96
THE ROMAN
CHURCH HAS
NEVER ERRED
THE INVESTITURE CONTROVERSY (1078)
F
or three days in 1078, the
Holy Roman Emperor Henry
IV stood penitent, barefoot
in the snow outside the Italian
fortress of Canossa, begging Pope
Gregory VII for absolution. This
event was the culmination of the
Investiture Controversy, a struggle
between the two men about the
extent of secular authority over the
Christian church, and the authority
to appoint—or invest—bishops.
Both king and pope were rulers
of particular domains, but they also
had rival symbolic claims to lead all
Christendom. An emperor had to
be crowned by the pope before he
assumed the imperial title. Pope
Gregory VII asserted that the pope’s
authority was supreme in spiritual
matters, and that even in secular
affairs it stood far above that of
worldly princes.
When at last Gregory signaled
forgiveness of the penitent emperor,
it marked a bitter blow for imperial
prestige and a huge triumph for the
independence of the church.The state of the church
By the early 11th century, the papacy
was at a low ebb. It had failed to
impose—or had lost—authority over
national churches outside Italy,IN CONTEXT
FOCUS
The medieval church
and the papacyBEFORE
1048–1053 Pope Leo IX issues
decrees against simony and
priestly marriage, beginning
the reform movement.1059 A college of cardinals to
elect new popes is established.1075 The Lateran Council
decrees that only the pope
can appoint bishops.1076 Gregory VII deposes and
excommunicates Henry IV.AFTER
1084 Henry IV captures Rome,
forcing Gregory VII to flee to
southern Italy.1095 The pope calls a
Crusade, asserting papal
leadership over Christendom.1122 In the Concordat of
Worms, Henry V gives up
almost all rights to invest
bishops.Gregory VII promotes
reform, including a ban
on lay investiture.Laxness in observing
church rules on clerical
marriage and investiture
of bishops leads to calls
for reform.The pope’s victory in
the investiture struggle
strengthens the reform
movement and papal
administration.Emperor and
pope clash
over investiture;
the emperor is
excommunicated.US_096-097_Investiture_controversy.indd 96 15/02/2016 16:41
97
Henry was refused entry when
at last his long trek across the Alps
brought him to the castle gates. Only
after three days’ penitence was the
emperor’s excommunication lifted.See also: The Battle of Milvian Bridge 66–67 ■ The crowning of Charlemagne 82–83 ■ The fall of Jerusalem 106–07 ■
Otto I becomes Holy Roman Emperor 132 ■ Martin Luther’s 95 theses 160–63THE MEDIEVAL WORLD
and monarchs were appointing
their own bishops, especially in
Germany where the office often
came with considerable territorial
domains. The feeling that the church
had lost touch with its roots was
also widespread: monasteries had
become storehouses of treasure,
bishops were ruling their lands like
secular lords, and clerical offices
were openly sold. Itinerant preachers
started to inveigh against these
betrayals, and calls for reform were
beginning to be heard from within
the church itself.Gregory vigorously promoted papal
authority, and in 1075 a church
council declared that only the
pope had the power to appoint
bishops or move them to a different
area. Henry, facing the loss
of authority over large tracts of
Germany, continued to appoint
bishops and called for the pope to
step down. Gregory retaliated by
excommunicating the king and
declaring him deposed. German
nobles, already feeling discontented
at Henry’s attempts to centralize
power, felt that this released them
from their oath of loyalty, and many
rose up in revolt. Caught between
the papacy and the nobles, Henry
eventually chose to take the road to
Canossa in a humiliating retreat.Final agreement at Worms
But Henry’s submission did not
last. The issue of investiture was
not explicitly settled and underlying
dispute caused partisans of pope
and emperor to clash repeatedly
until 1122, when Henry’s son
Henry V agreed to the Concordat
of Worms. Squeezed between anincreasingly assertive insistence on
papal supremacy, and the growing
independence of the German
nobles, the emperor conceded
virtually all investiture rights.
Energized by its success, the
papal administration (or curia)
consolidated. A growing thirst for
education led to the foundation of
universities such as that at Bologna
where many students studied canon
law. With rising confidence, popes
ruthlessly persecuted heretics and
swept away lax practices.
The reforms strengthened the
church, whose diplomatic stature
grew to equal that of any monarch,
and it survived in a united form
until the Reformation in the 16th
century. The blow to the prestige
of the Holy Roman Emperors was
commensurate. Secular lords seized
the opportunity to magnify their
own power, fragmenting the empire
into a constellation of lordships and
competing authorities who paid
only lip service to the emperor. ■The new monasticism
By the 11th century, many felt
that monastic orders had also
strayed from their original
mission, accumulating wealth
and abandoning spirituality.
Men such as Bruno of Cologne
led calls to return to a purer
form of monasticism. Bruno
joined a group of hermits near
Grenoble in 1084. Their way of
life attracted others to found
similar groups, which became
the core of the Cistercian Order.
The Carthusians, established
in 1098, had by 1153 nearly350 houses, yet these enclosed
orders did not fully answer the
spiritual needs of a society that
was becoming increasingly
affluent, educated, and mobile.
A new wave of mendicant friars
appeared in the 13th century:
committed to a life of poverty,
they traveled and preached
among the people. The
Franciscans, founded in 1209
by Francis of Assisi, and the
Dominicans, established in
1216 by Dominic de Guzman,
represented the most successful
exponents of this new apostolic
form of monastic life.I Henry, by the grace of
God august emperor of the
Romans... do remit to the holy
Catholic church, all investiture
through ring and staff and
grant that in all the churches
there may be free election
and consecration.
Henry V, 1122US_096-097_Investiture_controversy.indd 97 26/02/2016 15:49