Search -
The Life and Pontificate of Gregory the Seventh
The Life and Pontificate of Gregory the Seventh Author:John William Bowden Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: BOOK III—CHAPTER VI. A. D. 1075. Gregory's Epistle To Hugo, Abbot Of Cluni—Council At Rome—Condemnation Of Lay Investiture—Spurious Nature Of The Dictatus ... more »Hildebrandin1— Epistles To Various German Prelates—Henry's Messages To Rome, And Plans Against The Saxons—Visit Of The Russian Prince Demetrius To The German Court—Saxon War Battle On The Unstrut Excommunication Of The Saxons By Siegfried Henry's Army Dissolved And Re-assembled SubmisSion Of The Saxons And Surrender Of Their Chiefs. " If it might be,"'—Gregory thus, on the 22nd of January 1075, addressed his friend Hugo, the Abbot of Cluni,—"l If it might be, I would that you fully knew " what trouble hems me in, what toil, daily renewed, " wearies me, and by constantly increasing, alarms me; " that so compassion, proportioned to the troubles of " my heart, might affect you toward me; and that your " heart might be poured forth in tearful supplication " before the Lord, that Jesus, by Whom all things were " made, and Who ruleth over all things, would extend " His hand to the poor, and of His wonted mercy " deliver the miserable. Often have I implored Him, " after His own example, either to remove me from this " present life, or to benefit, through me, our common " Mother, and yet has He not hitherto removed me" from tribulation, nor has my life been profitable, as " I had hoped, to our Mother in whose chains He " has bound me. Vast is the grief, wide-spreading " the affliction, which encompasses me: for the Eastern " Church, through the suggestions of the devil, is fall- " ing from the Catholic faith, and, by his agents, that " ancient enemy makes continual slaughter of Chris- " tians : those whom the head slays in the spirit, being " thus punished by the members in the flesh, lest they " should, by heavenly grace...« less