Henry, after a brief visit to Augsburg…

Henry, after a brief visit to Augsburg following the events in northern Germany, summons the greatest magnates of the realm, clerical and lay, to meet and accompany him as he crosses the Brenner Pass into Italy, one of the most important of his many travels.

His old ally, Aribert of Milan, had recently died, and the Milanese had chosen as candidate for his successor one Guido, in opposition to the candidate supported by the nobles.

Meanwhile, three popes—Benedict IX, Sylvester III, and Gregory VI—contest the pontifical honors in Rome.

Benedict is a Tusculan who had previously renounced the throne, Sylvester is a Crescentian, and Gregory is a reformer but a simoniac.

Henry marches first to Verona, thence to Pavia in October.

He holds a court and dispenses justice as he had in Burgundy years earlier.

He moves on to Sutri and holds a second court on December 20 where he deposes all the candidates for the Saint Peter's throne and leaves it temporarily vacant.

Having thus wrested the papacy from the politics of the Roman aristocrats and brought imperial control over the church to its pinnacle, he heads towards …