Burchard of Basle

Burchard was successful; a synod was assembled at Piacenza and the Lombard bishops renounced obedience to Gregory.

For these acts the pope excommunicated and deposed Burchard in the Lenten synod of 1076; a similar sentence was inflicted on other bishops and on Henry.

Henry obtained absolution at Canossa in January 1077 and Burchard, who accompanied him on the penitential pilgrimage, was reinstated in office.

However, the fortunes of war turned; Burchard and his partisans ravaged the country of Alemannia or Suabia—the home of Rudolf and Berthold—and many cruelties were committed.

It is not certain whether Burchard was present in the synod held at Brixen in Tyrol in June 1080 where the partisans of Henry again deposed Gregory VII and elected in his stead Wibert, Archbishop of Ravenna.

Henry's faction held its synod at Mainz in early May; Pope Gregory and all the bishops loyal to him were deposed.

After the death of Gregory VII, particularly after the election of Pope Urban II (1088–99), Burchard sought reconciliation with the Holy See; he became instrumental in the erection of several monasteries and other religious institutions.