people obedient to the priesthood, and to execute their decrees upon heretics and sinners; abroad to propagate the faith among the heathen, not sparing to use carnal weapons. Thus does the emperor answer in every point to his antitype the pope, his power being yet of a lower rank, created on the analogy of the papal, as the papal itself had been modeled after the elder empire.ECE 341.3

13. “The parallel holds good even in its details; for just as we have seen the churchman assuming the crown and robes of the secular prince, so now did he array the emperor in his own ecclesiastical vestments, the stole, and the dalmatic, gave him a clerical as well as a sacred character, removed his office from all narrowing associations of birth or country, inaugurated him by rites every one of which was means to symbolize and enjoin duties in their essence religious. Thus the holy Roman Church and the holy Roman Empire are one and the same thing, in two aspects; and Catholicism, the principle of the universal Christian society, is also Romanism; that is, rests upon Rome as the origin and type of its universality; manifesting itself in a mystic dualism which corresponds to the two natures of its Founder. As divine and eternal, its head is the pope, to whom souls have been intrusted; as human and temporal, the emperor, commissioned to rule men’s bodies and acts.”—Bryce. ^{6[Page 342] “The Holy Roman Empire,” chap 7, par. 12.}ECE 342.1

14. Gregory VII laid claim not only to the dominions that composed the holy Roman Empire, but to those far beyond: England, Norway, Denmark, Poland, Bohemia, Russia, Africa, and practically even the whole earth; for, all land that might be gained by conquest from the heathen was to be held as fief from the pope. He wrote to the kings of Spain, that whatever part of that dominion was conquered from the Mohammedans was to be considered as granted to the conquerors by the pope, and held by the conquerors as the pope’s vassal. And, it was he who, in following up this idea, first conceived the idea of the Crusades. For, in thus gaining dominions in the East, he would have ecclesiastical authority in the East, and could hope thus to bring even the whole Eastern Church once more under the power of the papacy.ECE 342.2

15. Gregory’s conception of the Crusades is made clear in a letter to king Henry IV, as follows:—ECE 342.3

“We are informed, my son, that the Christians beyond the sea, persecuted by the infidel, and pressed down by the misery which overwhelms them, have sent entreaties to the holy see, imploring our aid, lest during our reign, the torch of religion should be extinguished in the East. We are penetrated with a holy grief, and we ardently aspire after martyrdom. We prefer to expose our life to protect our brethren, rather than remain at Rome to dictate laws to the world, when we know that the children of God are dying in slavery. We have consequently undertaken to excite the zeal of all the faithful of the West, and to lead them in our train to the defense of Palestine. Already have the Italians and Lombards, inspired by the Holy Spirit, heard our exhortations with enthusiasm, and more than fifty thousand warriors are preparing for this far distant expedition, determined to wrest the sepulcher of Christ from the hands of the infidel. I have the more decided to conduct this enterprise in person, as the Church of Constantinople asks to be reunited to ours, and that all the inhabitants may wait upon us to put an end to their religious quarrels. Our fathers have frequently visited these provinces, in order to confirm the faith by holy words; we wish in our turn to follow in their footsteps, if God permits; but as so great an enterprise needs a powerful auxiliary, we demand the aid of your sword.” ^{7[Page 343] De Cormenin’s “History of the Popes, “Gregory VII.}ECE 343.1

16. He also “wrote a general letter on the same subject to all the nations of the West, in which he excited the princes to the holy war against the infidel, beseeching them to send ambassadors to Rome, with whom he could arrange the execution of an expedition beyond the sea. Gregory, however, notwithstanding his obstinate perseverance in the project of conquering the Holy Land, could not put it in execution, in consequence of the refusal of the king of Germany to become an associate in this dangerous enterprise. The pope, fearing the ambition of the prince, if he abandoned Italy to combat the infidels, renounced his designs, and applied himself only to augment the temporal grandeur of the holy see.”—De Cormenin. ^8Id.ECE 343.2

17. The year following his accession to the papal throne, Gregory assembled a council in Rome, March 9, and 10, 1074, to begin his war against the marriage of the clergy. “In that assembly the following decrees were proposed by the pope, and agreed to at his request by the bishops who composed it:—ECE 343.3

“1. That they who had obtained by simony any dignity, office, or degree in the Church, should be excluded from the exercise of the office thus obtained.ECE 343.4

“2. That they, who had purchased churches with money, should quit them, and no man should thenceforth presume to sell or buy any ecclesiastical dignity whatever.ECE 344.1

“3. That the married clerks should not perform any clerical office.ECE 344.2

“4. That the people should not assist at mass celebrated by them, nor at any other sacred function.ECE 344.3

“5. That they who had wives, or, as they are styled in the decree, concubines, should put them away, and none should thenceforth be ordained who did not promise to observe continence during his whole life.” ^{9[Page 344] Bower’s “Lives of the Popes, “Gregory VII, par. 4.}ECE 344.4

18. As for these decrees which related to simony, they amounted practically to no more than had the like decrees which had been so often enacted; because all the wealth of the Church was not only still held, but was expected by Gregory to be greatly increased. “According to the strict law, the clergy could receive everything, alienate nothing.”—Milman. ^{10[Page 344] “Latin Christianity,” Vol. iii, book vii, chap 1, par. 15.} And as long as this continued, and even grew, there could be no force in legislation prohibiting it, when those who were to enforce the law were the ones who made the laws, and who committed the transgressions which were forbidden by the laws which they themselves had made. But, with the canons forbidding the marriage of the clergy, it was different. Here, in the monks, was a vast horde to be the pope’s seconds in the condemnation and annihilation of marriage amongst the clergy. Yet, for all this, there was open and universal opposition by the married clergy.ECE 344.5

19. The decrees of this council were sent to all the bishops of France and Germany, with the command of the pope that they “exert all their power and authority in causing them to be strictly observed in all places under their jurisdiction. Some bishops complied so far with that injunction as to cause the decrees of the council to be published throughout their dioceses, and exhort their clergy to conform to them. But such was the opposition they everywhere met with, that they did not think it advisable to exert their authority or to use any kind of compulsion. Other bishops, such of them especially as were themselves married, instead of enforcing the observance of the papal decree, declared them repugnant both to Scripture and reason. Among these was Otho, bishop of Constance, whom the pope summoned, on that account, to Rome, as ‘an encourager of fornication;’ while the bishop maintained that vice and all manner of uncleanness, abhorred by him, to be encouraged by the pope. At the same time that Gregory wrote to Otho, citing him to Rome to give there an account of his writing and conduct, he absolved the clergy and people of Constance, by a letter directed to them, from all obedience to their bishop, so long as he persisted in his ‘disobedience to God and the apostolic see.’”—Bower. ^{11[Page 345] “Lives of the Popes,” Gregory VII, par. 6.}ECE 344.6

20. The married bishops and clergy declared that “if the pope obstinately insisted on the execution of his decree, they were determined to quit the priesthood rather than their wives; and his Holiness might then see where he could get angels to govern the Church, since he rejected the ministry of men.” The pope sent four bishops as his legates, into Germany, to hold a council there, to cause the bishops to execute the decrees of the council. King Henry met the legates at Nuremberg, and received and treated them with the greatest possible respect. But he counseled them against any attempt to hold a council, because the archbishop of Mainz was the legitimate papal legate in Germany; that therefore he alone had the right to call, and to preside at, all councils held in Germany; and that he, as sovereign, could not require the bishops of Germany to attend a council over which any other than the archbishop of Mainz presided.ECE 345.1

21. Gregory’s legates disregarded Henry’s counsel, and attempted to call their council. But the German bishops unanimously declared that they would not attend any council called by anybody but the archbishop of Mainz, nor would they respect any decrees of a council at which he had not presided as legate. This caused virtually the defeat of the decrees of Gregory’s council, and he resolved to hold another. Accordingly, Feb. 24-28, 1075, another council was held in Rome, at which “the decree against the marriage, or, as they called it, the concubinage, of the clergy, was confirmed, and ecclesiastics of all ranks were ordered, on pain of excommunication, to quit their wives or renounce the ministry.” This decree was strengthened by forbidding all the laity everywhere “to assist at any function whatever, performed by such as did not immediately obey that decree.”ECE 345.2

22. This latest turn decreed by the council, was merely Gregory’s will adopted by the council. For, in the month before the council was called, Gregory had sent circular letters to the dukes and lords of the States of the empire, by which he placed in their hands the power to compel the bishops to execute the decrees of the council, saying:—ECE 346.1

“Whatever the bishops may say or may not say concerning this, do you in no manner receive the ministrations of those who owe promotion or ordination to simony, or whom you know to be guilty of concubinage, ...and, as far as you can, do you prevent, by force, if necessary, all such persons from officiating. And if any shall presume to prate and say that it is not your business, tell them to come to us and dispute about the obedience which we thus enjoin upon you.”ECE 346.2

23. In the letter also he made “bitter complaint of the archbishops and bishops, who, with rare exceptions, had taken no steps to put an end to these ‘execrable customs,’ or to punish the guilty.” And when this principle was adopted by this latest council, “the princes of Germany, who were already intriguing with Gregory for support in their perennial revolts against their sovereign, were delighted to seize the opportunity of at once obliging the pope, creating disturbance at home, and profiting by the Church property which they could manage to get into their hands by ejecting the unfortunate married priests. They accordingly proceeded to exercise, without delay and to the fullest extent, the unlimited power so suddenly granted them over a class which had hitherto successfully defied their jurisdiction; nor was it difficult to excite the people to join in the persecution of those who had always held themselves as superior beings, and who were now pronounced by the highest authority in the Church to be sinners of the worst description. The ignorant populace were naturally captivated by the idea of the vicarious mortification with which their own errors were to be redeemed by the abstinence imposed upon their pastors, and they were not unreasonably led to believe that they were themselves deeply wronged by the want of purity in their ecclesiastics. Add to this the attraction which persecution always possesses for the persecutor, and the license of plunder, so dear to a turbulent and barbarous age, and it is not difficult to comprehend the motive power of the storm which burst over the heads of the secular clergy, and which must have satisfied by its severity the stern soul of Gregory himself.ECE 346.3

24. “A contemporary writer, whose name has been lost, but who is supposed by Dom Martene to have been a priest of Treves, gives us a very lively picture of the horrors which ensued, and as he shows himself friendly in principle to the reform attempted, his account may be received as trustworthy. He describes what amounted almost to a dissolution of society, slave betraying master and master slave; friend informing against friend; snares and pitfalls spread before the feet of all; faith and truth unknown. The peccant priests suffered terribly. Some, reduced to utter poverty, and unable to bear the scorn and contempt of those from whom they had been wont to receive honor and respect, wandered off as homeless exiles; others, mutilated by the indecent zeal of ardent puritans, were carried around to exhibit their shame and misery; others tortured in lingering death, bore to the tribunal on high the testimony of bloodguiltiness against their persecutors; while others, again, in spite of danger, secretly continued the connections which exposed them to all these cruelties....ECE 347.1

25. “When such was the fate of the pastors, it is easy to imagine the misery inflicted on their unfortunate wives. A zealous admirer of Gregory relates with pious gratulation, as indubitable evidence of divine vengeance, how, maddened by their wrongs, some of them openly committed suicide, while others were found dead in the beds which they had sought in perfect health; and this being proof of their possession by the devil, they were denied Christian sepulture. The case of Count Manigold of Veringen affords a not uninstructive instance of the frightful passions aroused by the relentless cruelty which thus branded them as infamous, tore them from their families, and cast them adrift upon a mocking world. The count put in force the orders of Gregory with strict severity throughout his estates in the Swabian Alps. One miserable creature thus driven from her husband, swore that the count should undergo the same fate; and, in the blindness of her rage, she poisoned the countess of Veringen, whose widowed husband, overwhelmed with grief, sought no second mate.”—Lea. ^{12[Page 347] “History of Sacerdotal Celibacy,” chap 14, pars. 17-19.}ECE 347.2

26. At the same council by which this heaviest blow which it would be possible for even the papacy to strike at the Divine bonds of human society, there was enacted the following decree:—ECE 348.1

“If any one shall henceforth accept of a bishopric or of an abbey from a layman, let him not be looked upon as a bishop or abbot, nor any respect be paid to him as such. We moreover exclude him from the grace of St. Peter, and forbid him to enter the Church, till he has resigned the dignity that he has got by ambition, and by disobedience, which is idolatry. And this decree extends to inferior dignities. In like manner, if any emperor, duke, marquis, count, or any other secular person whatever, shall take upon him to give the investiture of a bishopric, or of any other ecclesiastical dignity, he shall be liable to the same sentence.” ^{13[Page 348] Bower’s “Lives of the Popes,” Gregory VII, par. 13.}ECE 348.2

27. This was the beginning of what is known as the War of Investitures. “In the eleventh century a full half of the land and wealth of the country, and no small part of its military strength, was in the hands of churchmen: their influence predominated in the Diet; the archchancellorship of the empire, highest of all offices, was held by, and eventually came to belong of right to, the archbishop of Mentz, as primate of Germany.”—Bryce. ^{14[Page 348] “The Holy Roman Empire,” chap 8, par. 6.} This made these prelates to be, and, to all intents and purposes they actually were, temporal lords and nobles, as well as churchmen. The sovereign held, and unto this time the claim was universally recognized, that, for these temporalities, the churchmen owed to the sovereign, fealty. The token of this fealty was that, at the induction of the prelate into his office, the sovereign expressed his “approbation by putting the elect in possession of the temporalities of his see, which was done by delivering to him a pastoral staff, or a crosier and a ring. And this was the ceremony known by the name of Investiture; and the elect was not ordained till it was performed.”—Bower. ^{15[Page 348] “Lives of the Popes,” Gregory VII, par. 13.}ECE 348.3

