THE EMPIRE AND THE PAPACY

[Dana Carleton Munro, The Middle Ages, 395-1272 (New York: The Century Company, 1921), pp. 160-175]

Elective or Hereditary Monarchy. Under the Ottos the German kingship had become practically hereditary; even the child Otto III had been recognized, without any real opposition, as the heir to the throne. But when he died without leaving offspring, there were three claimants and an r election was necessary. Henry, duke of Bavaria, was the success-: ful candidate and ruled until 1024. After his death, as there was no direct heir, there was again an election, which resulted in the choice of Conrad of Franconia. The throne was occupied by him and his descendants for over a hundred years and the old elective principle was apparently abandoned. But Conrad had been obliged to recognize it and had persuaded the leading noblemen to consent to his son's coronation when the latter was only ten years of age. After his son, his grandson and great-grandson secured the crown by hereditary right. This was due in part to the general tendency to regard all fief s as hereditary.

Henry II, 1002-1024, and the Ecclesiastical Nobles. For feudalism was firmly established in Germany. The dukes, margraves, and archbishops were very powerful as almost independent rulers in their lands and as overlords of many vassals. The archbishops were also influential because of their position as officials of the church. Henry owed his election mainly to the support of the church. Throughout his reign his policy was to favor the church officials, give them immunities, and to use them as a counterpoise to the dukes and margraves. For this reason he was cordially supported by the church and later became known as Henry the Saint[1]. But he kept a firm control over the bishops and by their aid, and especially through the agency of the Cluniac monks, Henry was able to repress much of the feudal warfare and to restrain the nobles.

Policy of Conrad II, 1024-1059. Conrad II also owed his election to the support of the church, but he followed a very different policy from Henry. The latter, while using the bishops and abbots as a check upon the great lay nobles, had made the churchmen so powerful that they were now almost as much of a menace to the king's authority as the dukes and margraves were. Consequently Conrad decided to nobility as a support against the great suzerains both lay and ecclesiastical. IHe favored the former and succeeded in establishing the hereditary character of the fiefs which these lesser nobles held. He was able to do this the more easily because the heredity of the greater fiefs had already become customary in Germany. He favored the creation of exempt abbeys, thus weakening the power of the bishops, although the latter were of his own choice and largely under his control. He also made the towns more of a factor in his kingdom by granting to them market and minting privileges. He fostered internal peace and a strict administration of justice which redounded especially to the advantage of the non-noble classes. Through the support of the petty nobles he was able to lessen the power of the dukes; he also persuaded the Bavarians, in 1027, and the Swabians, in 1038, to accept his son Henry as their duke. He began to build up a group of ministerials from men of the lower nobility who should be hereditary servants of the crown and should constitute the official class. Having such men in his employ enabled the king to dispense, to a great extent, with the services of the leading churchmen in his administration.

Acquisition of Burgundy. From the very first Conrad's policy caused discontent among the great nobles and a widespread rebellion followed. This was closely connected with, and in part caused by, the Burgundian Succession. The kings of Burgundy had been unable to check the development of feudalism in their dominions and had gradually seen the power escaping from their hands. Rudolf III, the last of the Burgundian kings, had no children and was hard pressed by his rebellious vassals and also by the possibility of his land being absorbed by France. He had turned to Henry II for aid and had promised him the succession in Burgundy. Conrad contended that he, as king of Germany, had inherited the claim, but Rudolf denied any obligation. There were three other claimants, including Duke Ernest of Swabia. Rudolf was eventually compelled to accept Conrad as his heir, and after his death, in 1033, Burgundy was annexed to Germany.

Duke Ernest. The rebellion in Germany had been put down very quickly and all participants except Duke Ernest had returned to their allegiance. He submitted and was pardoned, but never became entirely loyal. Finally he again entered into open revolt; but Conrad's power had become so firmly established that Ernest got no assistance from the other nobles. Almost all of his own vassals, except Werner of Kyburg, sided with the king, and he ended his days as a highway robber, residing in the least accessible positions of the Black Forest, where he was slain in 1030. Later generations looked back to him as the champion of the nobility against the monarchy, and he and his f riend Werner became well-known characters in medieval literature.

