Download Investiture Controversy 910

Investiture Controversy, 910-1122
One of the key issues during the middle ages in Europe was the division of power between the Church
and the emerging Nation States. Christianity had been the official religion of the Roman Empire prior to
its fall in the west in 476 and continued to be the official religion of the Byzantine Empire in the East.
Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Holy Roman Emperor on Christmas Day, 800, attempting to bring
back the glory days of Rome but by 1525 there were the Anabaptists who were espousing a complete
separation of Church and state.
The Investiture Controversy was the most significant conflict between secular and religious powers in
medieval Europe. It began as a dispute in the 11th century between the emperor of the Holy Roman
Empire and the Pope concerning who would control appointments of church officials (investiture). It
would eventually lead to nearly fifty years of civil war in Germany and the disintegration of the German
empire, a condition from which it would not recover until the reunification of Germany in 19th century.
Origins
Prior to the Investiture Controversy, the appointment of church officials, while theoretically a task of the
Church, was in practice performed by secular authorities. The ceremony of investiture consisted of the
newly appointed bishop or abbot coming before the secular leader, who would then hand over a staff
and ring as objects of power granted to them.
Since a substantial amount of wealth and land was often associated with the position of bishop or abbot,
it was materially beneficial for a secular ruler to appoint someone loyal to him. Bishops and abbots were
often themselves part of the secular governments, due to their administrative skills. In addition, the Holy
Roman Emperor had the special ability to appoint the Pope. The Pope, in turn, would appoint and crown
the next Holy Roman Emperor, so a harmonious relationship between the offices was important.
A crisis arose when a group within the church, members of the Gregorian Reform, decided to liberate
the church from the power secular leaders held over them through elimination of the investiture
ceremony, this was the beginning of the Investiture Controversy. The Gregorian reformers knew this
"liberation" would not be possible so long as the Emperor maintained the ability to appoint the Pope, so
the first step was to liberate the papacy from control by the Emperor. An opportunity came in the 1050s
when Henry IV became Emperor at a young age. The reformers seized the opportunity to free the
Papacy while he was still a child and could not react. In 1059 a church council in Rome declared secular
leaders would play no part in the election of popes, and created the College of Cardinals, made up
entirely of church officials. The College of Cardinals remains to this day the method used to elect popes.
In 1075 Pope Gregory VII declared in the Dictatus Papae the elimination of the practice of investiture.
By this time, Henry IV of Germany was no longer a child, and he reacted to this declaration by sending
Gregory VII a letter in which he, in effect, removed Gregory as pope and called for the election of a new
pope. His letter ends:
I, Henry, king by the grace of God, with all of my Bishops, say to you, come down, come down,
and be damned throughout the ages.
In 1076 Gregory responded to the letter by excommunicating the king, removing him from the Church
and deposing him. Henry IV was no longer king of Germany nor Holy Roman Emperor. This was the
first time a king of his stature had been desposed since the 4th century. In effect, the pope and the
emperor each claimed to have removed the other from office.
Enforcing these declarations was a different matter, but fate was on the side of Gregory VII. The German
aristocracy was happy to hear of the king's deposition. They would use the cover of religion as an
excuse for rebellion and the seizure of royal powers. The aristocracy would claim local lordships over
peasants and property, build castles which had previously been outlawed, and build localized fiefdoms
to break away from the empire.
Henry IV had no choice but to back down, needing time to marshal his forces to fight the rebellion in his
kingdom. In 1077 he travelled to Canossa in northern Italy to meet the Pope and apologize in person.
As penance for his sins, he dramatically wore a hairshirt and stood in the snow barefoot in the middle
of winter in what has become known as the Walk to Canossa. Gregory lifted the excommunication, but
the German aristocrats, whose rebellion became known as the Great Saxon Revolt, were not so willing
to give up their opportunity. They elected a rival king named Rudolf.
In 1081 Henry IV was able to capture and kill Rudolf, and in the same year he invaded Rome with the
intent of forcibly removing Gregory VII and installing a more friendly pope. Gregory VII called on his
allies the Normans, who were in southern Italy, and they rescued him from the Germans in 1085. The
Normans managed to sack Rome in the process, and when the citizens of Rome rose up against
Gregory he was forced to flee south with the Normans and died there soon after.
The Investiture Controversy would continue on for several decades as each succeeding Pope tried to
fight the investiture by stirring up revolt in Germany. Henry IV was succeeded upon death in 1106 by
his son Henry V, who was also unwilling to give up investiture.
