upon his oath; and that, in any dispute which could not be decided otherwise than by witnesses, the parties should have recourse to a duel. Otho III. succeeded to the empire at twelve years of age; and during his minority, the disturbances in Italy revived. Cincius, called also Crescentius, renewed his scheme of restoring the republic. Pope John XV., opposing this, was driven out of the city; but was soon after recalled, on its being known that he had applied to the emperor for assistance. A few years after Crescentius again revolted, and expelled Gregory V. the successor of John XV.; raising to the papal dignity a creature of his own, under the name of John XVI. Otho, enraged at this insult, returned to Rome with a powerful army in 998, besieged and took it by assault; after which he caused Crescentius to be beheaded, and the pope he had set up, after having his eyes pulled out and his nose cut off, to be thrown headlong from the castle of St. Angelo., Four years after he himself died of the small pox; or, according to some, was poisoned by the widow of Crescentius, whom he had debauched under a promise of marriage.

Otho was succeeded in the imperial throne by Henry duke of Bavaria, and grandson to Otho II., who had no sooner settled the affairs of Germany, than he found it necessary to march into Italy against Ardouin marquis of Ivrea, who had assumed the title of king of Italy. Him he defeated in an engagement, and was himself crowned king of Italy at Pavia in 1005; but a few years after a new contest arose about the papal chair, which again required the presence of the emperor. Before he arrived, however, one of the competitors, Benedict VIII., had overpowered his rival, and both Henry and his queen received the imperial crown from his hands. Before the emperor entered the church, the pope enquired of him, Will you observe your fidelity to me and my successors in every thing? To which he answered in the affirmative; and, after his coronation, confirmed and added to the privileges bestowed on the Roman see by his predecessors. Having repelled the incursions of the Saracens, and reduced the greatest part of Apulia and Calabria, he died in 1024. The death of this emperor was, as usual, followed by a competition for the crown. Conrad, being chosen emperor of Germany, was declared king of Italy by the archbishop of Milan; while a party of the nobles offered the crown to Robert king of France, or his son Hugh. But this offer being declined, and another likewise made to William duke of Guienne, Conrad enjoyed the dignity conferred on him by the archbishop. He was crowned king of Italy at Monza in 1026; and the next year he received the imperial crown from pope John XX., in presence of Canute the Great, king of England, and Rodolph III. king of Burgundy. His reign was similar to that of his predecessors. The Italians revolted, the pope was expelled, malcontents were subdued, and the pope restored: after which the emperor returned to Germany, and died in 1039. Under Henry III., who succeeded Conrad, the disturbances were prodigiously angmented. Pope Sylvester II. was driven out by

Benedict; who in his turn was expelled by John bishop of Sabinum, who assumed the title of Sylvester III. Three months after Benedict was restored, and excommunicated his rivals; but soon after resigned, or rather sold the pontificate for a sum of money. In a short time he reclaimed it; and thus there were at once three popes, each of whom was supported on a branch of the papal revenue, while all of them made themselves odious by their scandalous lives. At last a priest called Gratian put an end to this triumvirate. Partly by artifice, and partly by presents, he persuaded all the three to renounce their pretensions; and the people of Rome, out of gratitude for so signal a service to the church, chose him pope, under the name of Gregory VI. Henry III. took umbrage at this election, in which he had not been consulted, and, marching an army into Italy, deposed Gregory for simony: the vacant papal chair was filled by his own chancellor Heidiger, bishop of Bamberg, who assumed the name of Clement II., and afterwards consecrated Henry and the empress Agnes. The Romans now swore never to elect a pope without the approbation of the reigning emperor; and Henry proceeded to Capua, where he was visited by Drago, Rainulphus, and other Norman adventurers, who had made themselves masters of great part of Apulia and Calabria, at the expense of the Greeks and Saracens. Henry not only solemnly invested them with those territories which they had acquired by conquest, but prevailed on the pope to excommunicate the Beneventines, who had refused to open their gates to him, and besto ed that city and its dependencies, as fiefs of the empire, upon the Normans. The emperor was scarcely returned to Germany when he received intelligence of the death of Clement II. He was succeeded in the apostolic see by Damascus II.; who also dying, soon after his elevation, Henry nominated Bruno bishop of Toul to the vacant chair. This Bruno, who was the emperor's relation, immediately assumed the pontifical attire; but, being a modest and pious prelate, threw it off on his journey, by the persuasion of a monk of Cluny, named Hildebrand, afterwards the famous Gregory VII., and entered Rome as a private person. The emperor alone, said Hildebrand, has no right to create a pope.' He accompanied Bruno, and secretly retarded his election, that he might arrogate to himself the merit of obtaining it. The scheme succeeded: Bruno, who took the name of Leo IX., believing himself indebted to Hildebrand for the pontificate, favored him with his particular friendship and confidence; and hence originated the power of this enterprising monk, of obscure birth, but boundless ambition, who governed Rome so long, and whose zeal for the exaltation of the church occasioned so many disasters to Europe. Leo soon after his elevation waited on the emperor at Worms, to ask assistance against the Norman princes, who were become the terror of Italy. Henry furnished his holiness with an army; at the head of which he marched against the Normans, after having excommunicated them; accompanied by a great number of bishops and other ecclesiastics, who

