74
Germany in order to determine an outcome . 155
Bruno of Merseburg who chronicled the Saxon Wars wrote that King Henry IV failed to meet the conditions set forth at Oppenheim , thus necessitating the election of a new king . The events of Canossa did not work in Henry ’ s favor because the princes believed that his spirit remained unaffected , evidenced by the breaking of his promises so recently made . Berthold of Reichenau , who wrote an account of the election , suggested that the king had only pretended humility and that because he had not fulfilled his promises upon which his conditional restoration to communion had been based and failed to submit to the judgment of the princes , his absolution was not efficacious . Bernhold , a St . Blasien monk reported that the king lasted barely two weeks in his compliance before he imprisoned the bishops of Ostia and Lucca and re-established relations with the excommunicates . 156
Both king and anti-king appealed to papal authority for judgment on whose case was just . Pope Gregory VII acknowledged Henry ’ s royal title and awaited an opportunity to arbitrate and settle the charges that had been brought against the king . 157
In a letter to the German princes after Canossa he urged them to “ remember that we have not bound ourselves to the king in any way except by frank statement – as our custom is – that he may expect our aid for his safety and his honor , whether through justice or through mercy , and without peril to his soul or to our own .” 158
Weeks later he wrote to the German people concerning his inability to cross the Alps and elaborated that “ we received him into the grace of communion but made no further agreements with him except such as we believed to be consistent with the security and honor of
155 Blumenthal , The Investiture Controversy , 124 .
156 Robinson , “ The Princes and the Pactum 1077-1080 ,” 724-25 .
157 Morrison , “ Canossa : A Revision ,” 126 .
158 Emerton , 111 .