¹⁶¹ Concilior. vol. 10. p. 366. Here is, according to Otho of Freisingen, the first example of the deposition of a king by a pope. Lego et relego Roma norum regum et imperatorum gestu, èt nusquam invenio quemquam eorum ante hune à Romano pontifice excommunicatum vel regno privatum. Otho. Fies. Chron. 1. 6, c. 35.— Quanta autem mala, quotbella, bellorumque discriminia, inde subsecuta sunt? Quoties misere Eoma obscessa, capta rastata? Ibid. c. 36. We would willingly discredit it, but it is proved that these extravagant words, snatched from the monarch the fruit of all his victories. The civil war was again kindled in the centre of Germany; an army of confederates was assembled near Spires, surrounded Henry, opposed to him the sentence of the pope, and made him pledge himself to forbear the exercise of his power, until the decision, to be pronounced at Augsburgh, between him and the pope, in a council over which the latter was to preside. To prevent this last decision, Henry determined to seek pardon of Hildebrand; he found him in the fortress of Canossa, where the pontiff was shut up with his countess Matilda. The prince presented himself without guard, and without retinue: stopped in the second enclosure, he suffered himself to be stripped of his vestments and clothed in sackcloth. With naked feet, in the month of January 1077, he awaited in the midst of the court the Holy Father’s reply. This reply was, that he should fast three days before he could be permitted to kiss Hildebrand’s feet; and at the end of three days, they would be willing to absolve and receive him, under the promise of a perfect submission to the forthcoming decision of Augsburgh. Gregory might have foreseen that this excess of pride and tyranny would disgust the Italians, by whom he was already detested. His power had this disadvantage in their eyed, that it was not beheld at a sufficient distance. Lombardy armed itself in behalf of Henry, whom the Germans deserted; and while Germany elected another emperor Italy chose another pope.¹⁶²