agreed that the pope had just cause to depose Henry, to dissolve the oath of allegiance which the princes and states had taken in his favor, and to prohibit them from holding any correspondence with him, on pain of excommunication; which was immediately fulminated against the emperor and his adherents. In the name of Almighty God, and by our authority,' said Gregory, 'I prohibit Henry, the son of our emperor Henry, from governing the Teutonic kingdom and Italy: I release all Christians from their oath of allegiance to him; and strictly forbid all persons from serving or attending him as king!' The circular letters written by this pontiff breathe the same spirit with his sentence of deposition. He there repeats several times, that bishops are superior to kings, and made to judge them!' expressions alike artful and presumptuous, and calculated for bringing in all the churchmen to his standard. Gregory knew well what consequences would follow the thunder of the church. The German bishops came immediately over to his party, with many of the nobles: the torch of civil war still lay smothering, and a bull properly directed was sufficient to set it in a blaze. The Saxons, Henry's old enemies, made use of the papal displeasure for rebelling against him." Even Guelph, to whom the emperor had given the duchy of Bavaria, supported the malcontents with that power which he owed to his sovereign's bounty nay, those very princes and prelates who had assisted in deposing Gregory gave up their monarch to be tried by the pope; and his holiness was solicited to come to Augsburg for that purpose. Willing to prevent this odious proceeding, Henry took the unaccountable resolution of suddenly passing the Alps, accompanied only by a few domestics, to ask absolution of the pope, who was then in Canoza, on the Appennine Mountains, a fortress belonging to the countess or duchess Matilda. At the gates of this place the emperor presented himself as an humble penitent. He alone was admitted without the outer court; where, being stripped of his robes, and wrapped in sackcloth, he was obliged to remain three days in the month of January, bare-footed and fasting, before he was permitted to kiss the feet of his holiness; who was all that time shut up with the devout Matilda. Her attachment to Gregory, which some historians represent as licentious, and her hatred to the Germans, were so great, that she made over all her estates to the apostolic see: a donation which was the cause of numerous wars, which since that period have raged between the emperors and the popes. She possessed in her own right great part of Tuscany, Mantua, Parma, Reggio, Placentia, Ferrara, Modena, Verona, and almost the whole of what was called the Patrimony of St. Peter, from Viterbo to Orvieto; together with part of Umbria, Spoleto, and the Marche of Ancona. The emperor was at length permitted to throw himself at the pontiff's feet, who condescended to grant him absolution, after he had sworn obedience to him in all things, and promised to submit to his solemn decision at Augsburg: so that Henry obtained nothing but disgrace by his journey; while Gregory, elated by his triumph, and now looking upon himself

(not altogether without reason) as the lord and. master of all the crowned heads in Christendom, said in several of his letters that it was his duty to pull down the pride of kings.'