Henry III, 1039-1056. When Henry III became king he was apparently in a stronger position than any of his predecessors. He had already been crowned king in both Germany and Burgundy; he was duke of Franconia, Bavaria, and Swabia; Carinthia soon passed under his immediate lordship. On the west Lorraine formed a part of the German kingdom. On the east Poland and Bohemia were vassal states, and Germany was so strong that a revolt was soon put down. The king of Hungary was also forced to acknowledge Henry as his overlord. In the north, where conquest and Christianity went hand in hand, as in the days of Charles Martel and Charles the Great, Germany had been strengthened and its boundaries extended. In Italy alone the power of the German king was not as great as it had been. Henry II had been crowned king of Italy in 1004 and emperor in 10I4, but he had possessed only a nominal authority in the peninsula. Conrad had crushed a rebellion in Lombardy and had strengthened his power by a law establishing the heredity of the fiefs of the lesser nobles, as he had done in Germany. But he had not succeeded in defeating Aribert, archbishop of Milan, who had defied his authority and had begun a second rebellion.

The Papacy, 1003-1046. The condition of the papacy was destined again to bring about a close association between the German kings and Italy. After the death of Otto III, the family of Crescentius had regained power in Rome for a time. In opposition to them the counts of Tusculum, descended from Marozia and Theodora, obtained control over both the city and the elections to the papacy. The first of this family to hold the papacy was Benedict VIII (1012-1024), an able and honest reformer who was strongly influenced by the Cluniac ideals. Next his brother, who had been count of Tusculum, secured the election and became pope as John XIX (1024-1033). After his death a third brother was the ruler in Rome, but, instead of taking the papacy himself, preferred to confer it upon his son, a boy of ten or twelve years of age, who became pope as Benedict IX. Not only was he unfit for the papacy because of his extreme youth, but, as he grew older, he became noted for his vicious conduct. A later pope, Victor III (1086-1087), wrote of him as a robber and a murderer, but shuddered to confess in full to what extremes his vices had gone. In the winter of 1044-1045, the people of Rome, furious at his excesses, drove him from the city and elected a new pope, Sylvester III. Benedict IX was soon restored by his partizans but, as he was in constant danger, he sold the papal office to a member of the reform party who took the name of Gregory VI. It is eloquent of the degradation of the papacy that a reformer should take this desperate step to rescue the office from Benedict, and that other reformers, including Peter Damiani and the leading Cluniacs, should openly rejoice that " the dove with the olive branch had returned to the ark." But Benedict soon attempted to regain his position and Sylvester still claimed to be the rightful pope. Each had his partizans and it is said that in 1046 all three rivals were living in Rome, one at the Lateran, a second at St. Peter's, and the third at St. Maria Maggiore; and each was styling himself pope.

Henry III and the Reform Party. Such a state of affairs was intolerable and Henry III was summoned to Italy to straighten out matters. This was partly due to the fact that Henry had abandoned the policy of his predecessors and associated himself closely with the clerical party interested in the reform of the church and its emancipation from lay control. He had been led to do this by his marriage with Agnes of Aquitaine, a descendant of the founder of Cluny, who influenced her husband greatly. By some historians the decline of the medieval German empire is traced directly to Henry's abandonment of the Ottonian policy of controlling and using the church, which Conrad had so clearly followed. Henry was apparently blind to any danger in his change and allowed a degree of freedom on the part of his clerical vassals that was extraordinary. The abbot of Dijon refused to take the oath of fidelity because " it was contrary to God's word and Benedict's command." The bishop of Liege claimed in the king's court that Henry could not bring a bishop before his court for an ecclesistical question, because in such matters the bishop owed obedience to the pope alone; and the other bishops agreed in this point of view. Such pleas would not have been allowed by Conrad. This may have induced Henry to accept the summons to Italy by which he might expect to get control over the papacy.

Deposition of the Three Popes. In 1046 Henry crossed the Alps with an army made up largely from contingents furnished by his clerical vassals. In Pavia a synod was held in which the practice of simony[2] was condemned and Henry promised to refrain from it in the future. Thereby he deprived the crown of a considerable source of its income, as the bishops and other high officials had been expected to pay for their nominations. At Sutri a council was held in December to which all three claimants to the papacy had been summoned. Gregory and Sylvester obeyed and were deposed because they confessed themselves guilty of simony. Benedict was not present, and was deposed by a council held at Rome a little later.

