Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/199

 CHAPTER XIII THE WEST IN THE CRUSADING ERA Pope Gregory vii. died in exile, believing himself defeated, while an anti-pope set up by the Emperor Henry claimed the obedience of the Church. But before he him- i. Empire self had ascended the papal throne, when he was a & d Papacy. still Hildebrand, he had secured the papal decree which placed the papal election in the hands of the cardinals, the select band or college of bishops, priests and deacons appointed as counsellors by the popes. The e College of Cardinals repudiated the Imperial appointment as having no authority, and chose Pope Victor and after him Urban n. The emperor had his supporters chiefly among the German ecclesiastics, who did not wish to be subordinate to the Italians, and were not in love with the rigorous views on ecclesiastical discipline which formed a fundamental part of Gregory's conception of Church policy. But the Church at large held by the Gregorian party, which magnified the ecclesiastical against the secular office. Henry was paralysed by contests with the great nobles of the empire and with his own sons. Pope Urban strengthened his position immensely, as we have seen, by the part he played in connection with the first crusade. Finally, the emperor was compelled to abdicate, giving place to his son Henry v., who had owed his advancement largely to ecclesiastical support. He was no sooner established on the throne than he reasserted enry his claims in the question on investitures ; his right, that is, in effect to bestow ecclesiastical dignities. The contest in its 187