28. This decree of Gregory’s second council, forbidding lay investiture, if made effective, would at one stroke rob the empire of half its temporalities, and place them absolutely under the power of the pope. Plainly, therefore, “this decree was a declaration of war against all Christian princes; for Gregory could not suppose that they would tamely part with a right which they looked upon as one of the most valuable jewels of their crown, and which no pope had ever yet disputed. But he thought it a point well worth contending for, well worth all the confusion, civil wars, rebellions, bloodshed, that such a decree might occasion, since he would by carrying it into execution, engross to himself the disposal of the whole wealth of the Church, and thus make the clergy everywhere independent of their princes, and dependent upon him alone, as he alone could reward and prefer them.” ^{16[Page 349] Id.}ECE 348.4

29. The decree was intended as a declaration of war and especially against Henry IV, the head of the empire. And it is difficult to believe that the time was not deliberately chosen by Gregory VII for the contest. Gregory was sixty-two years old; Henry was but about twenty-two. Gregory had had thirty years of training in the dark, crafty, and arrogant school of the papacy; Henry had scarcely any training in the school of kingship, for from his infancy until his majority he had been held in the leading strings of the imperious ecclesiastics of Germany, who, in their ambition to rule the kingdom, “had galled him with all that was humiliating, with none of the beneficial effects of severe control. They had been indulgent only to his amusements: they had not trained him to the duties of his station, or the knowledge of affairs and of man.... Thus with all the lofty titles, the pomp without the power, the burden with nothing but the enervating luxuries, none of the lofty self-confidence of one born and fitly trained to empire, the character of Henry was still further debased by the shame of perpetual defeat and humiliation.”—Milman. ^{17[Page 349] “Latin Christianity,” Vol. iii, book vii, chap 2, par. 6.} In addition to this disadvantage of Henry in age and training, just at this time there was a revolt of the Saxon nobles, including the archbishop of Magdeburg, the bishops of Halberstadt, Hildesheim, Mersberg, Minden, Paderborn, and Meissen.ECE 349.1

30. Such was the situation of Henry IV when Gregory VII through his second council, began the War of Investitures. The council was no sooner over than Gregory wrote to Henry, sending him a copy of the decrees, “reproaching him at the same time, in the letter, with still keeping and employing the ministers whom he had excommunicated; with suffering the bishops, whom he had deposed, to continue in their sees; with neglecting to publish in his dominions the decrees of the former Council of Rome against simony, and the incontinence of the clergy; and lastly with protecting Godfrey, the usurper of the see of Milan, and communicating with the Lombard bishops his adherents, though cut off by the apostolic see from the communion of the Church. In the close of his letter he forbids the king thenceforth to meddle at all with ecclesiastical preferments, to grant investitures, or dispose of vacant churches, upon any pretense whatsoever; and threatens him with excommunication if he does not comply with the decree banishing such unlawful practices from the Church.”—Bower. ^{18[Page 350] “Lives of the Popes,” Gregory VII, par. 14.}ECE 349.2

31. Henry being engaged in his Saxon war, and thus not prepared for an open war with the pope, sent to Gregory a very kind reply, and promised that he would cause the decrees of the council against simony and marriage of the clergy, to be published in his dominions, and would do what he could to have them obeyed. But he entirely ignored both the decree and Gregory’s letter, as far as they related to investitures; saying that later he would send an embassy to Rome to consider and settle with the pope, other matters. Soon, however, Henry triumphed over the revolted Saxons; and, having this difficulty out of the way, he felt himself able to take up Gregory’s challenge upon investitures. In this interval some vacancies had occurred in this bishoprics; and some of these Gregory had presumed to fill. Henry filled the sees that were vacant, and also by his own authority, those which Gregory had presumed to fill, excluding the bishops whom Gregory had appointed. And, upon all these appointees, Henry conferred investiture as had always been done.ECE 350.1

32. When Gregory had learned of this disobedience on the part of Henry, he wrote a letter in which he said:—ECE 350.2

“Gregory, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to King Henry health and apostolic benediction, if he obeys the apostolic see, as becomes a Christian king: Deeply and anxiously weighing the responsibilities of the trust committed to us by St. Peter, we have with great hesitation granted our apostolic benediction; for it is reported that thou still holdest communion with excommunicated persons. If this be true, the grace of that benediction avails thee nothing. Seek ghostly counsel of some sage priest, and perform the penance imposed upon thee.... The apostolic synod over which we presided this year, thought fit in the decay of the Christian religion to revert to the ancient discipline of the Church, that discipline on which depends the salvation of man. This decree (however, some may presume to call it an insupportable burden or intolerable oppression) we esteem a necessary law; all Christian kings and people are bound directly to accept and to observe it. As thou art the highest in dignity and power, so shouldest thou surpass others in devotion to Christ. If, however, thou didst consider this abrogation of a bad custom hard or unjust to thyself, thou shouldest have sent to our presence some of the wisest and most religious of thy realm, to persuade us, in our condescension, to mitigate its force in some way not inconsistent with the honor of God and the salvation of men’s souls. We exhort thee, in our parental love, to prefer the honor of Christ to thine own, and to give full liberty to the Church, the spouse of God.” ^{19[Page 351] Milman’s “History of Latin Christianity,” Vol. Id. book vii, chap 2, par. 29.}ECE 350.3

33. To this communication Henry paid no attention whatever. It was therefore soon followed up by an embassy from Gregory to Henry, summoning him “to appear in person at Rome, on the Monday of the second week in Lent,” Feb. 22, 1076, there to answer for his disobedience to the pope. The legates also declared, from the pope, that if Henry did not obey this summons, and appear on the very day appointed, on that day he should be excommunicated and placed under anathema. “Thus the king, the victorious king of the Germans, was solemnly cited as a criminal to answer undefined charges, to be amenable to laws which the judge had assumed the right of enacting, interpreting, enforcing by the last penalties. The whole affairs of the empire were to be suspended while the king stood before the bar of his imperious arbiter; no delay was allowed; the stern and immutable alternative was humble and instant obedience, or that sentence which involved deposition from the empire, eternal perdition.”—Milman. ^{20[Page 351] Id., par. 31.}ECE 351.1

34. In reply to Gregory’s summons and threat, Henry assembled a council at Worms, Jan. 24, 1076. At the council there appeared Cardinal Hugh the White, the same who had been spokesman for the crowd the day when Hildebrand was, by acclamation, proclaimed pope; but who had incurred the displeasure of Gregory, and had therefore been deposed, only a short time before the assembly of this council at Worms. Cardinal Hugh brought with him what he claimed to be “the authentic history of Gregory VII,” in which he was charged with all sorts of evil doing, even to magic and murders. Whether these charges were true or not, the effect of the evidences which Cardinal Hugh presented, was such that the whole council, with the exception of but two, declared “that the election of such a monster was a nullity, and that God had not been able to give to Satan the power to bind and loose;” and pronounced against him the following sentence of deposition:—ECE 351.2

“Hildebrand, who, from pride, has assumed the name of Gregory, is the greatest criminal who has invaded the papacy until this time. He is an apostate monk, who adulterates the Bible, suits the books of the Fathers to the wants of his execrable ambition, and pollutes justice, by becoming at once accuser, witness, and judge. He separates husbands from their wives; he prefers prostitutes to legitimate spouses; he encourages the adulterous and incestuous; he excites the populace against their king, and endeavors to oblige sovereigns and bishops to pay the court of Rome for their diadems and miters; finally, he makes a public traffic of the priesthood and the episcopate; he buys provinces, sells the dignities of the Church, and causes all the gold of Christendom to flow into his treasury. We consequently declare, in the name of the emperor of Germany, of the princes and prelates, and in the name of the Senate, and the Christian people, that Gregory the Seventh is deposed from the apostolic throne, which he soils by his abominations.” ^{21[Page 352] De Cormenin’s “History of the Popes,” Gregory VII.}ECE 352.1

35. Blanks were issued, which each bishop signed, running as follows:—ECE 352.2

“I, ...bishop of ...disclaim from this hour all subjection and allegiance to Hildebrand, and will neither esteem, nor call, him pope.” ^{22[Page 352] Milman’s “Latin Christianity,” Id., par. 34.}ECE 352.3

36. With this decree of the council Henry sent to Gregory the following letter:—ECE 352.4

“Henry, king by divine ordination and not by usurpation, to Hildebrand, no longer pope, but a false monk: You deserve to be thus saluted, after introducing, as you have done, the utmost confusion into the Church, and amongst all orders of men. You have trampled upon the archbishops and bishops, and treated the anointed of the Lord as your vassals and slaves, etc. All this we have borne out of the regard that is due to the apostolic see; but you, ascribing it to fear, have presumed to set yourself up against the royal dignity, and threaten to take it from us, as if we had received it from you and from God, who called us to the throne, but never called you to the chair. You owe your dignity to fraud, to craft, and to money. Your money procured you friends, and your friends opened you the way to the chair of peace with the sword; being thus raised to the chair, you have made it your business to sow discord, to disturb the public tranquillity, to countenance disobedience in those whom all are bound to obey. You have not even spared me, though I have been, unworthy as I am, anointed king, and am, according to the doctrine taught by the fathers, to be judged only by God, and can only forfeit my kingdom by apostatizing from the faith. The holy bishops of old did not take upon them to depose the apostate emperor Julian, but left him to be judged and deposed by God, who alone could judge and depose him. Peter, who was a true pope, commanded all men to fear God, and honor the king; but you do neither, and your not honoring me can only proceed from your not fearing God. St. Paul anathematized even an angel from heaven, who should preach any other gospel. We therefore command you, struck with this anathema, and condemned by the judgment of all our bishops, to quit the see you have unjustly usurped. Let another be raised to the throne of St. Peter, who will not disguise his wicked attempts with the mask of religion; but teach the sound doctrine of that holy apostle. I, Henry, by the grace of God, king, command you, with all my bishops, to come down from the throne. Descende, descende—come down, come down.” ^{23[Page 353] Id., par. 35, and Bower’s “Lives of the Popes,” Gregory VII, par. 48.}ECE 352.5

37. At the same time Henry sent also a letter to the clergy, lords, and people of Lombardy and Rome, in which he said:—ECE 353.1

“Gregory would hazard his own life, or strip the king of his life and kingdom. Be the most loyal, the first to join in his condemnation. We do not ask you to shed his blood; let him suffer life, which, after he is deposed, will be more wretched to him than death. But if he resist, compel him to yield up the apostolic throne, and make way for one whom we shall elect, who will have both the will and the power to heal the wounds inflicted on the Church by their present pastor.” ^{24[Page 353] Milman’s “Latin Christianity,” Id., par. 36.}ECE 353.2

38. Under the leadership of the archbishop of Ravenna, the powerful party that had supported Honorius II in his claims to the papacy, stood with Henry. A council was held at Piacenza, which ratified the decree of the Council of Worms.ECE 353.3

39. All this had occurred before that twenty-second of February, which Gregory had appointed for the appearance of Henry in person in Rome, to answer for the crimes laid against him. And now February 22 was at hand, and Gregory had assembled in the Lateran, February 21, a council of one hundred and ten bishops and abbots. Gregory “sat among his assembled bishops. The hymn had ceased which implored the descent of the Holy Ghost” upon their assembly. Roland, bishop of Parma, had been sent to Rome by Henry, bearing the decree of the Council of Worms, and Henry’s letter to Gregory. He now walked boldly into the council and up to the throne of the pope, and placed in Gregory’s hand the documents which he carried. “The bold and sudden entrance of Roland was hardly perceived amid the grave occupation to which (as genuine descendants of the old Romans, who, when the fate of kings and nations depended on their vote, usually commenced their solemn council by consulting the augurs, and waiting for some significant omen) they had surrendered their absorbed attention. An egg had been found which, by its mysterious form, portended the issue of the conflict. What seemed a black serpent, the type of evil, rose as it were in high relief, and coiled around the smooth shell; but it had struck on what seemed a shield, and recoiled, bruised and twisting in a mortal agony. On this sat gazing the mute and ecclesiastical Senate. But the voice of Roland made itself heard. Addressing the pope, he exclaimed:—ECE 353.4

“The king and the bishops of Germany send this mandate: Down at once from the throne of St. Peter! yield up the usurped government of the Roman Church! none must presume to such honor but those chosen by the general voice and approved by the emperor.”ECE 354.1

40. Then, turning to the council, he said:—ECE 354.2

“Ye, my brethren, are commanded to present yourselves at the Feast of Pentecost before the king, my master, there to receive a pope and father; for this man is no pope, but a ravening wolf.”ECE 354.3

41. The king’s messenger barely escaped with his life, Gregory checking the passion of the excited bishops and the soldiers, who were about to cut him to pieces. Gregory then read the decrees of the Council of Worms and Piacenza, and King Henry’s letter to him; after which he addressed his council as follows:—ECE 354.4

“My friends, let us not trouble the peace of the Church by becoming guilty of a useless murder. These are the coming and predicted days, in which it behooves the clergy to show the innocence of the dove, blended with the wisdom of the serpent. The forerunner of antichrist has arisen against the Church; the dry harvest is about to be wet with the blood of the saints. Now is the time when it will be shown who is ashamed of his Lord, of whom the Lord will be ashamed at His second coming. Better is it to die for Christ and His holy laws than, by shamefully yielding to those who violate and trample them underfoot, to be traitors to the Church: not to resist such impious men were to deny the faith of Christ.”ECE 354.5

42. At this point Gregory held up before the council the remarkable egg which had attracted the awe of the assembly at the moment when Roland the messenger had broken in upon them. Gregory now interpreted its deep significance: The shield was the Church; the serpent was the dragon of the book of Revelation, personified in the rebellious Henry. The recoil and deathly agony of the serpent after having struck the shield, foretold the fate of Henry! Then Gregory continued his harangue of the council, as follows:—ECE 355.1

