It was in attempting to remedy this fatal innovation that Gregory found himself repeatedly thwarted by Henry; and yet he had been censured by those who lament the worldliness of a portion of the medieval clergy, for striking at the root of the evil.
After repeated provocation, the arm of the Pope is uplifted to strike; but Henry, awed by his menaces, and by an insurrection in Saxony, hastens to avert the blow by an unreserved submission and the fairest promises.

He confesses, not only to have meddled in ecclesiastical matters, but to have unjustly stripped churches of their pastors--to have sold them to unworthy subjects guilty of simony, whose very ordination was questionable--and implores the Pope to begin the reform with the Cathedral of Milan, which is in schism by his fault.
Gregory pardons him; and, in 1074, holds his first council at Rome against simony and the incontinence of the clergy.

It was in this year that Henry, already pressed by the Saxons and Thuringians, found himself threatened by Salomon, King of Hungary.

In this emergency, he has recourse to Gregory, who, by an eloquent letter, calms the indignant Hungarian.
With the year following, the campaign against Saxony begins.

This brave but turbulent people had risen against the towns in possession of Henry, and burned the magnificent Cathedral at Hartzburg.