Women of the Romance Countries | Page 6

widowed Beatrice promised to marry him and at the same time gave
her consent to a betrothal between Matilda and Godfrey's hunchback
son, who also bore the name of Godfrey. This marriage with an
unfriendly prince, after so many years of imperial favor, and this
attempt at a consolidation of power for both present and future, so
angered Henry that he insisted that Beatrice must have yielded to
violence in this disposition of her affairs. Finally, in spite of her
repeated denials, she was made a prisoner for her so-called
insubordination, while Matilda was compelled to find safety in the
great fortress at Canossa. In the meantime, Godfrey had gone back to
Lorraine, more powerful than ever, to stir up trouble in the empire.
In this same year, 1054, Henry III. died, and his son, Henry IV., won
over by the prayers of Pope Victor II., made peace with Godfrey and
restored Beatrice to liberty. They, being more than grateful to Victor
for this kindly intervention, invited him to come to their stately palace
in Florence and tarry with them for a while. From this time on, in the
period when Matilda was growing into womanhood, the real seat of the
papal power was not in Rome, but in Florence, and Godfrey's palace
became an acknowledged centre of ecclesiastical activity.
Matilda was a girl of a mystic temperament, credulous, it is true, and
somewhat superstitious like all the other people of her time, and yet
filled with a deep yearning for a greater knowledge of the secrets of the
universe. Her ideal of authority was formed by intercourse with the
various members of her own circle, who were all devoted heart and
soul to the cause of the Holy See, and it was but natural that, when she
became old enough to think and act for herself, all her inclinations
should lead her to embrace the cause of the pope. While it is beyond the
province of the present volume to describe in detail the exact political
and religious situation in Italy at this time, it should be said that the
pope was anxious to reassert the temporal power of his office, which
had for a long time been subservient to the will of the emperors. He
desired the supremacy of the papacy within the Church, and the

supremacy of the Church over the state. Early filled with a holy zeal for
this cause, Matilda tried to inform herself regarding the real state of
affairs, so that she might be able to act intelligently when the time for
action came. Through skilful diplomacy, it came to pass that Matilda's
uncle--Frederick--became Pope Stephen X.; and then, of course, the
house of Lorraine came to look upon the papal interests as its own, and
the daughter of the house strengthened the deep attachment for the
Church which was to die only when she died. Nor must it be thought
that the priestly advisers of the house were blind to the fact that in
Matilda they had one who might become a pillar of support for the
fortunes of the papacy. The monk Hildebrand, for a long time the
power behind the pope until he himself became pope in 1073, was a
constant visitor at Matilda's home, and he it was who finally took her
education in hand and gave it its fullest development. She had many
teachers, of course, and under Hildebrand's guiding genius, the work
was not stopped until the young countess could speak French, German,
and Latin with the same ease as she did her mother tongue.
Finally, in 1076, when she was thirty years of age, her
mother--Beatrice--died, and also her husband, Godfrey le Bossu. The
great countess, acting for the first time entirely upon her own
responsibility, now began that career of activity and warfare which was
unflagging to the end. No other woman of her time had her vast power
and wealth, no other woman of her time had her well-stored mind, and
no other, whether man or woman, was so well equipped to become the
great protector of the Holy Church at Rome. People were amazed at her
ability--they called her God-given and Heaven-sent, and they felt a
touch of mystery in this woman's life. Surely she was not as the others
of her time, for she could hold her head high in the councils of the most
learned, and she the only woman of the number! Nor was she one-sided
in her activity and indifferent to all interests save those of the papal
party, as her many public benefactions show her to have been a woman
filled with that larger zeal for humanity which far transcends the
narrow zeal for sect or creed. For, in addition to the many temples,
convents, and sepulchres, which she caused