ing bishops and abbots, and the investiture so closely connected with that power. Gregory, therefore, well knowing that many of the German princes, especially those of Saxony, were alienated from Henry, deemed this a favourable opportunity to extend and to establish his authority; and sending ambassadors to Goslar, he summoned the king to Rome, there to answer before a council to the charges brought against him. The king, who was a high-minded prince, and of an ardent temperament, being extremely indignant at this mandate, immediately called a convention of German bishops at Worms; and there, accusing Gregory of various crimes, pronounced him unworthy of the pontificate, and appointed a meeting for the election of a new pontiff'. Gregory, on the other hand, upon receiving

"What business have laymen to distribute the ecclesiastical sacraments, and episcopal or pastoral grace, that is, the curved staffs and rings, by which episcopal consecration is especially performed, and becomes valid, and on which it wholly depends? For the curved staff denotes the pastoral care which is committed to them; and the ring is emblematical of the celestial mysteries, admonishing preachers, that they should exhibit the wisdom of God in a mystery, with the apostle. Whoever therefore presume to initiate any one with these two, undoubtedly claim for themselves, by this presumption, the whole pastoral authority." And this reasoning was certainly good, if not according to our views, at least according to the opinions of that age: for the staff and the ring were viewed as the emblems of spiritual things, and whoever conferred these emblems, was supposed to confer along with them spiritual authority and power.

From these considerations, it will be easy to perceive what it was that induced Gregory VII. to oppose so resolutely the inauguration of bishops by means of the staff and ring. In the first council at Rome, he left the subject of inrestitures untouched, and sought merely to abolish simony, and restore the ancient right of election to the societies of priests and monks. Nor had the former pontiffs who opposed simony, aimed at any thing more. But when he afterwards learned that

the practice of incestitures was so closely connected with the power of kings and emperors to confer the higher sacerdotal offices, and with its adjunct simony, that it could not well be separated from them, he now assailed that practice, that he might pluck up the evil which he opposed by the root. Thus we see the true grounds of the contest between the pontiff and the emperor. Gregory did not oppose investitures universally, and as such, but only that species of investitures which was then practised. He did not object to the bishops and abbots swearing fealty to the kings and emperors, and acknowledging themselves their vassals and tenants: nor did he forbid an investiture which should be made by an oral declaration or a written instrument; for this mode of investiture he conceded to the kings of France and England :-perhaps also, he allowed a sceptre to be used in the transaction, as Calistus II. afterwards did. But he would not tolerate an inrestiture by the insignia of the sacred office; much less an investiture previous to consecration; and least of all, an inrestiture subversive of the free election of bishops and abbots.

2 [The council of Worms was composed of a "very great number of bishops and abbots" from all parts of Germany. Hugo, a displaced cardinal, appeared there, and painted the life and character of Gregory in the blackest colours. The whole assembly, with

this sentence by the king's messengers and letters, interdicted him from the communion and throne, and absolved his subjects from their oath of allegiance to him. War being thus declared on both sides, the church as well as the state was rent into two factions, one party taking sides with the king, and the other with the pontiff; and the evils resulting from this schism were immense.

§ 16. The first that revolted from Henry were the chiefs of Swabia, at the head of whom was Rudolph, duke of Swabia. Next followed the Saxons, who had long been inimical to the king. Both were advised by the pontiff, in case Henry would not comply with the will of the church, to elect a new king; and they assembled at Tribur, in the year 1076, to deliberate on this very important subject. The result of the deliberation was, that the decision of the controversy between the king and the princes should be referred to the Roman pontiff, who should be invited to attend the diet of Augsburg, the ensuing year, for that purpose; and that the king, during the intervening time, should lead a private life; yet with this condition annexed, that unless he obtained absolution from the anathema within the year, he was to lose the kingdom. Henry, therefore, with the advice of his friends, determined to go into Italy, and implore the clemency of the pontiff. But the journey did not secure to him the advantages he hoped for. He obtained, indeed, though with difficulty, from the pontiff, then residing at the castle of Canosa, with Matilda, the great patroness of the church, the pardon of his sins; after standing,

the exception of two bishops, subscribed his condemnation. Henry's letter to the pontiff concludes thus: "Thou therefore, condemned by this anathema, and by the decision of all our bishops, descend; quit the apostolic chair you have invaded; let another ascend it, who will pollute religion by no violences, but will teach the sound doctrines of St. Peter. We Henry, by the grace of God, king, with all our bishops, say to you: descend." See Harduin's Concilia, tom. vi. pt. i. p. 1563. Tr.]