“Now, therefore, brethren, it behooves us to draw the sword of vengeance; now must we smite the foe of God and of his Church; now shall his bruised head, which lifts itself in its haughtiness against the foundation of the faith and of all the churches, fall to the earth; there, according to the sentence pronounced against his pride, to go upon his belly, and eat the dust. Fear not, little flock, saith the Lord, for it is the will of your Father to grant you the kingdom. Long enough have ye borne with him; often enough have ye admonished him: let his seared conscience be made at length to feel!”ECE 355.2

43. The council unanimously responded:—ECE 355.3

“Let thy wisdom, most holy father, whom the divine mercy has raised up to rule the world in our days, utter such a sentence against this blasphemer, this usurper, this tyrant, this apostate, as may crush him to the earth, and make him a warning to future ages.... Draw the sword, pass the judgment, ‘that the righteous may rejoice when he seeth the vengeance, and wash his hands in the blood of the ungodly.’”ECE 355.4

44. The further proceedings of the condemnation of Henry, were postponed until the next day; because Gregory had pledged himself to excommunicate Henry on February 22, if he did not comply with the papal summons. Accordingly, the next day, the council met in solemn conclave. Gregory stood up and addressed St. Peter in person, as follows:—ECE 355.5

“Blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, hear me, your servant, whom you have nourished from his infancy, and have delivered this day from the hands of the wicked, who hate me because I am faithful to you. You are my witness, you and our Lady, the Mother of God, and your brother St. Paul, that your holy Roman Church placed me against my will in your see, and that I had rather died an exile than raised myself to it by unlawful means, or the favor of men. But, being by your grace placed in it, I persuade myself that it pleases you that I should rule the Christian people committed to your care, and exert the power that God has given to me, as holding your place, the power of binding and loosening in heaven and on earth. In this persuasion it is, that for the honor and defense of your Church, on the part of Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and by your power and authority, I forbid King Henry, the son of the emperor Henry, who with an unheard-of pride has insulted your Church, to meddle henceforth with the government of the Teutonic kingdom or of Italy. I absolve all Christians from the oath of allegiance, which they have taken, or shall take to him, and forbid any one to serve him as king. For he, who attempts to lessen the honor of your Church, deserves to forfeit his own. And because he has refused to obey, as becomes a Christian, and has not returned to the Lord, whom he has forsaken, by communicating with the excommunicated persons, but despised the counsels which I gave him for his welfare, and endeavored to raise divisions in your Church, I now anathematize him in your name, that all nations may know, that thou art Peter, that upon this rock the Son of the living God has built His Church, and that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” ^{25[Page 356] Milman, Id., pars. 36-44; Bower and De Cormenin under Gregory VII.}ECE 355.6

45. Henry’s chief adherent, the bishop of Utrecht, in return, on behalf of Henry, excommunicated the pope. The archbishop of Ravenna assembled a council at Pavia, and likewise excommunicated him and laid him under an anathema. But, encouraged by Gregory’s excommunication, all the discontented elements of Germany began to conspire against Henry. Superstition also worked against Henry; for his chief supporter, the bishop of Utrecht, died, and his cathedral was struck by lightning. This was used by Henry’s enemies to excite the superstition of the populace, by declaring it a manifest token of the wrath of God against the rebellious king. Still further, the Saxon bishops, who had engaged in the late rebellion, and who had been taken prisoners, now escaped, and added so much strength to the conspiracy which had now become firmly organized under the leadership of the pope, who continued to issue his letters and excommunications against Henry and those who favored his cause. He commanded all people to break off all intercourse or communication of any kind whatever with Henry; and the bishops must enforce this discipline everywhere: he declared that all who communicated with the king thereby themselves incurred excommunication; and that consecration performed by any bishop who communicated with the excommunicated, was really an execration instead of a consecration.ECE 356.1

46. These proceedings continued through the summer of 1076; and September 3 Gregory issued a letter to the bishops, nobles, and people of Germany, commanding them that, if Henry did not immediately repent, and “acknowledge that the Church was not subject to him as a handmaid, but superior as a mistress,” and abandon all claim to the right of investiture, they should choose another sovereign—one approved by the pope. This intensified the opposition to Henry by exciting the ambition of the leading dukes. Rudolph of Swabia and Otto of Saxony were confessed aspirants to the throne, if Henry should be set aside. Therefore, in pursuance of the pope’s command, and the ambition of the leading nobles, a diet assembled at Tribur, Oct. 16, 1076, at which Henry, though not present, was arraigned, and was charged with a long list of offenses, political, ecclesiastical, and moral, covering his whole life from his boyhood. Henry offered submission, redress of grievances, and amendment of errors. But his enemies declared that they could not trust him. The diet finally decided, and laid upon Henry the obligation, that the whole question involved should be deferred to the decision of the pope; that a council should be held at Augsburg the following year, at which the pope should preside, for the decision of the case; and, until that council should meet, Henry should respect the authority of the pope, should disband his troops, lay aside all royal insignia, perform no act of authority as king, should not enter a church, should hold no communication with his counselors and friends who had incurred with him the excommunication of the pope, and should dwell at the city of Spires entirely as a private person. In addition to all this, the diet decided that if Henry should not succeed in clearing himself of the excommunication of the pope, by the twenty-second day of February, 1077, all right and title to the throne should that day be forfeited, and all his subjects be released from allegiance to him.ECE 357.1

47. It was now the beginning of November, 1076. Less than four months’ time remained for Henry in which to secure his throne by finding deliverance from his excommunication; and it was by no means certain that the council that was to be held at Augsburg would be convened before that fatal twenty-second of February of the next year. He therefore resolved to make his submission to the pope, and, if possible, save his crown. He sent a messenger to ask of the pope permission to appear before him in Italy rather than in Germany. But Gregory declared that he would hold court at Augsburg; and that before the eighth of January he would be as far as to Mantua, on his way to Germany. Henry then determined to meet the pope in Italy without his permission. It was the coldest winter that had been known in Europe for years, the Rhine being frozen over from the beginning of November till the first of April. Henry, with his wife and infant son, and with a few attendants, started to make his way over the Alps into Italy, through a country not only frozen, and deep with snow but thick with his enemies. He succeeded in evading his enemies, and, through terrible hardships, in reaching the summit of the Alps, in the Mount Cenis pass. But the way down on the other side was yet more dangerous. “It looked like a vast precipice, smooth, and almost sheer.” His wife and child they bound up in skins, and, by letting them and one another down by ropes, they crept and slid and tumbled down the steeps. Some of the king’s attendants perished, others were so frozen as to lose the use of their limbs; but the king himself, his wife, and child, and the most of his train arrived safely in Italy.ECE 357.2

48. As soon as his presence was known in Italy, the Lombard princes and bishops gathered to him in great numbers, even with their troops; for they supposed that he had come to depose the pope, in which enterprise they were glad to support him. Gregory also heard of Henry’s arrival in Italy, and he was afraid that Henry had come to depose him. He therefore turned aside from his journey, and took refuge in the strong castle of the countess Matilda, at Canossa. This countess Matilda held the most extensive territories of any noble in Italy, except the Normans. She herself was a relative of Henry’s, but yet was bound more closely to Gregory. She was now a widow, and, “devoted herself entirely to Gregory, transacting nothing without consulting him, followed in everything his directions, and never parting from him, accompanied him wherever he went. Her intimacy with Gregory and the extraordinary regard he on all occasions showed for her, gave occasion to many scandalous reports, that were industriously propagated by the pope’s enemies, especially the ecclesiastics, of whom he exacted the strictest celibacy. Their attachment for each other was not, perhaps, criminal; but it is allowed even by those who most admire the pope, to have been at least on his side, as he had so many enemies, very imprudent.”—Bower. ^{26[Page 359] “Lives of the Popes,” Gregory VII, par. 29.} Gregory was not only Matilda’s chief and most confidential counselor, but she was his; for her relations to him were closer and freer than was that of even his chamberlains.ECE 358.1

49. Henry would not allow himself to be persuaded by the Lombard nobles and bishops to make war upon the pope, until he had obtained the removal of the excommunication. And it was now less than a month before the expiration of the period set by the rebellious diet of Tribur. Therefore Henry proceeded to Canossa. He first obtained an interview with Matilda, whom with other intercessors he sent to Gregory to plead for him. Gregory answered: “Let him appear on the appointed day at Augsburg, and he shall receive rigid and impartial justice.” Henry, by his intercessors, pleaded that he was willing to appear at Augsburg and submit his case to judgment there; but that his possession of the crown depended on his being freed from the excommunication: only let the pope grant that, and he would do all else that might be required. Then the pope replied:—ECE 359.1

“If he be truly penitent, let him place his crown and all the ensigns of royalty in my hands, and openly confess himself unworthy of the royal name and dignity.”ECE 359.2

50. Henry accepted the terms, and appeared at the castle gate. There he was informed that he must leave outside all his guards and attendants and enter alone. The castle was surrounded with three walls. Henry passed through the gate of the first wall, and the gate was shut behind him. There he was required not merely to lay aside all royal apparel, but to unclothe himself entirely, and clothe himself with the thin, single, sackcloth garment of a penitent; “a broom and scissors were placed in his hands as a sign that he consented to be whipped and shaven.” and he was then admitted within the second wall. And there, “on a dreary winter morning, Jan. 25, 1077, with the ground deep in snow, the king, the heir of a long line of emperors,” stood bareheaded and barefooted, awaiting the will of the pope. Thus fasting, he passed the first day and night. The second day and night he passed in the same way, pleading for the pope to hear him and deliver him. The third day came with the pope still unrelenting. Even the pope’s company began to murmur that his conduct “instead of being the gravity of apostolic severity, was the cruelty of an iron tyranny.” Matilda at last was melted to sincere pity, and went to Gregory, and by her influence, persuaded him to put an end to Henry’s sufferings, by admitting him to the papal presence.ECE 359.3

51. On the fourth day Henry was admitted to his desired interview with the pope. “The terms exacted from Henry, who was far too deeply humiliated to dispute anything, had no redeeming touch of gentleness or compassion.”—Milman. ^{27[Page 360] “Latin Christianity,” Id., par. 71.} These conditions were:—ECE 360.1

“1. That he should appear at the time and the place, which the pope should appoint, to answer, in a general diet of the German lords, the charge brought against him, and should own the pope for his judge.ECE 360.2

“2. That he should stand to the pope’s judgment, should keep or resign the crown as he should by the pope be found guilty or innocent, and should never seek to revenge himself upon his accusers.ECE 360.3

“3. That till judgment was given and his cause was finally determined, he should lay aside all badges of royalty, should not meddle, upon any pretense whatever, with public affairs, and should levy no money upon the people but what was necessary for the support of his family.ECE 360.4

“4. That all who had taken an oath of allegiance to him, should be absolved from that oath before God as well as before men.ECE 360.5

“5. That he should forever remove from his presence, Robert, bishop of Bamberg, Udalric of Cosheim, and all evil counselors together with them.ECE 360.6

“6. That if he should clear himself of the crimes laid to his charge and remain king, he should be ever obedient and submissive to the pope, and concur with him, to the utmost of his power, in reforming the abuses that custom had introduced, against the laws of the Church, into his kingdom.ECE 360.7

“7. Lastly, if he failed in any of these conditions, his absolution should be null; he should be deemed guilty of the crimes laid to his charge as if he had owned them; should never again be heard; and the lords of the kingdom, absolved from their oaths, should be at full liberty to elect another king in his room.” ^{28[Page 360] Bower’s “Lives of the Popes,” Gregory VII, par. 31.}ECE 360.8

52. To these terms Henry submitted, and promised, upon oath, faithfully to observe them. But the pope demanded that there should be security given for the faithful fulfillment of the terms: Matilda and several bishops and nobles giving the required security, the longed for absolution was granted to Henry, and he was king once more. “But even yet the unforgiving Hildebrand had not forced the king to drink the dregs of humiliation. He had degraded Henry before men, he would degrade him in the presence of God: he had exalted himself to the summit of earthly power, he would appeal to Heaven to ratify and to sanction this assumption of unapproachable superiority.”—Milman. ^{29[Page 361] “Latin Christianity,” Id., par. 73.}ECE 361.1

53. Together the king and the pope went to the celebration of mass in the great church of the city of Canossa. In the midst of the service Gregory “took the consecrated host in his hand, and, turning to the king, addressed him thus:—ECE 361.2

“I long ago received letters from you and from those of your party, charging me with having raised myself to the apostolic see by simony, and having polluted my life, before as well as after my episcopacy, with other crimes, for which I ought, according to the canons, to have been forever excluded from the holy orders: and though I could disprove these calumnies with the testimony of those who very well know what life I have led from my infancy, and of those who were the authors of my promotion to the episcopal dignity; yet that I may not be thought to rely more upon the judgment of men than upon that of God, and that no room may be left for the least suspicion of scandal, let the body of our Lord, which I am going to take, be this day a proof of my innocence. Let God absolve me by His judgment if I am innocent, and strike me suddenly dead, if I am guilty.”ECE 361.3

54. Gregory then ate a part of the wafer, and as he did not fall dead, the whole congregation shouted aloud their joy and approval of his demonstrated innocence! When silence was once more obtained, Gregory proceeded to address Henry as follows:—ECE 361.4

“Do, my son, if you please, what you have seen me do. The German lords accuse you daily to us of many enormous crimes, for which they say you ought not only to be removed from the administration of all public affairs, but excluded forever from the communion of the Church, and even from human society. As I wish you well, and you have implored the protection of the apostolic see in your distress, do what I advise you: If you are conscious to yourself of your own innocence, and know that you are falsely and maliciously accused, deliver the Church from that scandal, and yourself from all perplexity, as the issue of human judgments is very certain. Take the other part of the host, that your innocence thus proved may silence your enemies, that I may become your warmest friend, and the German lords being reconciled with you by my means, you may be replaced on the throne, and the wished-for tranquillity restored to the State.” ^{30[Page 362] Bower, Id., par. 32.}ECE 361.5

55. As bad as Henry may have been, he had not yet acquired such a spirit of blasphemy as had the pope. He therefore declined Gregory’s challenge and told him that the coming diet could properly judge his case.ECE 362.1

