158Chapter 9
from the dark days of the tenth century to the glories
of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries—the great age
of cathedrals and crusades, of the founding of universi-
ties, and of scholasticism, a system of thought that re-
tains its influence today.
Monastic Revival and Papal Reform
The disorder created by the great raids profoundly
weakened the western church. Cut off from contact
with each other and from Rome, bishoprics and monas-
teries fell under the control of secular rulers who could
protect them. These lords then appointed political
henchmen or their own younger sons to episcopal rank
with little regard for spiritual qualities. Monasteries suf-
fered the same fate. Even when a monastery retained its
independence, isolation and the absence of supervision
often led to relaxations of the rule. Lay people, who in
this age tended to believe that their chances of salva-
tion depended on the prayers of those holier than
themselves, were scandalized and frightened.
The papacy shared in the general decline. As
bishop of Rome, the pope was both spiritual and secu-
lar ruler of the city. From the deposition of Pope
Nicholas the Great in 867 to the appointment of
Clement II in 1046, a generalized state of anarchy per-
mitted the great Roman families to vie for control of
the office with only an occasional nod to religious
priorities or to the wishes of the emperors. To the
laity and to pious churchmen alike, the situation
was intolerable.
A reform movement that would transform both the
papacy and the medieval church began in the Burgun-
dian monastery of Cluny. Founded in 910 by William
the Pious, duke of Aquitaine, its community followed a
strict version of the Benedictine rule that emphasized
liturgy and vocal prayer. In the decades that followed
its establishment the Cluniac ideal attracted those who
sought a more spiritual and disciplined religious life.
The original foundation became the mother house to
nearly fifteen hundred affiliated monasteries.
The agenda of the Cluniac monks included more
than prayer. They saw themselves as the vanguard of a
broader reform that would enhance the spirituality of
the church and free it forever from secular control. To
achieve this, they sought to create an independent, re-
formed papacy and to restore episcopal subordination
as a first step to rooting out corruption among parish
priests and monks.
The reformer’s first step was to gain the support
of the emperor Henry III (1017–56), who agreed with
many of their ideas and saw in them an opportunity
to expand his own political influence. Henry entered
Italy in 1046, deposed the three existing popes, and
suppressed the Roman political factions that had sup-
ported them. He then used his authority to appoint a
series of popes, the most important of whom was the
Cluniac reformer Leo IX (served 1049–54). Leo con-
demned simony, or the sale of church offices, called
for the enforcement of clerical celibacy, and brought
with him to Rome a number of young men who
shared his convictions.
Henry’s actions brought improvement, but to the
monks, a papacy under imperial control was only
slightly better than one controlled by Roman politi-
cians. In the confusion that followed Henry’s death, the
reformers achieved something like full independence
for the papacy. Taking advantage of the minority of
Henry’s young son, Henry IV (1050–1106), Pope
Nicholas II placed the election of all future popes in the
hands of the College of Cardinals, an advisory body
composed of the most important, or cardinal, priests of
the Roman diocese. The first such election took place
in 1061, and the basic procedure used on that occasion
has remained more or less intact to this day.The Investiture Controversy and Its Aftermath
The next step was to achieve papal control over the ap-
pointment of bishops. With the establishment of feu-
dalism, bishops came to hold fiefs over which they
exercised civil as well as ecclesiastical authority. The
secular rulers whose vassals they became usurped the
right to invest, or formally install, them as bishops.
When Hildebrand of Soana, one of the men who had
come to Rome with Leo IX, was elected Pope Gregory
VII in 1073 he made the abolition of lay investiture his
chief priority. The emperor, like all other secular au-
thorities, was forbidden to invest bishops with ring and
crozier, the symbols of their office, on pain of excom-
munication. To Henry IV, this edict was a serious
threat, not only because it seemed to question the reli-
gious basis of imperial power but also because bishops
were the temporal as well as spiritual lords over much
of Germany. All hope of imperial consolidation, to say
nothing of good governance, would be thwarted if such
men were appointed by an outsider. To the pope, lay
investiture prevented him from exercising full control
over the church and seemed to guarantee that its