the apostolic chair, and by sentence of a synod. If this be true, thou dost know thyself that thou may'st receive the favour neither of the divine nor of the apostolic benediction unless—those who have been excommunicated being separated from thee, and compelled to do penance—thou do first, with condign repentance and satisfaction, seek absolution and indulgence for thy transgression. Therefore we counsel thy Highness that, if thou dost feel thyself guilty in this matter, thou do seek the advice of some canonical bishop with speedy confession. Who, with our permission enjoining on thee a proper penance for this fault, shall absolve thee and shall endeavour by letter to intimate to us truly, with thy consent, the measure of thy penitence.
For the rest it seems strange enough to us that, although thou dost transmit to us so many and such devoted letters; and although thy Highness dost show such humility through the words of thy legates—calling thyself the son of holy mother church and of ourselves, subject in the faith, one in love, foremost in devotion;—although, finally, thou dost commend thyself with all the devotion of sweetness and reverence: thou dost, however, at heart and in deeds most stubborn, show thyself contrary to the canonical and apostolic decrees in those things which the religion of the church enjoins as the chief ones. For, not to mention other things, in the affair of Milan the actual outcome of the matter shows plainly how thou didst carry out—and with what intent thou didst make them—the promises made to us through thy mother and through our confrères the bishops whom we sent to thee. And now, indeed, indicting wound upon wound, contrary to the establishments of the apostolic chair, thou hast given the churches of Fermo and Spoleto—if indeed a church could be given or granted by a man—to certain persons not even known to us. On whom, unless they are previously well known and proven, it is not lawful even regularly to perform the laying on of hands.
Since thou dost confess thyself a son of the church lit would have beseemed thy royal dignity to look more respectfully upon the master of the church,—that is, St. Peter, the chief of the apostles. To whom, if thou art of
