Walk to Canossa

The Road to Canossa, sometimes called the Walk to Canossa (German: Gang nach Canossa/Kanossa) or Humiliation of Canossa (Italian: L'umiliazione di Canossa), refers to the trek by the German king Henry IV to Italy at the height of the Investiture Controversy in January 1077. Henry went to Canossa Castle, where Pope Gregory VII stayed as the guest of Margravine Matilda of Tuscany, in order to obtain the revocation of the anathema imposed on him. According to contemporary sources, he was forced to humiliate himself on his knees waiting for three days and three nights before the entrance gate of the castle, while a blizzard raged.

The Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor had disputed over the precedence of ecclesiastical or secular power since the spread of the Cluniac Reforms in the 11th century. When Gregory VII, acclaimed Pope by the People of Rome in 1073, attempted to enact reforms to the investiture process by his Dictatus papae decree, he was met by resistance from Henry IV. The king insisted that he reserve the traditionally established right of previous emperors to "invest" bishops, abbots and other clergymen, despite the papal decree.

The conflict became increasingly severe, after Henry had been able to suppress the Saxon Rebellion in the Battle of Langensalza in June 1075. In September he installed a new Bishop of Milan, which annoyed Gregory who openly required obedience. Shortly afterwards the Pope became the target of an assassination attempt during the 1075 Christmas celebrations. On 24 January 1076, Henry assembled several German bishops in a synod at Worms, where the ecclesiastical dignitaries abandoned all commitments to the Pope. The king finally demanded Gregory's abdication, referring to the rules of papal election according to the In nomine Domini bull of 1059. In response, Gregory excommunicated and deposed Henry in the Lenten synod of 1076 at Rome. He stated furthermore that, one year from that day, the loss of kingship would become irrevocable.

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