3 [Gregory's excommunication of Henry, is drawn up in the form of an address to St. Peter; stating what he

had decreed, and why. It contains these words: "Hac itaque fiducia fretus, pro ecclesiæ tuæ honore et defensione, ex parte omnipotentis Dei, Patris et Filii et Sp. Sancti, per tuam potestatem et auctoritatem, Henrico regi filio Henrici Imperatoris, qui contra tuam ecclesiam inaudita superbia insurrexit, totius regni Teutonicorum et Italiæ gubernaculo contradico et omnes Christianos a vinculo juramenti, quod sibi fecere vel facient, absolvo; et ut nullus ei sicut regi serviat, interdico." See Harduin's Concilia, tom. vi. pt. i. p. 1566. Tr.]

for three days together, in the depth of winter, in February, A. D. 1077, bare-footed, and bare-headed, and meanly clad, within the wall of the castle, professing himself a penitent. But the pontiff deferred the discussion and decision of his right to the throne, till the convention of the princes should meet; and, in the mean time, wholly interdicted his wearing the ornaments or exercising the functions of royalty. The Italian princes and bishops, [who had been Henry's supporters,] were most indignant at this convention or compromise; and threatened the king with a deposition, and with other evils; so that Henry, soon after, violated the agreement, and, contrary to the command of Gregory, resumed the regal character which he had laid aside. The princes of Swabia and Saxony, hearing of this, met in convention at Forcheim, in the month of March, A. D. 1077, and by a unanimous vote elected Rudolph, the duke of Swabia, king*.

§ 17. A violent war now commenced, both in Germany and Italy. In Italy, Gregory, with the forces of the Normans, who were sovereigns of lower Italy, and whom he had drawn over to his party, and those of the famous Matilda, a very heroic princess, resisted not unsuccessfully the Lombards, who fought for Henry. In Germany, Henry with his confederates encountered Rudolph and his associates, but not with good success. Gregory, fearing the dubious issue of the war, wished to be accounted neutral for some years. But, taking courage, after the unfortunate battle of Henry with the Saxons, at Fladenheim, in the year 1080, he excommunicated Henry a second time; and sending a crown to Rudolph, pronounced him the legitimate king of Germany. In revenge, Henry, supported by the suffrages of many of the German and Italian bishops, again deposed Gregory, the same year, in a council at Mayence; and a little after, in a convention at Brixen in the

The ancient and modern writers of Italian and German history have given ample relations of these and subsequent events, though not all of them with equal fidelity and accuracy. I have consulted the original writers, and have followed those most to be relied on Sigonius, Pagi, Muratori,

Muscovius, Noris, and others; whose accounts differ indeed in some minor things, but agree as to the main points.

5 [The golden crown which Gregory sent to Rudolph, had this memorable inscription: Petra dedit Petro, Petrus diadema Rodulpho. Tr.]

Tyrol, he created the archbishop of Ravenna, Guibert, supreme pontiff; who subsequently took the name of Clement III. when consecrated at Rome, A. D. 1084.

