It is understood by quarrel, discussion, conflict, complaint. The investiture quarrel was a movement in which the Church protested against the appointment of bishops and popes by the Emperor. In the tenth century, papal power was weakened. The situation was so embarrassing that the German emperors named twelve popes and excluded five. Revolted, the clerics of the Abbey of Cluny, in France, demonstrated demanding greater autonomy to the Church, which wanted to take the power of choice of its members for itself. During the reign of Henry IV, the conflict between the parties reached its height.
In 1058 the College of Cardinals was created. Pope Nicholas II, its creator, made it a priority to give clerics the sovereign right to choose religious leaders. In 1073, Gregory VII, a member of the Abbey of Cluny, was elected by the College of Cardinals to administer the Church. His first action was to reaffirm the vow of chastity among clerics and prohibit the Monarchy from appointing religious offices.
Henry fell out with Pope Gregory VII and forced him to testify in the Worms Diet, a kind of Catholic court. The pope not only deposed but excommunicated Henry and organized an opposition to the Emperor. The latter, cornered, turned back and apologized to the pope, however, as soon as he was pardoned, he organized his army in order to overthrow the pontiff. Gregory, weakened, went into exile in France. This conflict lasted for a few years until in 1122 a truce pact was signed between the parties. The emperor would have the power to appoint bishops with secular authority but not with sacred authority. That is, he could name but not perform the religious ceremony. The practice of cesaropapism (union of imperial powers = caesar and religious = papism) and simony (sale of ecclesiastical offices) would be prohibited. Religious practices and appointments to religious offices, however, were exclusively the pope's. This episode became known as the Concordat of Worms.
By Demercino Junior
Graduated in History
