I’m doing a board game on the Middle Ages for history class, and I want to include the Investiture Controversy. One problem… I have no idea what it was, and the explanations online are all really inaccessible. Help!
In: Other
Investiture just means appointment. In the case of the investiture controversy, it was a conflict about who got to appoint people to official position in the Catholic church such as bishops. At the time, ruling Kings and other lords would appoint people to these positions within their realms. In the 11th and 12th centuries, a series of popes began to assert that only the church had the authority to appoint people to positions within the church. The kings and nobles of Europe insisted that only they had the right to appoint people to positions in their realms. The conflict was settled in 1122 with the church largely winning.
Ok, this is some fairly complicated medieval German political nonsense, but I’ll try to do an ELI5 version.
Things to understand before we start:
1. Medieval kings (and in this case emperors) did not rule based on a mandate of the people, as modern rulers do. They ruled based on the mandate of Heaven. God appointed them, and their descendants, to rule and any challenge against a legitimate ruler was defiance of God’s will.
2. The Pope in Rome was God’s senior and foremost apostle on Earth. Able to make pronouncements of dogma and policy with (almost) all the authority of God. He also directly controlled the Papal States (most of central Italy) as a king.
3. Bishops were (generally speaking) *rich as hell*. Bishoprics controlled significant lands, from which they extracted rent and taxes, and Bishops themselves were often nobles with powerful family connections.
4. There had always been conflict about who should have how much authority over appointing Bishops. Generally who had the most say in things went back and forth between the Pope and the local King depending on the balance of powers. Appointing a Bishop could be the source of lots of big fat bribes, and a way to dole out political patronage to your buddies and allies.
So, now we know the basic facts, lets set the stage. It’s 1073 and Gregory VII has just been elected Pope in Rome. He is a reformist monk (and not a notable member of any noble house) and is there largely because the Papacy is a total goddamn mess and a lot of cardinals are sick of it. Why is the Papacy a mess? Lots of reasons, but the Holy Roman Emperor Henry III (now dead) had deposed three popes in a row within living memory, and that certainly didn’t help.
So now Gregory VII is the Pope, and Henry IV is the Holy Roman Emperor. Gregory doesn’t like how much say the Emperor has in appointing German bishops, and they get into a bit of a spat about it. The German bishops (German states being the heart of the Holy Roman Empire) were not real happy about this new reformer Pope. They liked it much better when their Emperor was kicking Pope ass left and right and they were getting rich. Reforms threatened their bank accounts, and they went to Henry IV and were like “Your Majesty, bro, this new Pope is a total dick. Make like your awesome dad and toss his ass out!”
So Henry IV goes for it. He declares that Gregory VII is no longer Pope, and that the Romans should elect a new Pope. But Henry IV is no Henry III, and doesn’t have his dad’s political clout. Gregory responds by saying Henry IV isn’t the true king of the Holy Roman Empire (HRE for short, and neither Holy nor Roman, but that’s a different story). Gregory also went a step further. He excommunicated Henry (kicked him out of the Church) and told Henry’s subjects that they were no longer beholden to any oaths they swore to Henry. This kicked off a big ‘ol rebellion in the HRE, with the anti-Henry faction using the Pope’s action as proof of their better claim to the throne.
Things got kinda ugly in Germany, so Henry met up with Gregory and apologized, and Gregory un-excommunicated him for a while. But then the anti-Henry forces (Led by a dude called Rudolph of Swabia) started winning, and the Pope re-excommunicated Henry.
This didn’t go over well. People thought it was kinda bullshit to re-excommunicate a dude just because he was losing a fight, and it cost the Pope a lot of political and public support. Eventually, Henry started winning his war, and a bunch of cardinals withdrew their support of Gregory. Henry rolled into Italy, Gregory beat feet, and a new Pope got elected who was much friendlier to Henry.
It was a conflict between political leaders (i.e. kings and emperors) and religious leaders (i.e. the Pope) during the Middle Ages.
Investiture is basically the power to appoint new bishops and other high church officials, and both sides wanted that power. The kings thought they should be able to install bishops in their lands, and the Pope thought only he should be able to do that. This was a recurring point of conflict between kings and popes throughout the Middle Ages as part of a general theme of religious versus political authority.
Latest Answers