56. But Gregory had overshot his mark. His extreme pressure upon Henry really worked his own defeat. It turned back to their allegiance to Henry all those who, in Germany, had been wavering; and increased many fold their hatred of the pope who would so degrade and humiliate their king. It seemed for a moment that it had fairly undone Henry’s cause in Italy; for the Normans who had stood by him, even to the extent of wanting to aid him to depose the pope, were so disgusted at his yielding everything to the pope, that they threatened to repudiate him and to take his young son who was with him, declare him emperor, and have him crowned by a pope which they themselves would make, after they had deposed Gregory. In their wrath some of the Norman princes did abandon him and return to their fortresses. Those that remained, held themselves aloof, waiting to see what he would do.ECE 362.2

57. Henry, finding his crown again in danger, decided to retain it with the support of the Normans, by disregarding the terms which he had accepted from Gregory. He recalled to him the bishops and nobles whom the terms with Gregory had obliged him especially to dismiss. He informed Gregory that he would not attend the appointed diet at Augsburg, and asked the pope to hold a general council at Mantua. Since Henry kept well guarded all the passes of the Alps, Gregory knew that he could not reach Augsburg if he should try. He therefore at least seemed to assent to Henry’s request for a council at Mantua. Both started to Mantua; but before Gregory reached the place, his fear of meeting Henry overcame him and Matilda, and he was hurried back to Canossa.ECE 362.3

58. Henry sent to Gregory at Canossa, messengers to ask permission that he should be crowned king of Italy; and this, by churchmen whom Gregory had excommunicated! It is hardly possible that Henry expected any such request to be granted; but, technically, it made a show of respect to the authority of the pope, and thus laid upon the pope the responsibility of refusing Henry’s submission, and of rejecting his overtures. But Gregory was able to elude the dilemma without positively doing either. Then Henry threw off even any seeming submission to the pope; and again, in an assembly of the Lombard princes, openly denounced his harshness and tyranny. This restored the confidence of the Lombard princes, who unanimously rallied to his support, and Henry found himself in possession of an army that was strong enough to meet successfully any force that the pope might be able to gather.ECE 363.1

59. The enemies of Henry, in Germany, finding that the Diet of Augsburg could not be held, appointed one to be held at Forsheim, March 13, 1077, to elect a new king, in place of Henry, because Henry had broken his treaty with the pope. To this diet at Forsheim Gregory sent his legates. The diet elected Duke Rudolph, of Swabia, as king, who was “consecrated by the archbishops of Mentz and Magdeburg, in the presence of the pope’s legates and all the lords of the assembly, who, acknowledging him for their lawful sovereign, took an oath allegiance to him as such.” Henry in Italy learning of this, immediately marched to Germany with such troops as he could take with him; and his army constantly grew as he marched. War raged throughout Germany. “Bishop rose against bishop; the clergy against the clergy; the people against the people; father against son, son against father, brother against brother.... Swabia first paid the penalty for the ambition of her prince. From the Necker to the Main all was laid waste.”—Milman. ^{31[Page 363] “Latin Christianity,” Id., chap 3, par. 9.} First Rudolph was defeated; next Henry.ECE 363.2

60. Gregory returned to Rome, and made a treaty with Robert Guiscard and his Normans, who were under excommunication by him, in order to gain their strength to defend him from what might come from Henry. There, in the week of Lent, 1078, Gregory assembled a council. By this council Gregory attempted to make his voice to be heard in the confusion which he had created in Germany. He demanded that a council should be called, at which he, or his legates, should preside, to decide between the claims of the rival kings of Germany. And, in announcing this to the people of Germany, Gregory wrote:—ECE 363.3

“If either of these kings, inflated by pride, shall in any way impede our journey to you, and conscious of his unjust cause, decline the judgment of the Holy Ghost, resisting, in his disobedience to his holy mother, the Catholic Church, him despise ye as a brood of antichrist, a destroyer of the Christian religion, and respect any sentence which our legates may pronounce against him. To those, on the other hand, who shall humbly submit to our judgment, pay all reverence and honor.” ^{32[Page 364] Id., par. 15.}ECE 364.1

61. In a second address to the German nation, Gregory wrote:—ECE 364.2

“If any one shall attempt to prevent our legates from executing this, our resolution, be he king, archbishop, bishop, duke, count, or marquis, we bind and anathematize him, not only in his soul, but likewise in his body, and by our apostolic authority deprive his arms of victory. In all his acts may he feel the vengeance of Almighty God; in every battle may he find his strength fail; may he never obtain a victory, but, prostrate in humble contrition, be abased and confounded, till he is brought to true repentance.” ^{33[Page 364] Id., par. 16.}ECE 364.3

62. Yet no council was held in Germany. In November, 1078, another council was held in Rome, at which appeared messengers from both Henry and Rudolph, promising on oath the safety of the pope or his legates in attending a council in Germany. In February, 1079, Gregory held another council in Rome, to discuss transubstantiation, and to examine into the case of Berengar, who was the chief propagator of “heresy” in connection with that doctrine. To this council ambassadors from both the rival kings were sent, each laying heavy complaints against the other, and both pledging that, instead of offering any hindrance to the assembling of a council in Germany, they would both aid in it, and would assure to the pope or his legates safe conduct, going and returning. The great question before this council so occupied the time that the summer passed with no council yet held in Germany.ECE 364.4

63. Henry’s fortunes were reviving again. His power was so increasing daily as to threaten the defeat of Rudolph. Gregory decided to throw all his influence positively on the side of Rudolph. He therefore assembled another council, in Rome, by which he renewed his first decree against lay investitures, and March 7, 1080, pronounced another excommunication against Henry. Again addressing St. Peter and St. Paul, Gregory inveighed against Henry thus:—ECE 364.5

“Blessed apostles, you are my witnesses that the German lords and bishops, without our advice, chose Duke Rudolph as their king; and that this prince immediately sent ambassadors to our legate, declaring that he had undertaken, despite of himself, the government of the kingdom, and that he was ready to obey us in all things; offering, as a proof of his sincerity, to send us rich presents, and to give us as hostages, his son and that of Duke Berthold. You know that Henry, at the same time, besought us to declare in his favor, against Rudolph, and that we replied, that we would act our own will, after having heard these two princes in a council. But as soon as Henry supposed that he could overthrow his competitor without our aid, he repulsed our interference with contempt.ECE 365.1

“Wherefore, trusting in the justice and mercy of God, and of His blessed mother, the ever-blessed Virgin Mary, on your authority, the above named Henry and all his adherents I excommunicate and bind him in the fetters of anathema; on the part of God Almighty; and on yours, I interdict him from the government of all Germany and of Italy. I deprive him of all royal power and dignity. I prohibit every Christian from rendering him obedience as king. I absolve from their oaths all who have sworn or shall swear allegiance to his sovereignty. In every battle may Henry and his partisans be without strength, and gain no victory during his life. And that Rudolph, whom the Germans have elected for their king, may he rule and defend that realm in fidelity to you! On your part, I give and grant to those who shall faithfully adhere to the said Rudolph, full absolution of all their sins, and in entire confidence, blessing in this life and in the life to come. As Henry, for his pride, disobedience, and falsehood, is justly deposed from his royal dignity, so that royal power and dignity is granted to Rudolph, for his humility, obedience, and truth.ECE 365.2

“Come then, blessed St. Peter and St. Paul, let all the world understand and know, that since ye have power to bind and loose in heaven, ye have power to take away and to grant empires, kingdoms, principalities, duchies, marquisates, counties, and the possessions of all men according to their deserts. Ye have often deprived wicked and unworthy men of patriarchates, primacies, archbishoprics, bishoprics, and bestowed them on religious men. If ye then judge in spiritual affairs, how great must be your power in secular! and if ye are to judge angels, who rule over proud princes, what may ye not do to these their servants? Let kings, then, and all the princes of the world learn what ye are, and how great is your power, and fear to treat with disrespect the mandates of the Church; and do ye on the aforesaid Henry fulfill your judgment so speedily that he may know that it is through your power, not by chance, that he hath fallen. May God confound him, that he be brought to repentance by his ruin, that his soul may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” ^{34[Page 366] Id., par. 24, with Bower and De Cormenin, Gregory VII.}ECE 365.3

64. This decree Gregory sent to Rudolph, accompanied by a splendid crown of gold and precious stones, upon which was inscribed: “Petra dedit Petro, Petrus diadema Rudolfo”—“He gave a rock to Peter, Peter a diadem to Rudolph.” But this thunder of the pope was deprived of its force by Henry’s gaining a signal victory over Rudolph shortly afterward. This further encouraged Henry, and, April 12, 1080, he assembled a council at Mentz, which formulated charges against Gregory; but as there were none of the bishops of Italy present, the council was adjourned to meet at Brixen, in the Tyrol, June 25, 1080. At this council when it met there were thirty bishops from Italy and Germany. They unanimously excommunicated and deposed the pope, by the following decree:—ECE 366.1

“We, assembled by the authority of God in this place, having read the letter from the synod of nineteen bishops, held at Mentz, against the licentious Hildebrand, the preacher of sacrilegious and incendiary doctrines; the defender of perjury and murder; who, as an old disciple of the heretic Berengar, has endangered the Catholic and apostolic doctrine of the body and blood of Christ; the worshiper of divinations and of dreams; the notorious necromancer; himself possessed with an evil spirit, and therefore guilty of departing from the truth—him we adjudge to be canonically deposed and expelled from his see, and, unless, on hearing our judgment, he shall descend from his throne, to be condemned for everlasting.” ^{35[Page 366] Id., par.}ECE 366.2

65. This was immediately followed by the election, by this council, of Guibert, archbishop of Ravenna, as pope, who took the name of—CLEMENT III, JUNE 25, 1080, TO SEPTEMBER, 1100. As soon as Gregory learned of the election of Clement, he broke out:—“They have been forced to renew their old conspiracy; they have chosen as their chief a heretic, a sacrilegious person, a perjurer, an assassin who wished to wrest from us our tiara and our life—an antichrist—a Guibert!! In a cabal composed of demoniacal and concubinary prelates, our enemies have even pushed their fury so far as to condemn us, because we refused to their entreaties and their threats pardon for their crimes. But God sustains us, He will make us triumph over the wicked, and we despise their anathemas.” ^{36[Page 367] De Cormenin “History of the Popes,” Gregory VII.}ECE 366.3

66. Gregory followed this up with a prophecy, written in a letter to the people of Germany, in favor of Rudolph, saying that the apostle Peter had appeared to him and announced that “a false king” would die this year; and “if this prediction be not accomplished, I swear before God and men that I am unworthy to be pope.” The two kings, with their armies, met in the battle of the Elster, June 15, 1080. “It might seem a religious no less than a civil war. Henry was accompanied to the battle by the archbishops of Cologne and Treves, and fourteen other prelates. The Saxons advanced to the charge, with the bishops of their party, and the clergy chanting the eighty-second psalm: ‘God standeth in the congregation of the princes.’”ECE 367.1

67. The troops of Henry were defeated; but Rudolph was slain. In the battle one of Rudolph’s hands had been cut off by a saber. As he was dying, he looked at his severed hand, and said: “With this hand I ratified my oath of fealty to my sovereign Henry. I have now lost life and kingdom. Bethink ye, ye who have led me on, in obedience to whose counsels I have ascended the throne, whether ye have guided me right.” On this same day of the battle of the Elster, Henry’s party in Italy defeated the army of Countess Matilda and the pope.ECE 367.2

68. Henry was now victorious in Germany and in Italy: he had a pope of his own; and, as early as possible in the spring of 1081, he marched to Rome, to install Clement III, and to put Gregory finally out of the way, as pope. July 7 he reached Rome, and for three years besieged it. In June, 1083, was his first success in the taking of a part of the city, and causing Gregory to take refuge in the castle of St. Angelo. Christmas, 1083, the city was surrendered to him; and, with Gregory besieged in the castle of St. Angelo, Palm Sunday, March 29, 1084, Clement III was consecrated pope, in the church of St. Peter; and, on Easter Day, King Henry was crowned emperor by Clement III.ECE 367.3

69. Presently, however, news was received that Robert Guiscard was advancing with all haste, with six thousand knights, and thirty thousand footmen, to the rescue of the pope, and the deliverance of Rome. “It was a strange army of the faith: from every quarter men had rushed to his banner, some to rescue the pope, others from love of war. The Saracens had inlisted in great numbers.”—Milman. The long siege had so reduced Henry’s army that it was impossible for him to meet Robert Guiscard with any hope of success. He therefore destroyed the strongest fortifications, that had resisted him, and withdrew. Three days after Henry had left the city, Robert arrived with his army. Although Robert came to the rescue of the pope, the Romans dreaded his army more than they did that of Henry, and he found the gates closed, and the walls manned, against him. But, the very first day, Robert’s troops succeeded in surprising one of the gates, and so got possession of the city. He immediately released Gregory, and escorted him to the Lateran palace. “But Gregory must now witness those horrors which, as long as they afflicted Germany or northern Italy, he had contemplated unmoved: intent on building his all-ruling theocracy. From the feet of the pope, having just received his blessing, the Normans spread through the city, treating it with all the cruelty of a captured town: pillaging, violating, murdering, wherever they met with opposition.ECE 367.4

