and Italy, and involved, for a long time, those unhappy lands in the calamities of war. In Italy, the Normans, who were masters of the lower parts of that country, and the armies of the powerful and valiant Mathilda, maintained successfully the cause of Gregory against the Lombards, who espoused the interests of Henry; while this unfortu nate prince, with all the forces he could assemble, carried on the war in Germany against Rodolph and the confederate princes. Gregory, considering the events of war as extremely doubtful, was at first afraid to declare for either side, and therefore observed, during a certain time, an ap pearance of neutrality; but encouraged by the battle of Flandenheim, in which Henry was defeated by the Saxons, A. D. 1080, he excommunicated anew that vanquished prince, and sending a crown to the victor Rodolph, declared him lawful king of the Germans. The injured emperor did not let this new insult pass unpunished; seconded by the suffrages of several of the Italian and German bishops, he deposed Gregory a second time in a council which met at Mentz, and in a synod that was soon after assembled at Brixen, in the province of Tirol, he raised to the pontificate Guibert, archbishop of Ravenna, who assumed the title of Clement III. when he was consecrated at Rome, A. D. 1084, four years after his election.

XVIII. This election was followed soon after by an event which gave an advantageous turn to the affairs of Henry; this event was a bloody battle, fought upon the banks of the river Elster, where Rodolph received a mortal wound, of which he died at Mersberg. The emperor, having got rid of this formidable enemy, marched directly into Italy the following year, 1081, with a design to crush Gregory and his adherents, whose defeat he imagined would contribute effectually to put an end to the troubles in Germany. Accordingly he made several campaigns, with various success, against the valiant troops of Mathilda; and after having raised twice the siege of Rome, he resumed a third time that bold enterprise, and became, at length, master of the greatest part of that city, in the year 1084. The first step that Henry took after this success was to place Guibert in the papal chair, after which he received the imperial crown from the hands of the new pontiff, was saluted emperor by the Roman people, and laid close siege to the castle of St. Angelo, whither his mortal

enemy, Gregory, had fled for safety. He was however forced to raise this siege by the valour of Robert Guiscard, duke of Apulia and Calabria, who brought Gregory in triumph to Rome; but not thinking him safe there, conducted him afterward to Salernum. In this place the famous pontiff ended his days the year following, A. D. 1085, and left Europe involved in those calamities which were the fatal effects of his boundless ambition. He was certainly a man of extensive abilities, endowed with a most enterprising genius, and an invincible firmness of mind; but it must at the same time be acknowledged, that he was the most arrogant and audacious pontiff that had hitherto sat in the papal chair. The Roman church worships him as a saint, though it is certain that he was never placed in that order by a regular canonization. Paul V. about the beginning of the seventeenth century, appointed the twenty-fifth day of May, as a festival sacred to the memory of this pretended saint; but the emperors of Germany, the kings of France, and other European princes, have always opposed the celebration of this festival, and have thus effectually prevented its becoming universal. In our times, Benedict XIII. zealous to secure to Gregory the saintly honours, occasioned a contest, whose issue was by no means favourable to his superstitious views."

m

XIX. The death of Gregory neither restored peace to the church, nor tranquillity to the state; the tumults and divisions which he had excited still continued, and they were augmented from day to day by the same passions to which they owed their origin. Clement III. who was the emperor's pontiff, was master of the city of Rome, and was acknowledged as pope by a great part of Italy. Henry carried on the war in Germany against the confederate princes. The faction of Gregory, supported by the Normans, chose for his successor, in the year 1086, Diderick, abbot of Mount Cassin, who adopted the title of Victor III.

m See the Acta Sanctor. Antwerp. ad d. xxv. Maii, and Jo. Mabillon, Acta Sanct. Ord. Benedict. Sæc. vi, pars. ii.

n The reader will find an ample and curious account of this matter in a French book published in Holland in the year 1743, in three volumes, under the following title; L'Avocat du Diable, ou Memoires Historiques et Critiques, sur la Vie et sur la Legende du Pape Gregoire VII.

o The very learned Jo. Gottl. Hornius engaged himself in the Miscel. Lips. tom. viii. p. 609, to publish the Life of Clement III. This pontiff died in the year 1100, as appears evidently from the Chronicon Beneventanum, published by Muratori, in his Antiq. Ital. tom. i. p. 262. See also Rubei Historia Ravennat. lib. v. p. 307.

and was consecrated in the church of St. Peter, in the year 1087, when that part of the city was recovered by the Normans from the dominion of Clement. But this new pontiff was of a character quite opposite to that of Gregory; he was modest and timorous, and also of a mild and gentle disposition; and finding the papal chair beset with factions, and the city of Rome under the dominion of his competitor, he retired to his monastery, where soon after he ended his days in peace. But, before his abdication, he held a council at Benevento, where he confirmed and renewed the laws that Gregory had enacted for the abolition of investitures.

