[555] Pauli Bernried. Vit. Gregor. VII. No. 87.—Ekkehard of Uraugen and the Annalista Saxo, however, in their accounts of these disturbances, attribute them to political rather than to ecclesiastical causes. The latter, no doubt, would hardly have been efficient without the former. The efforts of Henry to reduce the savage feudal nobles to order made him, throughout his reign, a favorite with the cities.
[556] Lambert. Hersfeld. ann. 1076.
[557] Hugon. Flaviniac. Lib. II.
[558] Ob hanc igitur causam, quia scilicet sanctam Dei ecclesiam castam esse volebat, liberam atque catholicam, quia de sanctuario Dei simoniacam et neophytorum hæresim et fedam libidinosæ contagionis pollutionem volebat expellere, membra diaboli cœperunt in eum insurgere, et usque ad sanguinem præsumpserunt in eum manus injicere.—Hugon. Flaviniac. Lib. II.
Eo vesaniæ imperatorem induxerat cæca sacerdotum (qui tunc frequentes apud eum erant) libido. Timebant enim si cum pontifice in gratiam rediret, actum esse de concubinis suis, quas illi pluris quam vel propriam salutem vel publicam pendebant honestatem.—Hieron. Emser Vit. S. Bennon. c. III. § 40.
Gregory’s celebrated exclamation on his death-bed does not, however, specially recognize this—“Dilexi justitiam et odivi iniquitatem, propterea morior in exilio.”
[559] Gregor. VII. Regist. Lib. I. Epist. 30; Lib. III. Epist. 3.
[560] According to Conrad of Ursperg (Chron. ann. 1080) among the reasons adduced for the deposition of Gregory the synod of Brixen, was “Qui inter concordes seminavit discordiam, inter pacificos lites, inter fratres scandala, inter conjuges divortia, et quicquid quiete inter pie viventes stare videbatur, concussit”—in which the words italicized may possibly allude to the separation of the married clergy. Conrad, however, was a compiler of the thirteenth century, and his statements are not to be received without caution. If this motive had its weight with the prelates of the synod, they did not care to publish it to the world, for there is no allusion to it in the letter of renunciation addressed by them to Gregory (Goldast. Const. Imp. I. 238)—forming a striking contrast to the proceedings of the synod of Pavia in 1076, already alluded to.
[561] Wibert Antipap. Epist. VI.
Bishop Benzo, the most bitter of imperialists, did not desire to be confounded with the Nicolitan heretics—