This extraordinary conduct of Henry gave much disgust to the princes of Italy. They never could forgive the insolence of the pope, nor the abject humility of the emperor. Happily, however, for the latter, their indignation at Gregory's arrogance overbalanced their detestation of his meanness. He took advantage of this: and, by a change of fortune hitherto unknown to the German emperors, he found a strong party in Italy when abandoned in Germany. All Lombardy took up arms against the pope, while he was raising all Germany against the emperor. Gregory made use of every art to get another emperor elected in Germany; and Henry, on his part, left nothing undone to persuade the Italians to elect another pope. The Germans chose Rodolph, duke of Suabia, who was solemnly crowned at Mentz; and Gregory, hesitating on this occasion, behaved truly like the supreme judge of kings. He had deposed Henry, but still it was in his power to pardon him: he therefore affected to be displeased that Rodolph was consecrated without his order; and declared that he would acknowledge, as emperor and king of Germany, him of the two competitors who should be most submissive to the holy see. Henry, however, trusting more to the valor of his troops than to the generosity of the pope, set out immediately for Germany, where he defeated his enemies in several engagements; and Gregory, seeing no hopes of submission, thundered out a second excommunication against him, confirming at the same time the election of Rodolph, to whom he sent a golden crown, on which the following verse, equally haughty and puerile, was engraved :—

Petra dedit Petro, Petrus diadema Rodolpho. This donation was also accompanied with a most enthusiastic anathema against Henry. After depriving him of strength in combat, and condemning him never to be victorious, it concludes with the following remarkable apostrophe to St.. Peter and St. Paul:- Make all men sensible that, as you can bind and loose every thing in heaven, you can also upon earth take from or give to every one, according to his deserts, empires, kingdoms, principalities-let the kings and princes of the age then instantly feel your power, that they may not dare to despise the orders of your church; let your justice be so speedily executed upon Henry, that nobody may doubt but he falls by your means and not by chance.' To avoid the effects of this second excommunication, Henry assembled at Brixen, in the Tyrol, about twenty German bishops, who, acting also for the bishops of Lombardy, unanimously resolved, that the pope, instead of having power over the emperor, owed him obedience and allegiance; and that Gregory VII., having rendered himself unworthy of the papal chair by his conduct and rebellion, ought to be deposed from a dignity he so little deserved. They accordingly degraded Hildebrand; and elected in his room Guibert archbishop of Ravenna, a person of un

doubted merit, who took the name of Clement III. Henry promised to put the new pope in possession of Rome, but was obliged in the mean time to employ all his forces against Rodolph, who had re-assembled a large body of troops in Saxony. The two armies met near Mersburg, and both fought with great fury; but the fortune of the day seemed inclined to Rodolph, when his hand was cut off by the famous Godfrey of Bouillon, then in the service of Henry, and afterwards renowned for his conquest of Jerusalem. Discouraged by the misfortune of their chief, the rebels gave way; and Rodolph, perceiving his end approaching, ordered the hand that was cut off to be brought him, and made a speech to his officers on the occasion which could not fail to have an influence on the emperor's affairs :- Behold,' said he, 'the hand with which I took the oath of allegiance to Henry; and which, at the instigation of Rome, I have violated, in perfidiously aspiring at an honor that was not my due'

Thus delivered from this formidable antagonist, Henry soon dispersed the rest of his enemies in Germany, and set out for Italy to settle Clement in the papal chair. But, the gates of Rome being shut against him, he was obliged to attack it in form. The siege continued upwards of two years; Henry, during that time, being obliged to quell some insurrections in Germany. The city was at length carried by assault, and with difficulty saved from being pillaged; but Gregory was not taken: he retired into the castle of St. Angelo, and thence defied and excommunicated the conqueror. The new pope was, however, consecrated with the usual ceremonies; and expressed his gratitude by crowning Henry, with the concurrence of the Roman senate and people. Meanwhile the siege of St. Angelo was going on; but, the emperor being called into Lombardy, Robert Guiscard released Gregory, who died soon after at Salerno. His last words, borrowed from Scripture, were worthy of a better cause I have loved justice and hated iniquity; therefore I die in exile!' Henry, however, did not enjoy all the advantages that might have been expected from the death of Gregory. In 1101 Pascal II. excited his son to rebel against him. The young prince persisted in his rebellion: and at last, having by feigned submissions prevailed on the emperor to disband his army, he treacherously seized and confined him. Henry, however, found means to escape from his confinement, and attempted to engage all the sovereigns of Europe in his quarrel; but, before any thing effectual could be done, he died at Liege in

1106.

