The Makers of Modern Rome, in Four BooksOliphant, Mrs. (Margaret)
History
The Makers of Modern Rome, in Four Books
Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret)
Rome (Italy) -- History -- 476-1420
From this time nothing was possible but war to the death between
Gregory and Henry, the deposed king, who was as little disposed to
accept his deposition as any anathema was able to enforce it. We have
already remarked on various occasions, and it is a dreadful coming
down from the height of so striking a scene, and so many great words,
to be obliged to repeat it: yet it is very evident that
notwithstanding the terrible pictures we have had of the force of
these anathemas, they made very little difference in the life of the
world. There were always schismatic or rebellious priests enough to
carry on, in defiance of the Pope, those visible ceremonies and
offices of religion which are indispensable to the common order of
life. There were, no doubt, great individual sufferings among the
faithful, but the habits of ordinary existence could only have been
interfered with had every bishop and every priest been loyal to the
Pope, which was far from being the case.
It was at the conclusion of this Council that Gregory is said to have
sent to Rudolf the famous imperial crown bearing the inscription
_Petra dedit Petro, Petrus diadema Rodolpho_,
of which Villemain makes the shabby remark that, "After having held
the balance as uncertain, and denied the share he had in the election
of Rudolf, now that it was confirmed by success Gregory VII. claimed
it for himself and the Church."--a conclusion neither in consonance
with the facts nor with the character of the man.
That Henry should receive this decision meekly was of course
impossible. Once more he attempted to make reprisals in an assembly
held at Brixen in the following June, when by means of the small
number of thirty bishops, chiefly excommunicated persons, and, of
course, in any case without any right to judge their superior, Gregory
himself was once more deposed, excommunicated, and cut off from the
communion of these ecclesiastics and their followings. In the sentence
given by this paltry company, Gregory is accused of following the
heresy of Berengarius, whose recantation had the year before been
received at the Lateran: and also of being a necromancer and magician,
and possessed by an evil spirit. These exquisite reasons are the chief
of the allegations against him, and the principal ground upon which
his deposition was justified. Guibert of Ravenna, long his enemy, and
one of the excommunicated, was elected by the same incompetent
tribunal as Pope in his place, naturally without any of the canonical
requirements for such an election; though we are told that Henry laid
violent hands on the bishop of Ostia whose privilege it was to
officiate at the consecration of the Popes, and who was then in
foreign parts acting as legate, in order to give some show of legality
to the election. Guibert however, less scrupulous than the former
intruder Cadalous, took at once the title of Clement III. The great
advantage of such a step, beside the sweetness of revenge, no doubt
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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