The emperor henry IV. paid no regard to Gregory's councils and their decrees, and he continued to nominate not only to German but also Italian bishoprics. Among others he appointed a certain Tedaldo archbishop of 31ilan, in opposition to Azzo, a mere youth, who had been consecrated by Gregory's legate. But the quarrel of the investi ture, which had opened the breach between the pope and the emperor, was lost sight of in the more extraordinary discussions which followed between them. Gregory had been for some time tampering with Henry's disaffected vassals of Saxony, Thuringia, and other countrie', and he now publicly summoned the emperor to Rome to vindicate himself from the charges preferred by his subjects against him. This was a further and most unwarrantable stretch of that temporal supremacy over kings and principalities which the see of Rome had already begun to assume. Henry, indignant at this assumption of power, assembled a diet of the empire at Worms, at which many bishops and abbots were present, and which upon various charges preferred against Gregory deposed him, and despatched a messenger to Rome to signify this decision to the Roman clergy, requesting them to send a mission to the emperor for a new pope. Upon this, Gregory, in a council assembled at the Lateran Palace in 1078, solemnly excom municated Henry, and In the name of St. Peter, princo of the apostles, declared him ipso facto deposed from the thrones of Germany and Italy, and his subjects released from their oath of allegiance. Gregory, observes Platina, in his 'Lives of the Popes,' was the first who assumed the right of deposing the emperors, whose vassals he and his prede cessors had been considered till then, and who had even exercised the power of deposing several popes for illegal election or abuse of their authority. This bold act of Gregory produced for a time the effect which he had calculated upon. Most of Henry's subjects, already ripe for rebellion, readily availed themselves of the papal sanction, and a diet was assembled to elect a new emperor. Henry how ever obtained a delay, and the matter being referred to the pope, he set off for Italy in the winter of 1077, and, passing the Alps of Susa, met Gregory at the castle of Caeossa, near Reggio in Lombardy, which belonged to the Countess 3fathilda, a great friend and supporter of the pope. Gregory would not see Henry at first, but insisted upon his laying aside all the insignia of royalty and appearing in the garb of a penitent, in a coarse woollen garment and barefooted. In this plight Henry remained for three days from morning till sunset in an outer court of the castle, in very severe weather. On the fourth day he was admitted into Gregory's presence, and on confessing his errors received absolution, but was not restored to his kingdom, the pope referring him to the general diet. Henry soon after resumed the insignia of royalty, and being supported by his Lombard vassals, and indignant at the humiliating scene of Cansxwa, recrossed the Alps, fought several battles in Germany, and at last defeated and mortally wounded Rudolf of Suable, who had been elected emperor in his stead, and was sup ported by Gregory. Having now retrieved his affairs In Germany, he marched with an army into Italy in 1031 to avenge himself on the pope, whom he had again deposed in another diet, having appointed Guibert, archbishop of Ravenna, as his successor, under the name of Clement III. Gregory had meantime drawn to his party by timely concessions Robert Guiscard, the Norman conqueror of Apulia and Sicily, who however could not prevent Henry from advancing to the walls of Rome; but the city was well defended, and the summer heats obliged Henry to retrace his steps towards North Italy, where his soldiers ravaged the territories of the Countess Mathilda. He repeated the attempt against Rome in 1032, and again in 1033, but without ancoees. It was finally agreed that a general council should decide the questions between the emperor and the pope. The counoii
assembled at Rome in 1033, and Gregory did not again excommunicate the emperor, but negotiated with him without coming to any definitive result.
In the following year, 1034, Henry was invited by some ambassadors from the Roman people, who were dissatisfied with the pope, to enter the city, which he did on the 21st of March, and immediately took possession of the Lateran, the bridges, and other important positions. Gregory escaped into the castle of St. Angelo, and the antipope Gui bert was publicly consecrated on Palm Sunday by several bishops. On the following Easter Sunday Henry IV. was crowned by him as emperor in St. Peter's church. After the ceremony Henry ascended the capitol and was publicly proclaimed, and acknowledged by the Romans with acclamations. Hearing however that Robert Guiacard was approaching to Rome with troops, he left the city and withdrew towards Tuscany. Robert came soon after with his Norman and Saracen soldiers, who under the pretence of delivering Gregory, who was still shut up in the castle of St. Angelo, plundered Rome and committed all kinds of atrocities. Gregory having come out of his stronghold, assembled another council, in which, for the fourth time, he excommunicated Henry and the antipope Guibert. When Robert left the city to return to his own dominions, thepope, not thinking himself safe in Rome, withdrew with him to Salerno, where, after consecrating a magnificent church built by Robert, he died in the following year, 1035. His last words were, "I have loved justice and hated iniquity, and therefore I die in exile:" and perhaps he believed what he said.
The character of Gregory VII. has not been justly estimated by the generality of historians. He was at the outset no doubt sincere in his wishes for ecclesiastical reform; but in pursuing his favourite and, to s certain extent, legitimate object, he was led astray by the ambition of exalting his see over all the dignities and powers of the earth, spiritual as well as temporal. Not content with making, as far as in him lay, the church independent of the empire, and at the same time establishing the control of the papal authority over the princes of the earth, objects which he left to be completed by his successor :INNOCENT III.], Gregory determined to destroy the independence of the various national churches. His object was to raise the pope to Supreme power over church and state throughout Christendom. By a constitution of his predecessor Alexander II., which he dictated, and which he afterwards confirmed, it was enacted for the first time that no bishop elect should exercise his functions until he had received his confirmation from the pope. The Roman see had already in the 9th century subverted the authority of the metropolitans, under pretence of affording protection to the bishops; but now it assumed the right of citing the bishops, without distinction, before its tribunal at Rome to receive its dictates, and Gregory obliged the metropolitans to attend in person to receive the pallinm. The quarrel of Angela], archbishop of Canterbury, with William Rufus, was owing to that monarch not choosing to let him go to Rome, whither he had been summoned. The practice of sending apostolic legates to different kiugdoms as special commissioners of the popo, with discretionary power over the national hierarchy, originated also with Gregory, and completed the establishment of absolute monarchy in the church in lieu of its original popular or representative form. This doctrine of papal absolutism in matters of discipline was by prescription and usage so intermixed with the more essential doctrines of faith, that it came to be oonsidered as o dogma itself, and has defied all the skill of subsequent theologians and statesmen to disentangle it from the rest, while at the same time it has probably been, though at a fearful cost, the means of preserving the unity of the Western, or Roman Church.