Word: hildebrands
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...been the time of two men, of whom the one was conqueror of England, and the other was savior of the Church. Duke William is popularly believed to have had the qualities of a strategist and of a statesman, in addition to rare ability in conducting a pitched fight. Hildebrand is universally admitted to have been the ideal of an ecclesiastical hero: he had one purpose directing all the actions of his life, which was to make the Papal Church the supreme principality; he laid his plots deep, and was quick to seize every possible advantage in executing them...
...recent lecture Professor Adams declared that the real conqueror of England was Hildebrand. England stood in the way of his cherished plan of bringing the German Empire into subjection to the Church. Her Archbishop of Canterbury even accepted his pall from the anti-pope favored by the Emperor. Therefore Hildebrand deliberately planned the conquest of the island. At the proper time he both protected his Norman tools in front, by excommunicating Harold, and guarded their rear by satisfactory assurances that the French should not aggress upon their native territory. His gain was to be twofold; the favor conferred would bind...
...preparations then being made throughout Europe for the accomplishment of a single purpose. William is reduced to the stature of ordinary men. He now appears to have been little more than a greedy dare-devil, who was capable of performing his master's bidding with alacrity and thoroughness. But Hildebrand becomes incomparably great. The conception of his character startles us by its novelty. Napoleon believed himself to be the creature of destiny, and claimed only the merit of struggling heroically to take each step in a winding path; but Hildebrand saw the end from the beginning, and provided the means...
...Regard Hildebrand as only an able and resolute man, who took advantage of, though he did not make his opportunities, and there is enough in his character to impress you with a sense of its unusual dignity; nor can you follow the history of the wretched Emperor with unbated breath; he shows his teeth like a hunted rat, now in one corner, now in another; at last he exposes his neck at Canossa to the spring of the cat that for twenty years has patiently waited in the Vatican. But endow him with an instinct amounting to foreknowledge, with...