pe beheld with profound sorrow the obstinacy and
ambition of the king. Henry was not to be driven from his purpose by the
universal contempt this nomination excited, and he replied to the
repeated remonstrances of the citizens of Cologne, that they must
content themselves with Hidolph or with a vacant see. And his firmness
triumphed over the popular indignation; for Hidolph was invested by the
king with the crozier and the ring, and finally consecrated Archbishop
of Cologne.

But his victory was not complete. He had yet to cope with an adversary
more formidable than popular opposition; one who would not yield to
temporal tyranny the watch-towers and guardian rights of spiritual
liberty. That adversary was Gregory VII. Already the tremendous threat
had issued: "Appear at Rome on a given day to answer the charges against
you, or you shall be excommunicated and cast from the body of the
Church." But the infatuated monarch, too proud to recede, hurried on by
his impetuous arrogance, and by the unprincipled favorites and corrupt
prelates who shared his bounty, loaded the Papal legates with scorn and
contumely, and drove them from his presence.

He did not even wait for the sentence of excommunication to fall, that
now hung by a hair above his head, but began the attack, as if resolved
to have the advantage of the first blow. Couriers were despatched to
every part of the empire, with commands to all the prelates and nobles
upon whom he could rely, to assemble at Worms, where he promised to meet
them without fail. Twenty-four bishops and a great number of laymen
hastened to obey the summons. The conventicle sat three days, and the
following charges were formally preferred against the Pope: "That he had
by force extracted a solemn oath from the clergy not to adhere to the
king, nor to favor or obey any other Pope than himself; that he had
falsely interpreted the Scriptures; that he had excommunicated the king
without legal or canonical examination, and without the consent of the
cardinals; that he had conspired against the life of the king; that, in
spite of the remonstrances of his cardinals, he had cast the Body and
Blood of our Lord into the flames; that he had arrogated to himself the
gift of prophecy; that he had connived at an attempted assassination of
the king; that he had condemned and executed three men without a
judgment or an admission of their guilt; that he kept constantly about
his person a book of magic."

So