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Page 19
After repeated provocation, the arm of the Pope is uplifted to strike;
but Henry, awed by his menaces, and by an insurrection in Saxony,
hastens to avert the blow by an unreserved submission and the fairest
promises. He confesses, not only to have meddled in ecclesiastical
matters, but to have unjustly stripped churches of their pastors--to
have sold them to unworthy subjects guilty of simony, whose very
ordination was questionable--and implores the Pope to begin the reform
with the Cathedral of Milan, which is in schism by his fault.
Gregory pardons him; and, in 1074, holds his first council at Rome
against simony and the incontinence of the clergy. It was in this year
that Henry, already pressed by the Saxons and Thuringians, found himself
threatened by Salomon, King of Hungary. In this emergency, he has
recourse to Gregory, who, by an eloquent letter, calms the indignant
Hungarian.
With the year following, the campaign against Saxony begins. This brave
but turbulent people had risen against the towns in possession of Henry,
and burned the magnificent Cathedral at Hartzburg. Here again the Pope
secured to the king the powerful assistance of Rodolph, Duke of Suabia,
in conjunction with whom the royal army obtains a decisive victory at
Hohenburg. But once in security and crowned with success, the graceless
monarch forgets his submission, and exclaims, "It does not befit a hero,
who has vanquished a warlike people, struggling in defence of what they
hold most sacred, to bow humbly down before a priest, whose only weapon
is his tongue!" Faithless to his recorded vow in the hour of danger, he
nominates Henry, canon of Verdun, to fill the see vacated by the Bishop
of Li�ge; and, soon after, calls to the see of Milan, Theobald, his own
chaplain, in place of the murdered Herlembaud. Thus repeatedly deceived,
Gregory must strike at last, or sacrifice the independence of the Church
of God to human weakness.
It was in the pause between these new indignities and the consecration
of Hidolphe in the archbishopric of Cologne, that Father Omehr and
Gilbert rode slowly on toward the Castle of Hers.
The conversation naturally turned from the consideration of impending
evils, to the miserable feud actually existing between the two houses of
Hers and Stramen.
"I sincerely wish it were ended," said Gilbert, in reply to a vehement
denunciation just pronounced by his companion. "I could willingly
forgive all the injuries I have received at their hands, when I remember
the kindness of the Lady Margaret."
The priest looked quickly up in the young man's face, but Gilbert was
gazing with an abstracted air upon the blue outline of the beautiful
Lake of Constance, which just began to appear to the south.
"It were far better," he said, commanding the youth's attention by
taking his hand--"it were far better to forgive them when you remember
the prayer of your dying Jesus for His persecutors, than out of
gratitude to the ordinary courtesy of a pitying damsel."
Gilbert made no direct reply, nor did he return the glance of his
friend, which he well knew was upon him.
"I could wish," he began, after a considerable pause, "before leaving
your hospitable roof, to have expressed to the Lady Margaret my deep
sense of the interest she deigned to display in my regard, and which I
fear has done more to soften my feelings toward her father, than the
nobler and holier motive you have mentioned."
There was a humility in this that pleased the good missionary; but he
saw with pain and uneasiness the direction which the ardent mind of the
youth was evidently taking, and instantly rejoined:
"Did you know the Lady Margaret better, you would spare yourself that
regret. In her charitable attention to your wants, she overcame a
natural repugnance to yourself. She would rather miss than receive any
return you can make, and is always more inclined to set a proper value
upon the solid and eternal recompense of God, than attach any importance
to the empty and interested gratitude of man."
Gilbert's eyes were bent again upon the Lake of Constance. They were now
at the foot of a long, high hill, which they began to ascend in
silence. Gilbert pressed his horse rather swiftly up the gradual ascent,
and they soon gained the summit.
"What is the Danube to that splendid lake!" cried the mercurial
stripling; "and what is there in all the lordship of Stramen to vie with
this!"
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