Rouen, who published the decree, was pelted with stones by his own clergy, and was compelled to seek safety in flight. Not one whit, however, did the sagacious and imperturbable pontiff abate the severity of his demands. He knew that he must conquer, for he had read the characters of men, and understood the signs of the times. With more than regal majesty, he wrote to the prelates of Germany and France, insisting on their prosecuting the work of reformation at any imaginable risk and toil. "Because there is no possibility," he said, "of evading the judgment of the great Judge of all, we entreat and warn you not to let the prophetic malediction come upon your heads, in which it is written Cursed is the man who keepeth back his sword from blood;' that is, as ye well know, who withholds the word of preaching from the censure of carnal men. Ye, brethren, yourselves are in fault."

CHAPTER V.

CONTEST OF GREGORY VII. WITH THE EMPEROR HENRY IV.THE PAPAL TRIUMPH.

A.D. 1075-1077.

THE "Sweetness and obedience" of the young emperor did not last many months. Prosperity had returned to him, and he now indulged his passions and his whims unappalled by the threats of the church. His companions, who

had been excommunicated by the pope, were reinstated in favour, and that simony which Gregory detested beyond all things except marriage, was openly practised by Henry himself, and by all the nobles of the empire. Abbeys and churches were sold to the highest bidder, or given away with indiscriminate and wanton levity.

Accustomed to preach to kings as well as to subjects, Gregory did not hesitate to address long and earnest remonstrances, not unmingled with threatenings, to the German court. Reciting Henry's numerous offences, the pontiff said, "It seems to us passing strange that thou inditest so often devout epistles, and pourest forth by the mouth of thy legates such expressions of humility, and yet exhibitest thyself by thine actions as most intractable." Gregory does not seem to have suspected that Henry had learned in his own school the arts of duplicity and statecraft. Wearied out at length by the disregard which Henry showed to his admonitions, the pope sent legates towards the close of 1075, commanding Henry's speedy appearance at a Roman synod to answer his many accusers. But in December of that year, an event happened which threatened to put a sudden end to Gregory's career, and which strikingly illustrates the rudeness of the times.

Right royal as was the pontiff's attitude, and menacing as was his tone to even kingly foes, he does not appear to have held undisputed sway in his own city of Rome. Nobles fortified

their houses into castles, and issued forth with their retainers to pillage the weak, or revenge an insult, as in cities of less importance. One of these turbulent chieftains was Cencius, who had a personal spite against Gregory, because of certain rebukes which he had received from the pontiff for his licentious and lawless life. It was midnight on Christmas - eve, and the pope, with his clergy, was celebrating high mass in the spacious church of Santa Maria Maggiore. The worshippers were few, for the night was tempestuous and dark, so that the church had a gloomy and deserted appearance. The pope was in the act of distributing the consecrated wafer to the laity, when Cencius and a band of ruffians dashed into the church. With clamorous shouts they dragged the pontiff from the altar. In the scuffle that ensued Gregory was wounded in the forehead by the cut of a sword. Stripped of his robes, he was hurried away to the fortress in which Cencius dwelt, and left there till he could be safely removed to a greater distance; for the populace had now been aroused, and were hastening to the fortress with fierce yells and threats of vengeance. Hasty efforts were made for defence, but battering engines were brought to the assault, and it soon became certain that the rescue would be effected, or all the inmates of the tower in which Gregory was confined be involved in one common ruin. Gregory was not unattended in his distress. A devoted female had followed him to the tower, and now

chafed his chilled feet and stanched his bleeding wound. The rocking of the tower beneath the shocks of the catapult at length made Cencius aware of his danger, and throwing himself at Gregory's feet, he implored pardon for his crime. Throughout the entire scene Gregory had maintained the most unshaken dignity and serenity, and he now assured the wretched man of his hearty forgiveness and protection. The tower was just then broken open; Cencius escaped, and the pontiff was carried back in triumph to the church, that he might conclude the service so rudely interrupted.

The year had turned, but it was still the Christmas festival, and the emperor was celebrating the festivities with his court at Goslar. A deputation was announced as freshly arrived from Rome, and the legates of Gregory were ushered into Henry's presence. They acquainted the emperor that a synod was to be held at Rome in the approaching Lent, and in the name of the pontiff cited him to appear, warning him that excommunication would be the penalty of disobedience.

Henry's ire was aroused by so audacious a message, and driving the legates from the court, loaded with every species of insult, he immediately summoned a council of German bishops to decide on a fit punishment for the daring and rebellious pope. The council was held at Worms, and the prelates, forward to gratify their monarch, and very indignant at Gregory's

innovations respecting simony and marriage, unanimously agreed that he should be no longer pope, and a document, abjuring their allegiance, was signed by all present, and afterwards by the bishops of Lombardy. Roland, a priest of Parma, undertook the perilous office of bearing the tidings to Rome.

It was now the second week in Lent, and a synod of more than a hundred prelates was assembled beneath the richly sculptured and gilded roof of the Lateran. Gregory sat at their head. The synod were expecting some mention to be made of the imperial defaulter, when the priest Roland presented himself before the throne of the pontiff. In a fierce and vehement tone he thus addressed the pope : "The king and the united bishops of Germany and Italy transmit to thee this command 'Descend without delay from the throne of St. Peter; abandon the usurped government of the Roman church; to such honours none must aspire without the choice of the people and the sanction of the emperor.' Then, turning to the conclave, he said, "To you, brethren, it is commanded, that at the feast of Pentecost ye present yourselves before the king my master, to receive a pope and father from his hands. This pretended pastor is a ravenous wolf."

The

A moment's pause, and a loud cry of indignation rang through the crowded aisles. courageous Roland hardly escaped with his life; but Gregory, in the midst of the tumult, remained calm and unmoved. Reading aloud