The German Popes. Henry, as king of Germany, had no canonical right to interfere in papal elections, and asked the Roman nobles to choose a pope. Instead they conferred on him the office of patrician of Rome, which gave to him the chief voice in the choice of the pope. He selected the bishop of Bamberg, who as Clement II was consecrated on Christmas day and immediately crowned Henry and Agnes as emperor and empress. Clement died in October of the following year and rumor asserted that he had been poisoned by Benedict IX. The latter forced his way into Rome and again assumed the papacy. He was driven out eight months later and a second German pope, selected by Henry, ruled for twenty-three days and then died suddenly. Henry next selected the bishop of Toul and the latter consented on the condition that his choice should be approved by the Roman clergy and people. When he reached Rome in 1049 he was favorably received and became Pope Leo IX.

Policy of Leo IX, 1049-1054. He was determined to reform the church and especially to root out simony and clerical concubinage. For these purposes he held many councils, but he soon realized that more far-reaching methods were essential in order to strike at the root of the difficulty; the clergy must be freed from all lay domination and power must be concentrated in the hands of the pope if the church was to be reformed.

Council at Reims, 1049. In 1049 Leo was invited to be present at the consecration of the church of St. Remi at Reims. He accepted the invitation and announced that he would at the same time hold a council. This irritated the French king, as it was generally held that no pope could hold a council in France without first consulting the king, which Leo IX had neglected to do. Consequently in order to frustrate the pope the king ordered all of his vassals to attend a feudal levy at the very time that the council was to be held. This placed the bishops and abbots in France in a very difficult position: they were ordered by the pope to attend the council; they were ordered by the king to attend the levy. The king hoped that his action would prevent the holding of the council, but Leo IX went on with his preparations without paying any attention to the king's act. At the appointed time the council was held and in addition to churchmen from other lands about one-third of the bishops and abbots from the king's territory attended. Those who were absent with the king were excommunicated by the pope. Then the latter took up the cases of simony and other crimes which were reported. Several of those who were present at the council and held high offices in the church were accused of very serious offenses. Leo did not push any of them to an extreme, even when the guilt seemed definitely known, but adjourned all of the cases to his own court at Rome. He acted in the same way with regard to the accusations made against the great nobles. By this policy he hoped to have the authority of the papacy fully recognized. He was able to accomplish so much because of the weakness of the French monarchy. In other attempts at reform he was aided by Henry III of Germany with whom he worked apparently in complete concord. He died in 1054 without having an opportunity to see the full effect of his act which had done so much to strengthen the power of the papacy.

Youth of Henry IV. This concord between the Empire and the papacy was to be rudely disturbed by the death of Henry III in 1056. His son and heir was Henry IV, a boy of about six years. During his minority rebellions were frequent in Germany and the great nobles attempted to regain the power which had been lost under the strong kings. The boy was in the possession of one party and then another, who strove for the power. He grew up headstrong and passionate, because he was flattered and unrestrained by those about him. When Henry attained his majority he attempted to make himself absolute ruler and directed his attention especially to Saxony, whose duke he held in captivity. He resided more frequently at Goslar and the Harzburg, both in Saxony, than anywhere else. To defray the expenses of his court he demanded unusual contributions from his clerical vassals. He confiscated the property of rebellious nobles and demanded from the tenants, many of whom were free peasants, services which were not in accordance with Saxon customs. He built castles to defend his possessions and garrisoned them with vassals from Swabia who exacted contributions from the neighboring lands. These oppressive measures and unusual demands led to wide-spread revolt in Saxony. The leaders demanded the release of their duke, the evacuation of the king's castles and other reforms. The other nobles, both lay and ecclesiastical, did not support Henry, whose tendency toward absolutism they feared, and he was obliged to free the Saxon duke and submit to humiliating agreement with the Saxons. Under these circumstances he turned to the pope for aid and wrote a very humble letter in which he fully confessed his own sins and sought aid from Gregory: "Alas! Sinful and in misery, partly owing to the impulse of youthful temptation, partly owing to the freedom of our unrestrained and mighty power, partly also owing to the seductive deception of those whose plans, we, too easily led, have followed, we have sinned against heaven and in your sight and are no more worthy to be called your son. For not only have we seized ecclesiastical property, but also we have sold the churches themselves to unworthy men, although infected with the poison of simony and entering not by peace but otherwise, and we have not defended them as we ought. And now, because we alone without your aid are not able to reform the churches, concerning these as moreover concerning all our affairs we earnestly seek at the same time both your aid and your advice; being most desirous to obey your commands in everything."

