CONTEST BETWEEN THE TIARA AND THE CROWN. 145
all terrestrial thrones to whom all ecclesiastical domina-
tions are subordinate ? ’ ’
Arguments like these were naturally convincing to
the class who might look forward to the enjoyment of
this despotism, both in heaven and earth, but religious
threats and the terrors of ignorance and superstition were
necessary, before the patriotism and loyalty of the sturdy
burghers and homely peasants of Germany, could be
brought to depose their hereditary sovereign. Accordingly
a reiterated series of Pontifical denunciations were
launched from Rome across the Alps, and in the year
1076, a rescript was published, which required the Ger-
man princes and prelates, counts and barons, to elect
a new emperor in the event of Henry’s continued resist-
ance to the sentence of the last Papal Council; and
gave the assurance of the Apostolic confirmation of any
choice which should be worthily made. Legates speedily
arrived at Tribur, on the Rhine, to conduct the delibera-
tions of the diet summoned there.
A more solemn and majestic scene of national judg-
ment on a criminal sovereign has never been beheld. It
was then autumn, and the happy peasantry were gather-
ing in the plenteous harvests and the vintage; whilst under
a pavilion, raised in the centre of a smiling plain, the
judges of the earth had met to depose an erring and
infamous monarch.
The surrounding eminences were occupied by the
retainers and soldiers of the great dignitaries of the
Empire, each body separated from its neighbour by the
floating banner of its lord.
On the opposite side of the majestic Rhine, Henry and
his adherents awaited the sentence to be passed on him
for his crimes as a sovereign, as a man, and as a son of
the Church.
From the records which remain of the Diet of Tribur,
it would appear that Henry’s ecclesiastical offences were
treated in the lightest possible manner, a significant trait
of the national jealousy of the Roman interference; but
his civil acts as Emperor were enumerated and arraigned