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Conflict between Gregory VII aitd Henry IV 277 know that thou mayst not receive the favor of the divine, nor of the apostolic benediction, unless those who have been excommunicated be separated from thee and com- pelled to do penance, and thou, with condign repentance and satisfaction, obtain absolution and pardon for thy mis- deeds. Therefore we counsel thy Highness that, if thou dost feel thyself guilty in this matter, thou shouldst seek the advice of some devout bishop, with prompt confession. He, with our permission, enjoining on thee a proper pen- ance for this fault, shall absolve thee, and shall take care to inform us by letter, with thy consent, of the exact measure of thy penance. In the next place, it seems strange to us that although thou dost so often send us such devoted letters ; and although thy Highness dost show such humility in the messages of thy legates, calling thyself the son of holy mother Church and of ourselves, subject in the faith, foremost in love and devotion ; although, in short, thou dost commend thyself with all the sweetness of devotion and reverence, yet in conduct and action thou dost show thyself most stubborn, and in opposition to the canonical and apostolic decrees in those matters which the religion of the Church deems of chief importance. For, not to mention other things, in the affair of Milan 1 the actual outcome shows with what intent thou didst make, and how thou didst carry out, the promises made through thy mother and through our brothers the bishops whom we sent to thee. And now, indeed, inflicting wound upon wound, thou hast, contrary to the rules of the apostolic chair, given the churches of Fermo and Spoleto if indeed a church can be given or granted by a mere man to certain persons not even known to us, on whom, unless they are previously well known and proven, it is not lawful regularly to perform the laying on of hands. It would have beseemed thy royal dignity, since thou dost confess thyself a son of the Church, to have treated more 1 There had been trouble even before Gregory's accession over the question of filling the bishopric of Milan.
