A Crisis in the Middle Ages

Pope Gregory VII. had pronounced excommunication upon Henry IV., Emperor of Germany, and divided the German princes. The latter held a meeting, at which it was resolved that Gregory should be invited to Augsburg to hear, in an assembly of the princes, all the charges against their emperor, after which the final decision of the case should be left to the pope. But if Henry, by any fault of his own, remained under excommunication a year, he should be considered incapable of ruling forever. Meanwhile he was to live in a private capacity.