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 scanty and contradictory contemporary records. They seem to have been a reflection of the greater struggle between the German emperors and the popes, which is known as the contest as to investitures. Andrew, bishop of Prague (from the year 1214), seems to have been a priest of an austere but authoritative nature, who carried the claims of the Church further than any of his predecessors had done. He claimed absolute immunity from the temporal law-courts, not only for all ecclesiastics, but also for all their servants and dependents; and, while demanding perfect freedom from taxation for all Church property, he attempted to enforce on the whole country the payment of Church-tithes, to which only certain estates had hitherto been liable. He further denied to laymen all right of conferring ecclesiastical offices, though he himself appears to have accepted investiture from King Ottokar.

These claims were energetically resisted by the king and people of Bohemia; and Andrew, fearing for his life, fled to Rome, and there declared Bohemia to be under interdict. It is curious to notice, as a proof of the independence of the Bohemian clergy, that the interdict—according to which all religious services were to be suspended—was not generally observed, and that the canons of Prague and most of the lower clergy continued to celebrate mass and perform the religious functions as before.

Negotiations between the Pope and the king continued for many years, and a temporary settlement was achieved; Bishop Andrew even returning to Prague (1222). The quarrel, however, broke out afresh almost immediately; Bishop Andrew again fled to Rome, where he died soon after (1224).

Pope Honorius himself succeeded, during the vacancy of the See of Prague, in ending this struggle in a manner favourable to the Church. By an agreement between him and the king, it was decided that the Bishop of Prague should in future be elected by the canons of the cathedral. The right of investiture, which had been exercised first by the German and later by the Bohemian kings, was abolished. This right, as in Germany, appears to have been the principal cause of discord; the minor differences were also settled favourably for the Church. Shortly before his death Ottokar caused his son Venceslas, whom the nobles had already recognized as heir to the throne, to be crowned as