xx. Otho, bishop of Ostia, and monk of Clugni, was, by Victor's recommendation, chosen to succeed him. This new pontiff was elected at Terracina, in the year 1088, and assumed the name of Urban II. Inferior to Gregory in fortitude and resolution, he was however his equal in arrogance and pride, and surpassed him greatly in temerity and imprudence." The commencement of his pontificate had a fair aspect, and success seemed to smile upon his undertakings; but upon the emperor's return into Italy, in the year 1090, the face of affairs was totally changed; victory crowned the arms of that prince, who by redoubled efforts of valour, defeated at length Guelph, duke of Bavaria, and the famous Mathilda, who were the formidable heads of the papal faction. The abominable treachery of his son Conrad, who, yielding to the seduction of his father's enemies, revolted against him, and by the advice and assistance of Urban and Mathilda, usurped the kingdom of Italy, revived the drooping spirits of that faction, who hoped to see the laurels of the emperor blasted by this odious and unnatural rebellion. The consequences however of this event were less fatal to Henry than his enemies expected. In the mean time the troubles of Italy still continued, nor could Urban, with all his efforts, reduce the city of Rome under his lordly yoke. Finding all his ambitious measures disconcerted, he assembled a council at Placentia, in the year 1095, where he confirmed the laws and the anathemas of Gregory; and afterward undertook

p We find in the Posthumous Works of Mabillon, tom. iii. p. 1, the Life of Urban II. composed by Theod. Ruinart, with much learning and industry, but with too little impartiality and fidelity, as we may naturally suppose even from the name of its author, since it is well known that no monkish writer dare attempt to paint the Roman pontiffs in their true colours. See also, for an account of Urban, the Hist. Liter, de la France, tom. viii. p. 514

a journey into France, where he held the famous council of Clermont, and had the pleasure of kindling a new war against the infidel possessors of the holy land. In this council, instead of endeavouring to terminate the tumults and desolations that the dispute concerning investitures had already produced, this unworthy pontiff added fuel to the flame, and so exasperated matters by his imprudent and arrogant proceedings, as to render an accommodation between the contending parties more difficult than ever. Gregory, notwithstanding his insolence and ambition, had never carried matters so far as to forbid the bishops and the rest of the clergy to take the oath of allegiance to their respective sovereigns. This rebellious prohibition was reserved for the audacious arrogance of Urban, who published it as a law in the council of Clermont. After this noble expedition, the restless pontiff returned into Italy, where he made himself master of the castle of St. Angelo, and soon after ended his days in the year 1099, he was not long survived by his antagonist Clement III. who died the following year, and thus left Raynier, a benedictine monk, who was chosen successor to Urban, and assumed the name of Paschal II. sole possessor of the papal chair at the conclusion of this century.

XXI. Among the eastern monks in this century, there The state of the happened nothing worthy of being consigned to monastic orders. the records of history, while those of the west were concerned immediately in transactions of great consequence, and which deserve the attention of the curious reader. The western monks were remarkable for their ⚫ attachment to the Roman pontiffs; this connexion had been long formed, and it was originally owing to the avarice and violence of both bishops and princes, who, under various pretexts, were constantly encroaching upon the possession of the monks, and thus obliged them to seek for security against these invasions of their property in the protection of the popes. This protection was readily granted by the pontiffs, who seized, with avidity, every occasion of enlarging their authority; and the monks, in return, engaged themselves to pay an annual tribute to their ghostly

q To the fifteenth canon of this council the following words were added, "Ne episcopus vel sacerdos regi vel alciui laico in manibus ligiam fidelitatem faciant," i. e. "It is enacted that no bishop or priest shall promise upon oath liege obedience to any king or any layman." They are entirely mistaken who affirm that Gregory prohibited the bishops from taking oaths of allegiance to their respective sovereigns, as cardinal Noris has sufficiently demonstrated in his Istoria delle Investiture, chap. x. p. 279.

patrons. But in this century things were carried still farther; and the pontiffs, more especially Gregory VII. who was eagerly bent upon humbling the bishops, and transferring their privileges to the Roman see, enlarged their jurisdiction over the monks at the expense of the episcopal order. They advised and exhorted the monks to withdraw themselves and their possessions from the jurisdiction of the bishops, and to place both under the inspection and dominion of St. Peter. Hence it happened that, from the time of Gregory, the number of monasteries that had received immunities, both from the temporal authority of the sovereign, and the spiritual jurisdiction of the bishops, were multiplied beyond measure throughout all Europe, and the rights of princes, together with the interests and privileges of the episcopal order, were violated and trampled upon, or rather engrossed, to swell the growing despotism of the all-grasping pontiffs."

XXII. All the writers of this age complain of the ignorance, licentiousness, frauds, debaucheries, dissen- Their corrupsions, and enormities, that dishonoured by far the tion. greatest part of the monastic orders, not to mention the numerous marks of their dissolution and impiety that have been handed down to our times. However astonished we may be at such horrid irregularities among a set of men whose destination was so sacred, and whose profession was so austere, we shall be still more surprised to learn that this degenerate order, so far from losing aught of their influence and credit on account of their licentiousness, were promoted, on the contrary, to the highest ecclesiastical dignities, and beheld their opulence and authority increasing from day to day. Our surprise indeed will be diminished, when we consider the gross ignorance and superstition, and the unbounded licentiousness and corruption of manners, that reigned in this century among all ranks and orders of men." Ignorance and corruption pervert the

r A specimen of this may be seen in the seventh epistle of Gregory, in which he reduces the monks of Redon under the jurisdiction of the Roman see, by a mandate conceived in terms that had never been used before his time; See Martene Thesaur. Anecdol. tom. i. p. 204. We may add to this several like mandates of Urban II. and the succeeding pontiffs, which are to be found in the collection now cited, and in others of that kind.

s There is not perhaps in Germany, one single instance of this pernicious immunity before the time of Gregory VII.

t See Jo. Launoy, Assert. in privileg. S. Medardi, cap. xxvi. § vi. opp. tom. iii. pars ii. p. 499, and Simon, Biblioth. Critique, tom. iii, cap. xxxii. p. 331.

u For an account of the astonishing corruption of this age, see Blondel, De Formula regnante Christo, p. 14. Boulainvilliers, De POrigine et des Droits de la Noblesse in Mo