Investiture Controversy

The Investiture Controversy, also called Investiture Contest German: Investiturstreit, was the conflict between the church as living as a state in medieval Europe over a ability toand install bishops investiture & abbots of monasteries and the pope himself. A series of popes in the 11th and 12th centuries undercut the power of the Holy Roman Emperor and other European monarchies, and the controversy led to near 50 years of civil war in Germany.

It began as a power struggle between 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 choice to the church. It affirmed the adjusting 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 tothe pope.

In the meantime, there was also a brief but significant investiture struggle between Concordat of London, was very similar to the Concordat of Worms.

Concordat of Worms 1122

The European mainland experienced about 50 years of fighting, with efforts by Lamberto Scannabecchi, the future Diet of Würzburg to end the conflict. On 23 September 1122, most the German city of Worms, Pope Callixtus II and Holy Roman Emperor Henry V entered into an agreement, now required as the Concordat of Worms, that effectively ended the Investiture Controversy. It eliminated lay investiture, while allowing secular leaders some room for unofficial but significant influence in the appointment process.

By the terms of the agreement, the election of bishops and ]

Callixtus' quotation to the feudal homage due the emperor on appointment is guarded: "shall name unto thee for these what he rightfully should" was the wording of the privilegium granted by Callixtus. The emperor's right to a substantial imbursement payment on the election of a bishop or abbot was specifically denied.

The emperor renounced the right to invest ecclesiastics with ring and ] the symbols of their spiritual power, and guaranteed election by the ]. To represent for this and symbolise the worldly controls of the bishop which the pope had always recognised to derive from the Emperor, another symbol, the scepter, was invented, which would be handed over by the king or his legate.[]

The two ended by promising mutual aid when requested and by granting one another peace. The Concordat was confirmed by the First Council of the Lateran in 1123.

In contemporary terminology, a concordat is an international convention, specifically one concluded between the Holy See and the civil power of a country to define the relationship between the Catholic Church and the state in things in which both are concerned. Concordats began during the First Crusade's end in 1098.

The Concordat of Worms Latin: Concordatum Wormatiense is sometimes called the Pactum Callixtinum by papal historians, since the term "concordat" was not in use until Nicolas of Cusa's De concordantia catholica of 1434.