Page:A general history for colleges and high schools (Myers, 1890).djvu/516

454 relied upon by Gregory for the carrying out of his reforms were Excommunication and Interdict.

The first was directed against individuals. The person excommunicated was cut off from all relations with his fellow-men. If a king, his subjects were released from their oath of allegiance. Any one providing the accursed with food or shelter incurred the wrath of the Church. The Interdict was directed against a city, province, or kingdom. Throughout the region under this ban, the churches were closed; no bell could be rung, no marriage celebrated, no burial ceremony performed. The rites of baptism and extreme unction alone could be administered. These spiritual punishments rarely failed during the eleventh and twelfth centuries in bringing the most contumacious offender to a speedy and abject confession. This will appear in the following paragraph.

'''Gregory VII and Henry IV. of Germany.'''—The decree of Gregory respecting the relation of the clergy to the feudal lords created a perfect storm of opposition, not only among the temporal princes and sovereigns of Europe, but also among the clergy themselves. The dispute thus begun distracted Europe for centuries.

Gregory experienced the most formidable opposition to his reforms in Germany. The Emperor Henry IV. refused to recognize his decree, and even called a council of the clergy of Germany and deposed him. Gregory in turn gathered a council at Rome, and deposed and excommunicated the emperor. This encouraged a revolt on the part of some of Henry's discontented subjects. He was shunned as a man accursed by heaven. His authority seemed to have slipped entirely out of his hands, and his kingdom was on the point of going to pieces. In this wretched state of his affairs there was but one thing for him to do,—to go to Gregory, and humbly sue for pardon and re-instatement in the favor of the Church.

Henry sought the Pontiff at Canossa among the Apennines. But Gregory refused to admit the penitent to his presence. It was winter, and for three successive days the king, clothed in