Mr. Leckie, in his History of the Balance of Power in Europe, has some excellent reflections on the extraordinary success of Gregory in his attempts to aggrandise the papal see. By degrees,' he observes, the popes extended themselves: like the jacobins of the French revolution, their policy was to excite sedition in all countries, and to establish their own influence every where. Gregory knew so well how to cover his ambition under the mask of religion, that he found means to engage every prince in Europe to acknowledge him as liege lord.

William the Conqueror was the only one who flatly refused his protection; but the successors of that prince had neither the power nor the firmness to reject this shameful servitude. The causes which operated to favor the growth of this extraordinary power were the barbarism and ignorance of the times; with its concomitant superstition. The pontiff's of those miserable times were almost adored as gods on earth. The rebellious and ambitious barons, in order to raise themselves and to humble their respective sovereigns, gave in to these impostures: and this is the source whence the electors, dukes, landgraves, margraves, &c., of Germany, have procured the sovereign authority which they now enjoy. They encouraged the priests in the dispute about investures, in which the emperors were forced to yield; while the clergy fomented the refractory spirit of the nobility. This is the true origin of the weakness of Germany in our days, which has made it a hot-bed of dissention and cabal, and keeps the whole of that extensive country in disorder or war. When these little impotent princes lose a part of their territory they appeal to justice for the violence they have suffered: and an outcry iş raised, because the little miserable duke of Saxony is obliged to cede a part of his territory to increase the stability of the whole European system.

"The emperor,' he continues, being obliged to give up the patronage of the church to the pontiffs, tarnished the lustre of the imperial crown: and the subsequent cession of the sovereignty of Rome to the popes, by the house of Hapsburg, has completed the elevation of this non-descript and monstrous authority. How far justice was concerned in restoring this charlatan government in our days is a question which posterity will decide. It never did any thing but mischief as long as it had the means, and now that it is a cypher in the affairs of Europe it can do no good: by its existence it only fosters bigotry and ignorance. If the sovereigns flatter themselves that, by supporting its authority at the expense of human improvement, they will secure their own, they will be mistaken; if it be allowed to regain its influence on the vulgar it will again attempt to turn that very influence on their heads; it will renew all the impudent pretensions of past times, and teach the unlettered people to look to it for authority and protection.'

The dispute about investitures was not terminated by the deposition and death of Henry IV. His son Henry V. pursued the very same conduct for which he had deposed his father. Pascal opposed him with violence; upon which Henry gave him an invitation into Germany, to end the dispute in an amicable manner. Pascal did not accept of this invitation; but put himself under the protection of Philip I. of France, who undertook to mediate between the contending parties. This, however, proved ineffectual, and Henry was prevented by wars in Hungary and Poland from paying any further attention to the affair of investitures. At last, having settled the jarring interests of Germany, he resolved to go to Rome, to adjust the dispute personally with the pope. To give his arguments the greater weight, however, he marched at the head of an army of

30,000 men. Pascal received him with great appearance of friendship, but would not renounce the claim of investitures; and Henry ordered the pope to be seized. The consul put the citizens in arms to defend the ps pe, and a battle was fought within the walls of Rome. The slaughter was so great that the waters of the Tiber were tinged with blood. The Romans were defeated, and Pascal was taken prisoner. The latter now renounced his right of investiture; solemnly swore never to resume it, and broke his oath as soon as Henry was gone, by fulminating the sentence of excommunication against him. In 1114 died the countess Matilda, who had bequeathed all her dominions to the pope; but, Henry thinking himself the only lawful heir, alleged, that it was not in Matilda's power to alienate her estates, which depended immediately on the empire. He therefore set out for Lombardy, and sent ambassadors to the pope. beseeching him to revoke the sentence of excommunication. Pascal, however, would not even favor the ambassadors with an audience; but, dreading the approach of Henry, he took refuge among the Norman princes in Apulia. The emperor arrived at Rome in 1117; but being soon after obliged to leave it, to settle some affairs in Tuscany, the pope returned to Rome, but died in a few days. On the third day after his decease, cardinal Cajetan was elected his successor and took the name of Gelasius H., but was instantly deposed by Henry; who set up the archbishop of Prague, as Gregory VIII. Gelasius, though supported by the Norman princes, was obliged to take refuge in France, where he died: and the archbishop of Vienna was elected by the cardinals then present under the name of Calixtus II.

