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Rh external order the king dealt with alone, while strictly ecclesiastical questions were more often disposed of in synod.

How vigorously Henry meant to assert his right to regulate Church affairs was seen soon after his accession in his revival of the see of Merseburg. That bishopric, established in 968 by Otto the Great as part of his scheme for evangelising the Wends, had been held by Gisiler for ten years before his elevation to Magdeburg. Such a translation was liable to be impugned as invalid, and the astute prelate therefore induced his patron Otto II and Pope Benedict VII to decree the abolition of Merseburg as superfluous, and to distribute its territory among the neighbouring dioceses, including Magdeburg. Under Otto III Gisiler managed by skilful procrastination to maintain his ill-won position. Henry however made peremptory demand upon Gisiler to vacate the archbishopric and return to Merseburg. The prelate's death before he complied, enabled Henry by the appointment of Tagino to Magdeburg, to bring back the old position. Tagino's first episcopal act was to consecrate Wigbert to the revived Merseburg bishopric, of which the king by his sole act, without reference to synod or to Pope, had thus become the second founder. No less independent was Henry's procedure in settling the ignoble quarrel between two of Germany's noblest prelates over the monastery of Gandersheim. From its foundation by Henry's ancestor Duke Liudolf of Saxony in 842, and after an early subjection to Mayence, this religious house for women had been without question for nearly a century and a half under the spiritual authority of the bishops of Hildesheim. In an unhappy hour Archbishop Willigis claimed jurisdiction over it for Mayence; and the dispute so begun with one bishop was continued later with his successor Bernward, and by him referred for decision to Pope Sylvester II. The papal edict in favour of Hildesheim, when promulgated in Germany, was treated with open disrespect by Willigis. To end the scandal, Henry won the promise of both bishops to abide by his ruling, and then, at a diet in 1006, gave judgment for Hildesheim. The result was loyally accepted by Willigis and his next successor.

This protectorship of the Church led Henry, whom Thietmar calls the Vicar of God on earth, to undertake on its behalf tasks of the most diverse kind. Thus he asserted his right, both to order the due registration of monastic lands, and to require strict observance of German customs in public worship; he took it upon him, not only to enforce ecclesiastical discipline, but to prevent heresy from raising its head. In such matters the synods had a right to speak, although they did so rather as organs of the royal will than as independent church assemblies. For they met upon Henry's summons; he presided over, and took active part in, their discussions; he published their resolutions as edicts of his own. But he called them to account in the tone of a master, and at the very first synod of his reign he rebuked them severely for slackness in their discipline. In pressing for the removal of irregularities Henry certainly shewed