IT CHAPTER XXI CANOSSA T would be a good thing to take the opportunity of the general dullness both of Reggio and Modena to visit Novellara, if only for the sake of Lelio Orsi, or, from Modena, Mirandola, if only for the sake of Pico the humanist, but that a far more interesting and adventurous journey offers itself as one lingers in Reggio, and at length so insistently that it cannot be denied. I mean a journey into the high Apennine to that castle of the great Matilda where Pope Gregory VII. humbled the Emperor Henry IV., and so thoroughly that even Bismarck remembered it, saying to Leo XIII. that he would not go to Canossa whatever else he might do; but, as we know, in the quieter fashion that even the Germans have learnt to adopt in our day, he went all the same. Canossa remains in the imagination of the world as the symbol of the mighty work that Rome achieved during the Dark Ages, I mean the creation of the Papacy that was not only to dominate but to civilise Europe, and when Hildebrand on that bare and pallid rock broke Henry in the cruel winter of 1077 that creation was proclaimed to Europe and the two succeeding centuries were already secured. There are half a dozen ways from Reggio to Canossa. That is the easiest and I think the best which takes you afoot, by carriage or by train, into the valley of the Enza at S. Polo, and so to Ciano. At Ciano you may get a mule, or you may walk by Rossena to that magnificent and isolated spot where the destiny of Europe for more than two centuries was decided. All the way is fair, and nothing in the world is more inspiring than the splendid climb from Ciano to Canossa. The lords of Canossa held in their day not only these mountains and all the passes into Italy across them, but a vast part of Lombardy, including Parma, Reggio, Mantua and Brescia, to say nothing of Tuscany and Spoleto. One feels at once on leaving Reggio and entering the region of the hills that one is at last really in their country. The first founder of Canossa, that Sigifredo who came up from the Arno valley probably by the Cisa, the way of Hannibal before him, and the way of all the Emperors and of Charles VIII., was very rich, and when he saw the pleasant wealth of Lombardy perhaps from the spurs of these very hills as we may see it to-day, he bought lands and signory in Reggio, and left his children when he died, in 945, what was in truth a kingdom. Azzo his son had Canossa, which he fortified and where he lived, and thither the beautiful Adelaide came for safety from Berenger, titular King of Italy, who when she rejected his suit imprisoned her on the Lago di Garda. She fled to Mantua, dressed as a man, where Azzo, to whom she had appealed, found her and bore her off in safety to his eyrie. And when Otho the Emperor appeared in Italy, sought her and married her, Azzo was heaped with honours so great that Berenger was forced to attack him in Canossa. The siege which followed lasted for three years. When Azzo died he was ruling not only in the mountains, but the whole northern plain between Reggio and Brescia. He was succeeded by his son Tebaldo, and he by his son Bonifazio, and both increased their power, Bonifazio adding the Duchy of Tuscany to his lordship and ruling like a sovereign king. went in fear of him. Henry III. the Emperor certainly house seemed likely to end, for by his marriage with |