70. “The Romans had been surprised, not subdued. For two days and nights they brooded over their vengeance; on the third day they broke out in general insurrection, rushed armed into the streets, and began a terrible carnage of their conquerors. The Normans were feasting in careless security; but with the discipline of practiced soldiers, they flew to arms; the whole city was one wild conflict. The Norman horse poured into the streets, but the Romans fought at advantage, from their possession of the houses, and their knowledge of the ground. They were gaining the superiority; the Normans saw their peril. The remorseless Guiscard gave the word to fire the houses. From every quarter the flames rushed up—houses, palaces, convents, churches, as the night darkened, were seen in awful conflagration. The distracted inhabitants dashed wildly into the streets, no longer endeavoring to defend themselves, but to save their families. They were hewn down by hundreds. The Saracen allies of the pope had been the foremost in the pillage, and were now the foremost in the conflagration and the massacre. No house, no monastery, was secure from plunder. murder, rape. Nuns were defiled, matrons forced, the rings cut from their living fingers. Gregory exerted himself, and without success, in saving the principal churches. It is probable, however, that neither Goth nor Vandal, neither Greek nor German, brought such desolation on the city as this capture by the Normans....ECE 368.1

71. “Guiscard was at length master of the ruins of Rome, but the vengeance of the pope’s deliverer was yet unappeased. Many thousand Romans were sold publicly as slaves—many carried into the remotest parts of Calabria. We have heard no remonstrance from the bishop, from the sovereign of Rome, on this hateful alliance with the enemies of the faith, the Saracens. Of this, perhaps, he was ignorant when in the castle of St. Angelo. No powerful intercession is now made—no threatened excommunication is now menaced—in behalf of his rebellious, his perfidious, yet subdued subjects—most of the sufferers, no doubt, guiltless and defenseless. The ferocious Guiscard is still recognized as his ally, his protector, perhaps his avenger. Unprotected by his foreign guard, the pope could not now trust himself in the city, which would, no doubt, and not without justice, attribute its ruin and misery to his obstinacy. In the company of Robert Guiscard, oppressed with shame and affliction, he retired from the smoking ruins and the desolated streets of the city of St. Peter, first to the monastery of Monte Casino afterward to the Norman’s strong castle of Salerno. From Salerno, unshaken by the horrors which he had witnessed, or the perils he had escaped, Hildebrand thundered out again the unmitigated excommunication against Henry, the antipope Clement, and all their adherents.”—Milman. ^{37[Page 369] “Latin Christianity,” Vol. III, book VII, chap. III, pars. 47, 48.}ECE 369.1

72. At Salerno, May 25, 1085, Gregory VII died. When asked by the attending bishops and Matilda to forgive his enemies, he replied:—ECE 369.2

“No, my hatred is implacable. I curse the pretended emperor Henry, the antipope Guibert, and the reprobates who sustain them. I absolve and bless the simple who believe that a pope has power to bind and loose.” ^{38[Page 369] De Cormenin’s “History of the Popes,” Gregory VII.}ECE 369.3

73. As he was dying he said: “I have loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore I die in exile.” Then lifting his eyes to heaven he said to the bishops and cardinals, “Thither I am going, and shall incessantly recommend you to the protection and favor of the Almighty.”ECE 369.4

74. And so died Gregory VII, the pope who, above all, so far, had made the highest and boldest claims for the papacy; and who had given up Germany and Italy to confusion, bloodshed, and desolation, to maintain his exorbitant claims in behalf of the papacy. He left twentyseven “Maxims,” as follows:—ECE 370.1

1. The Roman Church was founded by none but our Lord.ECE 370.2

2. The Roman pontiff alone should of right be styled universal bishop.ECE 370.3

3. He alone can depose and restore bishops.ECE 370.4

4. The pope’s legate, though of an inferior rank, is in councils to take place of all bishops, and can pronounce sentence of deposition against them.ECE 370.5

5. The pope can depose absent bishops.ECE 370.6

6. No man ought to live in the same house with persons excommunicated by him.ECE 370.7

7. The pope alone can make new laws, can establish new churches, can divide rich bishoprics, and unite poor ones.ECE 370.8

8. He alone can wear the imperial ornaments.ECE 370.9

9. All princes are to kiss his foot, and to pay that mark of distinction to him alone.ECE 370.10

10. His name alone ought to be commemorated in the churches.ECE 370.11

11. There is no name in the world but his [that is, as some understand it, he alone is styled pope. The name of pope, formerly common to all bishops, was appropriated, as Father Paul observes, by Gregory VII to the Roman pontiff].ECE 370.12

12. It is lawful for him to depose emperors.ECE 370.13

13. He can translate bishops from one see to another when thought necessary.ECE 370.14

14. He can ordain a clerk in any church whatever.ECE 370.15

15. A clerk ordained by him must not be preferred to a higher degree by any other bishop.ECE 370.16

16. No general council is to be assembled without his order.ECE 370.17

17. No book is to be deemed canonical, but by his authority.ECE 370.18

18. His judgments no man can reverse, but he can reverse all other judgments.ECE 370.19

19. He is to be judged by no man.ECE 370.20

20. No man shall presume to condemn the person that appeals to the apostolic see.ECE 370.21

21. The greater causes of all churches ought to be brought before the apostolic see.ECE 370.22

22. The Roman Church never has erred, nor will she ever, according to Scripture.ECE 371.1

23. The Roman pontiff, canonically elected, becomes undoubtedly holy by the merits of St. Peter, according to the testimony of St. Ennodius, bishop of Pavia, and many of the Fathers, as is related in the decrees of Pope Symmachus.ECE 371.2

24. With his leave an inferior may accuse his superior.ECE 371.3

25. He can depose and restore bishops without assembling a synod.ECE 371.4

26. He is not to be deemed a Catholic, who does not agree with the Roman Church.ECE 371.5

27. The pope can absolve subjects from the oath of allegiance which they have taken to a bad prince. ^{39[Page 371] Bower’s “Lives of the Popes,” Gregory VII, par. 64. As translated and summarized by De Cormenin, Gregory’s “Maxims” stand thus: “God is a Spirit. He rules matter. Thus the spiritual is above the temporal power. The pope is the representative of God on earth; he should then govern the world. To him alone pertain infallibility and universality. All men are submitted to his laws, and he can only be judged by God. He ought to wear imperial ornaments. People and kings should kiss his feet. Christians are irrevocably submitted to his orders. They should murder their princes, fathers, and children if he commands it. No council can be declared universal without the orders of the pope. No book can be received as canonical without his authority. Finally, no good nor evil exists but in what he has condemned or approved.”}ECE 371.6

75. On his deathbed Gregory VII had urged the cardinals to choose as his successor a certain Desiderius, the abbot of Monte Casino. There at Salerno, the place of the death of Gregory, the cardinals asked Desiderius to accept the office of pope: but, viewing the ruined city of Rome, and fearing a continuance of the wars that brought it about, he declined, and went away to his monastery, and it was two years before he was made pope. Then, at a public assembly in Rome, Desiderius was suddenly seized and hurried into the church of St. Lucia, and proclaimed Pope—VICTOR III, MARCH 23 TO SEPT. 16, 1087.ECE 371.7

76. The prince of Salerno demanded of the new pope that he should ordain a favorite of the prince to the archbishopric of Salerno. Victor refused: the capital was seized by the troops, and, four days after his election, Victor fled from Rome, threw off all the papal insignia, and returned to his abbey. May 9 he returned to Rome, accompanied by a body of Norman troops, and camped before the church of St. Peter which was held by Pope Clement with a garrison. But Victor and the Normans drove out Clement and captured the church, where Victor was solemnly consecrated Pope. After eight days Victor returned to his abbey, and came back to Rome to celebrate St. Peter’s day, June 29. On the eve of St. Peter’s day, a messenger from the emperor Henry arrived in Rome, and called upon the nobles and people of Rome to abandon the cause of Victor. The people obeyed the call, and rose against the troops of Matilda and Victor “who still from the heights above maintained possession of the church of St. Peter. This became the center of the bloody strife; men warred with the utmost fury as to who should celebrate the apostle’s holy day in his great church. Neither party obtained this triumph; the alter remained the whole day without light, incense, or sacrifice; for the discomfited troops of the pope were forced to take refuge in the castle of St. Angelo....ECE 371.8

77. “Guibert celebrated high mass in the neighboring church of St. Maria, with the two towers or belfries, from both of which he had just smoked or burned out the garrison. The next day the partisans of Guibert took possession of St. Peter’s, washed the altar clean from the pollution of the hostile mass, and then celebrated the holy eucharist. But their triumph too was short; the following day they were again driven out; and Pope Victor ruled in St. Peter’s.”—Milman. ^{40[Page 372] “History of Latin Christianity,” Vol. III, book VII, chap. IV, par. 4.}ECE 372.1

78. In August, 1087, Victor held a council at Benevento, by which he renewed the excommunication and anathema against Clement III, whom he denounced as “the forerunner of antichrist, as a ravenous wolf let loose against the flock of Christ.”—Bower. ^{41[Page 372] “Lives of the Popes,” Victor III.} The council also renewed Gregory’s denunciation of lay investiture. But, even while the council was in session, Victor was attacked by the dangerous illness which caused his death September 16. Upon his deathbed he had recommended to the cardinals the election of a certain Otto, bishop of Ostia. An assembly was appointed to meet at Terracina, in Campania, the first week in Lent, 1088. And there, on Sunday, March 12, the bishop of Ostia was unanimously chosen to the papal office, and so became Pope—URBAN II, MARCH 12, 1088, TO JULY 29, 1099.ECE 372.2

79. Urban immediately notified the nobles and sovereigns of all countries that he was pope. In the year 1099 he held a council in Rome, in which he excommunicated Clement III, and the emperor Henry, and all their adherents, of which he wrote to Henry’s chief episcopal enemy in Germany, thus:—ECE 372.3

“I place in the first rank of the excommunicated the heretic Guibert of Ravenna, the usurper of the apostolic throne, and the king Henry; then those who sustain them; and finally all the clergy or laity who commune with these two criminals. We do not, however, pronounce an anathema especially against all; but we do not admit them to our communion without imposing on them a penance, which we regulate according to the degree of sin, whether these guilty ones have acted from ignorance, fear, or necessity. We wish to treat with extreme severity those who have voluntarily fallen into the abyss. We confirm you in the power of governing in our stead in Saxony, Germany, and the other neighboring countries, in order that you may regulate all ecclesiastical affairs, in accordance with the interests of the Church.” ^{42[Page 373] De Cormenin “History of the Popes,” Urban II.}ECE 373.1

80. Later in the same year he held a council at Melfi, at which he renewed the decree of Gregory against lay investitures, and the marriage of the clergy. To this confirmed decree of Gregory against the marriage of the clergy, Urban added a decree empowering the laity to make slaves of the wives of the married clergy, wherever they could find them. These acts of Urban, through his councils, were a notice to the world that he would perpetuate the war which Gregory had begun, and which Victor had continued. It is too much to repeat the details of intrigue, slaughter, and devastation that accompanied this war. The only new feature about it was that Urban and his party succeeded in winning Henry’s son, Prince Conrad, to their side, and to take up arms in actual war, against his father. “So completely was the churchman’s interest to absorb all others, that crimes thus against nature not only were excused by the ordinary passions of men, but by those of the highest pretensions to Christian holiness. What pope ever, if it promised advantage, refused the alliance of a rebellious son?”—Milman. ^{43[Page 373] “History of Latin Christianity,” Id., chap 5. par. 8.}ECE 373.2

81. It was as the stirrer up of the Crusades that Urban II specially gained papal distinction. We have seen that Gregory VII designed a Crusade: it remained for Urban II, “the most faithful of his disciples” to accomplish it. The Turks had taken Jerusalem from the Saracens in 1076. Among the many thousands who made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem was a hermit, named Peter, from the province of Picardy. in France. The Turks had not only taken Jerusalem, but “both Cilicias, Syria, Isauria, Lycia, Pisidia, Lycaonia, Cappadocia, Galatia, the one and the other Pontus, and Bithynia.” When Peter the Hermit appealed to the patriarch of Jerusalem to know why the Greek emperors could endure to have the Turks possess the “holy sepulcher,” the patriarch could only assure him of the weakness of the successors of Constantine. Then, exclaimed Peter, “I will rouse the martial nations of Europe in your cause!” “From Jerusalem the pilgrim returned an accomplished fanatic; but as he excelled in the popular madness of the times, Pope Urban the Second received him as a prophet, applauded his glorious design, promised to support it in a general council, and encouraged him to proclaim the deliverance of the Holy Land.”—Gibbon. ^{44[Page 374] “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” chap. 1VIII. par. 1.}ECE 373.3

82. Thus encouraged, Peter set forth in his coarse hermit garb, bareheaded and barefooted, mounted on an ass; and traversed Italy and France, preaching everywhere—in the churches, in the streets, at the cross-roads, on the highways. With sighs, and tears, and groans, and smiting upon his breast; with appeals to heaven, to the Virgin Mary, to all the saints, and the angels; with intensely drawn pictures of the oppressions of the holy pilgrims by the unbelieving Turks; he worked upon the feelings, and appealed to the passions, of the superstitious, ignorant, and weak-minded multitude everywhere. “The most perfect orator of Athens might have envied the success of his eloquence: the rustic enthusiast inspired the passion which he felt, and Christendom expected with impatience the counsels and decrees of the supreme pontiff.” ^{45[Page 374] Id.}ECE 374.1

83. Urban held a council at Placentia, March, 1095, which was composed of two hundred bishops of Italy, France, Burgundy, Swabia, and Bavaria, and at which were assembled four thousand other clergy and thirty thousand laity. To the council came also ambassadors from the Eastern emperor, pleading for aid to protect Europe from the victorious Turks. “At the sad tale of the misery and perils of their Eastern brethren, the assembly burst into tears: the most eager champions declared their readiness to march; and the Greek ambassadors were dismissed with the assurance of a speedy and powerful succor. The relief of Constantinople was included in the larger and most distant project of the deliverance of Jerusalem; but the prudent Urban adjourned the final decision to a synod which he proposed to celebrate in some city of France in the autumn of the same year.” ^{46[Page 375] Id., pars. 2.}ECE 374.2