After fifty years of fighting, a compromise was finally reached in 1122, known as the Concordat of
Worms. It was agreed that investiture would be eliminated, while room would be provided for secular
leaders to have unofficial but significant input in the appointment process.
Significance - Investiture Controversy
Before the Investiture Controversy, Germany was one of the most powerful and united kingdoms in
Europe. During the 50 years that Germany was embroiled in the dispute with the Church, it declined in
power and broke apart. Localized rights of lordship over peasants grew, increasing serfdom and
resulting in fewer rights for the population. Local taxes and levies increased while royal coffers declined.
Rights of justice became localized and courts did not have to answer to royal authority.
While the Concordat of Worms formally ended the investiture controversy the underlying dispute did
not end. There would be future disputes between popes and Holy Roman Emperors, until northern Italy
was lost to the Empire entirely. The Church would turn the weapon of Crusade against the Holy Roman
Empire under Frederick II.
TIMELINE FOR THE GREGORIAN
INVESTITURE CONTROVERSY
(Dr. Richard Abels, US Naval Academy)
German King
(unless
Pope
Date otherwise
noted)
910
Not relevant
Reformers
REFORM
AND
Event/comment
Count William I of Founding of the Benedictine
Sergius
III Aquitaine;
abbey of Cluny by Count William
(904-911), to
I of Aquitaine, who freed it of all
whom
the 1. Berno(first
secular dues to him and placed it
abbot
of
abbot);
under the immediate authority of
Cluny
was 2. Odo of Cluny the pope. Cluny differed in three
technically
(second abbot, ways from other Benedictine: in
subordinate
927-942)
its organizational structure



in the prohibition on holding
land by feudal service
execution of the liturgy as its
main form of
Rather
than
create
independent daughter houses,
Cluny’s subsidiary houses
were priories that answered
directly to the abbot of Cluny.
Cluny and its priories came to
exemplify 11th-century piety
955964
Otto I (king of
Germany 936- John
XII
973, emperor: (955-964)
962-973)
John XII’s pontificate is usually
considered the low point of the
pre-reform papacy. Local lords
during this period had established
control over churches and
monasteries, and Church officials
were often unqualified. The
majority of priests were illiterate
and married. The tenth-century
popes, mostly sons of powerful
Roman families, were worldly or
incompetent. John XII, the son of
the then secular ruler of Rome,
became pope at the age of 18. He
was, according to contemporary
sources, more interested in war,
hunting, and sex than with church
matters. When the papal states
were invaded in 961 by King
Berengarius of Italy, John sought
aid from Otto I of Germany,
whom John crowned emperor.
John, however, began to conspire
against Otto with Berengarius and
the Byzantine emperor, and was
driven out of Rome by Otto. In
963 a synod of 50 German and
Italian bishops charged John with
sacrilege,
simony,
perjury,
murder, adultery, and incest (for
having slept with his father’s
concubine) and deposed him. The
result was a civil war between
John’s supporters, who retook
Rome, and those of the pope
chosen to replace him. John died
while Otto was marching on
Rome.
973
989
Otto I
Not relevant
1027 Not relevant
Not relevant
Death of St. Udalrich, bishop of
Augsburg. Udalrich is a model of
pre-Gregorian piety. He served
the German kings not only as a
spiritual counsellor but as a royal
official and military commander.
Despite charges of nepotism, he
was canonized in 993, the first
canonization that followed an
established canonical procedure
based on evidence of miracles.
Not relevant
Gombald,
archbishop
Bordeaux
Synod of Charroux initiates Peace
of God and Christian peace
movement: Gombald and the
bishops of Poitiers, Limoges,
Périgueux,
Saintes
and
Angoulême preside over the
Synod of Charroux in western
France. The synod pronounces
of
states that anyone who attacks or
robs churches, peasants, or the
poor, or robs, strikes or seizes a
priest or cleric not bearing arms
would be excommunicated.
Making
compensation
or
reparations could circumvent the
anathema of the Church.
Not relevant
Council of Toulanges: beginning
Oliba, bishop of
of the Truce of God: prohibition
Vic (in Catalonia,
of warfare between Christians on
Spain)
Sundays and Holy Days.
