This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1860 Excerpt: ...A German held the see of Ravenna; and under his episcopate Ravenna had begun to renew her ancient pretensions to independence of Rome. Leo, hi the true Roman spirit, would not endure the encroachments even of a German prelate, raised to his see by the special favor of the Emperor. The Italian prelates at Vercelli joined eagerly in the humiliation of the German at Ravenna; Humfred was degraded and excommunicated by the Pope and Council. At this act the brooding jealousy against the Pope broke out at the court of Henry into open hostility. Bishop Nitger of Freisingen, a magnificent prelate, whose revenue, if in part dedicated to less sacred uses, was splendidly employed on ecclesiastical buildings, during some warm dispute relating to the affair of Ravenna, grasping his neck, said, " May a sword cleave this throat if I work not the ruin of this Pope." The biographer of Leo adds that the bishop 2 was seized with a pain in the neck, and died in a few days. At Augsburg the Pope was compelled to submit to the restoration of his haughty antagonist. Humfred, it is true, was ordered to make restitution of all he had unlawfully usurped from the Pope, to acknowledge his supremacy and to request his forgiveness. He knelt; "According to the depth of his repentance," said the Pope, " may God forgive him his sins." The prelate rose, and broke out in scornful laughter. Tears filled the eyes of the Pope. "Miser 1 Hoefler has drawn out a list of German prelates, by which it appears that the Patriarchate of Aquiltia, the Bishoprics of Como, Padua, and Verona, were a long time almost exclusively in their hands: other sees less frequently.--Beilagc, xvii. p. 333. 1 This must have been much later, as Nitger survived the Archbishop of Ravenna so...