The dispute over investiture was one of the greatest struggles between Church and state in the Middle Ages. The problem rose from the dual position of the bishops and abbots. Thus from early times both King and Pope were concerned with clerical election and installation. The papacy felt they had overall control as they are a ‘creation of God’, whereas the Empire was a man made creation and did not deserve the same level of respect.
Henry IV, Holy Roman emperor and German king, son and successor of Henry III at the age of six. He was the central figure in the opening stages of the long struggle between the Holy Roman Empire and the Papacy. Henry saw reform as a threat and he felt his position was being undermined. ‘He did not trust Gregory’s professions of conciliation’ Henrys drive and determination and his resilience and resistance to keep up the tradition in which he was born into had to be admired.
Once assuming control, Henry's first task was to restore his authority in Saxony. He then turned his attention to Italy, where he sought to restore imperial authority; this provoked a conflict with the Papacy. Henry disregarded the opposition of Pope Gregory VII to lay investiture and invested a new bishop of Milan. Gregory’s issue of the most famous statements of papal claims and prerogatives; The Dictatus Papae. Within this statement, Gregory clearly expresses his thoughts and attitude toward Henry and his position within the Empire; “That he has the power to depose emperors”. “That he can be Judged by no-one”, and “That the Roman Church has never erred and will never err to all eternity, according to the testimony of the holy scriptures”.
Henrys notorious attack on Gregory came in response to The Dictatus Papae 1075 Henry clearly expressed his thoughts and feelings on the matter in a direct response to Gregory with a derogatory letter issued to Gregorys but addressed to his prepupal name; Hildebrand; ‘ Henry;I king not by ursupation, but by the holy ordination of God to Hildebrand, not pope, but take monk.’ ‘dared to touch the lords anointed, the archbishop, bishops & priests’; Gregory supported the previous bishop, who had been put in office by a revolutionary movement in the city, and threatened Henry with deposition. Henry summoned a council at Worms, which declared Gregory deposed.
In Germany, Henry IV joined with the nobles against the reform, and in a dispute with Gregory he was excommunicated (1076). The encouragement of rebellious nobles in Germany and the excommunication of Henry IV were followed by steady warfare. Especially in such difficult times, the emperor needed power over the bishop-princes. The papacy also maintained its ground.
The excommunication cost Henry his reputation and in 1077 he humbled himself before the pope at . Henry crossed the Alps in the dead of winter to seek absolution. By his humiliation and penitence he moved the pope to grant him absolution. Henry was ultimately driven by a revolt among the German nobles to make peace with the Pope. Dressed as a penitent, the emperor is said to have stood barefoot in the snow for three days and begged forgiveness until, in Gregory's words: "We loosed the chain of the anathema and at length received him into the favor of communion and into the lap of the Holy Mother Church" ( Robinson 1904: 283).
It seems likely that it was not a prohibition of investitures which lay behind the outbreak of conflict between Gregory VII and Henry IV. In his letter to Henry IV of December 1075 Gregory did indeed refer to a recent decree about which he was prepared to listen to Henry's representations, but as mentioned earlier Henrys traditions were of too much importance and he wanted to make his presence felt . This has often been taken to be a decree on investitures, but it need not have been - and since no one in the course of the very vocal polemics of 1076 and early 1077 mentioned the subject, it seems very likely that it was not. The dispute between Gregory and Henry was, as we have seen, about the location of ultimate authority within a Christian society, about whether even an emperor-designate was subject to the jurisdiction of the pope. Investitures were a secondary and later issue.
More problematic is Gregory's letter of December 1075 to Henry, which triggered off the dramatic conflict of the following years. In his reproach to Henry for appointing bishops at Milan, Fermo and Spoleto Gregory does not mention investitures, though he does as an aside say 'if indeed a church may be given over by any human power'. Historians have seen a reference to the prohibition of investitures in the decree which Gregory mentions in general terms later on in the letter, expressing his willingness to discuss the matter with Henry, but there is no direct evidence that this refers to investitures, and they were not mentioned at the assembly of Worms which responded to Gregory's letter in January 1076.
.
