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INVESTITURE (Late Lat. investitura)

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Originally appearing in Volume V14, Page 723 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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INVESTITURE (See also:Late See also:Lat. investitura) , the formal See also:installation into an See also:office or See also:estate, which constituted in the See also:middle ages one of the acts that betokened the feudal relation between suzerain and See also:vassal. The suzerain, after receiving the vassal's See also:homage and See also:oath of fealty, invested him with his See also:land or office by presenting some See also:symbol, such as a clod, a banner, a See also:branch, or some other See also:object according to the See also:custom of the See also:fief. See also:Otto of See also:Freising says: " It is customary when a See also:kingdom is delivered over to any one that a See also:sword he given to represent it, and when a See also:province is transferred a See also:standard is given." As feudal customs See also:grew more stereotyped, the sword and See also:sceptre, emblematic respectively of service and military command and of judicial prerogatives, became the usual emblems of investiture of laymen. The word investiture (from vestire, to put in See also:possession) is later than the 9th See also:century; the thing itself was an outcome of feudal society. It is in connexion with the See also:Church that investiture has its greatest See also:historical See also:interest. The Church quite naturally shared in feudal land-holding; in addition to the See also:tithes she possessed immense estates which had been given her by the faithful from See also:early times, and for the See also:defence of which she resorted to See also:secular means. The bishops and abbots, by confiding their domains to laymen on See also:condition of assistance with the sword in See also:case of need, became temporal lords and suzerains with vassals to fight for them, with courts of See also:justice, and in See also:short with all the rights and privileges exercised by See also:lay lords. On the other See also:hand there were See also:bishop-See also:dukes, bishop-See also:counts, &c., themselves vassals of other lords, and especially of the See also:king, from whom they received the investiture of their temporalities. Many of the faithful founded abbeys and churches on condition that the right of patronage, that is the choice of beneficiaries, should be reserved to them and their heirs. Thus in various ways ecclesiastical benefices were gradually transformed into fiefs, and lay suzerains claimed the same rights over ecclesiastics as over other vassals from whom they received homage, and whom they invested with lands. This ecclesiastical investiture by lay princes See also:dates at least from the See also:time of See also:Charlemagne. It did not seem fitting at first to confer ecclesiastical investiture by such military and worldly emblems as the sword and sceptre, nor to exact an oath of fealty.

The See also:

emperor See also:Henry I. invested bishops with a See also:glove; Otto IL presented the See also:pastoral See also:staff; See also:Conrad II., according to Wipo, went farther and required from the See also:archbishop of See also:Milan an oath of fealty. By the time of Henry III. investiture with See also:ring and See also:crozier had become the See also:general practice: it probably had been customary in some places since Otto II. Investiture of ecclesiastics by laymen had certain serious effects which were See also:bound to bring on a conflict between the temporal and spiritual authorities. In the first See also:place the lay authorities often rendered elections uncanonical by interfering in behalf of some favourite, thereby impairing the freedom of the See also:electors. Again, benefices were kept vacant for See also:long periods in See also:order to ensure to the See also:lord as long as possible the exercise of his regalian rights. And, finally, See also:control by temporal princes of investiture, and indirectly of See also:election, greatly increased See also:simony. Otto II. is charged with having practised simony in this connexion, and under Conrad II. the abuse grew prevalent. At a See also:synod at See also:Reims in 1049, the bishops of See also:Nevers and See also:Coutances affirmed that they had bought their bishoprics, and the bishop of See also:Nantes stated that his See also:father had been a bishop and that on his decease he himself had See also:purchased the see. At a synod at See also:Toulouse in ro56, Berengar of See also:Narbonne accused the bishop of having purchased his see for roo,000 solidi, and of having plundered his church and sold See also:relics and crucifixes to See also:Spanish See also:Jews in order to secure another roo,000 solidi with which to buy for his See also:brother the bishopric of Urgel. Innumerable similar cases appear in acts of synods and in See also:chronicles during the 11th century. Ecclesiastical investiture was further complicated by the considerable practice of See also:concubinage. There was always the tendency for clerics in such cases to invest their sons with the temporalities of the Church; and the synod convened by See also:Benedict VIII. at See also:Pavia in 1018 (or 1022 according to some authorities) was mainly concerned with the issue of decrees against clerics who lived with wives or concubines and bestowed Church goods on their See also:children.

