Apocalypse Xui. 1.

the hands of the wicked, who hate and have persecuted me for my faith in thee. Thou art the best witness to me, and the pious mother of Jesus Christ, and thy brother Paul, the sharer of mar- tyrdom with thee, that it is not of my own accord, but against my will, that I have undertaken the helm of the pontificate. Not that I thought it a robbery to ascend thy seat in a lawful manner, but I preferred to pass my life as a pilgrim, rather than to occupy thy place only for the sake of fame and glory. I confess, and deservedly so indeed, that the care of Christ’s people has been committed to me, not through my own merits, but through thy favour ; and that the power of binding and loosing has been granted to me. Therefore relying on this confidence, for the dignity and protection of His holy Church, in the name of Almighty God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I both depose from the exercise of his imperial and kingly office, King Henry, the son of Henry, formerly Emperor, who too boldly and rashly has laid hands upon thy Church ; and I absolve all Christians who are subject to his authority from that oath, by which they have been accustomed to render allegiance to true kings. For it is befitting that he, who attempts to lessen the majesty of the Church, should be deprived of his dignity. More- over, because he has despised my admonitions, yea ! thine, having reference to the safety of himself and his people, and has separated himself from the Church of God, which he desires to injure by seditions, I bind him with the chain of an anathema ; assuredly knowing that thou art Peter, on whose rock, as on a true founda- tion, our King Christ has built His Church.” “ And the same curse,” says Platina, u he confirmed afresh in the year 1080, in these words : ‘ O blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, and thou Paul, teacher of the nations, lend me your attention, I pray, for a short time, and mercifully hear me : for you are disciples and lovers of the truth : the things which I am about to say are true. I undertake this cause for the sake of the truth, that my brethren, whose salvation I earnestly desire, may more obediently acquiesce in my authority, and may know and understand that it is through re- liance on your aid, next to that of Christ and his ever-Virgin mother, that I resist the abandoned* and the wicked: and I am present with ready aid to the faithful. For I did not ascend this seat at my own will and desire ; but against my will and in tears, because I judged myself unworthy of sitting on so lofty a throne. But I say these things, because I did not choose you, but ye chose me, and placed on my shoulders this most heavy weight. But