"We have but one point to regulate, my lord Chancellor, and that is the pressure which the Emperor means to bring to bear upon the council. The Fathers ought to be entirely unbiassed, and their votes must not be influenced either by the force of arms or by worldly considerations." "His Majesty," said Dassel, "will employ both argument and force to re-establish order in the Church." "Doubtless, according to his own ideas. But there is no guaranty that these ideas are exempt from all selfish considerations! The Emperor is Alexander's personal enemy; think you that he would recognize his rights to the throne of Saint Peter?" "These questions are insulting, Sire!--Frederic is too just by nature, to be guilty of an injustice.--And you ask for guaranties of the purity of his intentions? To whom would you make the Emperor responsible? On whom does he depend?" "He is responsible to the laws of nations, which he has repeatedly violated in many different ways, my lord." "This reproach has often been made by interested persons; I am surprised, Sire, that you would repeat it." "And we are surprised!" said Louis, proudly, "that you, Count, do not feel the importance of this reproach! Besides, in the Assembly of Besançon, there will be present both temporal princes and unconsecrated bishops.--Who has conferred on laymen the right of voting in purely ecclesiastical questions, and particularly on questions of this importance?" "The Emperor!" replied Dassel, promptly. "If his Imperial Majesty sees fit to sanction an exception to a rule, this very exception becomes by the consequence of his high and mighty authority, the rule and the law. And more, if the chief of the Roman Empire, who is, at the same time, the chief of all the princes of Christendom, thinks it expedient to grant a vote upon this question to foreign princes, he has a right to all their gratitude." "Very good, my lord! and we are then the Emperor's vassals? This is a new phase!--Our bishops will be delighted with the lesson you set them!--Gentlemen," he added, "are you not somewhat surprised to hear such a doctrine preached?" Rinaldo answered boldly, and some bitter words were interchanged; at last he lost patience. "We have no need, in any way, of French bishops to put an end to schism!" he cried. "When a discussion on the subject of a bishopric arises among you, you put an end to the difficulty yourselves: why should not the Emperor have the same right? Rome belongs to him." The French courtiers heard these words, with surprise. Dassel's opinions were in opposition to all received notions, and to the canons of the Church. The King profited by the statesman's mistake.