king humiliate himself before the papal majesty. Although it made a great impression
on contemporaries, the whole episode solved nothing. The princes elected an
antiking, and bloody civil war continued intermittently until 1122.
The Investiture Conflict ended with a compromise. The Concordat of Worms
(1122) relied on a conceptual distinction between two parts of investiture—the
spiritual (in which the bishop-to-be received the symbols of his office) and the secular
(in which he received the symbols of the material goods that would allow him to
function). Under the terms of the Concordat, the ring and staff, symbols of church
office, would be given by a churchman in the first part of the ceremony. Then the
emperor or his representative would touch the bishop with a scepter, signifying the
land and other possessions that went with his office. Elections of bishops in Germany
would take place “in the presence” of the emperor—that is, under his influence. In
Italy, the pope would have a comparable role.