Hildebrand, Gregory VII, 1073-1086. The pope to whom Henry appealed was Gregory VII, or Hildebrand. Hildebrand was of humble birth and had received his education in a monastery. He had followed into exile Gregory VI, in memory of whom he later took the name of Gregory. He had resided at the monastery of Cluny and had become impressed with the reform ideals. He had accompanied Leo IX to Rome and from that time had continued in the service of the papacy. By his ability and piety he won prominence and was universally recognized as worthy of honor. He was strongly ascetic in his nature: e.g., he had, he says, given up eating onions because he found he liked their taste. This little detail is characteristic of the man. He was the heart and soul of the movements in the church toward reform and asceticism. After being the power behind the throne for many years he was suddenly elevated by acclamation to the papacy in 1073. His tumultuous election was contrary to the canons and violated the new law which he himself had aided in forming in 1059, when the pope, Nicholas II, had published a decree concerning elections to the papacy. By this decree the cardinal bishops were to take the lead and to elect with the assistance of the cardinal priests. After that the Roman clergy and people were to approach and consent to the election, but the laity were to have practically no voice; even the emperor or king was to have only a shadowy right of participation. The pope was to be chosen from the Roman Church, if possible. This decree was accepted by the German advisers to the king; but later an imperial forgery was promulgated by which a much larger place was given to the king. In spite of the nature of his election Gregory was recognized by Henry, who needed his aid.

Reforms: Sacerdotal Celibacy. In his attempts at reform Gregory had alienated a large part of the clergy, especially in southern Germany. At that time most of the priests were married, although such marriages were not in accordance with the canons. Still the custom was widespread and met with little, if any, opposition f rom the parishioners. Gregory felt that a married priest could not give his whole service to the church as a man would who had no family ties. Moreover, to his ascetic spirit, the marriage of a priest seemed entirely wrong as well as contrary to the canon law. Consequently he ordered all the priests to give up their wives and children, and, when he found the priests unwilling to comply, he ordered that their parishioners should not recognize them as priests and should pay them no tithes.

Lay Investiture. In 1075, realizing his opportunity because of the weakness of Henry, Gregory took another step toward the reformation of the church and declared that there should be no lay investiture. The wording of the decree has not been preserved, but a later decree on the same subject reads: " Inasmuch as we have learned that, contrary to the establishments of the holy fathers, investiture with churches is, in many places, performed by lay persons; and that from this cause many disturbances arise in the church by which the Christian religion is trodden under foot: We decree that no one of the clergy shall receive investiture with a bishopric or abbey or church from the hand of the emperor or king or of any lay person, male or female. But if he shall presume to do so he shall clearly know that such investiture is bereft of apostolic authority, and that he himself should lie under excommunication until fitting satisfaction shall have been rendered."

Duties of the Clerical Officials. The church officials at that time held a twofold position: they were in the service both of the church and of the state. To the kings they owed feudal services for their lands; and it would have been impossible for the king to maintain his position if practically one-third of his kingdom which was held by the members of the church should have been taken away from his control. On the other hand it was essential that the members of the clergy should be freed from all lay control and be brought wholly under the authority of the church, if there was to be effective reform under the centralized power of the pope. The twofold duties made the contest almost inevitable and gave to each party in the coming struggle a position which from his own standpoint was unassailable.

