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 GREGORY

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GREGORY

junctions. Similar decrees had indeed been passed by previous popes and councils. Clement II, Leo IX, Nicholas II, and Alexander II had renewed the an- cient laws of discipline, and made determined efforts to have them enforced. But they met with vigorous resistance, and were but partially successful. The promulgation of Gregory's measures now, however, called forth a most violent storm of opposition through- out Italy, Germany, and France. And the reason for this opposition on the part of the vast throng of im- moral and simoniacal clerics is not far to seek. Much of the reform thus far accomplished had been brought about mainly through the efforts of Gregory; all coun- tries had felt the force of his will, the power of his dominant personality. His character, therefore, was a sufficient guarantee that his legislation would not be suffered to remain a dead letter. In Germany, partic- ularly, the enactments of Gregory aroused a feeling of intense indignation. The whole body of the mar- ried clergy offered the most resolute resistance, and declared that the canon enjoining celibacy was wholly unwarranted in Scripture. In support of their posi- tion they appealed to the words of the Apostle Paul, I Cor., vii, 2, and 9: "It is better to marry than to be burnt"; and I Tim., iii, 2: "It behoveth therefore a bishop to be blameless, the husband of one wife." They cited the words of Christ, Matt., xix, 11:" All men take not this word, but they to whom it is given" ; and recurred to the address of the Egj'ptian Bishop Paph- nutius at the Council of Nice. At Nuremberg they informed the papal legate that they would rather renounce their priesthood than their wives, and that he for whom men were not good enough might go seek angels to preside over the Churches. Siegfried, Arch- bishop of Mainz and Primate of Germany, when forced to promulgate the decrees, attempted to temporize, and allowed his clergy six months of delay for con- sideration. The order, of course, remained ineffectual after the lapse of that period, and at a synod held at Erfurt in October, 1074, he could accomplish nothing. Altmann, the energetic Bishop of Passau, nearly lost his life in publishing the measures, but adhered firmly to the instructions of the pontiff. The greater num- ber of bishops received their instructions with mani- fest indifference, and some openly defied the pope. Otto of Constance, who had before tolerated the marriage of his clergy, now fonnally sanctioned it. In France the excitement was scarcely less vehement than in Germany. A council at Paris, in 1074, con- demned the Roman decrees, as implying that the validity of the sacraments depended on the sanctity of the minister, and declared them intolerable and irrational. John, Archbishop of Rouen, while en- deavouring to enforce the canon of celibacy at a provincial synod, was stoned and had to flee for his life; Walter, Abbot of Pontoise, who attempted to defend the papal enactments, was imprisoned and threatened with death. At the Council of Burgos, in Spain, the papal legate was insulted and his dignity outraged. But the zeal of Gregory knew no abate- ment. He followed up his decrees by sending legates into all quarters, fully empowered to depose immoral and simoniacal ecclesiastics.

It was clear that the causes of the simony and of the incontinence amongst the clergy were closely allied, and that the spread of the latter could be effectually checked only by the eradication of the former. Henry IV had failed to translate into action the promises made in his penitent letter to the new pontiff. On the subjugation of the Saxons and Thuringians, he deposed the Saxon bishops, and replaced them by his own creatures. In 1075 a synod held at Rome ex- communicated "any person, even if he were emperor or king, who should confer an investiture in connec- tion with any ecclesiastical office", and Gregory, recognizing the futility of milder measures, deposed the simoniacal prelates appointed by Henry, anathe-

matized several of the imperial counsellors, and cited the emperor himself to appear at Rome in 1076 to an- swer for his conduct before a council. To this Henry retorted by convening a meeting of his supporters at Worms on 23 January, 1076. This diet naturally de- fended Henry against all the papal charges, accu.sed the pontiff of most heinous crimes, and declared him deposed. These decisions were approved a few weeks later by two synods of Lombard bishops at Piacenza and Pavia respectively, and a messenger, bearing a most offensive personal letter from Henry, was dis- patched with this reply to the pope. Gregory hesi- tated no longer: recognizing that the Christian Faith must be preserved and the flood of immorality stemmed at all costs, and seeing that the conflict was forced on him by the emperor's scliism and the viola- tion of his solemn promises, he excommunicated Henry and all his ecclesiastical supporters, and re- leased his subjects from their oath of allegiance in ac- cordance with the usual political procedure of the age.

Henry's position was now precarious. At first he was encouraged by his creatures to resist, but his friends, including his abettors among the episcopate, began to abandon him, and the Saxons revolted once more, demanding a new king. At a meeting of the German lords, spiritual and temporal, held at Tribur in October, 1076, the election of a new emperor was canvassed. On learning through the papal legate of Gregory's desire that the crown should be reserved for Henry if possible, the as.sembly contented itself with calling on the emperor to abstain for the time being from all administration of public affairs and avoid the company of those who had been excommunicated, but declared his crown forfeited if he were not reconciled with the pope within a year. It was further agreed to invite Gregory to a council at Augsburg in the follow- ing February, at which Henry was summoned to pre- sent himself. Abandoned by his own partisans and fearing for his throne, Henry fled secretly with his wife and child and a single servant to Gregory to ten- der his suljmission. He crossed the Alps in the depth of one of the severest winters on record. On reaching Italy, the Italians flocked around him promising aid and assistance in his quarrel with the pope, but Henry spurned their offers. Gregory was already on his way to Aug.sburg, and, fearing treachery, retired to the castle of Canossa. Thither Henry followed him, but the pontiff, mindful of his former faithlessne.ss, treated him with extreme severity. Stript of his royal robes, and clad as a penitent, Henry had to come barefooted mid ice and snow, and crave for admission to the pres- ence of the pope. All day he remained at the door of the citadel, fasting and exposed to the inclemency of the wintry weather, but was refused aihuission. A second and a third day he thus humiliated and tlisci- plined himself, and finally on 28 January, 1077, he was received by the pontiff antl absolved from censure, l)ut only on condition that he would appear at the proposed council and submit himself to its decision.

Henry then returned to Germany, but his severe lesson failed to effect any radical improvement in his conduct. Disgusted by his inconsistencies and dis- honesty, the German princes on 15 March, 1077, elected Rudolph of Swabia to succeed him. Gregory wished to remain neutral, and even strove to effect a compromise between the opposing parties. Both, however, were dissatisfied, and preventetl the pro- posed council from being held. Henry's conduct towards the pope was meanwhile characterized by the greatest duplicity, and, when he went so far as to threaten to set up an antipope, Gregory renewed in 1080 the sentence of excommunication against him. At Brixen in June, 1080, the king and his feudatory bishops supported by the Lombards, carried their threat into effect, and .selected Guibert, the excom- municated simoniacal .'\rchbishop of Ravenna, as pope under the title of Clement III. Rudolph of Swa-