This new pope attempted an accommodation with Henry; but, not succeeding, he excommunicated the emperor, the anti-pope, and his adherents. He next set out for Rome, where he was honorably received; and Gregory VIII. was forced to retire to Sutri, a strong town garrisoned by the emperor's troops. Here he was besieged by Calixtus and the Norman princes. The city was soon taken, and Gregory thrown into prison by his competitor; but at last, the states of the empire being wearied out with such a long quarrel, unanimously supplicated Henry for peace. He referred matters entirely to their decision; and, a diet being assembled at Wurtzburgh, it was decreed that an embassy should be immediately sent to the pope, desiring that he would convoke a general council at Rome, by which all disputes might be determined. This was accordingly done, and the affair of investitures at length regulated in the following manner, viz. That the emperor should leave the communities and chapters at liberty to fill up their own vacancies, without bestowing investitures with the cross and ring; that he should restore all that he had unjustly taken from the church; that all elections should be made in a canonical manner, in presence of the emperor or his commissaries; and whatever disputes might happen, should be referred to the decision of the emperor, assisted by the metropolitan and his suffragans; that the person elected should receive from the emperor the investiture of the fiefs and secular

rights, not with the cross, but with the sceptre; and should pay allegiance to him for these rights only. After the death of Henry V, the usual disorders took place in Italy: during which Roger, duke of Apulia, conquered Sicily, and assumed the right of creating popes, of whom there were two at that time, viz. Innocent II. and Anacletus. Roger drove out the former, and Lothario emperor of Germany the latter, forcing Roger himself at the same time to retire into Sicily. The emperor then conducted Innocent back to Rome in triumph; and having subdued all Apulia, Calabria, and the rest of Roger's Italian dominions, erected them into a principality, and bestowed it, with the title of duke, upon Renaud a German prince, and one of his own relations. In the reign of Conrad III., who succeeded Lothario, the celebrated factions called the Guelphs and Gibelines arose, which for many years deluged the cities of Italy with blood. See CONRAD III., GERMANY, and GUELPHS. They took their origin during a civil war in Germany, when the emperor's enemies were styled Guelphs, and his friends Gibelines; and these names were quickly received into Italy and other parts of the emperor's dominions.

7. From the time of Conrad III. to the expedition of Henry VII.-Of this civil war many of the cities of Italy took the advantage to assert their independence; neither was it in the power of Conrad, who during his whole reign was employed in unsuccessful crusades, to reduce them; but in 1158 Frederick Barbarossa, successor to Conrad, entered Italy at the head of a very numerous and well-disciplined army. It was divided into several columns, for the conveniency of entering the country by as many different routes. Having passed the Alps, he reduced the town of Brescia; and, continuing to advance, besieged Milan, which surrendered at discretion. He was crowned king of Lombardy at Monza; and, having made himself master of all the other cities of that country, he ordered a minute enquiry to be set on foot concerning the rights of the empire, exacting homage of all those who held of it, without excepting even the bishops. Grievances were redressed; magistracies reformed; the rights of regality discussed and ascertained; new laws enacted for the maintenance of public tranquillity and the encouragement of learning, which now began to revive in the school of Bologna: above all, subvassals were not only prohibited from alienating their lands, but also compelled, in their. oath to their lords paramount, to except the emperor by name, when they swore to serve and assist them against all their enemies. The pope took umbrage at this behaviour towards the ecclesiastics : but Frederick justified what he had done, telling his deputies that Jesus Christ himself, though the lord of all the sovereigns upon earth, had deigned to pay for himself and St. Peter the tribute which was due to Cæsar. But, Frederick having sent commissaries to superintend the election of new magistrates at Milan, the inhabitants were so much provoked at this infringement of their old privileges, that they insulted the imperialists, revolted, and refused to appear before the emperor's tribunal. This he highly resented, and resolved to chastise them for which pur