TIMELINE 7.1 Papacy and Empire During the Investiture Controversy, 1075–1125
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CONFIRMING PAGES Chapter 7 Popes and the Papacy, c. 1000–1300 173 TIMELINE 7.1 Papacy and Empire during the Investiture Controversy, 1075–1125 1075 1125 Emperor Henry IV1106 Emperor Henry V from 1056 Pope Gregory VII1085 1088 Pope Urban II 1099 1119Pope 1124 from 1073 Calixtus II 1077 1095 1115 1123 Reconciliation at Urban II Proclaims Death of First Canossa c. 1090 First Crusade Matilda of Tuscany Lateran Bologna Becomes a Council Center for the Study 1122 of Canon Law Concordat of Worms By 1075, Henry IV was showing promise of becoming as strong a ruler as his father. He had been forced to back down in Milan a few years earlier, but he was not inclined to do so again. When Gregory VII suspended a group of imperially appointed German bishops, Henry IV responded with a vehement letter of defi ance. Backed by his bishops, he asserted that as a divinely appointed sovereign, he was authorized to lead the German Church without papal interference, and he even challenged Gregory’s right to the papal throne. The letter was insultingly addressed to Gregory under his previous name, “Hildebrand, not pope but false monk.” It concluded with the dramatic words, “I, Henry, king by grace of God, with all my bishops, say to you: ‘Come down, come down, and be damned throughout the ages.’” Henry’s letter had good history on its side. It was a defense of the traditional social order of divinely ordained kings, sanctifi ed in their coronations by holy anoint- ment, ruling as vicars of God over their lay subjects and their semi-autonomous bish- ops. Charlemagne would have agreed wholeheartedly. Gregory’s view was vastly different. He denied the sacred qualities of kings and emperors, he suggested that most of them were murderous thugs destined for hell, and he repudiated the claim that a king or emperor could question a pope’s legitimacy or his decrees. In his view, emperors had no power to appoint bishops, much less depose popes, but the pope, as the ultimate authority in Western Christendom, had the power to depose anyone— not only bishops but kings and emperors as well. Accordingly, Gregory responded to Henry IV’s letter with a devastating counterpunch: he excommunicated and deposed Henry IV. It was for the pope to judge whether or not the king was fi t to rule, and Gregory had issued his judgment. Radical though it was, the deposition was effective. Under the relatively placid surface of centralized authority in the Holy Roman Empire, Henry IV faced an increas- ingly restive aristocracy. Relatively subdued during the reign of Henry III, local and regional princes had asserted themselves during his son’s long regency, and Henry IV, on reaching maturity, found himself on less secure ground than his father. In 1075 he succeeded in stifl ing a long, bitter rebellion in Saxony and seemed to be on his way toward reasserting his father’s imperial power. Then the controversy with Rome ex- ploded. Gregory VII’s excommunication and deposition—awesome spiritual sanctions ben85506_ch07_167-189.indd 173 10/26/09 12:50:06 PM.