a struggle for power as old as the human race ...
between king and priest ...

a struggle which is much older than the appearance of our Redeemer in this world....

a struggle which has filled German history of the Middle Ages till the destruction of the German Empire, and which found its conclusion when the last representative of the glorious Swabian dynasty died on the scaffold, under the axe of a French conqueror who stood in alliance with the Pope.[12] We are not far from an analogous solution of the situation, always translated into the customs of our time." He assured the House that now, as always, he would defend the Empire against internal and external enemies.

"Rest assured we will not go to Canossa," he said.
In undertaking this struggle with the Church he had two enemies to contend with--the Pope and the government of the Church on the one side, on the other the Catholic population of Germany.

He tried to come to some agreement with the Pope and to separate the two; it seemed in fact as if the real enemy to be contended against was not the foreign priesthood, but the Catholic Democracy in Germany.