The Investiture Controversy

The investiture Contr everywheresy is seen practicall(a)y times as a profound conflict in the midst of Church and postulate in medieval Europe. However, it was really a conflict all over two radically contrasting views of whether the blue authorities ofttimes(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal) as poofs or dukes, had any ordered role in assignments of spiritual lines such as bishoprics. In the eleventh and ordinal centuries the control of appointments or investitures of perform officials such as bishops and abbots became a conflict amongst pontiff Gregory septenary and hydrogen IV, consecrated Roman Emperor.This reveals that medieval society had to fix which authorization skeleton to support, either the profane or spiritual assurance, because each adept believed that the opposite was entitled to more allowance than the other(a). The Investiture c aren was signifi pratt in medieval history because though enthalpy IV and Gregory vii had very different opi nions of what the spiritual and layman authorities duties were they twain wished to preserve the Catholic faith against depression. The mid trend Ages began after the fall of the Roman Empire.Significant changes began to return in every part of the unmixed collectable to the lack of an absolute runr, which was Rome. The perform servicees or so Rome looked to the Pope for guidance provided seeing that their needs were non beingness met, nobles and especially kings assumed numerous Christian duties, including the protection and foundation of churches and abbeys. Although canon law, which is the dust of laws and regulations made for the government of the Christian transcription and its members, declared that bishops were to be take by the clergy and the people entirely the rulers ignored it.Secular ascendency slowly started to nonplus more preponderating than spiritual effectiveness being that wobbly church authorities were monitoring their indexs. During the 8 th and ninth centuries, the Roman aristocracy predominate the preference of the papacy collectable to no Carolingian rea passwords to control them. The aristocratic family with the near power would encounter the ability to elect the pontiff or sell his office. Bishops and abbots were nominate and installed by rulers in a Lords Supper cognise since the second half of the eleventh century as investiture.This was a eucharist conducted by the king who granted the smart bishop or abbots with a staff and, since the predominate of Emperor atomic number 1 trine (1039-1056), a ring signifying that they receive the church. By church it did not only hateful the spiritual office but too the temporal in good orders. In return to the king, an jinx of fealty to the ruler was made that indicated tourist court to the king that the bishop or abbot would help the ruler spiritually and materially, which would fulfill the urgency of service to the king including paying fees, scatt ering of fiefs to royal supporters, military support, and court attention as an adviser and collaborator.A notable milkweed butterfly who practiced investiture was dedicated Roman Emperor, atomic number 1 trine. heat content III treasured to be cr knowledgeed emperor butterfly but currently there were leash pontiffs, benedict IX, Sylvester III, and Gregory VI because of the domination of the Roman aristocracy. heat content III reached Rome in 1046 and impose his lay mortal countenance over the slip and choose as the unusedly pope a German, Suidger, bishop of Bamberg, who was inaugurated as Clement II.Control over the Roman Church passed into the hands of the German king. In complying years, henry III used his secular berth to appoint a pope at three more occasions. The spiritual authority was in ruins and a need for reclamation deep down the church was necessary. A man who began reforming the church was Bruno of Eguisheim-Dagsburg, who later became Pope soc ial lion IX, was a German aristocrat and a decent spiritual ruler of central Italy art object pope.On the death of Pope Damasus II, Bruno was s take as his heritor but as a control of his acceptance for the papacy, he had to first go away to Rome and be freely elected by the voice of the clergy and people of Rome. after receiving much support of his election, Bruno formally became Leo IX. Favoring traditional morality in his reformation of the Catholic Church, Pope Leo IX publicly declared that he was against simony that had been occurring due to a weakened and cast down papacy. Simony is the act of paying for sacraments and so for holy offices or for positions in the power structure of a church.Another type of reformation in church that had been occurred in the first place the Investiture Controversy was the establishment of Cluny Abbey. Founded by William I, Duke of Aquitaine in 910 this Benedictine monastery was located in Cluny, France. William I nominative Berno as th e first Abbot of Cluny who squeeze a strict enforcement to the convention of St. Benedict. though this was a demonstration of a secular authority appointing an abbot to a spiritual office, William I released the Cluny abbey from all future certificate of indebtedness to him and his family ther than prayer Therefore be it known to all who live in wiz of the faith and who await mercy of Christ, and to those who shall succeed them and who shall hold open to exist until the end of the world, that, for the cope of paragon and our Savior Jesus Christ, I hand over from my own rule to the holy apostles, Peter, namely, and Paul, the possessions over which I cast sway, the town of Cluny, namely, with the court and demesne manor, and the church in honor of St. Mary the fret of God and of St.Peter the prince of the apostles, together with all the things pertaining to it, the vills, indeed, the chapels, the serfs of both sexes, the vines, the fields, the meadows, the woods, the waters a nd their outlets, the mills, the incomes and revenues, what is cultivated and what is not, all in their entirety. This is an extremely significant declaration by a secular authority figure because not only did many other secular authorities follow William Is example, monasteries across Europe began adopting the Rule of St.Benedict causing many leaders in the spiritual realm to rise against the secular authority and start to divide the powers between the church and give in. Before becoming the pope who would challenge secular authority over the topic of investiture, Hildebrand of Sovana was a cluniac monk who was deacon and papal administrator for the Leo IX. During the loom his reign, Nicholas II established a new election system for the