Investiture Controversy

Investiture Controversy. A term often applied to the long series of disputes between popes and emperors from the future Emp. Henry IV's withdrawal of obedience from Gregory VII in 1076 to the Concordat of Worms in 1122, and also used of the contemporary Papal disputes with the Anglo-Norman and French kings. The issue of investiture concerned the kings' right to confer on bishops and abbots the ring and crosier that were their symbols of office. Lay investiture was forbidden by Gregory VII, perhaps in 1075, certainly in 1078, but it became the central issue only from 1100. In England the matter became acute under St Anselm, who refused to do homage to Henry I or to consecrate bishops who had received lay investiture. A compromise was reached at Bec in 1105 and ratified in 1107, and a tacit understanding was apparently reached in France in 1107. A formal settlement in the Empire was achieved by the Concordat of Worms (1122, q.v.). The lay ruler ceased to invest with ring and staff but continued to bestow the temporalities and to receive homage either before or after the consecration.