|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 18
"My father," replied Gilbert, "has imputed to His Holiness a want of
firmness."
"Alas, with how little reason! He who, when seized by Cencius and his
armed assassins at the altar of St. Mary Major--bruised, and dragged by
the hair to the castle of his assailant--yet remained calm and unmoved,
with the face of an Angel, neither imploring mercy nor attempting an
ineffectual resistance--cannot be accused of a want of firmness. The
matchless benevolence--the heart which melts at the first symptom of
repentance--the clemency which led him, while his wounds were yet fresh,
to pardon Cencius, prostrate at his feet--have also induced him to
hearken to the promises of King Henry and accept his contrition."
"But is it not almost folly to trust the royal hypocrite to whom Suabia
pays so heavy a tribute? I wish that when his infant majesty fell in the
Rhine, there had been no Count Ecbert nigh to rescue him!"
"Is it not rather an exalted charity, of which you have no conception,
and a Christian forgiveness which puts to shame your last ungenerous
wish?"
"I can have no sympathy or pity for him who has loaded with insult a
princess alike distinguished for beauty and virtue."
"You mean the queen, his wife. But tell me, when he endeavored to
procure a divorce from Bertha, who prevented the criminal separation?
Was it the boasted chivalry of Suabia? No! Peter Damian, the Pope's
legate, alone opposed the angry monarch, and told him, in the presence
of all his courtiers, that 'his designs were disgraceful to a
king--still more disgraceful to a Christian; that he should blush to
commit a crime he would punish in another; and that, unless he renounced
his iniquitous project, he would incur the denunciation of the Church
and the severity of the holy canons.' The result was the reconcilement
of Henry with Bertha, in Saxony. And though Alexander was Pope, Peter
received his instructions from Hildebrand. But there is a wide
difference between your hostility to Henry of Austria and the resistance
of Gregory VII to his encroachments: your motives all flow from human
considerations, and seek a human revenge; his, on the contrary, proceed
from the knowledge of his duty, to God, and breathe forgiveness: you
seek the king's destruction and your own aggrandizement--Gregory, the
king's welfare, and the independence and prosperity of the Christian
Church."
We will no longer continue a conversation which, to be intelligible to
all, would require a more intimate acquaintance with the history of the
times than can be obtained from the books in free circulation among us.
Though Gregory VII has been reproached by all Protestants, and by some
Catholics, with an undue assumption of temporal power, and an
unnecessary severity against Henry IV of Austria, it is certain that, in
his own day, he was charged by many of his own friends, particularly, in
Saxony and Suabia, with too tender a regard for a monarch who violated
his most solemn engagements the moment he fancied he could do so with
impunity, and whose court, already openly profligate, threatened to
present the appearance of an Eastern seraglio. A hasty glance at the
prominent facts of the dispute will leave us in doubt whether to admire
most the dignified and Christian forbearance of the Pope while a hope of
saving his adversary remained, or the unwavering resolution he
displayed, even to death in exile, when convinced that mercy to the king
would be injustice to God.
No sooner had Gregory assumed the tiara, than he addressed letters to
different persons, in which he assured them of his earnest desire to
unite with Henry in upholding the honor of the Church and the imperial
dignity; to accomplish which he would embrace the first opportunity of
sending legates to Henry, to acquaint the king with his views. But,
while proferring his love, he declared that, if Henry should venture to
offer God insult instead of honor, he would not fail in his duty to the
Divine Head of the Church through fear of offending man. So, in a letter
to Rodolph, Duke of Suabia, who at that time was known to be secretly
hostile to the king, Gregory declared that he entertained no ill feeling
whatever for Henry, but simply desired to do his duty.
There were two evils which Gregory was resolved to extirpate: lay
investitures, and the incontinence of the clergy. When the power of
appointing to benefices was usurped by the civil power, the emperor was
sure to fill the highest places in his gift with creatures of his own.
The inevitable result of this was to create two classes of prelates--one
of lay, the other of ecclesial investiture. Its ultimate effect was to
render the Church completely depend upon the State, and to change and
corrupt its very source with the varying vices of libertine despots. It
was found (and how could it be otherwise?) that the prot�g�s of the
emperor studied only how to please him; and that, in serving the State
and the prince, they became indifferent to the Church. Selected to serve
a particular purpose, or chosen in consideration of a valuable donation,
the lay nominee had been sure to fulfil the object for which he was
elevated, or to indulge the avarice or ambition which had craved the
appointment. It was in attempting to remedy this fatal innovation that
Gregory found himself repeatedly thwarted by Henry; and yet he had been
censured by those who lament the worldliness of a portion of the
medieval clergy, for striking at the root of the evil.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|