papacy. The Papal choice Decree of Nicholas II was established in 1059.It declared that a College of Cardinals would convene, during a check of vacancy in the papal office to elect a Bishop of Rome who thereof becomes pope. However, Hildebrand did not become Pope Gregory seven by the College of Cardinals. He was elected in an informal fashion and the decree of Nicholas II was ignored, nevertheless Hildebrand did not encounter real opposition and get sacerdotal edict thus becoming pope Gregory heptad. A reformer, Gregory septenarys main concentrate on was to reform the church and by that he wanted to reduce the secular authority over the spiritual.He strongly believed that God just founded the Church and that she is supreme over all human structures, especially the secular state. However, he did believe that there could be coexistence of church and state, but in no way were they two equals. The superiority of church was much greater than that of the state because God elected the church officials while men who could be corrupt selected the state officials. total heat III had retained a firm custody on the church and resolved a schism.However, after Henry III died at an early age, his son Henry IV believed that he had been appointed by God to become Emperor and spiritual authority figures like the pope were subordinate to him and his conclusivenesss. cognize as the Milan Controversy, there were two candidates in the running for the position of archbishop. The people of Milan who were support by the pope supported unrivalled of the candidates. However, Henry IV countered by having his own nominee demonstrating a secular authority attempting to elect a candidate of a religious authority, referring to a king-committing investiture.Henry IV interfered in the situation to help resolve the rationalise rather than allowing the people of Milan with the support of Pope Gregory VII to achieve a resolution. Refusing to adjust the spiritual authority, Henry IV received a letter from Pope Gregory VII strugglening him of an awful fate if he is to ignore the popes negotiations in regards to the investiture problem. Offended by this threat, Henry IV refused to attend the pope because of his article o f faith that God had made him emperor. God merely was the only one who determined the wrongs of kings or emperors.Nevertheless, Pope Gregory VII replied by excommunicating Henry IV for refusing to accept that a king or emperor must obey the wishes of a spiritual authority and act up to interfere in church matters, thus the Investiture Controversy ensued. A series of garner by Gregory VII and Henry IV presented the positions of each side and their attempts to scoop out their opponents in public opinion. Gregory VII wanted Henry IVs acknowledgment that the spiritual authority triumphed over the secular authority.Pope Gregory VII demonstrates in many of his letters that though Henry IV was an emperor he is unfit to appoint bishops or abbots because God had elected church officials who are able to perform such actions. Hence, Henry IV should withdraw all his power from church matters just like William I had done for the Cluny Abbey. Establishing that royal powers were subordinate to the priesthood because secular authority figures continuously lusted for power, which in the eyeball of the church lowers their spirituality for committing an act that is considered a sin.Henry IV retorted with the claim that Pope Gregory VII was never a pope due to the fact that he had been appointed by an invalid election and even attempt to gain the papal office while the current pope was alive. Again, when a synod was notable in the time of Pope Nicholas II, in which one hundred twenty-five bishops sit down together, it was decided and decreed under blaspheming that no one would ever become pope except by the election of the cardinals and the approbation of the people, and by the consent and authority of the king.In this statement, Henry IV agrees with the idea that cardinals have the right to elect a new pope but a person of extremely high authority, like himself, has the right to agree or disagree with the decision made by the College of Cardinals. Among other accusati ons that Henry IV made against Gregory VII, he deemed the pope as a bad monk who did not follow what he preached and had mistresses before and after he became pope. Henry IV finally indicated that God alone can judge the actions of the secular authority and that no spiritual authority, especially a corrupt one such as Gregory VII, could swear their authority over a king.The Investiture Controversy was between the church and state and the main issue was the rulers ability to continue to invest and install bishops and abbots with the symbols of their office. It soon quickly became an argument between Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor and Pope Gregory VII trying to determine which had more authority, spiritual or secular. Gregory VII saw the emperors disobedience to the papacy as an attack on the church, while Henry IV viewed it as the pope forcing his authority over an emperor.However, each saw that the other side was corrupt and unfit to repair decisions within the church. Both wished to control the matters of the church since according to each side, God had elected him to his position of authority signifying more power than the other one. Nevertheless, their main goal was to cargo area the sacrifices of mass and the church untainted, with no influence of corrupt authority figures.Bibliography Geary, Patrick J. Pope Gregory VII and queer Henry IV, in Readings in Medieval memorial , 562-586. Toronto University of Toronto mess Incorporated, 2010. Geary, Patrick J. Cluniac Charters, in Readings in Medieval History , 315-321. Toronto University of Toronto pressure Incorporated, 2010. Thompson, James Westfall. Church and read in Medieval Germany. The American journal of Theology, 22, no. 4 (1918) 513-540, doi 19, Feb. 2012. http//www. jstor. org/ fixed/3155326 1 . Henry III was the son of Conrad II and Gisela of Swabia. His accession to the throne did not lead to civic unrest due to the fact that he was a descendant from the two sides that were causing civi l war in the empire. 2 . The Rule of exaltation Benedict is a book compose by St. Benedict of Nurisa for monks living communally under the authority of an abbot. 3 . Patrick J. Geary, Cluniac Charters, in Readings in Medieval History (Toronto University of Toronto Press Incorporated, 2010), 316. 4 . Patrick J. Geary, Pope Gregory VII and King Henry IV, in Readings in Medieval History (Toronto University of Toronto Press Incorporated, 2010), 580.