, HISTORY AND ETHNOLOGY. 71 



If Henry bad possessed the affections of his people, it is likely that he would 

 have been spared the mortification of undertaking a pilgrimage to Rome as 

 a suppliant, and during a three days' penance (January 25-28, 1077), in 

 the open yard of the Castle of Canossa, to beg of the pope the removal of 

 the ban. lie obtained absolution, but he was not allowed to return to his 

 throne until he had undergone a personal examination by the pope with 

 regard to the conduct of the internal affairs of his government. 



Enraged at this painful humiliation, the princes of Lombardy, who felt 

 themselves degraded in the person of their king, rallied to his support, and 

 called upon Henry to avenge this indignity. In the splendor of restored 

 majesty, and with an enthusiastic army, he traversed the papal territories. 

 But the alarming report from Germany reached him, that disloyal nobles 

 had elected Rudolph of Suabia king. Henry immediately returned across 

 the Alps, and hastened to the scene of revolt. Only a few secular princes 

 declared in his favor, but all the bishops, except five, and most of the 

 cities, supported his cause. War naturally followed, and the contest was 

 tedious, sanguinary, and changeable. All Germany was one vast theatre 

 of rage, faction, and bloodshed. Parties everywhere ranged themselves 

 under the watchwords " king," and " anti-king," " bishop" and " anti- 

 bishop." Rudolph did not long wear his usm-ped crown. He and Henry 

 met, after a three years' struggle on the field of Molsen, near Merseburg, 

 1080 A.D. For a long time the issue remained doubtful, when a young 

 knight of Henry's army, GodiVey de Bouillon, riding up to Rudolph, with 

 a single blow" severed his sword-arm from the body. The wound proved 

 mortal. Rudolph's duchy had already been assigned to the brave and 

 . noble Frederic of Hohenstaufen, Henry's son-in-law. The other rebels 

 *.-were also punished. Welph lost his duchy, and Leopold of Austria his 

 margraviate. 



The pope meanwhile had again placed Henry under the ban, and given 

 his support to Rudolph ; but Henry resolved to avenge himself on the pope. 

 Accompanied by an anti-pope. Archbishop Guibert of Ravenna, chosen 

 pontiff by a synod held at Brixen, he set out for Italy, 1081, conquered 

 Rome, caused himself to be crowned emperor, and besieged Gregory in 

 the Castle of St. Angelo. The pope remained a prisoner in the castle for 

 three years, but was at length liberated by Robert Guiscard, a Norman duke 

 in Calabria, and removed for safety to Salerno, where he died in 1085. 



By the death of Gregory VII. Henry had lost his most formidable 

 enemy. The Germans indeed had elected a new anti-king, Count Hermann 

 of Luxemburg, but he was no match for Henry, and soon relinquished his 

 dignity. The Saxons, too, soon inclined to peace. The declining years 

 of the aged monarch were embittered by the conduct of his sons. Both 

 Conrad and Henry allowed themselves to be w^on over to the papal party. 

 Gregory's successors. Urban II. and Paschal II., had revived the ban 

 against Henry, whose son Henry, under the assumed pretext of piety, 

 declared that he could not preserve friendly relations with a parent who 

 rested under the penalty of excommunication. By infamous intrigue he 

 <■, took possession of the throne and imprisoned his father. The unhappy 



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