Investiture Struggle

Controversy in the latter part of the eleventh century and the early decades of the twelfth century between spiritual and temporal authorities over the installation of bishops. Feudal practice allowed kings to install bishops. In some places this led to disappointing and even scandalous appointments. This practice was challenged by Pope Gregory VII (c. 1021-1085) as a usurpation of the church's authority. Gregory's struggle with the German King Henry IV eventually led to Gregory's excommunication of Henry in 1076 and Henry's submission to the Pope at Canossa in 1077. Henry subsequently set up an antipope after a siege of Rome. Gregory was forced to escape from Rome and died in exile. However, Gregory's effort to free the church from feudal control eventually was followed by the Concordat of Worms (1122), which represented a workable compromise between ecclesiastical and feudal interests.

One of the issues in the investiture struggle was the actual ceremony of investiture of bishops. The land holding of the bishop was conferred by the feudal lord. The symbols of investiture were the bishop's crozier and ring. These symbols also suggested that the feudal overlord was conferring the power of ecclesiastical jurisdiction on the bishop. The Councils of Clermont (1095) and Rome (1099) forbade bishops to take the feudal oath. The problem was addressed at different times by Guido of Ferrara, Ivo of Chartres, and Hugh of Fleury. They distinguished the spiritual jurisdiction of the church (which was not under feudal control) from the temporal holdings of the bishopric which were under lay control. Negotiations between Anselm of Canterbury and Henry I of England led to the Concordat of London in 1107. This settlement eliminated lay investiture of bishops with the crozier and ring, but called for the bishop to take the oath of vassalage to the feudal overlord in return for the temporal holdings of the bishopric. The Concordat of Worms, a settlement between the church and Emperor Henry V of the Holy Roman Empire, called for free episcopal elections and provided for a "dual investiture." The crozier and ring, symbolizing ecclesiastical jurisdiction, were conferred at consecration. There was also a temporal investiture with a scepter, representing the temporal holdings of the bishopric. Episcopal elections were to take place in the presence of the Emperor, who had the right to settle disputed cases. Although this controversy was settled in principle by the Concordat of Worms, the struggles of the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire continued into the thirteenth century. The investiture struggle represented the church's efforts to disentangle itself from the lay dominance of feudal times. It led to the expanded political power of the medieval papacy.