of
his flock, and the ring meant that he was joined to his Church as a
husband is joined to his wife in marriage. For now it was said to be
wrong to use things which are signs of spiritual power, when that which
the prince gives is not spiritual power, but only a right to the earthly
possessions of the see. Gregory, therefore, ordered that no bishop
should take investiture from any sovereign, and that no sovereign should
give investiture; and out of this grew a quarrel which lasted fifty
years, and was the cause of grievous troubles in the Church.

Gregory had also quarrels with enemies at home. One of these, a rough
and lawless man named Cencius, went so far as to seize him when he was
at a service about midnight on Christmas Eve, and carried him off to a
tower, where the pope was exposed all night to the insults of a gang of
ruffians, and of Cencius himself, who even held a sword to his naked
throat, in the hope of frightening him into the payment of a large sum
as ransom. But Gregory was not a man to be terrified by any violence,
and held out firmly. A woman who took pity on him bathed his wounds, and
a man gave him some furs to protect him against the cold; and in the
morning he was delivered by a party of his friends, by whom Cencius and
his ruffians were overpowered, and frightened into giving up their
prisoner.

PART IV.

In Germany many of the princes and people threw off their obedience to
Henry. They destroyed his castles and reduced him to great distress;
they held meetings against him, and were strong enough to make him give
up his power of government for a time, and leave all questions between
him and his subjects to be settled by the pope. Henry was so much afraid
of losing his kingdom altogether, that, in order to beg the pope's
mercy, he crossed the Alps, with his queen and a few others, in the
midst of a very hard winter, running great risks among the snow and ice
which covered the lofty mountains over which his road lay. In the hope
of getting the pope's forgiveness, he hastened to Canossa, a castle
among the Apennines, at which Gregory then was; but Gregory kept the
emperor standing three days outside the gate, dressed as a penitent, and
pierced through and through by the bitter cold of that terrible winter,
before he would allow himself to be seen. When at last Henry was
admitted, the pope treated him very hardly; some say that he even tried
to make him take the holy sacrament of our Lord's body