the Roman super-power. And they were profoundly grateful

when Charlemagne, and afterwards Otto the Great, revived
the idea of a world-empire and created the Holy Roman

Empire, that the world might again be as it always had been.
But the fact that there were two different heirs to the

Roman tradition placed the faithful burghers of the Middle
Ages in a difficult position. The theory behind the mediaeval

political system was both sound and simple. While the worldly
master (the emperor) looked after the physicalwell-being of

his subjects, the spiritual master (the Pope) guarded their
souls.

In practice, however, the system worked very badly. The
Emperor invariably tried to interfere with the affairs of the

church and the Pope retaliated and told the Emperor how
he should rule his domains. Then they told each other to mind

their own business in very unceremonious language and the
inevitable end was war.

Under those circumstances, what were the people to do,
A good Christian obeyed both the Pope and his King. But

the Pope and the Emperor were enemies. Which side should
a dutiful subject and an equally dutiful Christian take?

It was never easy to give the correct answer. When the
Emperor happened to be a man of energy and was sufficiently

well provided with money to organise an army, he was very
apt to cross the Alps and march on Rome, besiege the Pope

in his own palace if need be, and force His Holiness to obey
the imperialinstructions or suffer the consequences.

But more frequently the Pope was the stronger. Then the
Emperor or the King together with all his subjects was

excommunicated. This meant that all churches were closed, that no
one could be baptised, that no dying man could be given absolution--

in short, that half of the functions of mediaeval government
came to an end.

More than that, the people were absolved from their oath of
loyalty to their sovereign and were urged to rebel against their

master. But if they followed this advice of the distant Pope
and were caught, they were hanged by their near-by Lege

Lord and that too was very unpleasant.
Indeed, the poor fellows were in a difficult position and

none fared worse than those who lived during the latter half of
the eleventh century, when the Emperor Henry IV of Germany

and Pope Gregory VII fought a two-round battle which
decided nothing and upset the peace of Europe for almost fifty

years.
In the middle of the eleventh century there had been a

strong movement for reform in the church. The election of the
Popes, thus far, had been a most irregular affair. It was to the

advantage of the Holy Roman Emperors to have a well-disposed
priest elected to the Holy See. They frequently came

to Rome at the time of election and used their influence for
the benefit of one of their friends.

In the year 1059 this had been changed. By a decree of
Pope Nicholas II the principalpriests and deacons of the

churches in and around Rome were organised into the so-
called College of Cardinals, and this gathering of prominent

churchmen (the word ``Cardinal'' meant principal) was given
the exclusive power of electing the future Popes.

In the year 1073 the College of Cardinals elected a priest
by the name of Hildebrand, the son of very simple parents in

Tuscany, as Pope, and he took the name of Gregory VII.
His energy was unbounded. His belief in the supreme powers

of his Holy Office was built upon a granite rock of conviction
and courage. In the mind of Gregory, the Pope was not only

the absolute head of the Christian church, but also the highest
Court of Appeal in all worldly matters. The Pope who had

elevated simple German princes to the dignity of Emperor
could depose them at will. He could veto any law passed by

duke or king or emperor, but whosoever should question a
papal decree, let him beware, for the punishment would be

swift and merciless.
Gregory sent ambassadors to all the European courts to

inform the potentates of Europe of his new laws and asked
them to take due notice of their contents. William the Conqueror

promised to be good, but Henry IV, who since the age
of six had been fighting with his subjects, had no intention of

submitting to the Papal will. He called together a college of
German bishops, accused Gregory of every crime under the

sun and then had him deposed by the council of Worms.
The Pope answered with excommunication and a demand

that the German princes rid themselves of their unworthy ruler.
The German princes, only too happy to be rid of Henry, asked

the Pope to come to Augsburg and help them elect a new Emperor.
Gregory left Rome and travelled northward. Henry,

who was no fool, appreciated the danger of his position. At
all costs he must make peace with the Pope, and he must do

it at once. In the midst of winter he crossed the Alps and
hastened to Canossa where the Pope had stopped for a short

rest. Three long days, from the 25th to the 28th of January
of the year 1077, Henry, dressed as a penitent pilgrim

(but with a warm sweaterunderneath his monkish garb),
waited outside the gates of the castle of Canossa.

