[389] Henry III., emperor from 1039 to 1056.
[390] The castle of Canossa stood on one of the northern spurs of the Apennines, about ten miles southwest of Reggio. Some remains of it may yet be seen.
[391] The German princes who were hostile to Henry had kept in close touch with the Pope. In the Council of Tribur a legate of Gregory took the most prominent part, and the members of that body had invited the Pope to come to Augsburg and aid in the settling of Henry's crown upon a successor.
[392] Revoked the ban of excommunication. The anathema was a solemn curse by an ecclesiastical authority.
[393] That is, the Emperor was to be allowed to invest the new bishop or abbot with the fiefs and secular powers by a touch of the scepter, but his old claim to the right of investment with the spiritual emblems of ring and crozier was denied.
[394] This means that the ecclesiastical prince—the bishop or abbot—in the capacity of a landholder was to render the ordinary feudal obligations to the Emperor.
[395] Burgundy and Italy.
[396] The term Turks is here used loosely and inaccurately for Asiatic pagan invaders in general. The French had never destroyed any "kingdoms of the Turks" in the proper sense of the word, though from time to time they had made successful resistance to Saracens, Avars and Hungarians.
[397] Among the acts of the Council of Clermont had been a solemn confirmation of the Truce of God, with the purpose of restraining feudal warfare [see [p. 228]]. In the version of Urban's speech given by Fulcher of Chartres, the Pope is reported as saying that in some parts of France "hardly any one can venture to travel upon the highways, by night or day, without danger of attack by thieves or robbers; and no one is sure that his property at home or abroad will not be taken from him by the violence or craft of the wicked."
[398] Pope Urban's appeal at the Council of Clermont.