During the three frozen winter days of 1077, when a barefooted Emperor of Germany stood outside the castle-gate at Canossa, in the snow, this Gregory VII. spent the time inside with his Mistress, the Countess Matilda of Tuscany. When the Pope finally professed himself satisfied with the Emperor's penitence and submission, he figuratively placed his foot upon the Emperor's neck. The Church had conquered the Civil State. The priest was above the King. To Cæsar nothing was left, save what the Pope might graciously concede. The things that had been Cæsar's, _in Christ's time_, were now the Pope's. Thus, the Fisherman not only wore one crown, but three, the tiara. He was lord of Earth, lord of Heaven, lord of Hell. Under the Gregorian theory, God had become a silent partner in the government of Creation, oppressed by the logical necessity of endorsing every decree of the Infallible Italian priest. Jehovah was become a sort of _Roy Faineant_: the Italian Pope was Mayor of the Palace. To vary the illustration, the Almighty was become a King of England, and the Pope, Prime Minister. What the Premier tells the King to say, the King says; and then the Premier assures the world that what he has told the King to say is, "the King's speech." * * * * * * * In the palace of the Popes themselves, what was the result of celibacy? Dr. Angelo Rappoport, of Rome, Italy, says in his book, published in 1912: "For centuries the history of the Roman Pontiffs reminds one of the most depraved times of Athens and pagan Rome, rather than of Bethlehem and Jerusalem. Courtesans, famous for their talent and their beauty, their intrigues, and their gallant love affairs, ruled the Church and disposed of the tiara. They raised and deposed the Pontiffs, imprisoned and assassinated them. * * * Their beds became the pedestals from which their lovers ascended the Pontifical throne. All these Popes were imitating the mode of life of the Saracens, to whom they were paying tribute, and like true heroes of a seraglio, these chiefs of Christendom died by poison or strangulation. They committed follies worthy of Oriental despots, and vied in their debaucheries with the Emperors of pagan Rome. Pope John XXII. ordained priests in a stable, and swore by Bacchus and Venus." (John the 22nd Papa of that name, began his Vicarship of God in the year 1316.) Cardinal Baronius exclaims, "Those infamous prostitutes ruled Rome, and their creatures and lovers sat on the throne of St. Peter." Bernard de Morlaix, monk of Cluny, writes in the 12th century, "Rome is the impure city of the hunter Nimrod: piety and religion have fled its walls. Alas! the Pontiff, or rather the King of this odious city of Babylon, treads under foot the sanctity of the Gospel and the morality of Christ." Matthew Paris, the historian of the 13th century, says: "The holy city has become a place of infamy, whose lewdness surpass even that of Sodom and Gomorrha."