INVESTITUKES
85
INVESTITURES
property of the Church, and thus to break down the op-
position of the clergy, Gregory at the Lenten (Roman)
Synod of 1075 withdrew "from the king the right of
disposing of bishoprics in future, and relieveil all lay
persons of the in\'estiture of churches". As early as
the Synod of Reims (1049) anti-investiture legislation
had been enacted, but had never been enforced. In-
vestiture at this period meant that on the death of a
bishop or abbot, the king was accustomed to select a
successor and to bestow on him the ring and staff with
the words: Accipe ecdesiam (accept this church).
Henry III was wont to consider the ecclesiastical fit-
ness of the candidate; Henry IV, on the other hand,
declared in 107.3: "We have sold the churches".
Since Otto the Great (936-72) the bishops had been
princes of the empire, had secured many privileges,
and had become to a great extent feudal lords over
great districts of the imperial territory. The control
of these great imits of economic and military power
was for the king a question of primary importance,
affecting as it did the foundations and even the exist-
ence of the imperial authority; in those days men had
not yet learneil to distinguish between the grant of the
episcopal office and the grant of its temporalities
(regalia). Thus minded, Henry IV held that it was
impossible for him to acknowledge the papal prohibi-
tion of investiture. We must bear carefully in mind
that in the given circumstances there was a certain
justification for both parties: the pope's object was to
save the Church from the dangers that arose from the
undue influence of the laity, and especially of the king,
in strictly ecclesiastical afTairs; the king, on the other
hand, considered that he was contending for the indis-
pensable means of civil government, apart from which
his supreme authority was at that period inconceiva-
ble.
Ignoring the prohibition of Gregory, as also the latter's effort at a mitigation of the same, Henry con- tinued to appoint bishops in Germany and in Italy. Towards the end of December, 1075, Gregory delivered his ultimatum: the king was called upon to observe the papal decree, as based on the laws and teachings of the Fathers; otherwise, at the following Lenten Synod, he would be not only "excommunicated until he had given proper satisfaction, but also deprived of his kingdom without hope of recovering it". Sharp reproval of his libertinism was added. If the pope had given way somewhat too freely to his feelings, the king gave still freer vent to his anger. At the Diet of Worms (January, 1076), Gregory, amid atrocious calumnies, was deposed by twenty-six bishops on the ground that his elevation was irregular, and that con- sequently he had never been pope. Henry therefore addressed a letter to "Hildebrand, no longer pope but a false monk": — "I, Henry, king by the grace of God, with all my bishops say to thee: 'Descend! De- scend, thou ever accursed ! ' " If the king believed that such a deposition, which he was unable to enforce, was of any effect, he must have been very blind. At the next Lenten Synod in Rome (1076) Gregory sat in judgment upon the king, and in a prayer to Peter, Prince of the .Apostles, declared: " I depose him from the government of the whole Kingdom of Germany and Italy, relea.se all Christians from their oath of alle- giance, forbid him to be obeyed as king . . . and as thy successor bind him with the fetters of anathema ". It availed little that the king answered ban with ban. His domestic enemies, the Saxons and the lay princes of the empire, espoused the cause of the pope, while his bishops were divided in their allegiance, and the mass of his people deserted him. The age was yet too deeply conscious that there could be no Christian Church without communion with Rome. The royal supporters grew ever fewer; in October a diet of the princes at Tribur obliged Henry to apologize humbly to the pope, to promise for the future obedience and reparation, and to refrain from all actual government,
seeing that he was excommunicate. They decreed
also that if within a year and a day the excommunica-
tion was not removed, Henry should forfeit his crown.
Finally, they resolved that the pope shoukl be invited
to visit Germany in the following spring to settle the
conflict between the king and the princes. Elated
at this victory Gregory set out immediately for the
north.
To the general astonishment, Henry now propcsed to present himself as a penitent before the pope, and thereby obtain pardon. He crossed Mont Cenis in the depth of winter and was soon at the Castle of Canossa, whither Gregory had withdrawn on learning of the king's approach. Henry spent three days at the entrance to the fortress, barefoot and in the garb of a penitent. That he actually stood the whole time on
King Dagobert investing St. Audom.\r with the Crosier
From a X-century codex in the city library of St-Omer
ice and snow is of course a romantic exaggeration. He was finally admitted to the papal presence, and pledged himself to recognize the mediation and de- cision of the pope in the quarrel with the princes, and was then freed from excommunication (January, 1077). This famous event has been countless times described, and from very divergent points of view. Through Bismarck, Canossa became a proverbial term to indicate the humiliation of the civil power before the ambitious and masterful Church. Re- cently, on the other hand, not a few have seen in it a glorious triumph for Henry. When the facts are carefully weighed, it will appear that in his priestly capacity the pope yielded reluctantly and unwillingly, while, on the other hand, the political success of his con- cession was null. Henry had now the advantage, since, released from excommunication, he was again free to act. Comparing, however, the power which thirty years earlier Henry III had exercised over the papacy, we may yet agree with those historians who see in Canossa the acme of the career of Gregory VII. The Cierman supporters of the pope ignored the reconciliation, and proceeded in March, 1077, to elect a new king. Rudolf of Rheinfelden. This was the signal for the civil war during which Gregory sought to act as arbiter between the rival kings and as their overlord to award the crown. By artful diplomacy Henry held off, until lOSO, any decisive action. Considering his position sufficiently secure, he then demanded that the
