Note 172 — Chapter V · CONTESTS BETWEEN THE POPES AND THE SOVEREIGNS OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY

He writes in these terms to Robert, Count of Flanders: “Pursue every where with all your power, Henry, the chief of heretics, and his abettors. You can offer to God no more acceptable sacrifice than to combat him who has raised himself against God; who endeavours to deprive the church of the kingdom, and who has been banished by the decree of the Holy Ghost, which the prince of the apostles has pronounced. We appoint this undertaking to you, and also to your vassals for the remission of your sins, and as a means of arriving at the celestial Jerusalem.”