Gregory' s Letter to Henry, 1075. Gregory sent the decree concerning lay investiture and a letter to Henry. The ambassadors came to the court of the king just as he was celebrating a great triumph which he had won over the Saxons. For the first time the young monarch felt himself really supreme in Germany and he had gathered a brilliant assemblage to keep the Christmas festival with him. Under these circumstances the decree could not meet with his approval or assent and his displeasure was greatly increased by the letter of the pope and the verbal message which the messengers brought. The letter began: " Bishop Gregory, servant of the servants of God, to King Henry, greeting and apostolic benediction:[3] that is if he be obedient to the apostolic chair as beseems a Christian king. Considering and carefully weighing with what strict judgment we shall have to render account for the ministry intrusted to us by St. Peter, chief of the apostles, it is with hesitation that we have sent unto thee the apostolic benediction." The pope continued by pointing out to Henry his sins and the fact that he was wholly under the authority of St. Peter and St. Peter's successor, the pope. The pope told the king that he must not be puffed up over his recent victory over the Saxons and must bear in mind what happened to Saul after the victory which, by the prophet's order, he enjoyed; and how he was chidden by God when he boasted of his victory, not carrying out the commands of the same prophet; but what favor followed David for the merit of humility amid the distinction of valor.

Henry Attempts to Depose Gregory. Henry was intensely angry. While his letter of 1073, which has already been quoted in part, began, "To the most watchful and best beloved Lord Pope Gregory endowed from heaven with the apostolic dignity, Henry by the grace of God king of the Romans renders most faithfully due submission," the king's answer in January, 1076, began, "Henry, king not through usurpation but through the holy ordination of God, to Hildebrand, at present not pope but false monk." Continuing, the king asserted that Gregory had tried to set himself up wrongfully over the whole church and was attempting to assert an illegal authority over the German king. " For himself the true pope, Peter, also exclaims: ' Fear God, honor the king.' But thou dost not fear God, dost not honor in me his appointed one. Wherefore St. Paul, since he has not spared an angel of heaven if he shall have preached otherwise, has not excepted thee also who dost teach otherwise upon earth. For he says: ' If any one, either I or an angel of heaven, should preach a gospel other than that which has been preached to you, he shall be damned.' Thou, therefore, damned by this curse and by the judgment of all our bishops and by our own, descend and relinquish the apostolic chair which thou hast usurped. Let another ascend the throne of St. Peter, who shall not practise violence under the cloak of religion, but shall teach the sound doctrine of St. Peter. I, Henry, king by the grace of God, do say unto thee, together with all our bishops: Down, down, to be damned throughout the ages."

First Excommunication of Henry. At the same time the king forced the bishops who were present, some of whom were already under the papal ban, to write a letter which was addressed "to brother Hildebrand," in which they recounted various crimes with which they charged Gregory, and asserted that they would no longer recognize him as pope. The letters of Henry and of the bishops were carried to the pope and presented at a synod. The bold speech of the bearer exasperated all who were present and Gregory in person had to protect him in order to save his life. Immediately the pope proceeded to excommunicate Henry and to release his subjects from all obedience to him. As he said, "Confident of my integrity and authority, I now declare in the name of the omnipotent God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that Henry, son of the emperor Henry. is deprived of his kingdom in Germany and Italy; I do this by thy authority and in defense of the honor of thy church, because he has rebelled against it."

Submission of Henry. At the same time the pope wrote a letter to the bishops and nobles of Germany setting forth his side of the case and seeking support. Because of the unpopularity of Henry and the hostility of Saxony, a formidable conspiracy was soon formed against the king. In order to counteract this Henry summoned a new national council, but very few of his subjects attended. Instead, the German princes held a meeting at Tribur, in October, 1076, and discussed what should be done, as they wanted to depose the king or at least to humble him. Henry was willing to agree to anything in his desperate position, provided he was not deprived of his kingdom. The assembly finally decided that Henry should live as a private citizen under guardianship at Spires, and unless he was freed by the pope from the ban of excommunication within one year he was to forfeit his throne. He was furthermore compelled to agree to submit to the pope. " In accordance with the advice of my subjects, I hereby promise to show henceforth fitting reverence and obedience to the apostolic office and to you, Pope Gregory. I further promise to make suitable reparation for any loss of honor which you or your office may have suffered through me. And since I have been accused of certain grave crimes, I will either clear myself by presenting proof of my innocence or by undergoing the ordeal or else I will do such penance as you may decide to be adequate for my fault."

