Robert Annys: Poor Priest. A Tale of the Great Uprising

by Annie Nathan Meyer

Holy Churches rich clothing shall be rightwiseness;

Her treasure true life shall be;

Charity shall be her richesse;

Her lordship shall be unite;

Hope in God her honeste;

Her vessel clean conscience;

Poore in spirit and humilite—

Shall be Holy Churches defence."

And yet other Popes had started with such noble intentions. Who knows but perhaps the man who holds a thousand thousand reins between his fingers may not, in the end, find that, instead of being the driver, he is really being driven? There was the proudest Pope the world knew, Gregory VII, the indomitable Hildebrand, whose power seemed to have no bounds,—what was his end? A lonely death in exile, with one enemy crowned Emperor and another established as his successor in the throne of Rome.