1) Benedict
IX, who two
Henry
III
years earlier Gregory VI (guilty
(king
of
had sold the of simony, but out
Germany
of
the
best
papacy to
1028-1056,
intentions,
to
1046
sole
king 2) Gregory VI
rescue the papacy
1039-1056,
3) Sylvester from an unworthy
emperor 1046III, chosen by pope)
1056)
a rival Roman
family
Council of Sutri: Henry III, who
had crossed the Alps to be
crowned emperor, found three
claimants and called a council to
determine which one was the
legitimate pope. The council
deposed all three and Henry
appointed a German bishop (who
had been his personal confessor)
pope in their place.
1049 Henry III
Henry III appoints his cousin,
Bruno, bishop of Toul, to be pope
Peter Damian
Leo IX, the first of a series of
Hugh of Silva reforming popes who enact
Leo IX (1049decrees against the abuses of
Candida
1054)
simony (purchase of holy offices)
Hildebrand (later
and clerical marriage. Council of
Gregory VII)
Reims initiates Leo IX’s reform
program.
Duke
Humphrey of
and Leo IX
1053 Apulia
brother Robert
Guiscard
Battle of Civitate: Pope Leo IX
and his army of Germans,
Italians, and Lombards defeated
by the Norman rulers of southern
Italy. Pope Leo captured.
Schism between Roman Catholic
and Greek Orthodox Churches
over:
Henry III and
Byzantine
1054 Emperor
Constantine
IX
Leo IX and
the Patriarch
Michael
I
Celurarius
Henry IV
King
of
Germany
1056-1105
(abdicated)
Victor
II
1056 Emperor:
(1055-1057)
1084
(crowned by
antipope
“Clement III”)
-1105
(abdicated)
Humbert of Silva
Candida,
papal
legate
to
Constantinople
1. The Patriarch’s refusal to
recognize the primacy of
the Pope, and
2. Question of the nature of
the Trinity (“filioque”
controversy).
Humbert of Silva Candida
excommunicates
Patriarch
Michael; Michael responds by
excommunicating Humbert and
Pope Leo IX (who had died three
months earlier, which was not
then known in Constantinople)
Henry III died and was succeeded
by his six year old son Henry,
with the Empress Agnes
(daughter of William V of
Aquitaine) as regent and Pope
Victor II named to be her
counsellor. Agnes’s regency
proved a disaster, as she
unsuccessfully attempted to
pacify powerful noble enemies by
giving them duchies. The young
king
was
kidnapped
by
Archbishop (St) Anno II of
Cologne, who briefly ruled in the
king’s name only to be
superseded
by
another
archbishop, Adalbert of Bremen.
Finally in 1065 Henry IV was
declared of age to rule. He
immediately set about recovering
royal rights lost to the dukes and
bishops during his minority. This
provoked a series of rebellions by
the dukes, the most serious being
a war in Saxony that lasted from
1071 to 1088.
1059 Henry IV
Synod of the Lateran (in Rome)
issues a decree on papal elections
which gives the college of
cardinals sole right of electing
popes and bans the practice of lay
investiture
(laymen
giving
bishops the symbols of their
Nicholas
II Humbert of Silva
spiritual offices). The former
(1058-1061) Candida
decree allows papal elections to
escape the whims of political
leaders; the latter will give rise to
a struggle between kings and
popes. Papal recognition of
Robert Guiscard as duke of
Apulia.
1073 Henry IV
Gregory VII initiates a new
conception of the Church and the
Papacy. According to Gregory,
the Church is obligated to create
"right order in the world," rather
than withdraw from it. Gregory
seeks to create a papal monarchy
with power over the secular state
and to establish ecclesiastical
authority. Henry IV, the German
king, resists this authority thereby
inaugurating the Investiture
Controversy between reformer
popes and traditionalist emperors,
kings, and bishops. The conflict
ostensibly concerns the papacy’s
attempt to ban the practice of lay
investiture, i.e. laymen conferring
upon newly consecrated bishops
the symbols of spiritual office,
but it is really over control of
episcopal appointments. The
Gregory VII
(1073-1085)
papacy claims that bishops and
abbots must be freely elected by
the clergy of their diocese or the
monks of their monastery;
emperors and kings maintain their
traditional right to appoint
bishops
and
abbots.
The
Gregorian reform encourages the
practice of Christian warfare in
the pursuit of providing "right
order in the world" and
establishes religious enthusiasm
in all of Christendom.
Pope Gregory VII declared in the
Dictatus Papae the elimination of
the practice of investiture.
