of considering the emperor as accursed by the power of ecclesiastical zeal hurled against him. Roused at this, in the seventeenth[1] year of pope Paschal, he proceeded to Rome, to inflict signal vengeance on him. But he, by a blessed departure,[2] had avoided all earthly molestation, and from his place of repose on high, laughed at the threats of the angry emperor; who having heard of his death, quickened his journey, in order that ejecting John Gaitan, chancellor to the late pope, who had been already elected and called Gelasius, he might intrude Maurice,[3] bishop of Brague, surnamed Bourdin, on the See: but the following epistle of Gelasius will explain the business more fully.
"Gelasius, servant of the servants of God to the archbishops, bishops, abbats, clergy, princes, and other faithful people throughout Gaul, health. As you are members of the church of Rome, we are anxious to signify to your affection what has there lately taken place. Shortly after our election, then, the sovereign emperor coming by stealth and with unexpected haste to Rome, compelled us to depart the city. He afterwards demanded peace by threats and intimidation, saying he would do all he might be able, unless we assured him of peace by oath. To which we replied thus : Concerning the controversy which exists between the church and the empire, we willingly agree to a meeting or to legal discussion, at proper time and place; that is to say, either at Milan or Cremona, on the next feast of St. Luke, at the discretion of our brethren, who, by God, are constituted judges in the church, and without whom this cause cannot be agitated. And since the sovereign emperor demands security from us, we promise such to him, by word and by writing, unless in the interim himself shall violate it: for otherwise to give security is dishonourable to the church, and contrary to custom. He, immediately, on the forty-fourth day after our election, intruded into the bosom of the church, the bishop of Brague, who, the preceding year had been excommuni-
- ↑ "Septimo decimo.] More correctly octavo decimo, as the emperor went before Easter in the year 1117."—Hardy.
- ↑ "Paschal died in Jan, 1118." —Hardy.
- ↑ Maurice Bourdin, archbishop of Brague, was elected pope by the influence of the emperor Henry V, on the 9th of March, 1118, and took the name of Gregory VIII."–Hardy.
