Effects of the Struggle.
When we pass to our final consideration, namely, the effects of these struggles on their participants and upon Europe, we find ourselves face to face with incidents of a most dramatic character. The scene at Canossa is the most familiar of these, but there was also the no less humiliating spectacle later at the portals of St. Mark’s in Venice, when Frederick Barbarossa sought a reconciliation with Alexander III, followed almost a hundred years later by the tragic end of the last of the Hohenstaufen. These events, dramatic as they appear, serve rather to mark the progress of the long struggle than as epitomes of its results. These must be sought in the relative position and influence of the Church and empire in Europe at the end of the period. Although both reached the apogee of their power and influence during this period, the middle of the thirteenth century marks the period of their decline. This decay was more marked at first in the case of the empire, which practically ceased to exist in name. The time, however, was not far distant when the papacy, too, was to enter the valley of humiliation and drink to the dregs the bitter cup which it had put to the lips of its great adversary. “One generation more and the same nation which had sent an army to defend its cause in Italy was to strike it in the face with the iron glove of one of its own subjects, and was then to capture it and hold it, an ignominious tool for political ends during a century more.”[6] These facts, with a more detailed statement of the various symptoms of decay, should be impressed upon the student as the teacher brings the period to a close.