§ 18. A few months after, Rudolph, the enemy of Henry, died at Merseburg, in consequence of a wound received in battle at the river Elster. Therefore, the following year, A. D. 1081, the king marched with his army into Italy, intending, if possible, to crush Gregory and his adherents; for if these were subdued, he hoped the commotions in Germany might be easily quelled. He made several campaigns, with various success, against the forces of Matilda: twice he besieged Rome in vain; but at length, in the year 1084, he became master of the greatest part of that city; placed Guibert, whom he had made pontiff, in the chair of St. Peter, with the title of Clement III.; was by him crowned emperor, and saluted as such by the Romans and he now laid close siege to the castle of St. Angelo, in which his enemy Gregory was shut up. But Robert, the Norman duke of Calabria and Apulia, delivered the pontiff from his siege; and as it was not safe for him to remain at Rome, carried him with him to Salerno. And here it was, in the year following, that this high-minded man, whose spirit was so invincible, but who was the most ambitious and audacious of all the pontiffs that ever lived, terminated his days in the year 1085. The Romish church honours him among her saints and intercessors with God, though he was never enrolled in that order by a regular canonization. Paul V., near the commencement of the seventeenth century, appointed the 25th day of May to be his festival. But the sovereigns of Europe, especially the emperor of Germany and the king of France, have prevented its being publicly and every where observed. And even in our times, [A. D. 1729,] there was a contest with Benedict XIII. respecting the worship of him".

§ 19. The death of Gregory was followed by very trying

See the Acta Sanctor. Antwerp. ad diem 25. Maii; and Jo. Mabillon, Acta Sanctor. Ord. Bened. sæcul. vi. pt. ii.

7 See the French work, entitled : L'Avocat du Diable, ou Mémoires his

toriques et critiques sur la vie et sur la légende du Pape Grégoire VII. published in Holland, 1743. 3 vols. 8vo. [See also J. B. Hartung's Unpartheyische Kirchen-Historie, vol. ii. p. 1057. Tr.]

1

times for Clement III., or Guibert, the emperor's pontiff3, ruled both at Rome and over a large part of Italy; and in Germany, Henry himself continued the war with the princes. The pontifical party, supported by the forces of the Normans, elected at Rome, in the year 1086, Desiderius, an abbot of Monte Cassino, successor to Gregory; and he, assuming the name of Victor III., was consecrated in the church of St. Peter, A. D. 1087, the Normans having rescued a part of the city of Rome from Clement. But Victor, who was a very different man from Gregory, being mild and timorous, soon retired to Benevento, because Rome was in the hands of Clement, and not long after died at Cassino. Before his death, however, in a council held at Cassino, he renewed the decrees enacted by Gregory for the abolition of investitures.

§ 20. Victor was succeeded by Otto, bishop of Ostia, and likewise a monk of Clugni; who was elected at Terracina, in the year 1088, and chose the name of Urban II. He was inferior to Gregory in courage and fortitude, but his equal in arrogance, and went beyond him in imprudence. At first, fortune seemed to smile upon him: but, in the year 1090, the emperor, returning into Italy, and boldly and successfully attacking the younger Guelph, duke of Bavaria, and Matilda, the two heads of the pontifical party, things assumed a new aspect. Yet the hope of subduing the emperor revived again in 1091, when Conrad, his son, suffered himself to be seduced by the pontiff and the other enemies of his father, to rebel against his parent, and usurp the kingdom of Italy. The condition of Italy now continued in the utmost confusion; nor was Urban able to bring the city of Rome under his subjection. Therefore, after holding a council at Placentia, in the year 1095, in which

8 A life of this pontiff, Clement III., was lately promised to the world, by Jo. Gottl. Hornius, in the Miscell. Lips. tom. viii. p. 609. Clement died, A. D. 1100; as is expressly stated in the Chronicon Beneventanum, published by Muratori, Antiqq. Italica, tom. i. p. 262, &c. See Rubeus, Historia Ravennat. lib. v. p. 307, &c.

9 The Life of Urban II. was written by Theod. Ruinart; and is extant in

Jo. Mabillon's Opera Posthuma, tom. iii. p. 1, &c. It is composed with learning and industry; but with what fidelity and candour, I need not say. Those acquainted with facts, know that the monks are not at liberty to describe to us the Roman pontiffs such as they really were. See also, concerning Urban, the Histoire Littéraire de la France, tom. viii. p. 514.