Q. What authority did he arrogate over you as Christ's Vicegerent on Earth?

A. He claimed the power of appointing all persons to ecclesiastical dignities, while my subjects were to support them within my empire, at a very heavy expense. From a prevailing custom Emperors and Kings had long considered themselves empowered to act independently in this case, and appoint whom they thought proper. I refused to give up my right as Emperor and he persisted in the most insolent manner to demand my submission. Had the German Princes seconded my claim, it is more than probable, he would have been compelled to desist from his demands. But as nearly all Germany were then his devoted slaves, and civil discord divided the Empire, the imperious Pontiff ordered me to repair to Rome immediately, and clear myself of various crimes laid to my charge.

I absolutely refused to obey his summons, but assembled a Council of German Bishops at Worms. Before this Council the prisoner was charged justly, with several flagitious practices, deposed from his Pontificate, of which he was declared unworthy. He no sooner received information of what was done at Worms, but with all the violence possible, he thundered out his Anathemas on my head, to exclude me from the Throne, and absolve all my subjects from their oath of allegiance to me, as their lawful sovereign. This he did in

the name of the Vicar of Christ and Prince over all Nations, and no terms are sufficient to express the complicated scenes of misery that arose through the war which then took place, between the Civil and Ecclesiastical powers.

The Suabian chiefs, with Duke Rodolph at their head, then revolted from me; and the Saxon Princes followed their example. These united Powers were requested by the prisoner to elect a new Emperor; and accordingly they met at Tribur in the year 1076, to take council together. The result of this meeting was, the case being referred to the prisoner, he was to be invited to a Congress at Augsburgh. To various rigorous conditions imposed on me they added, that I must forfeit the Kingdom, if within the space of a year I was not restored to the bosom of the Church, and delivered from the Anathemas that lay on my head.

When things came to this extremity, and grew worse and worse every day, I was advised to go into Italy and implore in person, the clemency of the Roman Pontiff. I yielded to the ignominious counsel, passed the Alps amidst the rigor of a severe winter, and arrived in the month of February, 1077. Immediately I repaired to the fortress of Canusium, where the prisoner, as the pretended sanctimonious Vicar of Christ, at that time resided, with a young woman named Matilda, Countess of Tuscany, and the most powerful patroness of his church. At the entrance of this fortress

I stood three days in the open air, without the least regard paid by the prisoner to my situa tion. My feet were bare, my head uncovered, and my only raiment was a wretched piece of coarse woollen cloth, which was thrown over my body to cover my nakedness.

On the fourth day I was admitted into the presence of the lordly Pontiff, who with much difficulty granted me absolution, but he refused to restore me to the throne till the congress met. After this my eyes being enlightened to discover much of his wickedness, I opposed him with force of arms to the utmost of my power. I therefore was, by him excommunicated a second time, and Rodolph was declared lawful Emperor. My arms however were yet victorious; I slew Rodolph in battle and took the Pope prisoner. But being betrayed by my own son, I was compelled to resign my crown.

Basilaus II. King of Poland, sworn.

Q. Do you recollect the prisoner at the bar? A. I do very well.

Q. What name do you know him by? A. By the name of Pope Gregory VII. Q. Did he ever presume to usurp authority over you in Poland?

A. He did. I was legally elected to the throne by the Nobles of Poland, and as regularly crowned. But some time after, through the death of one of his Bishops, the prisoner not only excommunicated me with all the cir

cumstances of infamy that he could invent, but also hurled me from the throne, dissolved the oath of allegiance which my subjects had taken, and by an express and imperious edict, prohibited the Nobles and Clergy of Poland from electing a new King without his conBent.*

Leopold, Duke of Austria, sworn.

Q. Did not the prisoner at the bar excommunicate and anathematize you, claiming that authority as Christ's Vicegerent on earth?

A. He did; he assumed the same power over me as over all princes, arrogating to himself this authority as the Vicar of Christ. Q. What name did he go by when you knew him?

A. By the name of Pope Celestine III. he went by that name, almost at the close of the twelfth century.

Henry VI. Emperor, sworn.

Q. Were you not excommunicated and condemned by the prisoner, at the same time with Leopold, Duke of Austria?

A. I was. The prisoner at the bar had sent Richard I. King of England, to fight for him in the Holy Land. But on his returning home, Leopold and I seized and made him prisoner, The consequence was, that we were both excommunicated together.

*See Dlugossi. Hist. Polon, tom. i. p. 295,

Q. Did he do it in the name of the Vicar of Christ? A. He did.

Alphonso X. King of Galicia and Leon, sworn. Q. Did not the prisoner at the bar excommunicate and anathematize you, by the name of Pope Celestine III?

A. He did; it was on account of a marriinto which I had entered.

age,

John, King of England, sworn.

Q. Of what religion are you?

A. I have long professed the Roman Catholic religion, though I have differed much from the prisoner on account of his base conduct towards me.

Q. Will you relate to the Court what you know of the prisoner's assumed authority over you, as the Vicar of Christ, &c.?

A. When I knew the prisoner he went by the name of Pope Innocent III. At that time he ordered the Monks of Canterbury to choose one Stephen Langton, a cardinal, to be Archbishop, after a regular election had been made by the Convent and confirmed by me. I objected to his being received, and wrote to the prisoner, informing him of the consequences, in case he persisted in his demand. He then sent orders to some of his Bishops to lay the kingdom under an interdict, unless I received Langton. Such was my ignorance of real