Then he was allowed to enter and was pardoned for
his sins. But the repentance did not last long.

As soon as Henry had returned to Germany, he behaved
exactly as before. Again he was excommunicated. For the

second time a council of German bishops deposed Gregory,
but this time, when Henry crossed the Alps he was at

the head of a large army, besieged Rome and forced Gregory
to retire to Salerno, where he died in exile. This first violent

outbreak decided nothing. As soon as Henry was back in
Germany, the struggle between Pope and Emperor was continued.

The Hohenstaufen family which got hold of the Imperial
German Throne shortly afterwards, were even more independent

than their predecessors. Gregory had claimed that the
Popes were superior to all kings because they (the Popes) at

the Day of Judgement would be responsible for the behaviour
of all the sheep of their flock, and in the eyes of God, a king

was one of that faithful herd.
Frederick of Hohenstaufen, commonly known as Barbarossa

or Red Beard, set up the counter-claim that the Empire
had been bestowed upon his predecessor ``by God himself''

and as the Empire included Italy and Rome, he began a campaign
which was to add these ``lost provinces'' to the northern

country. Barbarossa was accidentally drowned in Asia Minor
during the second Crusade, but his son Frederick II, a brilliant

young man who in his youth had been exposed to the civilisation
of the Mohammedans of Sicily, continued the war. The

Popes accused him of heresy. It is true that Frederick seems
to have felt a deep and serious contempt for the rough Christian

world of the North, for the boorish German Knights and
the intriguing Italian priests. But he held his tongue, went

on a Crusade and took Jerusalem from the infidel and was
duly crowned as King of the Holy City. Even this act did not

placate the Popes. They deposed Frederick and gave his
Italian possessions to Charles of Anjou, the brother of that

King Louis of France who became famous as Saint Louis.
This led to more warfare. Conrad V, the son of Conrad IV,

and the last of the Hohenstaufens, tried to regain the kingdom,
and was defeated and decapitated at Naples. But twenty years

later, the French who had made themselves thoroughly unpopular
in Sicily were all murdered during the so-called Sicilian

Vespers, and so it went.
The quarrel between the Popes and the Emperors was

never settled, but after a while the two enemies learned to
leave each other alone.

In the year 1278, Rudolph of Hapsburg was elected Emperor.
He did not take the trouble to go to Rome to be

crowned. The Popes did not object and in turn they kept
away from Germany. This meant peace but two entire centuries

which might have been used for the purpose of internal
organisation had been wasted in uselesswarfare.

It is an ill wind however that bloweth no good to some one.
The little cities of Italy, by a process of careful balancing,

had managed to increase their power and their independence
at the expense of both Emperors and Popes. When the rush

for the Holy Land began, they were able to handle the transportation
problem of the thousands of eager pilgrims who were

clamoring for passage, and at the end of the Crusades they
had built themselves such strong defences of brick and of gold

that they could defy Pope and Emperor with equal indifference.
Church and State fought each other and a third party--the

mediaeval city--ran away with the spoils.
THE CRUSADES

BUT ALL THESE DIFFERENT QUARRELS
WERE FORGOTTEN WHEN THE TURKS

TOOK THE HOLY LAND, DESECRATED THE
HOLY PLACES AND INTERFERED SERIOUSLY

WITH THE TRADE FROM EAST TO
WEST. EUROPE WENT CRUSADING

DURING three centuries there had been peace between Christians
and Moslems except in Spain and in the eastern Roman

Empire, the two states defending the gateways of Europe.
The Mohammedans having conquered Syria in the seventh

century were in possession of the Holy Land. But they regarded
Jesus as a great prophet (though not quite as great

as Mohammed), and they did not interfere with the pilgrims
who wished to pray in the church which Saint Helena, the

mother of the Emperor Constantine, had built on the spot of
the Holy Grave. But early in the eleventh century, a Tartar

tribe from the wilds of Asia, called the Seljuks or Turks,
became masters of the Mohammedan state in western Asia and