48 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1073-1085.
presents striking changes of fortune. He ascended and de scended twice the scale of exaltation and humiliation. He first insulted the pope, then craved his pardon; he rebelled again against him, triumphed for a while, was twice excom municated and deposed; at last, forsaken and persecuted by his own son, he died a miserable death, and was buried in unconsecrated earth. The better class of his own sub jects sided against him in his controversy with the pope. The Saxons rose in open revolt against his tyranny on the very day that Hildebrand was consecrated (June 29, 1073).
This synod of 1075 forbade the king and all laymen having anything to do with the appointment of bishops or assuming the right of investiture.1 A synod held in Novem ber, 1075, positively forbade bishops, abbots, and other eccle siastics receiving ecclesiastical appointments from king or any temporal lord whatsoever. At the same synod, Gregory excommunicated five counsellors of Henry for practising simony.2
The king, hard pressed by the rebellious Saxons, at first yielded, and dismissed the five counsellors ; but, as soon as he had subdued the rebellion (June 5, 1075), he recalled them, and continued to practise shameful simony. He paid his soldiers from the proceeds of Church property, and adorned his mistresses with the diamonds of sacred vessels. The pope exhorted him by letter and deputation to repent,
1 This statement is based upon the authority of Arnulf of Milan. The decree itself is lost. See Mirbt, PuWzistik, 492. Arnulf says, papa . . . palam interdicit regi jus delude habere aliquod in dandis episcopatibus omnesque laicas personas ab investituris ecclesiarum su?nmovet.
2" Si quis deinceps episcopatum vel abbatiam de manu alicujns laicce per sonal susceperit, nullatenus inter Episcopos vel Abbates habeatur ... Si quis Imperatorum, Itegum, Ducum, Harcliionum, Comitum, vel quilibet swcularium potestatum aut personarum investituram episcopatus vel alicnjns ecclesiastics dujnitatis dareprcesumserit, ejusdem sententice vinculose adstrictum sciat." Pagi, Grit, ad ami. 1075, No. 2 ; Watterich, I. 365 ; Hefele, V. 47 ; Beg., VI. 5.
§ 15. GREGORY VII. AND HENRY IV. 49
and threatened him with excommunication. The king re ceived his legates most ungraciously, and assumed the tone of open defiance. Probably with his knowledge, Cencius, a cousin of the imperial prefect in Rome, shamefully maltreated the pope, seized him at the altar the night before Christmas, 1075, and shut him up in a tower ; but the people released him and put Cencius to flight.
Henry called the bishops and abbots of the empire to a council at Worms, under the lead of Archbishop Siegfried of Mainz, Jan. 24, 1076. This council deposed Gregory with out giving him even a hearing, on the ground of slanderous charges of treason, witchcraft, covenant with the devil, and impurity, which were brought against him by Hugo Blancus (Hugh Leblanc), a deposed cardinal. It was even asserted that he ruled the Church by a senate of women, Beatrix, Matilda of Tuscany, and Agnes, the emperor's mother. Only two bishops dared to protest against the illegal pro ceeding. The Ottos and Henry III. had deposed popes, but not in such a manner.
Henry secured the signatures of the disaffected bishops of Upper Italy at a council in Piacenza. He informed Gregory of the decree of Worms in an insulting letter: —
" Henry, king, not by usurpation, but by God's holy ordinance, to Hildebrand, not pope, but a false monk. How darest thou, who hast won thy power through craft, flattery, bribery, and force, stretch forth thy hand against the Lord's anointed, despising the precept of the true pope, St. Peter : ' Fear God, honor the king ' ? Thou who dost not fear God, dishonorest me whom He has appointed. Condemned by the voice of all our bishops, quit the apostolic chair, and let another take it, who will preach the sound doc trine of St. Peter, and not do violence under the cloak of religion. I, Henry, by the grace of God, king, with all my bishops, say unto thee, Come down, come down ! " 1
At the same time Henry wrote to the cardinals and the Roman people to aid him in the election of a new pope.
1 '* Descende, descended Bruno, De bello Saxonico, in Pertz, VII. 352 sq. There are several variations of the letter of Henry, but the tone of imperious defiance and violence is the same. E