1075
1077 Henry IV
Gregory VII
Henry IV Germany submits to
Pope Gregory VII at Canossa in
an act of public humiliation. After
two years of harmony with the
papacy because he needed the
pope’s support against rebellious
German princes, Henry IV defied
Pope Gregory VII’s ban on lay
investiture by appointing and
investing the archbishop of Milan
in Italy (1075). Gregory VII
reprimanded Henry IV, and the
latter responded by calling a
council of German bishops
(1076) which declared that
Countess Mathilda Gregory VII had gained the
papacy by illegitimate means and
had forfeited the office through
his unholy actions. Henry IV
deposed Gregory VII, who
responded by excommunicating
the king and absolving his
subjects from their oaths of
loyalty to him. The German
princes took this as a signal to
revolt against Henry IV and
prepared to elect a new German
king. While Pope Gregory VII
was on his way to attend the
election, Henry intercepted him at
Canossa, a fortress in northern
Italy at the mouth of the Alps
belonging to Countess Mathilda
of Tuscany, a fervent papal
supporter. Rather than attack, as
Gregory expected, the king
surprised the pope as presenting
himself as a penitent. Gregory
kept the king standing in the snow
bareheaded for three days before
lifting the excommunication.
Henry IV, with Pope Gregory VII
maintaining neutrality, wages war
against the rebel German princes
and their “anti-king” Rudolf of
Swabia.
Gregory VII
Gregory VII realizes that Henry
IV has no intention of abiding by
his submission to the papacy and
declares Rudolf the legitimate
king
of
Germany
and
excommunicates Henry IV for a
second time. Henry IV responds
by appointing an “anti-pope.”
1084 No relevant
Not relevant
Establishment of Carthusian
monastic order by Bruno, master
of the cathedral school at Reims
(mother house La Chartreuse, in
diocese of Grenoble), who had
been driven out of Reims because
of a dispute with the simoniacal
archbishop
Manasses.
Carthusians, described by Guibert
of Nogent, were a heremitic
order, in which the monks spend
their time in individual cells and
gathered together only to attend
church services and to eat in the
refectory on Sundays and feast
days. Diet: no meat; 3 days a
week ate only bread water, 4 days
also had vegetables, milk, cheese
and wine mixed with water. They
refused any property outside of
the valley of La Chartreuse.
SEVERE,
AUSTERE,
DEDICATED TO POVERTY
1084 Henry IV
Gregory VII
1080 Henry IV
St Bruno
Henry IV seizes Rome and
enthrones his anti-pope who
crowns him emperor. The
Norman duke of southern Italy
Robert Guiscard, an ally and
vassal of Pope Gregory VII,
rescues the pope but the Normans
pillage Rome in the process.
Gregory VII retires to southern
Italy with Robert Guiscard.
1085 Henry IV
Gregory VII
Pope Gregory VII dies in exile in
southern Italy. His last words are
a bitter parody of a psalm: ‘I have
loved justice and hated iniquity,
and therefore I die in exile. Robert
Guiscard dies fighting the
Byzantines attempting to seize
Thessaly from the Byzantine
Empire.
Council of Clermont: Reform
council in France at which Urban
II
1095 Not relevant
Urban
II
(1088-1099)
1. Condemns (again) the abuses
of simony, clerical marriage,
and lay investiture, and
forbids bishops to do homage
to rulers;
2. Calls for the imposition of the
Peace of God throughout
Christendom; and
3. Launches the First Crusade in
response to a request by the
Byzantine Emperor Alexius
Comnenus for troops to help
him reconquer lost territory in
Asia Minor from the Seljuk
Turks. Pope Urban II at the
Council of Clermont calls
upon
the
princes
of
Christendom for an armed
“pilgrimage” to recover
Jerusalem from the Muslims.
Among his goals is the
strengthening
of
the
Gregorian papacy by bringing
the Greek Orthodox Church
under papal authority. The
response is dramatic with two
waves
of
“crusaders”
answering the Pope’s call.
War continues between Henry IV
and Pope Urban II, supported
now by Henry IV’s eldest son
Conrad. 1095 is a bad year for
Henry IV. The pope humiliates
him by granting his second wife a
marital separation on the grounds
of her husband’s sexual depravity
and soon after he is militarily
driven from Italy. Henry IV,
unsurprisingly, does not go on
Crusade.
The First Crusade: Force of about
50-60,000
(including
noncombatants), of which about
7,000 were knights. Led by dukes
and counts: Godfrey of Bouillon,
Raymond of Toulouse, Robert of
Normandy, Bohemond of Taranto
(Norman of southern Italy).
