The supreme test of Gregory's ability to make the papal power felt in the measure that he thought it should be came early in the pontificate in the famous breach with Henry IV. of Germany. Henry at the time was not emperor in name, but only "king of the Romans," the imperial coronation not yet having taken place.[382] For all practical purposes, however, he may be regarded as occupying the emperor's position, since all that was lacking was the performance of a more or less perfunctory ceremony. Henry's specific grievances against the Pope were that the latter had declared it a sin for an ecclesiastic to be invested with his office by a layman, though this was almost the universal practice in Germany, and that he had condemned five of the king's councilors for simony,[383] suspended the archbishop of Bremen, the bishops of Speyer and Strassburg, and two Lombard bishops, and deposed the bishop of Florence. Half of the land and wealth of Germany was in the hands of bishops and abbots who, if the Pope were to have his way, would be released from all practical dependence upon the king and so would be free to encourage and take part in the feudal revolts which Henry was exerting himself so vigorously to crush. June 8, 1075, on the banks of the Unstrutt, the king won a signal victory over the rebellious feudal lords, after which he felt strong enough to defy the authority of Gregory with impunity. He therefore continued to associate with the five condemned councilors and, in contempt of recent papal declarations against lay investiture, took it upon himself to appoint and invest a number of bishops and abbots, though always with extreme care that the right kind of men be selected. Pope Gregory was, of course, not the man to overlook such conduct and at once made vigorous protest. The letter given below was written in December, 1075, and is one of a considerable series which passed back and forth across the Alps prior to the breaking of the storm in 1076-1077. At this stage matters had not yet got beyond the possibility of compromise and reconciliation; in fact Gregory writes as much as anything else to get the king's own statement regarding the reports of his conduct which had come to Rome. The tone of the letter is firm, it is true, but conciliatory. The thunder of subsequent epistles to the recreant Henry had not yet been brought into play. Source--Text in Michael Doeberl, _Monumenta Germaniae Historica Selecta_ (Muenchen, 1889), Vol. III., pp. 18-22. Adapted from translation in Oliver J. Thatcher and Edgar H. McNeal, _Source Book for Mediaeval History_ (New York, 1905), pp. 147-150. Gregory, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to Henry, the king, greeting and apostolic benediction,--that is, if he be obedient to the apostolic see as is becoming in a Christian king: [Sidenote: Henry exhorted to confess his sins]