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Rh which the emperors disputed or resigned, as suited their and their adversaries purposes.

The famous pontiff, Gregory VIIth, whom we must now consider as ambitious, insolent, and tyrannical, but who certainly seems to have acted under a mistaking sense of duty, and who undoubtedly was one of the greatest men of his age, as, bating his zeal for the aggrandizement of the popedom, he is allowed to be just and upright, was the friend of Matilda, who looked upon him as the first of mankind. When in 1077 the emperor Henry IV. was reduced to the character of a suppliant, the pope being at Canosa, in the Appenines, a fortress belonging to the countess, he remained three days in the outer court fasting and praying, before he could be admitted to make his submissions to the haughty pontiff, and then only obtained the favour at the intercession of Matilda and her companions. Her attachment to Gregory, and her hatred against the Germans (one of whom she considered as her protector, and the other as her natural enemy) was so great, that she defended him with great heroism, and on her death made over all her estates to the apostolic see; consisting of a great part of Tuscany, Mantua, Parma, Reggio, Placentia, Ferrara, Verona, and almost the whole of what was called the Patrimony of St. Peter, from Viterbo to Orvieto, together with part of Umbria, Spoleto, and the marquisate of Ancona.

Fortune, however, changing, the emperor deposed the pope, who died 1085. His last words, which showed that he was deceived in his own character, as well as his adherents, were: "I have loved justice, and hated iniquity, therefore I die in exile."

Matilda, who looked on the emperor with aggregated detes-