y species of lay
investiture. [Sidenote: and their consequences.] The prosecution of
his plans soon brought him into a violent dispute with the weak and
wicked Emperor Henry IV., who was as eager to secure the right of
bestowing upon Bishops the ring and pastoral staff, as well as of their
sole appointment, and thus reduce them to the state of mere secular
vassals, as Gregory was by the same means to secure their
ecclesiastical obedience to the see of Rome, and their total
independence of any civil power. [Sidenote: Result of the contest.]
The contest lasted till the death of Gregory in exile, and was carried
on by his successors, until during the popedom of Calixtus II. (A.D.
1119-1124) a compromise was agreed upon by which the emperor left to
each Church the free election of its Bishops, who were to receive the
ring and staff from the altar, and the temporalties of their sees from
the crown.

[Sidenote: Wars between Rome and Germany.]

This arrangement did not, however, bring peace between the Popes and
the emperors, the Popes siding with the Guelphs in the long civil wars
of the next two centuries, in opposition to the Ghibelline emperors.
Hadrian IV. (A.D. 1154-A.D. 1159), or Nicholas Breakspear, the only
English Pope, found it expedient to seek the assistance of the Emperor
Frederic Barbarossa, to aid him in quelling the insurrection headed by
Arnold of {107} Brescia; but Alexander III. (A.D. 1159-A.D. 1181) came
into fresh collision with Frederic, who was at length obliged to submit
and beg for peace. [Sidenote: Climax of the papal power under Innocent
III.] The minority of Frederic II. was favourable to the ambitious
schemes of Pope Innocent III. (A.D. 1198-A.D. 1216), and under him the
power of the popedom reached its greatest height. He laid both England
and France under an interdict, placed on the imperial throne, and then
deposed, Otho IV., and took measures for the suppression of the
Albigenses, which eventually resolved themselves into the dreaded
Inquisition. The old strife was continued by Gregory IX. (A.D.
1227-A.D. 1241), who excommunicated Frederic II., and the sentence was
renewed by Innocent IV. (A.D. 1243-A.D. 1254). The treatment of the
emperor by these successive Popes was something akin to a persecution,
and was apparently occasioned by a feeling of opposition to any
authority which conflicted with the claims of Rome, and by a hatred of
the Ghibelline race.

[Sidenote: Decline of the te