Canossa. While Henry was thus compelled to humble himself, he was busily planning how he might escape and regain his old position. The pope had promised to take no action with regard to Henry until he met the German princes and they had decided together what should be done, but the pope, as a priest of God, was obliged to pardon any sinner who was sincerely repentant and promised to do suitable penance. Henry saw the weakness of the pope's position and took advantage of it. He escaped from the city of Spires and with a few faithful followers hastened to Italy. Gregory was already on his way to Germany, but when he heard of Henry's approach he retreated to the castle of Canossa, which belonged to one of his most faithful adherents, the countess Matilda of Tuscany. Thither Henry went in order to force a pardon from the pope. When he reached the village at the foot of the hill on which Canossa is situated, he found a number of his own bishops who had preceded him in order to obtain their forgiveness from the pope. After some delay Henry was successful and at the price of great personal humiliation won a diplomatic victory. The events were described by the I pope in a letter which he wrote to the German princes, in order to excuse himself for having violated his oath to them: "Finally he came in person to Canossa, where we were staying, bringing with him only a small retinue and manifesting no hostile intentions. Once arrived, he presented himself at the gate of the castle barefoot and clad only in a wretched woolen garment, beseeching us with tears to grant him absolution and forgiveness. This he continued to do for three days, until all those about him I were moved to compassion at his plight and interceded for him [ with tears and prayers. Indeed, they marveled at our hardness of heart, some even complaining that our action savored rather of heartless tyranny than of chastening severity. At length his persistent deciarations of repentance and the supplications of all who were there with us overcame our reluctance, and we removed the excommunication from him and received him again into the bosom of the holy mother church."

Second Excommuication of Henry. Although the pope insisted that the matter was not at all settled, yet Henry was a free man and his subjects were bound to obey him. He carefully prevented the pope from going to Germany and soon gained powerful support from the Lombards. Nevertheless his opponents in Germany met in 1077 and elected an anti-king, Rudolf of Swabia. But Rudolf found support only in Saxony, and his own subjects refused to obey him. A long and bloody struggle ensued during which Germany was devastated. Finally, in 1080, Gregory renewed the ban against Henry; but this time the excommunication had practically no effect; few of Henry's supporters left him. In fact, the tide had turned In strongly in the king's favor and most of the bishops and archbishops declared Gregory deposed and elected an anti-pope.

Continuance Of the Struggle. The struggles which ensued, now that there were two rival kings and two rival popes, were exceedingly bloody. In all portions of Germany except Saxony, in northern Italy and in the city of Rome, the people were divided. In Germany Henry could count upon the support of the cities which he had especially favored and which were now very important; of the parish priests, except in Saxony, because of Gregory's attitude toward their marriage; and of many of the bishops. In opposition to the nobles who were against him he had put other men in their places so that each noble had to struggle against a rival claimant. In northern Italy, where bishops appointed by Henry were in power, the orthodox were on Henry's side and the numerous heretics against him. In the city of Rome the nobles aided Henry and the common people sided with the pope. Civil war, marked by the greatest atrocities, ravaged a large part of Germany. In 1080 a great and bloody battle was fought between Rudolf and Henry, in which the former lost his life, after having his right hand cut off in the fight. This was judged by many to be a decision from heaven in favor of Henry. A contemporary chronicler reports that Rudolf said as he was dying, holding up his mutilated arm, " Look, this is the hand with which I swore fealty to my king."

Last Years of Gregory. Free from his rival at home, Henry determined to drive Gregory out of Rome and to install his own pope. In 108I he went to Italy to besiege Rome, but instead of taking it easily, as he had expected, he found that many months must be spent under its walls before he was able to conduct his anti-pope into the church of St. Peter's. The Roman nobles promised to secure him the imperial crown, either from Gregory VII, or, if the latter refused, from another pope who should be substituted in the place of Gregory. But Gregory refused absolutely and Henry was compelled to enter the city again at the head of an armed force; and on Easter Day, 1084, he and his queen were crowned by the anti-pope. Gregory VII was compelled by the hatred of the Roman nobles to withdraw from the city. The following year he died at Salerno and it is reported that his last words were, " I have loved righteousness and hated iniquity, therefore I die in exile."

