The result was an unusual one. The citizens of
Rome, made desperate by their losses, gathered in multitudes and drove
the plunderers from their city, and Gregory with them. The Normans, thus
expelled, took the pope to Salerno, where he died the following year,
1085, his last words being, "I have loved justice and hated iniquity,
therefore do I die in exile."
As for his imperial enemy, the remainder of his life was one of
incessant war. Years of battle were needed to put down his enemies in
the state, and his triumph was quickly followed by the revolt of his own
son, Henry, who reduced his father so greatly that the old emperor was
thrown into prison and forced to sign an abdication of the throne. It is
said that he became subsequently so reduced that he was forced to sell
his boots to obtain means of subsistence, but this story may reasonably
be doubted. Henry died in 1106, again under excommunication, so that he
was not formally buried in consecrated ground until 1111, the interdict
being continued for five years after his death.
_ANECDOTES OF MEDIAEVAL GERMANY.
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