er of the three walls which girded the Castle of Canossa. He had laid
aside every mark of royalty or of distinguished station; he was clad only
in the thin white linen dress of the penitent, and there, fasting, he
awaited in humble patience the pleasure of the Pope. But the gates did not
unclose. A second day he stood, cold, hungry and mocked by vain hopes. And
yet a third day dragged on from morning till evening over the unsheltered
head of the discrowned King. Every heart was moved save that of the
representative of Jesus Christ."

[Illustration: ON THE ROAD TO RAVELLO]

Can we wonder then that the phrase "to go to Canossa" (_gehen nach
Canossa_) has become ingrafted on to the German language, or that so
significant an expression was openly used by Prince Bismarck during the
fierce religious struggles in the days of the "Kultur-kampf" between the
newly-formed Empire and the direct successor of the spiritual Caesar who
had thus humbled a former Emperor of Germany? It was in vain that Henry
afterwards endeavoured, by making war upon his oppressor, to undo the evil
effects of his public recantation at Canossa; the act of humiliation was
too marked ever to be wiped out either by himself or by his descendants.
For good or for bad, Gregory had succeeded in rendering the Papacy free
from lay control; he had gained for ever for the Church one of her most
cherished tenets, the absolute independence of the Pope's election by the
College of Cardinals; and he had even partially reduced the Western Empire
into a fief of the Church itself. The former of Gregory's great objects,
the freedom of election, still remains intact after an interval of more
than eight hundred years; the latter attempt, though long struggled for
and apparently with success at times, has, we know, ultimately failed.

Having accomplished so much during his reign, it is strange to think that
Gregory's last days should have been passed in a form of exile away from
the Eternal City which he claimed as the metropolis of the Universal
Church. There is pathos to be found in the Pope dying at Salerno, far
removed from the scene of his ambition and success. With the bitter
feeling that his name was execrated in Rome after Guiscard's sack, and
that his host was bent upon obtaining the imperial title from his
reluctant guest, Gregory's declining days were spent in melancholy
reflections. To the last he spoke confidently of the righteousness of his
cause, and whilst m