V.

The Salian Emperors and the Investiture Controversy (1024-1125)

For the next 100 years, German kings were chosen from the Salian line of Franconia, which was related to the Saxons. The Salians greatly increased the power and extent of the empire, but also initiated a period of intense political and religious strife, particularly the conflict with the papacy known as the Investiture Controversy.

The origins of the Investiture Controversy date back at least to the Carolingian Empire. By the 10th century, it had become common practice to treat ecclesiastical, or church, lands such as dioceses and monasteries as royal fiefs, which the German king could give out as he wished. Upon the death of a bishop, the king or one of his vassals appointed the successor, giving him the symbols of his office—the episcopal staff and ring—in a ceremony known as investiture. Often, as in other feudal transactions, money also changed hands; thus the entire process became tainted with the religious abuse known as simony (the buying or selling of spiritual offices or services).

During the 11th century, the issue of investiture by laymen—such as kings and emperors—rather than by churchmen became increasingly contentious. Much of the tension can be attributed to the monastic reform movement originating in Cluny, in present-day France, which encouraged a more austere, disciplined, and prayerful life within monasteries and convents. Cluniac leaders sought to abolish all acts of simony and to end control of the church by laymen. Some emperors were sympathetic to such reforms and fully supported them. But in the second half of the century, a series of popes were inspired by the Cluniac reforms to seek greater independence for the papacy, as well.

Since the time of Otto I, new popes had been nominated by the emperor and consistently relied on his support and protection during their reigns. However, in 1059 a synod, or Church council, took this power away from the emperors and established an independent college of churchmen, known as cardinals, who would elect the popes. This and other reforms began two centuries of power struggles between popes and the emperors, who had long been allies.

The first and most famous conflict occurred when the emperor Henry IV, who reigned from 1056 to 1106, attempted to preserve his control over German clerical appointments. The young emperor came to power during a particularly desperate time for the empire, when the German princes were more divided and rebellious than ever. Henry had just fought off a Saxon revolt in 1075 when he was confronted by the new pope, Gregory VII, who wanted to free the entire church from control by laymen. When Gregory forbade the practice of nonchurch officials installing churchmen in their religious offices, Henry had him deposed by an episcopal synod at Worms, Germany, in 1076. The pope promptly excommunicated Henry, denying him the services of the church, and released all of his subjects, particularly his rebellious noble vassals, from their oath of loyalty to him.

The rebellious German nobles gave Henry the choice of either seeking forgiveness from the pope or being deposed by them. Henry chose the former and sought the pope out at a palace in Canossa in the Apennines in January 1077, waiting outside for three days as a barefoot penitent in the snow. Thinking he had succeeded in humiliating a disobedient emperor, Gregory forgave Henry.

Gregory, however, unwittingly angered the German nobles, who felt betrayed. They elected a rival king, Rudolf of Swabia, triggering nearly 20 years of civil war. In 1080 the pope recognized Rudolf as king and again excommunicated Henry. Henry responded by declaring Gregory deposed and having the Italian archbishop Guibert of Ravenna elected in his stead as Pope Clement III. Rudolf was killed in 1080, and Henry regained control of Germany. He then led his forces into Italy and captured Rome in 1084, where he was crowned emperor by Clement. A Norman army came to the aid of Pope Gregory, however, and drove Henry from Rome. Henry returned to Germany and there participated in a long series of civil wars, in which his sons eventually turned against him. In 1105 he was taken prisoner by his son Henry, later Emperor Henry V, and forced to abdicate.

Henry V continued his father’s struggle for supremacy over the papacy, but in the end the princes forced him to compromise with Pope Callistus II on investiture. The result was the Concordat of Worms in 1122, which stipulated that the elections of church officials in Germany were to take place in the imperial presence without the exchange of money. It also required that the emperor invest the candidate with the symbols of his worldly office before a bishop invested him with the spiritual ones.

The pope probably had the better of the bargain. The continuing rivalry between empire and papacy contributed in many ways to the weakening of the emperor’s authority and his powers. Although the imperial role in investiture was acknowledged, the shift towards a more independent church was unmistakable. Bishops, like other clerics, were increasingly integrated into a separate church hierarchy, with its own law and courts and its own autocratic ruler—the pope. The emperors, meanwhile, had not only lost their dominance over the papacy but, by giving up their ability to appoint bishops loyal to them, had also gained more potential rivals.