84. The city of France that was chosen for this second council was Clerment; and the council was held in November, 1095. “Besides his court and council of Roman cardinals, Urban was supported by thirteen archbishops and two hundred and twenty-five bishops; the number of mitered prelates was computed at four hundred.... From the adjacent kingdoms, a martial train of lords and knights of power and renown, attended the council, in high expectation of its resolves; and such was the ardor of zeal and curiosity that the city was filled, and many thousands, in the month of November, erected their tents or huts in the open field. A session of eight days produced some useful or edifying canons for the reformation of manners; a severe censure was pronounced against the license of private war.... But a law, however venerable be the sanction, can not suddenly transform the temper of the times; and the benevolent efforts of Urban deserve the less praise, since he labored to appease some domestic quarrels, that he might spread the flames of war from the Atlantic to the Euphrates. From the synod of Placentia, the rumor of his great design had gone forth among the nations: the clergy on their return had preached in every diocese the merit and glory of the deliverance of the Holy Land; and when the pope ascended a lofty scaffold in the market-place of Clermont, his eloquence was addressed to a well-prepared and impatient audience.” ^{47[Page 375] Id., par. 3.} From that scaffold Urban II declaimed as follows:—ECE 375.1

“We are beyond doubt, happy to see our presence excite acclamations in this great and illustrious assembly; but we can not conceal beneath the appearances of deceitful joy, the marks of profound sadness; and your hearts will see in bitterness, and your eyes will shed torrents of tears, when you regard with me, my brethren, the misfortunes of Christianity, and our negligence of the faithful of the East. “Thanks be to God, we have almost entirely extirpated the heresy which desolated the Western Church; we have exterminated obstinate schismatics by fire or sword; we have reformed the abuses and augmented the domains and riches of the holy see. Notwithstanding this success our soul remains plunged in sadness, and we declare to you that we will taste of no repose until the implacable enemies of the Christian name shall be driven from the Holy Land, which they outrage by their impious and sacrilegious conduct.ECE 375.2

“Yes, dear brethren, Jerusalem, the city of God, that heritage of Christ, which has been bequeathed to us by the Saviour, that venerated land, in which all the divine mysteries have been accomplished, has been for several centuries in the sacrilegious hands of the Saracens and Turks, who triumph over God himself. Who can tell the horrible profanations which they commit in these holy places? They have overthrown the altars, broken the crosses, destroyed the churches; and if in their rage they have spared the church of St. Sepulchre, it was only from a sentiment of avarice, for they have speculated on the devotion of the faithful, who go from all parts of the world to the divine tomb. They exact a ransom from pilgrims to permit them to penetrate into the holy places; they then despoil them, when they permit them to go away, and even attack them when they regain their vessels; in order to seize on their persons and reduce them to the harshest slavery. “And we, children of Christ, contemplate the massacre of our brethren, coldly and without indignation: we appear indifferent to outrages which the barbarians commit on God; we abandon quietly to them a heritage which belongs to us alone; we allow them peacefully to enjoy a conquest which is the shame of all Christendom, and we remain their tributaries without daring to claim our rights by force of arms. “Christians, however, do not shun battle, since almost all Europe is almost constantly at war; but the swords which should exterminate the enemies of Christ are drawn against himself and strike His sacred members. How long will you leave the Mussulmans masters of the East? Arise from your lethargy, which has destroyed our holy religion! A single one of our armies could easily triumph over the infidel; but our quarrels and intestine wars constantly decimate us, and add strength to our foes. What great things we could accomplish if the princes of the West were not obliged to keep their troops about them in order to defend them from the attacks of their neighbors, and if the Spirit of God would unite our efforts in so beautiful an enterprise! We hope that he will lend eloquence to our words, and will descend into your hearts, that you may comprehend this important truth. “We have chosen from preference this most Christian kingdom to give an example to other people, because we recollect that it was your ancestors, the Franks, who exhibited so great a zeal for religion, and because we hoped you would reply to the voice of God, and draw all Europe in your steps. The people of the Gauls have already been formidable adversaries to the Huns, the African Moors, and the Arabs; already under the leading of Charles Martel and of Charlemagne, have they exterminated armies of infidels more numerous than the sands of the sea; now your legions will be still more terrible, your victories brilliant, because you will combat under the standard of the God of armies, who sends you to conquer the heritage of His Son, and who orders you to drive the infidels from the holy sepulcher.ECE 376.1

“Follow, intrepid Franks, the chief who calls you to the succor of religion, to the succor of your brethren of the East, to the succor of Christ himself! See that divine Saviour who sallied forth victorious over the world, death, and hell; He is now a slave to the Saracens; He presents to you His cross; He gives it to you as the sacred emblem under which you are to conquer His enemies and acquire eternal glory. Do not forget that God, by my mouth, promises you the victory and abandons to you the rich spoils of the infidels. Those who shall shed their blood in this sacred war, shall receive the ineffable crown of martyrdom; if, however, fear of death—“ECE 377.1

85. Here the pope was interrupted by the cry: “Deus lo volt! Deus lo volt!”—God wills it!—as with one voice, from thousands of the excited multitude. Urban replied:—ECE 377.2

“What more magnificent expression of the divine will can there be than these simple words, ‘God wills it’ issuing simultaneously from every mouth! Dear children, you have followed the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and we receive this revelation as an oracle which guarantees the success of a war which God himself comes to declare. Let this sublime expression be the device of the army; let us engrave it on our standards and our breasts, that it may become the cry of soldiers and chiefs in combat. Yes, God wills it! Let us march to the holy sepulcher; let us go to deliver Christ, and until the blessed day on which we restore Him to liberty, let us carry like Him, on our right shoulders, the holy cross, on which He expired to snatch us from the slavery of sin. His cross is the symbol of your salvation. Wear it, a red, a bloody cross, as an external mark, on your breasts or shoulders, as a pledge of your sacred and irrevocable engagement.” ^{48[Page 377] De Cormenin’s “History of the Popes,” Urban II.}ECE 377.3

86. The pope “proclaimed a plenary indulgence to those should enlist under the banner of the cross: the absolution of all their sins, and a full receipt for all that might be due of canonical penance.”—Gibbon. ^{49[Page 377] “Decline and Fall,” chap. 1VIII, par. 5.} When the council adjourned, the bishops were solemnly enjoined by Urban to cause the crusade to be preached by the clergy throughout all their dioceses. “The cold philosophy of modern times is incapable of feeling the impression that was made on a sinful and fanatic world. At the voice of their pastor, the robber, the incendiary, the homicide, arose by thousands to redeem their souls, by repeating on the infidels the same deeds which they had exercised against their Christian brethren; and the terms of atonement were eagerly embraced by offenders of every rank and denomination. None were pure; none were exempt from the guilt and penalty of sin; and those who were the least amenable to the justice of God and the Church, were the best entitled to the temporal and eternal recompense of their pious courage. If they fell, the spirit of the Latin clergy did not hesitate to adorn their tomb with the crown of martyrdom; and should they survive, they could expect without impatience the delay and increase of their heavenly reward.” ^{50[Page 378] Id.}ECE 377.4

87. The ignorant and superstitious multitude everywhere, “both the great and small, were taught to believe every wonder, of lands flowing with milk and honey, of mines and treasures, of gold and diamonds, of palaces of marble and jasper, and of odoriferous groves of cinnamon and frankincense. In this earthly paradise, each warrior depended on his sword to carve a plenteous and honorable establishment, which he measured only by the extent of his wishes. Their vassals and soldiers trusted their fortunes to God and their master: the spoils of a Turkish emir might enrich the meanest follower of the camp; and the flavor of the wines, the beauty of the Grecian women, were temptations more adapted to the nature, than to the profession, of the champions of the cross. The love of freedom was a powerful incitement to the multitudes who were oppressed by feudal or ecclesiastical tyranny. Under this holy sign, the peasants and burghers, who were attached to the servitude of the glebe, might escape from a haughty lord, and transplant themselves and their families to a land of liberty. The monk might release himself from the discipline of his convent: the debtor might suspend the accumulation of usury, and the pursuit of his creditors; and outlaws and malefactors of every caste might continue to brave the laws and elude the punishment of their crimes.” ^{51[Page 378] Id., par. 6.}ECE 378.1

88. The Council of Clerment had designated Aug. 15, 1096, as the time of the departure of the crusade. But the enthusiasm was so great that a great rabble was ready to start in March: about one hundred thousand, in three bands, led respectively by Peter the Hermit; a certain Walter, for cause named the Penniless; and a monk named Godescal. These were followed, as early as the month of May, by a horde of two hundred thousands, appropriately led by a goose and a goat. These hosts were composed of “the most stupid and savage refuse of the people, who mingled with their devotion a brutal license of rapine, prostitution, and drunkenness;” and who were so utterly ignorant “that at the sight of the first city or castle beyond the limits of their knowledge, they were ready to ask whether that was not the Jerusalem, the term and object of their labors.” ^{52[Page 379] Id., chap. 1VIII, pars. 8, 7.}ECE 378.2

89. From the first step onward in their march, their crusading zeal was poured out in a general massacre of the Jews along their route. “At Verdun, Treves, Mentz, Spires, Worms, many thousands of that unhappy people were pillaged and massacred: nor had they felt a more bloody stroke since the persecution of Hadrian.” This was continued all down the Danube. Yet the affliction that befell the people in general, along the route of the crusaders, was only less terrible than that which befell the Jews. For the immense crowd had to have supplies: they took none with them, and, perforce, must live off the people in the countries through which they passed. If the people hesitated, what was wanted was taken by force; if they refused, they exposed themselves to murder. So dreadful was this invasion by the crusaders that the perfect of Bulgaria and the king of Hungary were compelled to muster their armies to defend their countries and peoples.ECE 379.1

90. When the crusaders arrived at Constantinople, the emperor of the East hoped to save from the certain destruction which he knew must befall them from the Turks, as soon as they should enter Asia. But they presently proved themselves so destructive that, for the safety of his country, his city, and his people, he was glad to help them across the Bosphorus. This, to be sure, was pleasing to the crusaders; for it would bring them within reach of the hated objects of their crusading zeal, whom they expected promptly to sweep away, as chaff before the whirlwind, and come speedily to Jerusalem and the holy sepulcher. They were safely landed on the soil of Asia. In two battles, which, to the Turks, were hardly more than skirmishes, the whole multitude was blocked out. “A pyramid of bones informed their companions of the place of their defeat. Of the first crusaders, three hundred thousand had already perished, before a single city was rescued from the infidels; before their graver and more noble brethren had completed the preparations of their enterprise.” ^{53[Page 380] Id., par. 9.} “Never, perhaps, were expeditions so utterly, hopelessly disastrous, so wildly prodigal of human life, as the popular crusade which set off first under Peter the Hermit.”—Milman. ^{54[Page 380] “Latin Christianity,” Vol. IV, book VII, chap. VI, par. 27.}ECE 379.2

91. Next came the month of August, the time appointed by the pope for the regular departure of the crusade. And the numbers who reached Constantinople were so vast that an eyewitness, a historian, thought that Europe must have been loosened from its foundations, to supply such multitudes. It is estimated that about six million started; but many soon turned back; many others perished by the way. Yet, the sober estimate of standard history is “that a large number has never been contained within the lines of a single camp, than at the siege of Nice, the first operation of the Latin princes.”—Gibbon. ^{55[Page 380] Id., par. 16.} Since a like estimate of the army of Xerxes, when it was counted, after its first assembly on European soil, gives the number as 5,283,220, ^{56[Page 380] “Great Empires of Prophecy,” chap. IX, par. 2.} it is evident that the number of crusaders that composed the first crusade must have been fully five million. ^{58[Page 380] Id., par. 24.} These were led by the first princes and the ablest warriors of Europe; and they accomplished a successful march through Asia Minor, Syria, and Palestine. They besieged and captured Nice and Antioch, May, 1097, to June 3, 1098. June 7, 1099, they began the siege of Jerusalem, and captured it July 15. “On a Friday at three in the afternoon, the day and hour of the Passion, Godfrey of Bouillon stood victorious on the walls of Jerusalem. His example was followed on every side by the emulation of valor; and about four hundred and sixty years after the conquest of Omar, the holy city was rescued from the Mohammedan yoke.”—Gibbon.ECE 380.1

92. “No barbarian, no infidel, no Saracen, ever perpetrated such wanton and cold-blooded atrocities of cruelty as the wearers of the cross of Christ (who, it is said, had fallen on their knees, and burst into a pious hymn at the first view of the Holy City), on the capture of the city. Murder was mercy, rape tenderness, simple plunder the mere assertion of the conqueror’s right. Children were seized by their legs, some of them plucked from their mothers’ breasts, and dashed against the walls, or whirled from the battlements. Others were obliged to leap from the walls; some tortured, roasted by slow fires, They ripped up prisoners to see if they had swallowed gold. Of 70,000 Saracens there were not left enough to bury the dead; poor Christians were hired to perform the office. Every one surprised in the temple was slaughtered, till the reek from the dead bodies drove away the slayers. The Jews were burned alive in their synagogue. Even the day after, all who had taken refuge on the roofs, notwithstanding Tancred’s resistance, were hewn to pieces. Still later the few Saracens who had escaped (not excepting babes of a year old) were put to death to avenge the insults to the dead, and lest they should swell the numbers of the advancing Egyptian army.”—Milman. ^{59[Page 381] “History of Latin Christianity,” Vol. IV, book VII, chap. VI, par. 28.}ECE 380.2

93. Then “after every enemy was subdued and slaughtered,” with the streets of Jerusalem flowing with blood and covered with the bodies of the slain, the triumphant crusaders threw aside their weapons still reeking with blood, and turned their steps toward the “holy sepulcher.” They gathered at this the goal of their long and deadly march; and there at the imagined tomb of the Saviour, with their hands and garments all bloody from their indiscriminate slaughter of men, women, and innocent children, they presumed with tears and anthems and devout attitude to express their gratitude to Him who from Sinai had thundered, “Thou shalt not kill,” and who, absolutely unresisting, had yielded His life and breathed His dying prayer for His enemies! And among the bloody, fanatical crowd we catch a last glimpse of the chief cause of the whole fanatical project—Peter the Hermit.ECE 381.1

