t Turimbert, to the bishop of Lausanne, the already
practically dispossessed monarch named the Emperor Henry II of Germany,
as heir to his throne. And although Henry the II was unable to enter
into this inheritance during the lifetime of Rodolph, the latter's
nephew, the Emperor Conrad the Salique, assumed control of the kingdom
which then was incorporated into the German Empire. Not without
devastating wars and desperate opposition on the part of the heirs of
the Rodolphian line was the country preserved to the German sovereign,
and under his distant rule it became a prey to continuous dissensions
between the bishops and the feudal lords.

"Oh, King," appealed the prelates, "rise and hasten to our
succour--Burgundia calls thee. These countries lately added to thy
dominions are troubled by the absence of their lord. Thy people cry to
thee, as the source of peace, desiring to refresh their sad eyes with
the sight of their King."

The answer to this appeal was the establishment of the Rectorate of
Burgundy under the Count Rudolph of Rheinfelden and his successors, the
Dukes of Zearingen, who founded in the borders of ancient Gruyere the
two cities of Berne and Fribourg. Between these centres of the rising
power of the bourgeoisie arose mutual dissensions and quarrels with the
already hostile lords and bishops, and the country was more than ever
the scene of wars innumerable.

Still holding the supreme power, the Church alone could bring the peace
for which the country longed. At Romont, near the borders of Gruyere,
Hughes, Bishop of Lausanne, invoking a great assembly of prelates,
proclaimed the _Treve de Dieu_ before a throng of people carrying palm
branches and crying "_Pax, Pax Domini_." Thus in this corner of the
world was adopted the law originating in Acquitaine, which prevailed
over all Europe and which alone controlled in those strange times the
violence and the pillage which was the permitted privilege of the robber
bishops and the robber lords. Gruyere and its rulers reflected the
influence of the all-powerful hierarchy, and Turimbert and his
successors took their part in the great religious society extending
over all Europe, where the conservation of faith was of supreme
importance, and when men belonged more to the church than to their
country.

The possession of the great monasteries surpassed those of the largest
landholders, and Rome with its mighty prelates for the second time
became the capital of th