Investiture Controversy

The Investiture Controversy or Investiture Contest was a conflict between Church and state in medieval Europe.

In the 11th and 12th centuries, a series of popes challenged the authority of European monarchies. At issue was whether a pope or a monarch had the authority to appoint (invest) local church officials such as bishops of cities and abbots of monasteries.

The investiture controversy began as a power struggle between Pope Gregory VII (1072–85) and Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor (1056–1106). A brief but significant struggle over investiture also occurred between Henry I of England and Pope Paschal II in the years 1103 to 1107, and the issue played a minor role in the struggles between church and state in France, as well.

By undercutting the Imperial power established by the Salian emperors, the controversy led to nearly 50 years of civil war in Germany, and the triumph of the great dukes and abbots. Imperial power was finally re-established under the Hohenstaufen dynasty. Historian Norman Cantor:

The age of the investiture controversy may rightly be regarded as the turning-point in medieval civilization. It was the fulfillment of the early Middle Ages because in it the acceptance of the Christian religion by the Germanic peoples reached its final and decisive stage … The greater part of the religious and political system of the high Middle Ages emerged out of the events and ideas of the investiture controversy.

The conflict ended in 1122, when Emperor Henry V and Pope Calixtus II agreed on the Concordat of Worms. It differentiated between the royal and spiritual powers and gave the emperors a limited role in selecting bishops. The outcome seemed mostly a victory for the Pope and his claim that he was God's chief representative in the world. However, the Emperor did retain considerable power over the Church.

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