Source: Oliver J. Thatcher and Edgar Holmes McNeal, eds., Source
Book for Mediæval History (New York: Scribners, 1905; reprint
AMS Press, 1971). Transcribed by Nicholas Becker.
Now when the report of this incredible controversy had reached the ears
of Henry, by the grace of god most invincible emperor, he set out for Italy
with a great force and an immense army. And when he came to the city
called Sutri, he called to him pope Gregory and the clergy of Rome and
decreed that a great synod should be held in the holy church of Sutri.
And after he had tried the case canonically and justly and had made the
rights of the matter plain to the holy and religious bishops according
to the canons, he condemned with perpetual anathema John, bishop of Sabina,
to whom they had given the name Silvester, John the archpresbyter, whom
they called Gregory, and the aforesaid pope Benedict. Then he proceeded
to Rome with so great a following that the city could not hold it.
Henry, by the grace of God, pious and benign king, called together the
multitude of the Roman people and the bishops and abbots and the whole
Roman clergy in the basilica of St. Peter, and held there a holy and glorious
synod; and on the day before Christmas he appointed an excellent, holy,
and benign pope, who took the name of Clement. And on Christmas day
the aforesaid king was crowned by the holy and benign pope, and the whole
city of Rome rejoiced and the holy Roman church was exalted and glorified
because so dangerous a schism had at length by the mercy of God been ended.
And then the most serene emperor, perceiving the desire of the whole Roman
people, as they had expressed it to him, placed on his own head the band
with which the Romans from of old had been wont to crown their patricii.
And the pope and the clergy and the Romans granted him the right to create
popes and such bishops as have regalian rights; and it was further agreed
that no bishop should be consecrated until he had received his investiture
from the hand of the king. And just as pope Adrian had confirmed
these things by a charter, so also they, by a charter, gave, confirmed,
and put in the power of Henry and his successors the patriciate and the
other rights as stated above.
Now after the king had returned to his own realm, pope Clement
sat upon the apostolic throne nine months and sixteen days, and then left
the terrestrial for the celestial kingdom.
Then the Roman people, assembled together, sent messengers
to king Henry with a letter beseeching him, as servants beseech their lord,
or children their father, to appoint for them a chaste and benign man of
godly life as shepherd of the holy Roman church and of the whole world.
Now when Benedict, the former pope, learned of the death of Clement (for
he was staying at Tusculum), he succeeded in winning over a part of the
Roman people by bribery and again usurped the pontificate. But when
the ambassadors of the Romans came to the king, he received them with great
honor and gave them many gifts; then, calling together a great assembly
of bishops, abbots, counts, margraves, and other princes, according to
the decrees of the holy fathers, he chose a pope who should be pleasing
to the God and the whole people.
The ambassadors of the Romans returned to Rome, preceding the
new pope, Damasus. But the good pope himself changed his route and
betook himself to Italy. Now when he had come to the margrave Boniface,
who had assisted the aforesaid pope Benedict to seize the papal throne,
the margrave addressed him in these cunning words: ‘I cannot go on to Rome
with you, because the Romans have restored the former pope, and he has
regained the power which he had formerly, and has made peace with them.
Therefore I cannot go to Rome, especially as I am now an old man.’
When the holy pope heard this, he returned and told all these things to
the emperor. When the king heard it, he recognized the shrewdness
and cunning of the margrave, and addressed him by letter, as follows: ‘Since
you have restored to the pontificate a pope who was canonically deposed,
and have been led by your love of gain to hold our empire in contempt,
understand now that, unless you mend your ways, I will come quickly and
make you mend against your will, and I will give the Roman people a pope
worthy in the sight of God.’ Then Boniface, seeing that his rebellion
would profit him nothing, drove Benedict from the papal throne by his ambassador
and went to Rome with pope Damasus.
…And Damasus held the pontificate twenty-three days and then died,
and Leo was enthroned in the Roman see by the emperor and his nobles.