1096Not relevant
1099
Urban II
Results: Jerusalem taken; Latin
states in the East established;
introduction of a new ideology of
Christian warfare in which wars
undertaken
1. Under the authority of the
pope,
2. For the protection or in
defense of the Church and
Christianity, and
3. Under a solemn vow would
be regarded by the Church as
meritorious acts akin to
pilgrimages and earn the
participants
indulgences
(remission of the temporal
penalties of sin).
1098 Not relevant
Paschal II
Establishment
of
Citeaux
(CISTERCIAN
order)
by
Robert,
Robert, abbot of
Molesme,
and abbot of Molesme, and Stephen
Stephen Harding Harding (abbot after 1109).
Citeaux is on the Rhone north of
Cluny in remote, wild area.
Cistercians adhered to the
strictest obedience to Benedictine
rule; separation from secular
influence (no peasants serving the
monastery; rather lay brothers-peasants in orders, who served
God
by
manual
labour.)
Simplicity - churches and other
buildings
unadorned
and
undecorated; crucifixes only of
cheap, plain material--no gold
and
silver
ornamentation.
Accepted only uncultivated land.
Refused oblates. Had to be 16 to
become a monk.
King Henry I, needing support for
a campaign against his brother
Robert, duke of Normandy,
recalls Archbishop Anselm from
exile (because of the archbishop’s
refusal to permit lay investiture)
and the two hammer out a
compromise that is accepted by
St
Anselm, Pope Paschal II: newly elected
King Henry I
Paschal
II archbishop
of bishops were to be invested with
England
1105 of
(1099-1118) Canterbury (1093- their spiritual symbols by the
(1100-1135)
bishops who consecrated them,
1121)
and would do homage and swore
loyalty to the king from whom
they held land and rights of
jurisdiction (reversing decree of
Pope Urban II). This solution was
to be later adopted in Germany
with the Concordat of Worms
(see below at 1122)
Henry V (king
of Germany
1111 1098-1125;
Paschal II
Emperor
1105-1125)
Paschal proposed a solution to the
Investiture Controversy which
involved bishops returning to
kings all regalia (royal lands,
rights, powers, and privileges)
and content themselves with the
lands given to their churches by
the pious. This would have taken
bishops
out
of
royal
administration
completely.
Paschal’s cardinals, the German
bishops, and Henry V all
violently reject it. After Paschal
refuses to crown Henry V
emperor, Henry takes the pope
captive, which leads to
1112 Henry V
1113 Not relevant
Paschal II
Not relevant
The Privilege of Mammolo: the
imprisoned Paschal surrendered
to Henry V on all the major
issues, granting the emperor the
right of investiture before
consecration of bishops, a
promise to anoint Henry emperor,
and a promise never to
excommunicate Henry. The
cardinals and bishops reject the
Privilege and Paschal, once freed
from captivity, quashes it.
Bernard of Clairvaux entered the
Cistercian Order. He was to
become the most successful
St Bernard of
preacher of the twelfth century.
Clairvaux (1090Popularized the Cistercians.
1153)
When he entered the order the
Cistercians had 5 houses; when he
died in 1153, 343 houses.
Concordat of Worms (23 Sept):
formally ends the Investiture
Controversy. Compromise is
reached in a meeting at Worms,
Germany, between pope and
emperor over the issue of
investiture: Pope and emperor
agreed that
1122 Henry V
Calixtus
II
(1119-1124)
1. Bishops would invest newly
consecrated bishops with the
religious symbols of their
office, while
2. The emperor would then
invest them with the symbols
of their temporal rule.
Bishops were to be freely elected
by their clergy, but the emperor
(or a rep) had the right to be
present at the election. Bishops
also had to do homage to the
emperor for the royal fiefs
(regalia) they held from him. This
compromise acknowledged the
dual office of bishop. Insofar as
the bishop is spiritual, he belongs
to the clergy alone. Insofar as he
is an earthly ruler endowed with
jurisdictional rights, he is a
subject of the emperor from
whom he has received these
rights.
http://www.crusades-history.com/Investiture-Controversy.aspx 12/5/10
http://usna.edu/Users/history/abels/hh315/timeline%20gregorian%20reform.htm 7/14/14
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/1990/issue28/2838.html 7/14/14
http://usna.edu/Users/history/abels/hh315/timeline%20gregorian%20reform.htm 4/11/15