before the crowded council, the noble Pontiff, giving voice to a holy enthusiasm he could not restrain, invoked the aid of St. Peter, the Prince of Apostles, and of St. Paul, the Teacher of the Nations.  He called upon them to witness, that in spite of his grief, his groans, and his tears, he had been chosen their most unworthy successor; and that princes, ecclesiastics, and courtesans were leagued to accomplish his death or exile.  “By your authority,” he exclaims, “relying upon the mercy of God and the pity of His Virgin Mother, I excommunicate Henry and all his partisans, and absolve his subjects from their allegiance.  And even as Henry is justly deprived of his royalty by his pride, his disobedience, and perfidy, so are the same power and royal authority granted to Rodolph for his humility, his submission, and his merits.”

The envoys of Rodolph hastened back to Saxony, bearing him the Papal confirmation of his election and the benediction so fervently pronounced.  The king and his army were inspired with the most lively joy and confidence.  Those who before had dreaded the result, no longer doubted, but deemed the agony of the empire already ended.  Mass was celebrated amid universal rejoicings, and Saxon and Suabian forgot the desolation of their homes in this presage of victory and peace.  The camp of Henry presented another scene.  The excommunicated king abandoned himself to the most violent transports of fury.  He swore the destruction of the daring Pontiff and the usurper who now went forth as the chosen champion of the Holy See.  He assembled at Mayence thirty bishops and a proud array of princes and barons.

Here again was acted the solemn farce of the conventicle of Brixen.  A decree was prepared and published, asserting that it was necessary to cut off from the communion of the faithful, a priest who had been rash enough to deprive the august person of majesty of all participation in the government of the Church, and to strike him with anathema.  “He is not the elect of God,” runs the instrument, “but owes his elevation to his own unblushing fraud and corruption.  He has ruined the Church—­he has distracted the State; he has embittered the life of a pious and peaceful monarch, upheld a perjured rebel, and scattered everywhere discord, jealousy, and adultery.  For this, here in final council at Mayence, we have resolved to depose, expel, and, if he disobey our command, to doom to eternal condemnation a monster who preaches the pillaging of churches and assassination, who abets perjury and homicide, who denies the Catholic and Apostolic faith concerning the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ—­this accursed Hildebrand, this ancient ally of the heretic Berengarius, this conjurer and magician, this necromancer, this monk possessed by a devil, this vile apostate from the faith of our fathers.”

After this violent invective had been launched, Guibert of Ravenna was unanimously elected anti-pope, under the name of Clement III.  Henry next addressed himself to win the support of England; but Cardinal Lanfranc condemned his precipitation, and refused to unite in these insults and outrages.