New Configurations (1050-1150) - Church Reform and its Aftermath - The Investiture Conflict and Its Effects

7 important questions on New Configurations (1050-1150) - Church Reform and its Aftermath - The Investiture Conflict and Its Effects

The papal reform movement is associated particularly with Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085), hence the term "Gregorian Reform."

In Gregory's view - an astonishing one at the time, given the religious and spiritual roles associated with rulers - kings and emperors were simple laymen who had no right to meddle in Church affairs.
Henry, on the other hand, brought up in the traditions of his father, Henry III, considered it part of his duty to appoint bishops and even popes to ensure the well-being of Church and Empire together.

It was the beginning of what historians delicately call the "Investiture Conflict" or "Investiture Controversy."

The Investiture Conflict ended with a compromise: the Concordat of Worms (1122).

It relied on a conceptual distinction between two parts of the investiture - the spiritual (in which the bishop-to-be received the symbols of his office) and the secular (in which he received the symbols of the material goods that would allow him to function in the world).
Under the terms of the Concordat, the ring and staff, symbols of Church office, were to be given by a churchmen in the first part of the ceremony.
Then the emperor or his representative would touch the bishop with a scepter, signifying the land and other possessions that went with his office.

Its most important consequence was to shatter the delicate balance between political and ecclesiastical powers in Germany and Italy.
In Germany, the princes consolidated their lands and powers at the expense of the kings. In Italy, the communes came closer to their goals: it was no accident that Milan gained its independence in 1097.

In Church law, papal primacy was enhanced by the publication c.1140 of the Decretum, written by a teacher of canon law named Gratian.

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