Digital Continent Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul 2016 | Page 76

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power of the Apostolic See which continually weighs upon us. It were better for
us, if need were, to pay the debt of mortality at the hands of tyrants rather than
to consent in silence to the ruin of the Christian Law through fear or for any
advantage. We know what our fathers said: “He who does not oppose evil men
out of regard for his station gives his consent; and he who removes not that
which ought to be cut out is guilty of the offense.”145

Having expressed his obligation to the Faith, he later wrote that pride did not cause him to speak
and act against Henry. On the contrary, he requested mercy for the king. If Henry remained
unrepentant, Gregory supported the possibility of a new king who would carry out reform and
protect Christianity as duty required.146
Henry’s bold actions were nearly his undoing. Throughout the spring and summer of
1076 the German episcopate slowly sought reconciliation with the pope, unnerved by the
belligerent king’s overestimation of his power and campaign against the pope. The papacy had
grown in prestige and authority since 1046. The Saxon nobility, sensing a shift in support, again
rebelled and the South German princes began to conspire against their king. The diet of Tribur,
assembled during the month of October, discussed the future of the monarchy. On the opposite
bank of the Rhine River the king was quartered at Oppenheim. Papal legates mediated between
the two camps. Henry, faced with another Saxon revolt, had no choice but to offer up
concessions and promised obedience and penance in order to avoid his deposition at Tibur. He
had misjudged the bishops and Romans in assuming he had won them over long-term in addition
to the stature that the bishop of Rome held. The dismissal of a pope was not as simple as he had
thought.147 Henry was ordered to make peace with Rome by the next Lenten synod or be

145

Emerton, 101-2.

146

Ibid., 105-7.

147

Robinson, The Papacy: 1073-1198, 404-5.