Principles of western civilisation

270 WESTERN CIVILISATION CHAP.

cising any further influence on episcopal elections. The Emperor,’ true to that conception of his office as head not only of the State but of the spiritual power, proceeded, in reply, to summon a council at Worms, which was attended by two of the archbishops and two-thirds of all the bishops of Germany. ‘‘ Thou hast not shunned to rise up against the royal power conferred upon us by God, daring to threaten to divest us of it,’® said Henry in his letter to the Pope, ‘‘as if we had received our kingdom from thee.” “Iam not to be deposed for any crime,’ * was the assertion; “J am subject to the judgment of God alone,” °® was the claim. The council of the Emperor, in reply, proceeded to declare Gregory himself deposed,’ after which the Pope and his synod retaliated by banning all the dissentient bishops as well as the Emperor, declaring the royal power of the latter forfeit, and all his subjects loosed from their allegiance.’

As the conflict deepens, we distinguish the inevitable weakness of the position taken up by the ruler in the name of the civil power.* ‘I am not to be deposed for any crime,” said Henry at the height

the territory—should be selected by the State or by some foreign power beyond its reach and having its own peculiar interests to seek” (Cevélésatzon during the Middle Ages, by George Burton Adams, ch. x.)

1 Henry’s title was as yet, strictly speaking, only ‘‘ King of the Romans.” He was crowned as Emperor in 1084 by the Anti-Pope]Wiber }

2 The Emperor Henry IV.’s answer to Gregory WII., Jan. 24, 1076, Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages, Henderson, iv. ii. 5.

3 Tord.

4 bid.

5 [btd. See also iv. ii. 8, Summons of Henry LV.

6 Select Historical Docuntents, iv. ii. 6, Letter of the Bishops to Gregory VII., 24th Jan. 1076.

7 (bid, iv. ii. 7.

8 Cf. Lecky’s Rise of Rationalism in Europe, vol. ti. p. 144, and The Holy Roman Empire (Bryce), ch. x.