In time the Church came to perceive how closely lay investiture was bound up with simony. The See also:

sixth See also:decree of the Lateran synod of 1059 forbade any cleric to accept Church office from a layman. In the following See also:year this decree was reaffirmed by synods held at See also:Vienne and Toulouse under the See also:presidency of a See also:legate of See also:Nicholas II. The See also:main investiture struggle with the See also:empire did not take place, however, until See also:Hildebrand became See also:Pope See also:Gregory VII. To Gregory it was intolerable that a layman, whether emperor; king or See also:baron, should invest a churchman with the emblems of spiritual office; ecclesiastical investiture should come only from ecclesiastics. To the emperor Henry IV. it was highly undesirable that the advantages and revenues accruing from lay investiture should be surrendered; it was reasonable that ecclesiastics should receive investiture of temporalities from their temporal protectors and suzerains. Although the full See also:text of the decrees of the famous Lenten synod of 1075 has not been preserved, it is known that Gregory on that occasion denounced the See also:marriage of the See also:clergy, ex-communicated five of Henry IV.'s councillors on the ground that they had gained church offices through simony, and forbade the emperor and all laymen to See also:grant investiture of bishopric or inferior dignity. The pope immediately summoned Henry to appear at See also:Rome in order to justify his private misconduct, and Henry replied by causing the See also:partisan synod of See also:Worms (1(376) to pronounce Gregory's deposition. The pope excommunicated the emperor and stirred up See also:civil See also:war against him in See also:Saxony with such success that he brought about Henry's See also:bitter humiliation at See also:Canossa in the following year. The papal See also:prohibition of lay investiture was renewed at synods in 1o7S and 1080, and although Gregory's See also:death in See also:exile (1085) prevented him from realizing his aim in the See also:matter, his policy was steadfastly maintained by his successors. See also:Victor III. condemned lay investiture at the synod of See also:Benevento in 1087, and See also:Urban II. at that of See also:Melfi in 1089. At the celebrated See also:council of Clermont (1095), at which the first crusade was preached, Urban strengthened the former prohibitions by declaring that no one might accept any spiritual office from a layman, or take an oath of fealty to any layman.

Urban's immediate successor, See also:

Paschal II., stirred up the See also:rebellion of the emperor's son, but soon found Henry V. even more persistent in the claim of investiture than Henry IV. had been. Several attempts at refused to consecrate newly-chosen bishops who had received See also:settlement failed. In See also:February 1111 legates of Paschal II. met Henry V. at See also:Sutri and declared that the pope was ready to surrender all the temporalities that had been bestowed on the clergy since the days of Charlemagne in return for freedom of election and the abolition of lay investiture. Henry, having agreed to the proposal, entered Rorne to receive his See also:crown. The bishops and clergy who were See also:present at the See also:coronation protested against this surrender, and a tumult arising, the ceremony had to be abandoned. The king then seized pope and See also:curia and See also:left the See also:city. After two months of See also:close confinement Paschal consented to an unqualified renunciation on his See also:part of the right of investiture. In the following year, however, a Lateran council repudiated this compact as due to violence, and a synod held at Vienne with papal approval declared lay investiture to be See also:heresy and placed Henry under the See also:ban. The struggle was complicated throughout its course by See also:political and other copsiderations; there were repeated rebellions of See also:German nobles, See also:constant strife between See also:rival imperial and papal factions in the Lombard cities and at Rome, and creation of several See also:anti-popes, of whom See also:Guibert of See also:Ravenna (See also:Clement III.) and Gregory VIII. were the most important. Final settlement of the struggle was retarded, moreover, by the question of the See also:succession to the lands of the See also:great Countess See also:Matilda, who had bequeathed all her See also:property to the See also:Holy See, Henry claiming the estates as suzerain of the fiefs and as See also:heir of the allodial lands. The efforts of See also:Gelasius II. to See also:settle the strife by a general council were rendered fruitless by his death (1119). At length in 1122 the struggle was brought to an end by the See also:concordat of Worms, the provisions of which were incorporated in the eighth and ninth canons of the general Lateran council of 1123.