Last Years of Henry. Neither the coronation of Henry nor the death of Gregory made any real difference in the condition of affairs. Henry IV could not gain the support of Saxony; the duke of Bavaria was won over to the papal side by marriage with the countess Matilda of Tuscany, who was over forty years old, while the bridegroom was seventeen; but the latter counted confidently upon receiving all Tuscany with his bride. Henry's wife and his oldest son turned against him in 1093. Until 1097 Henry's followers were in a desperate state, but were somewhat relieved when Welf of Bavaria repudiated the countess Matilda because he found that she had already bequeathed Tuscany to the papacy before their marriage. After the death of Conrad, the king's oldest son, Henry, the second son, who had been made king by his father, deserted him and once more civil war prevailed throughout Germany. Finally Henry IV was compelled to abdicate and died soon after, in I106. His corpse was transferred from one temporary tomb to another, as he had died excommunicate, until after five years Henry V celebrated a temporary victory over the pope by solemnly burying the father whom he had hounded to death.

HenryV, 1106-1125 and Paschal II, 1099-1118. As soon as Henry IV died Henry V took practically the same position in regard to lay investiture that his father had done, and the strife was postponed only because the German king was occupied by wars against the Poles and the Bohemians. In 1110 the pope renewed the threat of excommunication against all who interfered with canonical elections, and the following year Henry crossed the Alps in order to extort his own terms from the pope. The latter at this time had very few supporters; the Normans, who had been the chief reliance in the past, were now busy in the Orient. Consequently, Pope Paschal proposed that the church should give up all its feudal possession in Germany which had been acquired since the time of Charles the Great, so that the bishops and priests should no longer be vassals; in return the king and lay lords were to give up the right of investiture. Under these conditions the pope agreed to crown Henry V as emperor. On the coronation day the pope's charter abandoning the church's possessions was first read in St. Peter's. Tumult broke out at once among the churchmen and the church was filled with riotous nobles and clergy. Henry, who had anticipated this, seized the pope and the cardinals and held them prisoners until the pope yielded and granted him the right of investiture. Henry received the imperial crown and was fully triumphant. It was then that he returned to Germany and buried his father.

Concordat of Worms, 1122. Almost immediately the clergy began to besiege Paschal with letters and entreaties that he should repudiate his agreement, and finally this was accomplished in 1112 and Henry was excommunicated. Rebellion again broke out in Germany and events dragged on, with the election of an anti-pope, until finally in 1122 after long negotiation the concordat of Worms was agreed upon. By i this contract the emperor gave up the right of investing members of the clergy with the ecclesiastical insignia, the ring and the staff. The church was free to elect its own officials, but in Germany all elections were to be held in the presence of the emperor or his representative and in case of disputed elections he was given some control in the decision. This meant practically that Henry had the determination of who should be the church officials in Germany. In Italy and Burgundy the members of the clergy were to hold elections and the emperor was to bestow the feudal insignia upon whomsoever they might choose. There has been much dispute concerning the question which won most by this compromise; each had won something, the pope rather more than the emperor; but the question was by no means settled. The conflict over investiture gave place to other phases of the conflict between the emperor and the papacy, mainly because it was realized that the question was practically insoluble as long as the officials of the church were also vassals of the king.

Some Results of the Struggle. The long struggle, together with the contemporary events, had had many important results. The elections to the papacy were no longer dictated by the German monarchs, and there was a division between the two powers which led to further strife. The lay nobles in Germany had attained a more important position, and from this time on played a role which weakened the powers of both the monarch and the church. The cities, especially in the Rhineland, had received many privileges which made them more independent of the bishops and brought them into direct relations to the king; this meant a gradual rise of a third estate into power. Possibly most important of all was the intellectual ferment caused by the contest. Each party had attempted to justify its position by arguments drawn from history, from the secular and canon laws, from scripture, and from custom. Many pamphlets had been written on both sides, appealing to public opinion. This was the beginning of political pamphleteering in the Middle Ages. All of this caused an eager study of history and law by many. The conflict of ideas led to a weakening of the tendency to follow blindly any authority, which had been so characteristic of the medieval man. There was some lessening of the respect for the ban of excommunication, which seemed to many to have been used wholly as a political weapon, and there were also more people aroused to the danger to the church from its worldly possessions.

Notes:

1. The reason usually assigned for the bestowal of the title " saint" is not borne out by the facts.

2. Simony was the act of buying or selling sacred offices or prerogatives. It takes its name from Simon Magus. See Acts, Chap. 8.

3. This and some other passages are from translations in Henderson's Historical Documents of the Middle Ages. Some slight changes have been made in the translations.