Yet amid these cares, such as human shoulders seldom knew before or since, he forgot not the objects to which he had dedicated his life--the punishment of simony and the preservation of ecclesiastical purity.

It was in the attainment of these, that he arrayed kingdoms against him and died in exile at Salerno.

Harassed and chained down as he was, the councils of Anse, Clermont, Dijon, Autun, Poietiers, and Lyons were thundering against simony and incontinency.
It would be presumptuous to offer a word in defence of the conduct of such a man, had not his actions been so grievously misstated, and his aims so ungenerously misinterpreted.

It were as well to point out the sun when the eye is dazzled by its brightness.
Gregory received Rodolph's envoys with every mark of affection, but dismissed them, saying he could not comply with their request.

The Pontiff's object was to keep royalty within its legitimate sphere, not to depose a particular king, and he wished to accomplish this with as little bloodshed as possible.