as he had lived, an alien from
the Church, tormented by remorse and without receiving the Holy
Sacraments, the Chancellor Rinaldo immediately installed a new Pope,
Pascal III., and the choice was ratified by the Emperor. The schism had
again a chief, and Barbarossa used every effort to procure the
recognition of his claims.

The bishops were compelled to recite in a loud voice, on Sundays and
holydays, the prayer for Pope Pascal. The monks and other ecclesiastics
were ordered, within the space of six weeks, to swear fealty to Pascal,
and whoever failed in the performance of this pretended duty was
considered an enemy of the Emperor and punished as such.

Frederic even went further, and at the diet of Wuertzburg, in the year
1163, caused the adoption of the following resolutions. "The Emperor,
princes, and bishops refuse to acknowledge Roland, or any future
successor appointed by his faction; the Germans swear to elect no
Emperor, unless he pledges himself to consult the German policy in all
that concerns the Papacy. Any layman acting in opposition to this
decree, will lose his life and property; any ecclesiastic, in such
case, will be deprived of his benefice and dignities. All princes and
bishops will be held responsible for their subjects, to whom a similar
oath will be administered."

In this manner, the German Church was severed from the Roman--the only
Catholic Church,--since the German doctrines on the Papacy were
entirely opposed to the true teachings of Jesus Christ.

Frederic was on the eve of founding a Western Empire, similar to that
established in the East, of which he was to be installed the Supreme
Chief. Like Victor, Pascal was a mere tool, and the episcopacy declined
each day; for all its members were mere court prelates.

The death of Eberhard of Saxony deprived Alexander's party of a leader
in Southern Germany, and thus the mitred personages, without direction,
and enchained in golden fetters, became each day more careless of their
sacred ministry. They exchanged the pastoral crook for the sword, the
episcopal mitre for a casque, and their sacerdotal robes for the
corselet of the soldier. The lower clergy were little better than their
superiors; and the people, whose souls were intrusted to their care,
fell more and more into ignorance and degradation.

Still there were some few whose sanctity opposed, with energy, the
Emperor's designs. The Archbishop Conrad of Mayence, of the house of
Wittels