658 HENRY III. (GERMANY) HENRY IV. (GERMANY) the war with them continued till 1018. Henry was about retiring to the cloister, when at the solicitation of the pope in 1021 he returned to Italy to repel the Saracens. In 1022 he pre- sided at the council of Seligenstadt, and in 1023, at an interview with the king of France near Sedan, he concluded an advantageous peace. He was buried in the cathedral of Bamberg founded by himself, and with him ended the imperial Saxon line. He founded many monasteries and schools, which became centres of learning. He was canonized by Eugenius III. in 1152, and his feast is cele- brated on July 14. Cunegunda was also can- onized in 1201. Henry's life, written probably by Adebold, bishop of Utrecht, was inserted with the annotations of Basnage in the The- saurus Monumentorum Ecclesiasticorum of Oanisius (Antwerp, 1725), and is reproduced in the Acta Sanctorum for July. HENRY III., emperor of Germany, of the Franconian line, surnamed the Black, the Bearded, the Old, and the Pious, born in 1017, died in 1056. He was the son and successor of the emperor Conrad II., having been elect- ed during his father's life, and ascended the throne in 1039. He repeatedly and successful- ly interfered in the affairs of Hungary, and a portion of that country (from the Kahlenberg to the Leitha) was definitively united with Austria. Three claimants at this time were contesting the papal tiara. Henry summoned a council at Sutri in 1046, set them all aside, and created a German bishop of Bamberg (Suidger) pope, under the title of Clement II. He subsequently gave three successive Ger- man popes to Rome, reserving to himself a thorough control of the spiritual administra- tion. He held the temporal princes at the same time in subjection, transforming the Ger- man empire into a monarchy of which the elected sovereign was absolute ruler. He pro- moted education, and encouraged art and sci- ence. His first wife was a daughter of Canute, king of Denmark and England. HENRY IV., emperor of Germany, son of the preceding, born in 1050, died in Lie"ge, Aug. 7, 1106. He was about six years old when his father died, and the regency was intrusted to his mother, Agnes of Aquitaine; but her authority was overthrown by the nobles, and she retired to Rome, while Henry was taken to Cologne by the archbishop Hanno. Shortly afterward he became the pupil and ward of Archbishop Adalbert of Bremen, from whom he imbibed a feeling of hostility against the tem- poral lords, especially those of Saxon descent, which embittered his whole reign. At 15 he was declared of age, and in the following year (1066) was removed by the nobles from the im- mediate control of Adalbert. The counsel and instructions of the archbishop, however, were never forgotten, and Henry soon manifested a hatred of the Saxons by acts of oppression and violence. He had espoused Bertha, the daugh- ter of an Italian prince of Susa, and now sought to be divorced from her. The pope manifested opposition, and Henry, after vainly resorting to unworthy means for the accomplishment of his wishes, at length became reconciled to his young wife, whose noble conduct subsequently won and retained his affection. Meanwhile the exasperated nobles of Saxony rose against the emperor, who was driven from several strongholds in succession, and finally wandered three days in the Hartz without food. Under the guidance of a mountaineer he escaped to the Rhine, assembled an army, defeated the Saxons, and desolated their country with fire and sword. Other princes of the empire now interfered, and the Saxon nobles, after public humiliation upon their knees, were admitted to mercy, though many of them were retained as prisoners, and their fiefs made over to other vassals. Henry rebuilt his Saxon fortresses, and by his arrogance and extortion planted anew the seeds of revolt. Meanwhile he was suddenly commanded by Pope Gregory VII. (Hildebrand) to appear at Rome to answer for crimes laid to his charge, on penalty of excom- munication. Henry's indignation vented itself for the moment in a missive addressed to the " false monk Hildebrand," informing him of his deposition by the German prelates (Worms, 1076), and of his excommunication by judgment of the same assembly. The pope immediately issued sentence of excommunication. Henry soon learned the necessity of submission. De- serted and threatened by the majority of the German princes, he hastened to Italy, accom- panied by his wife and a single attendant, and humbled himself before the pope in the most penitential manner. Clad in a shirt of hair, and barefooted, he was compelled, it is said, to pass three whole days in an outer court of the castle of Canossa, in midwinter, awaiting Greg- ory's permission to appear before him. On the fourth day he was admitted and received ab- solution. With this, after finding adherents among the Lombards, his courage and resent- ment alike revived. He began a war with the sword and with the pen, which for 30 years he sustained with the greatest skill and determi- nation, and in which for the most part he main- tained the ascendancy. Such were the opening scenes of the long and violent contest concern- ing investitures a conflict between state and church which was destined to rage for half a century, and which, subsequently resumed, was protracted till 1268. During Henry's absence the German princes had deposed him, and elect- ed Rudolph of Swabia, in a diet at Forchheim (March, 1077); but there were yet cities and bishoprics in Germany which remained faith- ful, and Rudolph was forced to retire from Swabia, which duchy, together with the hand of his daughter Agnes, Henry bestowed upon a bold adherent, Count Frederick of Biircn, who soon built his castle on the summit of Mt. Staufen, and founded the race of Hohenstaufen. The war raged fiercely meanwhile in the fair- est regions of Germany. The pope, who was
