4 PETER IN CHAINS
time, was designed by nature to be a fosterer of the new rigorist spirit. The influence of his pious Empress Agnes did the rest. Meanwhile Henry kept the Church inside the Empire in the status which had been fixed by the two Ottos. He expected the reform to succeed in abolishing priest-marriage, so that the ruler could recruit a higher clergy obedient to the Emperor and free to serve his business. He expected further that the baneful practice of bequeathing offices and tenures would cease. Finally he hoped that if the Empire fa- voured the reform, this would cease to be a menace by reason of its trend toward an order transcending the State. His devotion to jus- tice and his relish of honesty in the spiritual life of the Church also induced him to dispense with simony, though this meant a great loss to the Imperial economy by reason of the cessation of gifts customarily received from those chosen to exchange secular positions for bishoprics. If now the episcopate was liberated from the system of simony, the Papacy too must be far above every suspicion on this score.
Henry found Gregory VI guilty of simony. Paying no attention to the ancient rule that the Bishop of Rome could be judged by no one, he summoned a synod at Sutri in 1046, and this deposed both Gregory and Sylvester III. A few days later the same verdict was delivered against the Tuscan Pope Benedict. A German Bishop, Suidger of Bamberg, who had accompanied the Emperor to Rome, became Pope under the name of Clement II and crowned Henry and Agnes. The Emperor also gave himself the title of Patricius, thus manifesting his determination to act as overlord of the Roman See and guarantor of future Papal elections. He did not define the free- dom of the Church as this Church itself or the most vigorous men of the reform movement defined it. With his own hand he forced the systems of Otto and of Cluny into a unity that was outwardly harmo- nious but intrinsically fragile. It was necessary only that on one or the other side a man should appear who did not favour the peace, and the erroneousness of Henry's policy would be revealed. It is true that at the moment there was no danger. The man who was to start the conflict was still no more than a twenty-year-old priest named Hil- debrand, who had gone into German exile at Cologne with the de- posed Gregory VI. When Clement II died after being in office a year, he was followed by a German, Damasus II, who also died a few
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