celibacy. In Germany the clergy objected, and on this ground as well as others were inclined to
side with the Emperor. The laity, however, everywhere preferred their priests celibate. Gregory
stirred up riots of the laity against married priests and their wives, in which both often suffered
brutal ill-treatment. He called on the laity not to attend mass when celebrated by a recalcitrant
priest. He decreed that the sacraments of married clergy were invalid, and that such clergy must
not enter churches. All this roused clerical opposition and lay support; even in Rome, where Popes
had usually gone in danger of their lives, he was popular with the people.
In Gregory's time began the great dispute concerning "investitures." When a bishop was
consecrated, he was invested with a ring and staff as symbols of his office. These had been given
by Emperor or king (according to the locality), as the bishop's feudal overlord. Gregory insisted
that they should be given by the Pope. The dispute was part of the work of detaching the
ecclesiastical from the feudal hierarchy. It lasted a long time, but in the end the papacy was
completely victorious.
The quarrel which led to Canossa began over the archbishopric of Milan. In 1075 the Emperor,
with the concurrence of the suffragans, appointed an archbishop; the Pope considered this an
infringement of his prerogative, and threatened the Emperor with excommunication and
deposition. The Emperor retaliated by summoning a council of bishops at Worms, where the
bishops renounced their allegiance to the Pope. They wrote him a letter accusing him of adultery
and perjury, and (worse than either) ill-treatment of bishops. The Emperor also wrote him a letter,
claiming to be above all earthly judgment. The Emperor and his bishops pronounced Gregory
deposed; Gregory excommunicated the Emperor and his bishops, and pronounced them deposed.
Thus the stage was set.
In the first act, victory went to the Pope. The Saxons, who had before rebelled against Henry IV
and then made peace with him, rebelled again; the German bishops made their peace with
Gregory. The world at large was shocked by the Emperor's treatment of the Pope. Accordingly in
the following year ( 1077) Henry decided to seek absolution from the Pope. In the depth of winter,
with his wife and infant son and a few attendants, he crossed the Mont Cenis pass, and presented
himself as a suppliant before the castle of Canossa,