94. Then was established the kingdom of Jerusalem, of which Godfrey of Bouillon was unanimously chosen the first ruler. This kingdom continued from 1099 to 1187, when Jerusalem was retaken by the Mohammedans, under Saladin. At his taking of the city, Saladin “consented to accept the city, and spare the inhabitants. The Greek and Oriental Christians were permitted to live under his dominion; but it was stipulated that in forty days all the Franks and Latins should evacuate Jerusalem, and be safely conducted to the seaports of Syria and Egypt; that ten pieces of gold should be paid for each man, five for each woman, and one for each child; and that those who were unable to purchase their freedom should be detained in perpetual slavery. Of some writers it is a favorite and invidious theme to compare the humanity of Saladin with the massacre of the first crusade. The difference would be merely personal; but we should not forget that the Christians had offered to capitulate, and that the Mohammedans of Jerusalem sustained the last extremities of an assault and storm. Justice is indeed due to the fidelity with which the Turkish conqueror fulfilled the conditions of the treaty; and he may be deservedly praised for the glance of pity which he cast on the misery of the vanquished. Instead of a rigorous exaction of his debt, he accepted a sum of thirty thousand byzants, for the ransom of seven thousand poor; two or three thousand more were dismissed by his gratuitous clemency; and the number of slaves was reduced to eleven or fourteen thousand persons. In his interview with the queen, his words, and even his tears, suggested the kindest consolations; his liberal alms were distributed among those who had been made orphans or widows by the fortune of war; and while the knights of the hospital were in arms against him, he allowed their more pious brethren to continue, during the term of a year, the care and service of the sick.ECE 381.2

95. “In these acts of mercy the virtue of Saladin deserves our admiration and love: he was above the necessity of dissimulation, and his stern fanaticism would have prompted him to dissemble, rather than to affect, this profane compassion for the enemies of the Koran. After Jerusalem had been delivered from the presence of the strangers, the sultan made his triumphant entry, his banners waving in the wind, and to the harmony of martial music. The great mosque of Omar, which had been converted into a church, was again consecrated to one God and His prophet Mohammed; the walls and pavement were purified with rosewater; and a pulpit, the labor of Noureddin, was erected in the sanctuary. But when the golden cross that glittered on the dome was cast down, and dragged through the streets, the Christians of every sect uttered a lamentable groan, which was answered by the joyful shouts of Moslems. In four ivory chests the patriarch had collected the crosses, the images, the vases, and the relics of the holy place: they were seized by the conqueror, who was desirous of presenting the caliph with the trophies of Christian idolatry. He was persuaded, however, to intrust them to the patriarch and prince of Antioch; and the pious pledge was redeemed by Richard of England, at the expense of fifty-two thousand byzants of gold.”—Gibbon. ^{60[Page 383] “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” chap. 1IX, par. 11.}ECE 382.1

96. This epidemic of the fanaticism and savagery of the Crusades continued for nearly two hundred years. In this time nearly seven millions of people left Western Europe for Jerusalem, very few of whom ever returned, and these merely as individuals. Thus, this vast number of people were called by the popes to slaughter: and this without a single redeeming feature, and without a solitary justifying cause. “The obstinate perseverance of Europe may indeed excite our pity and admiration: that no instruction should have been drawn from constant and adverse experience; that the same confidence should have repeatedly grown from the same failures; that six succeeding generations should have rushed headlong down the precipice that was open before them; and that men of every condition should have staked their public and private fortunes on the desperate adventure of possessing or recovering a tombstone two thousand miles from their country.”—Gibbon. ^{61[Page 383] “Id., par. 6.} “The Crusades—contemplated not with cold and indifferent philosophy, but with that lofty spiritualism of faith which can not consent to limit the ubiquitous God, and Saviour, and Holy Spirit to any place, or to any peculiar mountain or city, and to which a war of religion is essentially, irreconcilably oppugnant to the spirit of Christianity—may seem the height of human folly. The Crusades, if we could calculate the incalculable waste of human life from first to last (a waste without achieving any enduring human result) and all the human misery which is implied in that loss of life, may seem the most wonderful frenzy which ever possessed mankind.”—Milman. ^{62[Page 383] “History of Latin Christianity,” Vol. IV, book VII, chap. VI, par. 23.}ECE 383.1

97. Yet it all redounded to the enrichment, and therefore to the glory of the papacy. First of all, all the interests in this world and in the next, of every crusader, were taken under the special guardianship of the pope; and, since scarcely any who went returned, this guardianship became perpetual, and, under the native encroaching spirit of the papacy, was easily merged in absolute control. Besides this, all were in need of ready money with which to furnish themselves for the Crusades. The property of such a multitude to be disposed of, all at once caused it to be salable only at a very greatly reduced price. And, from the accumulated treasures of centuries, and at exorbitant rates, the Church loaned upon valuables and landed estates the needed money. For instance, Godfrey of Bouillon mortgaged to the bishop of Verdun and the bishop of Liege the greater part of his great estates; and since he never returned, those possessions to this day are held by the Church of Rome. “For at least two centuries this traffic went silently on, the Church always receiving, rarely alienating: and this, added to the ordinary offerings of devotion, the bequests of deathbed remorse, the exactions for hard-wrung absolution, the prodigal bribes of superstitious terror, the alms of pure and self-denying charity.ECE 383.2

98. “Whoever during the whole period of the Crusades sought to whom he might intrust his lands as guardian, or in perpetuity, if he should find his grave or richer possessions in the Holy Land, turned to the Church, by whose prayers he might win success, by whose masses the sin which clung to the soul even of the soldier of the cross might be purged away. If he returned, he returned often a disappointed and melancholy man, took refuge from his despondent religious feelings in the cloister, and made over his remaining rights to his brethren. If he returned no more, the Church was in possession. The churchman who went to the Holy Land did not hold in himself the perpetual succession to the lands of his see or of his monastery; it was in the Church or in the fraternity. Thus in every way the all-absorbing Church was still gathering in wealth, encircling new lands within her hallowed pale, the one steady merchant who in this vast traffic and sale of personal and of landed property never made a losing venture, but went on accumulating and still accumulating, and for the most part withdrawing the largest portion of the land in every kingdom into a separate estate, which claimed exemption from all burdens of the realm.”—Milman. ^{63[Page 384] Id., par. 37.}ECE 384.1

99. Urban II did not return from France to Rome until September, 1096; and then he was escorted by a troop of crusaders, by whose aid the pontiff entered Rome in triumph, and drove the partisans of Clement III from the fortresses which they occupied, except the castle of St. Angelo. Later, Urban made a journey to Salerno, when the partisans of Clement III rose again, and established Clement’s power. A council composed of cardinals, bishops, priests, deacons, and monks, to a great number, was held, which excommunicated Urban, and put him under an anathema, declaring:—ECE 384.2

“We are unwilling to leave the faithful in ignorance, that we have assembled in council to destroy the heresies introduced into the Church by the monk Hildebrand and the imitators of his policy. We consequently publish the condemnation of Pope Urban, and of all who recognize him. We, however, permit the guilty to plead their cause before us, promising them, even though they should be condemned, entire safety for their persons until the festival of All-Saints, because we do not thirst for blood, and sincerely desire peace, truth, and unity in the Church.”ECE 385.1

100. Soon afterward, however, early in the year 1099, Urban returned, and again drove out Clement III. July 29, 1099, Urban II died. In his place was elected Cardinal Rainerius, who took the title of—PASCAL II, AUG. 13, 1099, TO JAN. 21, 1118. Pascal continued against Henry IV the war which had been begun by Gregory VII, and which had been maintained by Victor III and Urban II. Clement III died in September, 1100. A successor was immediately elected by Henry’s party; but by Pascal he was taken prisoner the day of his election, and was confined in a monastery. Another was elected in his place, who, in one hundred and five days after his election, was also captured and imprisoned by Pascal. Yet a third was elected, who took the name of—SYLVESTER IV. But in a few days he was driven from Rome by Pascal, and died before he could return to Rome.ECE 385.2

101. The war between the pope and the emperor which Gregory VII had begun and his successors had continued, was waged most bitterly by Pascal. The emperor’s first son, Conrad, whom the papal party had stirred up against his father, had died. Then they succeeded in turning against the emperor his second son, Henry; and though it can not be proved that the pope himself was directly engaged in the rebellion of the young Henry against his father, yet it is certain that “the first act of the young Henry was to consult the pope as to the obligation of his oath of allegiance. The holy father, daringly ascribing this dissension between the son and his parent to the inspiration of God, sent him without reserve the apostolic blessing, and gave him absolution, on condition that he should rule with justice and be faithful to the Church: for his rebellion against his father, an absolution in the final judgment of Christ.”—Milman. ^{64[Page 386] “History of Latin Christianity,” Vol. IV, book VIII, chap. 1, par. 12 from end.}ECE 385.3

102. By means of this second rebellious son, the papacy succeeded in driving the emperor Henry IV unto his death, Aug. 7, 1106. Nor did she stop even then; but, when he had been buried by the bishop of Liege, where he died, the bishop was compelled to dig up the body, and to exclude it from “consecrated ground.” “Thus was this great prince, Henry, the fourth emperor of that name, in defiance of all laws human and divine, persecuted to his grave, and beyond it, by his own subjects and his own children, with the approbation, if not at the instigation of four popes successively, for not yielding up to them a prerogative, that his predecessors had all enjoyed as their undoubted right, and no pope, how daring soever and ambitious, had presumed to claim till the time of that incendiary, Gregory VII.”—Bower. ^{65[Page 386] “Lives of the Popes,” Pascal II.}ECE 386.1

103. But, now that the pope had gotten rid of Henry IV, it may be said that his troubles had only fairly begun. With the accession of Henry V, the pope fell into rougher hands than he had ever yet found. For, although the young Henry had joined the papacy in the war against his father, to win for the papacy, from the emperor, the sole right of investiture; yet the young Henry was no sooner become the emperor Henry V, than he asserted, with all his power, against the papacy the same right of investiture for which his father had always contended. Thus the pope found himself more deeply involved in war than he was before.ECE 386.2

104. Pascal made a journey into France. To him, at Chalons, Henry sent an embassy to state before him the legality of the imperial claims to the right of investiture. In reply, the bishop of Placentia, speaking in the pope’s name, declared that “the staff and the ring belonged to the altar, and consequently could not be disposed of by laymen; and that it was highly unbecoming that hands consecrated by the body and blood of Christ should receive the ensigns of their dignity and power from hands imbrued in blood shed by the sword!” Henry’s ambassadors interrupted the archbishop with the word: “This is not the place where we are to decide the dispute: the sword must decide it at Rome.” In a letter to Anselm, of England, Pascal declared:—ECE 387.1

“Know that I never did, and that I never will, suffer the king of Germany to give investitures. I only wait till the fierceness of that nation be somewhat tamed. But if the king continues to follow the wicked example of his father, he shall feel, in due time, the weight of the sword of St. Peter, which we have already begun to draw.” ^{66[Page 387] Bower’s Lives of the Popes,” Pascal II. par. 36.}ECE 387.2

105. Henry proposed a treaty, by which he would surrender all claims to investitures, provided the pope would surrender to him all the possessions and temporalities that had been bestowed upon the papacy from the time of Charlemagne to the present, with the bishops of their own consent agreeing. The pope agreed to it, and Henry went to Rome to ratify the treaty which had been arranged by his ambassadors, and to be crowned emperor by the pope. Feb. 11, 1111, he arrived at Rome with an army of thirty-four thousand men. He was gladly received by Jews and Greeks, the clergy and the nuns, and a great multitude of people, and by them was escorted to the Vatican. There Henry “dismounted from his horse, ascended the steps of St. Peter, approached the pope, who was encircled by the cardinals, by many bishops, by the whole clergy and choir of the Church. He kissed first the feet, and then the mouth of the pontiff; they embraced three times, and three times in honor of the Trinity, exchanged the holy kiss on the forehead, the eyes, and the lips.... The king took the right hand of the pope; the people rent the air with acclamations. The king made his solemn declaration to observe the treaty; the pope declared him emperor, and again the pope bestowed the kiss of peace. They now took their seats within the porphyry chancel.”—Milman. ^{67[Page 388] “History of Latin Christianity,” Vol. IV, book VIII, chap. II, pars. 19, 20.}ECE 387.3

106. But each knew that he could not trust the other. Each one hesitated to make his renunciation in behalf of the other, lest, if he should make it first, the other would refuse, and so he would be caught. As each sat waiting for the other, the pope was first to break silence by asking the king to make the renunciation of the investitures. The king replied that he had agreed to renounce investitures only on condition that the bishops of Italy should agree to the pope’s renunciation of the temporalities, and that he could not make his renunciation of investitures until he could know for certain that the bishops, of their own free will, joined with the pope in renouncing temporalities. Presently the king stepped aside to confer with the bishops who were present. The conference continued so long that the pope sent and asked him to return and fulfill his part of the treaty. When Henry returned to where the pope was sitting, the bishops and some of the king’s guard came with him. The bishops unanimously declared that they would never agree to any surrender of their estates, that the pope had no right to make any agreement that it should be done; and that at any rate it could not be done, because, since the temporalities had been given to the Church by the emperors, those temporalities were inalienable. The pope tried to persuade them, saying:—ECE 388.1

“It is just to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s. He who serves God ought not to be taken up with the affairs of this world. The use of arms, and consequently the possession of castles and strongholds, is, according to St. Ambrose, foreign to the office of a bishop.” ^{68[Page 388] Bower’s “Lives of the Popes,” Pascal II, par. 41.}ECE 388.2

