The Investiture Controversy, also called Investiture Contest (
German: ''Investiturstreit''; ), was a conflict between
the Church and the state in medieval Europe over the ability to choose and install bishops (
investiture) and
abbot
Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The ...
s of monasteries and the pope himself. A series of popes in the
11th
11 (eleven) is the natural number following 10 and preceding 12. It is the first repdigit. In English, it is the smallest positive integer whose name has three syllables.
Name
"Eleven" derives from the Old English ', which is first atteste ...
and
12th centuries undercut the power of the
Holy Roman Emperor and other European
monarchies
A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state for life or until abdication. The political legitimacy and authority of the monarch may vary from restricted and largely symbolic (constitutional monarchy), ...
, and the controversy led to nearly 50 years of conflict.
It began as a power struggle between
Pope Gregory VII and
Henry IV (then King, later Holy Roman Emperor) in 1076. The conflict ended in 1122, when
Pope Callixtus II and
Emperor Henry V agreed on the
Concordat of Worms. The agreement required bishops to swear an oath of fealty to the secular monarch, who held authority "by the lance" but left selection to the church. It affirmed the right of the church to invest bishops with sacred authority, symbolized by a
ring and
staff. In Germany (but not Italy and Burgundy), the Emperor also retained the right to preside over elections of abbots and bishops by church authorities, and to arbitrate disputes. Holy Roman Emperors renounced the right to choose the pope.
In the meantime, there was also a brief but significant investiture struggle between
Pope Paschal II and King
Henry I of England from 1103 to 1107. The earlier resolution to that conflict, the
Concordat of London
The Investiture Controversy, also called Investiture Contest (German: ''Investiturstreit''; ), was a conflict between the Church and the state in medieval Europe over the ability to choose and install bishops ( investiture) and abbots of monas ...
, was very similar to the Concordat of Worms.
Background
After the
decline of the Western Roman Empire,
investiture was performed by members of the ruling nobility (and was known as lay investure) despite theoretically being a task of the church. Many bishops and abbots were themselves part of the ruling nobility. Given that most members of the European nobility practiced primogeniture, and willed their titles of nobility to the eldest surviving male heir, surplus male siblings often sought careers in the upper levels of the church hierarchy. This was particularly true where the family may have established a