Meanwhile Hildebrand had become pope as Gregory VII., and had already indicated his design of making the papacy supreme over all earthly authorities. Henry appealed to him to degrade those prelates who had associated themselves with the rebels. Instead of responding favourably to the appeal, Gregory called upon the king to answer to certain charges preferred against him by his subjects. Failing to realize how much power the papacy had acquired through the reforms effected by his father, Henry summoned a council of German prelates at Worms in 1076, and declared the pope deposed. The reply was a sentence of excommunication. Henry s adherents so rapidly fell away that a reconciliation with the pope was soon perceived to be absolutely necessary. Escaping from his enemies he crossed the Alps in the depth of winter, accompanied only by his wife and child and by a few faithful attendants. The nobles of Lombardy were not unwilling to take up his cause, but he preferred to hurry forward to the castle of Canossa. where Gregory was residing with his friend the Countess Matilda. There occurred the famous scene in which Henry, the highest of secular potentates, stood for three days in the courtyard of the castle, clad in the shirt of a penitent, and entreating to be admitted to the pope s presence. No historical incident has more profoundly impressed the imagination of the Western world. It marked the highest point reached by papal authority, and presents a vivid picture of the awe inspired during the Middle Ages by the supernatural powers supposed to be wielded by the church.
The ban was removed ; nevertheless the German princes elected Duke Rudolf of Swabia as their king, and they were soon openly supported by the pope, who resented Henry s persistent opposition to his great scheme for the deliverance of the clergy from the system of feudal investiture. Henry renewed his sentence of deposition against Gregory, and raised Guibert, archbishop of Ravenna, to the papacy as Clement III. After the death of the anti-king Rudolf in 1080 he went to uphold his rights in Italy, and in 1084 he gained possession of Rome, where Clement III. crowned him emperor. In Germany Count Hermann of Luxembourg had been chosen as successor to Rudolf, and in 1085 he defeated Henry near Wiirzburg ; but in 1087 he voluntarily resigned his position, and soon afterwards died. A third anti-king, Margrave Eckbert of Meissen, also died in 1089; and had Henry had no enemies outside his native kingdom there would then have been peace. But Victor III. and Urban II., the successors of Gregory VII. (who died in 1085), continued to oppose him, and in 1090 he was obliged to proceed to Italy for the third time to support Clement III., his own antipope. Whilst engaged in this struggle he learned that his son Conrad had been induced by the papal party to rebel against him. Stunned by this unexpected blow, the tired emperor withdrew in disgust to a remote fortress, where he remained inactive for several years. In 1096 he recovered his energy, returned to Germany, and by timely concessions managed to overcome the opposition of his leading enemies. A diet at Mainz decided that Conrad had forfeited his right to the throne, arid his brother Henry was proclaimed the emperor s successor. Pope Urban II., the antipope Clement III., and Conrad, all died within two years, and Henry had reason to hope that he would be able to end his life in quiet. But Paschal II., pursuing the policy of his predecessors, once more excommunicated the emperor, who was driven to despair by the fact of his son Henry putting himself at the head of the pope s supporters. The aged monarch, deceived by false promises, fell into his hands, and was detained as a prisoner. He ultimately fled to Liege, where he might still have been able to bring an army together ; but in 1106 he was relieved from his heavy cares by death. The bishop of Liege buried him with a splendour becoming his position ; but his enemies carried the body to Spires, where it was laid in an unconsecrated chapel ; and it was not properly interred until, after a delay of five years, he was delivered from the ban of excommunication.
Henry holds an honourable position in history because, notwithstanding many personal faults, he resisted the excessive pretensions both of the papacy and of the ambitious feudal lords of Germany. He was unable, however, to make good his claims. Centuries passed before the secular power of the Romish see was seriously weakened, and amid the confused struggles of the time the princes obtained secure possession of rights which they had formerly held by an uncertain tenure.
See Giescbreeht, Geschichtc der Dcutschcn Kaiscrzcit (3d ed., vol. iii., part 1, Brunswick, 1869); Floto, Ilcinrich IV. t/ndscin ZeitaUtr- (2 vols., Stuttgart, 1855): Minckwitz, Die Jhissc Kaiser HeinricJts IV. zn Canossa vor dan Papstc Gregor VII. (2d ed., Ldp-sie, 1875).
