of God, and who, according to the teaching of the fathers, can be judged by no one save God alone, and can be deposed for no crime except infidelity. For the holy fathers in the time of the apostate Julian[388] did not presume to pronounce sentence of deposition against him, but left him to be judged and condemned by God. St. Peter himself said, "Fear God, honor the king" [1 Pet., ii. 17]. But you, who fear not God, have dishonored me, whom He hath established. St. Paul, who said that even an angel from heaven should be accursed who taught any other than the true doctrine, did not make an exception in your favor, to permit you to teach false doctrines. For he says, "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed" [Gal., i. 8]. Come down, then, from that apostolic seat which you have obtained by violence; for you have been declared accursed by St. Paul for your false doctrines, and have been condemned by us and our bishops for your evil rule. Let another ascend the throne of St. Peter, one who will not use religion as a cloak of violence, but will teach the life-giving doctrine of that prince of the apostles. I, Henry, king by the grace of God, with all my bishops, say unto you: "Come down, come down, and be accursed through all the ages." 48. Henry IV. Deposed by Pope Gregory (1076) The foregoing letter of Henry IV. was received at Rome with a storm of disapproval and the envoys who bore it barely escaped with their lives. A council of French and Italian bishops was convened in the Lateran (Feb. 24, 1076), and the king's haughty epistle, together with the decree of the council at Worms deposing Gregory, were read and allowed to have their effect. With the assent of the bishops, the Pope pronounced the sentence of excommunication against Henry and formally released all the latter's Christian subjects from their oath of allegiance. Naturally the action of Gregory aroused intense interest throughout Europe. In Germany it had the intended effect of detaching many influential bishops and abbots from the imperial cause and stirring the political enemies of the king to renewed activity. The papal ban became a pretext for the renewal of the hostility on part of his dissatisfied subjects which Henry had but just succeeded in suppressing. In the first part of the papal decree Gregory seeks to defend himself against the charges brought by Henry and the German clergy to the effect that he had mounted the papal throne through personal ambition and the employment of unbecoming means. It was indisputable that his election had not been strictly in accord with the decree of 1059, but it seems equally true that, as Gregory declares, he was placed at the helm of the Church contrary to his personal desires.