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236 himself a conscientious ruler of the Church, but gave no proof of a desire to initiate any far-reaching ecclesiastical reform. His views at this time were bounded by the needs of the German Church; and so strictly national were the synods he convoked that they cared but little whether the measures they agreed upon were in consonance with general church law.

With reform, however, in one wide sphere of organised religion Henry had long shewn his active sympathy. For already, as Duke of Bavaria, he had used his authority to impose a stricter life upon the monasteries of that land. He had thus helped forward the monastic reformation which, beginning in Lorraine in the early decades of the tenth century, had spread eastwards into Germany, and had won a footing in Bavaria through the energy of the former monk, Wolfgang, Bishop of Ratisbon. In his early years Henry had seen the beneficent change wrought in Bavaria, and exemplified at St Emmeram's in Ratisbon. After becoming duke, he had forced reform upon the reluctant monks of Altaich and Tegernsee through the agency of Godehard, a passionate ascetic, whom, in defiance of their privilege, he had made abbot of both those houses. In the same spirit and with like purpose Henry treated the royal monasteries after his accession. They became the instruments of his strenuous monastic policy; while he also, as in the case of the bishoprics, insisted on the right of the Crown to appoint their heads, notwithstanding the privilege of free election which many of them possessed. By this time, however, some of the greater monasteries had acquired immense landed wealth, and their abbots held a princely position. The communities they ruled for the most part led an easy existence. Not a few houses, it is true, did admirable work in art and learning, in husbandry, and in care for the poor. Much of the land, specially reserved to the abbot, was granted out in fief to vassals, in order to acquit his military service to the Crown; but these might also be used against the Crown, if the abbot were not loyal.

Henry's monastic policy was revealed in 1005 by his treatment of the wealthy abbey of Hersfeld. Complaints made to him by the brethren gave him the opportunity for replacing the abbot by the ascetic Godehard of Altaich, who offered the monks a choice between strict observance of the Rule and expulsion. The departure of all but two or three enabled Godehard to dispose of their superfluous luxuries for pious uses, while Henry seized on the corporate lands reserved for the brethren, and added them to the abbot's special estate, which thus became liable to the Crown for greater feudal services. In the end Hersfeld, under Godehard, became again an active religious community. Between 1006 and 1015 Reichenau, Fulda and Corvey were likewise dealt with and with like results. Further, the Crown, by placing several abbeys under one head, was able, out of land hitherto required for the upkeep of abbatial households, to make grants to vassals. In these measures the king was supported by the bishops, some of whom followed his example in monasteries under their