107. But the bishops would not be persuaded. Yet the pope, pleading that he had fulfilled his part of the treaty, insisted that the king should fulfill his part. As the dispute grew warmer, a member of the king’s retinue stepped up to the pope, and said to him: “To what purpose so many speeches? What have we to do with your articles and treaties? Know that our lord, the emperor, will have you to crown him without any of your articles or conditions, as your predecessors crowned Charles, Louis, and Pepin.” The pope answered that he neither could nor would crown him until he had executed the treaty. But, since the king’s part of the treaty rested definitely upon the condition that the bishops should agree to the renunciation of the temporalities, Henry insisted that since the bishops had refused so to do, he was not in any wise bound to renounce investitures. But the pope pressed his demand. Henry put an end to the quarrel by commanding his guards to surround the pope and his bishops. It was Quinquagesima Sunday, and the pope was allowed to conduct the regular service and to say mass. Henry had caused the gates and towers of the Vatican and St. Peter’s to be occupied by his soldiers. And when the service was over, and the pope and his cardinals were about to retire, the soldiers occupied all the doors, and so held them. Henry caused the pope, with his cardinals (except two who managed to escape), to be taken to an adjoining building, where they were held under guard.ECE 388.3

108. The two cardinals who had escaped spread through the city the word that the pope was imprisoned. The populace rose in fury, and slew many of the German soldiers who, not knowing of the occurrences at St. Peter’s, were scattered, unarmed, through the city. Then the angry crowd rushed to St. Peter’s, and attacked even the armed troops. The emperor, who led a charge upon them, was torn from his horse and wounded; and would have certainly lost his life, had not one of his nobles given to him his own horse. By this sacrifice, the nobleman himself was captured by the crowd, and was literally torn to pieces and cast to the dogs in the streets. Henry’s army prevailed, and there was again a great slaughter. The pope was imprisoned in a castle, the cardinals were bound and confined in a separate castle not far from Rome. Thus they were kept close prisoners, none but Germans being allowed to communicate with them. At the end of two months, the bishops and cardinals so effectually pleaded their own distresses, and those of the people of Rome, and the whole neighborhood, whom Henry perpetually embarrassed and scourged, that Pope Pascal II surrendered to the dictates of Henry V, as completely as Henry IV had surrendered to Gregory VII: with the difference, however, that Pope Pascal was in no wise humiliated or caused to suffer by Henry V, as had been Henry IV by Gregory VII.ECE 389.1

109. The following agreement was made: of course at the dictation of the emperor, and by the surrender and submission of the pope:—ON THE PART OF THE POPE.ECE 390.1

“Pope Pascal shall not molest King Henry on account of giving investitures to the bishops and abbots of his kingdom; he shall not concern himself with them, nor shall he ever excommunicate the king for granting them, or for any injury he has done, on occasion of this dispute, to him or his friends and adherents; the king shall invest, as he has done hitherto, with the crosier and the ring, the bishops and abbots, who shall have been elected freely, without simony, and with his approbation; the archbishops and bishops shall consecrate those whom the king shall have thus invested, and none shall be consecrated till he shall have invested them; the pope shall crown the emperor forthwith, shall assist him to preserve his kingdom, and shall confirm to him, by a special bull, the right of investing.” ON THE PART OF THE EMPEROR.ECE 390.2

“I, Henry, on Wednesday or Thursday next, shall set at liberty Pope Pascal, and all the cardinals, bishops, and other persons, as well as hostages who have been taken with him and for him; and shall cause them to be conducted safe to the gate of the trans-Tiberine city. I shall not henceforth arrest, or cause any to be arrested, who shall be faithful to Pope Pascal; and the Roman people, as well as the inhabitants of the trans-Tiberine city, shall enjoy peace and safety, unmolested both in their persons and estates: I shall restore the patrimonies and demesnes of the Roman Church, which I have taken, shall help and assist her to recover and to hold whatever in justice belongs to her, as my ancestors have done, and shall obey Pope Pascal, saving the honor of my kingdom and empire, as the Catholic emperors have obeyed the Catholic popes.” ^{69[Page 390] Id., par. 44.}ECE 390.3

110. This treaty was arranged in the emperor’s camp, a short distance from Rome. However, there was one item that yet must be fulfilled before the pope could have his liberty. The pope’s part of the agreement was that he should confirm “by a special bull,” the emperor’s right of investiture; and Henry required that this bull should be regularly issued to him by the pope before he should be released. The pope objected that he did not have the papal seal with him, and how could he issued the bull? Henry caused the seal to be brought from the pope’s palace to the camp. Then Pope Pascal II signed and regularly sealed the following papal bull:—ECE 390.4

“Pascal, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to his beloved son Henry, king of the Germans, and by the grace of God emperor of the Romans, health and apostolic benediction. As your kingdom has been always distinguished by its attachment to the Church, and your predecessors have deserved by their probity to be honored with the imperial crown at Rome, it has pleased the Almighty to call you my beloved son Henry, in like manner to that dignity, etc. We therefore grant to you that prerogative, which our predecessors have granted to yours, namely, that you invest the bishops and abbots of your kingdom with the staff and ring, provided they shall have been elected freely and without simony, and that they be consecrated, after you shall have invested them, by the bishops, whose province it is. If any shall be chosen by the people and the clergy, without your approbation, let him not be consecrated till you have invested him. The bishops and archbishops shall be at full liberty to consecrate the bishops and abbots whom you shall have invested. For your predecessors have so endowed and enriched the Church out of their own demesnes, that the bishops and abbots ought to be the foremost in contributing to the defense and support of the State; and it behooves you on your part to suppress the popular dissensions that happen at elections. If any person, whether clerk or layman, shall presume to infringe this our concession, he shall be struck with anathema, and shall forfeit his dignity. May the mercy of the Almighty protect those who shall observe it, and grant your majesty a happy reign.” ^{70[Page 391] Id., par. 45.}ECE 391.1

111. Then the pope was set fully at liberty. He and the emperor entered the city together and went straight to St. Peter’s, where the pope crowned Henry emperor, Sunday, April 12, 1111. When the coronation ceremony was ended, the pope celebrated mass; and when he came to the communion, he took the wafer and broke it in two. Giving one part to Henry and holding the other himself, he said:—ECE 391.2

“We give you, Emperor Henry, the body of our Lord Jesus Christ the same that was born of the Virgin Mary, and suffered on the cross, as we are taught by the holy Catholic Church: we give it you in confirmation of the peace we have made. And as this part of the vivifying sacrament is divided from the other, so may he who shall attempt to break this agreement be divided from our Lord Jesus Christ, and excluded from His kingdom.” ^{71[Page 391] Id., par. 46.}ECE 391.3

112. A deputation of the Roman people was then admitted to the Church. They presented the emperor with the golden crown and with the insignia of the patriciate and defensorship of the city of Rome. Henry demanded that, in the presence of all, the pope should hand to him the bull which had been issued in the camp. The pope refused at first, but was compelled to do it, to escape most probably another experience such as that through which he had just passed. Henry received the bull from the pope’s hand; and with his army departed immediately for Germany.ECE 391.4

113. But the pope’s troubles were not yet ended. Such of the cardinals and bishops as had not been prisoners, and the clergy of Rome, demanded that he should immediately revoke the bull that he had granted, and declare null and void all that he had done in the treaty with Henry. They held a council and themselves unanimously declared null and void all the concessions that Pascal had made, and renewed the decrees of Gregory and his successors against lay investiture. They condemned “all who should act, or who should support any who acted contrary to those decrees.” The tide of opposition grew so strong that the pope himself assembled a council, March 28, 1112, composed of “twelve archbishops, one hundred and fourteen bishops, fifteen cardinal priests, eight cardinal deacons, a great number of abbots and ecclesiastics of all ranks.” To the council he gave an account of all that had occurred in the contest-with Henry. He confessed that he had not done well in making the concessions that he had made, and that the matter ought in some way to be corrected; and asked the council to assist him in finding out how the difficulty could be remedied, since he had granted to the emperor, by that special bull, the right of investiture, and had also pledged that he would not excommunicate him.ECE 392.1

114. The council asked for time to deliberate, which, of course, was granted. The result of their deliberation was the opinion expressed by the bishop of Angouleme, and which “was received by all as dictated by the Holy Ghost,’ that “as the pope had only promised not to excommunicate the emperor, he might excommunicate his own bull” and the treaty which that bull confirmed! Accordingly, the council unanimously adopted the following decree:—ECE 392.2

“All of us who are assembled in this holy council, condemn by the authority of the Church and the judgment of the Holy Ghost, the privilege extorted from the pope by King Henry. And that it may forever be void and null, we excommunicate the said privilege: it being thereby ordained that a bishop, though canonically elected, shall not be consecrated till he has received investiture from the king, which is against the Holy Ghost, and inconsistent which canonical institution. Amen! Amen! Fiat! Fiat!” ^{72[Page 393] Id., par. 49.}ECE 392.3

115. Although the pope had pledged himself not to excommunicate the emperor, and although he had held fast to that pledge, and had excommunicated only his bull and treaty; yet everywhere his legates excommunicated Henry, and Pope Pascal confirmed their excommunication. And, indeed, their excommunication was of itself valueless except as it was confirmed by the pope. Also the Council of Vienne, presided over by the pope’s legate, and held in September, 1112, excommunicated the emperor; and this decree of that council the pope definitely confirmed, in a letter dated November 17 of the same year, “thus doing by others what he was solemnly sworn not to do himself: allowing what was usually supposed an inferior tribunal to dispense with the oath which he dared not himself retract; by an unworthy sophistry trying to obtain the advantage, without the guilt, of perjury.”—Milman. ^{73[Page 393] “History of Latin Christianity,” Vol. IV, book VIII, chap. II, par. 39.} And thus the pope subjected himself to the dividing which he himself decreed upon the broken wafer, Sunday, April 12, 1111.ECE 393.1

116. Thus when Pascal II passed from the papal stage he left to the future popes the great papal lesson that “there was no limit to which they might not advance their pretensions for the aggrandizement of the hierarchy; but to retract the least of these pretensions was beyond their otherwise illimitable power.”—Milman. ^{74[Page 393] Id., par. 5 from end.} The war was continued after the death of Pascal II, as it was before. It was continued throughout the reign of his successor,—GELASIUS II, 1118; and nearly through the reign of his successor,—CALIXTUS II, 1119 TO DEC. 12, 1124. In September, 1122, a diet was held at Worms, at which the legates of Pope Calixtus II were present, and at which, after a conference of ten days, the war of investitures was ended by the following agreement:—ON THE PART OF THE POPE.ECE 393.2

“We, the legates of the holy see, grant to the emperor the power of causing the bishops and abbots of the kingdom of Germany to be chosen in his presence, without employing violence or simony, and under the auspices of the metropolitan and coprovincial prelates. The elected shall receive from the prince the investiture of the regalia by the scepter, and not the ecclesiastical regalia, and he shall perform such duties to his sovereign as are imposed on him by his title of subject. By virtue of this treaty, we grant to Henry a durable peace, and the same to those who embraced his side during the unhappy times of our discords.” ON THE PART OF HENRY V.ECE 393.3

“For the love of God, and the holy Roman Church, of Pope Calixtus, and the safety of our soul, we renounce the privilege of investitures by the ring and the cross, and we grant to all the churches of our empire, canonical elections and free consecrations. We restore to the holy see the lands and royalties on which we have seized during our divisions, and we promise our assistance to the pope to recover those on which our subjects have seized. We will also restore to the churches, lords, and citizens, the domains which are in our possession. Finally, we grant an entire and durable peace to Pope Calixtus, the holy Roman Church, and all those who have aided it during our discords.”ECE 394.1

117. “These two deeds were read and exchanged on a plain on the left bank of the Rhine, where tents and an altar had ben erected. Thanks were then returned to God, and a solemn mass celebrated by the bishop of Ostia, at which he admitted the emperor to communion, and gave him the kiss of peace. He also gave his absolution to the troops who surrounded them, and to all those who had taken part in the schism. Thus the pope and the king cemented their union, after having devastated Germany and Italy, and murdered the people of Saxony, Bavaria, Lorraine, and Lombardy, for half a century, for a miserable quarrel about investitures.”—De Cormenin. ^{75[Page 394] “History of the Popes,” Calixtus II.}ECE 394.2

118. To follow the detailed history of the popes in succession through this century, three quarters of which time there were two popes at once, would be only to impose upon the reader a wearisome repetition of intrigue, blasphemy, and arrogance; of wickedness, war, and woe. The testimony of Catholic contemporaries will be a sufficient description of the whole twelfth century: Cardinal Baronius, the annalist of the popes, avows that “it appeared as if antichrist then governed Christendom.” And, since the pope was the governor of Christendom, this statement very accurately designates who antichrist is.ECE 394.3

119. St. Bernard, who lived at the time, in a letter, wrote:—ECE 395.1

“Having had for some days the happiness of seeing the pious Nobert, and of listening to some words from his mouth, I asked him what were his thoughts with regard to antichrist. He replied to me that this generation would certainly be exterminated by the enemy of God and of men; for his reign had commenced.”ECE 395.2

120. Bernard of Morlaix, a monk of Cluny, who also lived in this century, wrote:—ECE 395.3

“The golden ages are past; pure souls exist no longer; we live in the last times; fraud, impurity, rapine, schisms, quarrels, wars, treasons, incests, and murders desolate the Church. Rome is the impure city of the hunter Nimrod: piety and religion have deserted its walls. Alas! the pontiff, or rather the king, of this odious Babylon, tramples underfoot the Gospels and Christ, and causes himself to be adored as a god.”ECE 395.4

121. Honorius of Antron, a priest, declared:—ECE 395.5

“Behold these bishops and cardinals of Rome! These worthy ministers who surround the throne of the Beast! They are constantly occupied with new iniquities, and never cease committing crimes.... The reign of God has finished, and that of antichrist has commenced. A new law has replaced the old. Scholastic theology has sallied from morality, tenets, nor worships—and lo! the last times, announced in the Apocalypse have come!” ^{76[Page 395] De Cormenin’s “History of the Popes,” Pascal II, first paragraphs.}ECE 395.6