ound himself repeatedly thwarted by Henry; and yet he had been
censured by those who lament the worldliness of a portion of the
medieval clergy, for striking at the root of the evil.

After repeated provocation, the arm of the Pope is uplifted to strike;
but Henry, awed by his menaces, and by an insurrection in Saxony,
hastens to avert the blow by an unreserved submission and the fairest
promises. He confesses, not only to have meddled in ecclesiastical
matters, but to have unjustly stripped churches of their pastors--to
have sold them to unworthy subjects guilty of simony, whose very
ordination was questionable--and implores the Pope to begin the reform
with the Cathedral of Milan, which is in schism by his fault.

Gregory pardons him; and, in 1074, holds his first council at Rome
against simony and the incontinence of the clergy. It was in this year
that Henry, already pressed by the Saxons and Thuringians, found himself
threatened by Salomon, King of Hungary. In this emergency, he has
recourse to Gregory, who, by an eloquent letter, calms the indignant
Hungarian.

With the year following, the campaign against Saxony begins. This brave
but turbulent people had risen against the towns in possession of Henry,
and burned the magnificent Cathedral at Hartzburg. Here again the Pope
secured to the king the powerful assistance of Rodolph, Duke of Suabia,
in conjunction with whom the royal army obtains a decisive victory at
Hohenburg. But once in security and crowned with success, the graceless
monarch forgets his submission, and exclaims, "It does not befit a hero,
who has vanquished a warlike people, struggling in defence of what they
hold most sacred, to bow humbly down before a priest, whose only weapon
is his tongue!" Faithless to his recorded vow in the hour of danger, he
nominates Henry, canon of Verdun, to fill the see vacated by the Bishop
of Liege; and, soon after, calls to the see of Milan, Theobald, his own
chaplain, in place of the murdered Herlembaud. Thus repeatedly deceived,
Gregory must strike at last, or sacrifice the independence of the Church
of God to human weakness.

It was in the pause between these new indignities and the consecration
of Hidolphe in the archbishopric of Cologne, that Father Omehr and
Gilbert rode slowly on toward the Castle of Hers.

The conversation naturally turned from the consideration of impending
evils, to the miserable feud actually existing between the two houses of
Hers a