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Page 43
Father Omehr's duties increased as the fifteenth of October approached.
The yeomen and vassals of Stramen recked little of their bodies, but
they cared not to peril their souls. They feared not to expose their
breasts to the arrow and lance, and to meet the powerful war-horse with
unflinching spear; but they were solicitous, at the same time, to purify
their hearts for the mortal struggle. This wise precaution indicates no
craven spirit, for he who fears eternity the most, fears death the
least. The good missionary beheld with a mournful eye the preparations
everywhere making for a struggle apparently inevitable. He shared not in
the ambition of Rodolph or the ardor of his barons; and he bitterly
lamented the dire necessity which compelled blessed peace to disappear
beneath the withering breath of war. Yet war seemed to be the
unavoidable result of the excommunication, and the action of the Pope
was necessary to preserve the purity and liberty of the Church. Deeply
as he deplored the present crisis, he exclaimed, "Thy will, O God, be
done! We have done what seemed to be our duty, be the consequences what
they may!"
The empire was thus divided into two great parties. At first the
partisans of the king were much more numerous and powerful, but their
strength was daily diminishing, as conscience began to operate upon
some, and fear upon others. The most marked and appalling chastisement
was overtaking the fiercest calumniators of the Pope. It happened that,
on a certain festival, the Bishop William, in the presence of the king,
interrupted the Mass by a violent denunciation of the Pope, in which he
called him an adulterer and false apostle, and assailed him with bitter
raillery. Hardly had the ceremonies been concluded before the episcopal
slanderer was struck down with a fatal malady. In the midst of the most
excruciating torments of mind and body, he turned to the minions of
Henry who surrounded him, and cried: "Go, tell the king, that he, and I,
and all who have connived at his guilt, are lost for eternity!" The
clerks at his bedside conjured him not to rave in that manner; but he
replied, "And why shall I not reveal what is clear to my soul? Behold
the demons clinging to my couch, to possess themselves of my soul the
moment it leaves my body. I entreat you--you, and all the faithful, not
to pray for me after my death!" With this he died in despair. The same
day, the cathedral of Utrecht, in which he had preached, and the royal
pavilion, were suddenly consumed by fire from heaven. Burchard, Bishop
of Misne, Eppo of Ceitz, Henry of Spire, and the Duke Gazelon, were
successively the victims of sudden and fatal misfortunes. Whatever may
be the impression produced at the present day, it is certain that these
examples and a great number of others, struck terror into the partisans
of the king, and many prelates and priests threw themselves at the feet
of the Pope and renounced their errors. Thus, Udo, Archbishop of Tr�ves,
repaired all penitent to Rome, and Herman of Metz began to waver in his
hitherto steady fidelity to Henry.
While these causes were sapping the imperial power, Henry was
unexpectedly menaced from another quarter. The two sons of Count Geron,
William and Thiery, who had for some time secretly cherished the hope of
regaining the lost freedom of their country, saw in the present
confusion the moment for which they had sighed. They raised the standard
of revolt, and were soon at the head of a band of young and noble
chieftains, whose intrepid bearing and dauntless confidence inspired the
nation with the desire and the hope of liberty. The escape of the two
Saxon princes from Henry's hands and their arrival in Saxony gave an
irresistible impulse to the movement, and the whole circle, animated by
the same spirit, rose haughtily to throw off the heavy yoke, never
patiently endured.
Rodolph lost not a moment in concentrating his forces and in profiting
by this new defection. He had already secured the powerful assistance of
Berthold of Carinthia and Welf of Bavaria, and could now oppose to the
emperor the formidable league of Suabia, Carinthia, Bavaria, and a
portion of Lombardy. His policy evidently was to conciliate the Saxons,
and he deemed their impiety sufficiently chastised at Hohenburg. He took
care to assure them that so far from having anything to apprehend from
his opposition to their enterprise, they might rely upon his assistance
and countenance.
Henry had long affected a contempt for the anathemas of Gregory and an
unconcern he was far from feeling; but this formidable coalition burst
the shell of his apathy and laid bare his uneasiness. He supplicates his
nobles in the disaffected provinces to meet him at Mayence; but his
earnest prayers are disregarded. Finding his advances indignantly
rejected by the princes of Upper Germany, and seeing that his prelates
were rapidly deserting him, he addresses himself to the task of
conciliating the Saxons. He employs every artifice to excite Otto of
Nordheim against the two sons of Geron--menacing Otto's own sons, whom
he held as hostages, in case the father refused. But the noble Saxon
replied, that he would stand or fall by his country. Though signally
foiled in all his schemes, Henry was still at the head of a numerous and
veteran army, and he boldly advanced upon the marches of the Misne, to
give battle to the sons of Geron. The Saxons did not wait an attack, but
sallied forth to meet the monarch. The Mulda, swollen with the recent
rains, alone separated the hostile armies, when the king, seized with a
sudden panic, ordered a hasty retreat, and fell back upon Worms, where
he gave himself up to a lively regret and the gloomiest forebodings.
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