The settlement was a See also:

compromise. The emperor, on the one hand, preserved feudal See also:suzerainty over ecclesiastical benefices; but, on the other, he ceased to confer ring and crozier, and thereby not only lost the right of refusing the elect on the grounds of unworthiness, but also was deprived of an efficacious means of maintaining vacancies in ecclesiastical offices. Few efforts were made to undo the compromise. King See also:Lothair the Saxon demanded of See also:Innocent II. the renewal of lay investiture as See also:reward for See also:driving the antipope Anacletus from Rome, but the opposition of St See also:Bernard and the German prelates was so potent that the king dropped his demand, and Innocent in 1133 confirmed the concordat. In fact, the imperial control over the election of bishops in See also:Germany came later to be much curtailed in practice, partly by the tacitly changed relations between the empire and its feudatories, partly by explicit concessions wrung at various times from individual emperors, such as Otto IV. in 1209 and See also:Frederick II. in 1213; but the principles of the concordat of Worms continued theoretically to regulate the See also:tenure of bishoprics and abbacies until the See also:dissolution of the empire on 18o6. In See also:France the course of the struggle was somewhat different. As in the empire, the king and the nobles, each within his own See also:sphere of See also:influence, claimed the right of investing with ring and crozier and of exacting homage and oaths of fealty. The struggle, however, was less bitter chiefly because France was not a See also:united See also:country, and it was eventually terminated without formal treaty. The king voluntarily abandoned lay investiture and the claim to homage during the pontificate of Paschal II., but continued to interfere with elections, to appropriate the revenues of vacant benefices, and to exact an oath of fealty before admitting the elect to the enjoyment of his temporalities. Most of the great feudal lords followed the king's example, but their concessions varied considerably, and in the See also:south of France some of the bishops were still doing homage for their See also:sees until the closing years of the 13th century; but long before then the right of investing with ring and crozier had disappeared from every part of France. See also:England was the See also:scene of an investiture contest in which the See also:chief actors were Henry I. and See also:Anselm. The archbishop, in obedience to the decrees of Gregory VII. and Urban II., not only refused to perform homage to the king (I too), but also investiture from Henry.

The dispute was bitter, but was carried on without any of the violence which characterized the conflict between papacy and empire; and it ended in a compromise which closely foreshadowed the provisions of the concordat of Worms and received the See also:

confirmation of Paschal II. in rro6. Freedom of election, somewhat similar in See also:form to that which still exists, was formally conceded under See also:Stephen, and confirmed by See also:John in Magna Carta. Many documents See also:relating to the investiture struggle have been edited by E. See also:Dummler in Monumenta Germaniae historica, Libelli de lite imperatorum et pontificum saeculis xi. et xii. (3 vols., 1891-1897). See See also:Ducange, Glossarium, s.v. " Investitura." On investiture in the empire consult C. Mirbt, See also:Die Publizistik See also:im Zeitalter Gregors VII. (See also:Leipzig, I894); E. Bernheim, Das Wormser Konkordat (See also:Breslau, '1906); R. Boerger, Die Belehnungen der deutschen geistlichen Fiirsten (Leipzig, 1901); K. E.

Benz, Die Stellung der Bischofe von See also:

Meissen, See also:Merseburg and See also:Naumburg im Investiturstreite unter Heinrich IV. and Heinrich V. (See also:Dresden, 1899); W. See also:Martens, Gregor VII., sein Leben and Wirken (2 vols., Leipzig, 1894); H. See also:Fisher, The See also:Medieval Empire, c. lo (See also:London, 1898). For France, see P. Imbart de la Tour, See also:Les Elections ipiscopales dans l'iglise de France du XIe au XII' siecle (See also:Paris, 1891); A. See also:Luchaire, Histoire See also:des institutions monarchiques de la France sous les premiers Capitiens 98g—118o (2nd ed., Paris, 1891); P. See also:Viollet, Histoire des institutions politiques et administratives de la France (Paris, 1898) ; Ibach, Der Kampf zwischen Papstlum and Konigtum von Gregor VII. his Calixto II. (See also:Frankfort, 1884). For England, see J. F. See also:Bohmer, Kirche and Staat in England and in der Normandie in XI. and XII.

Jahrhundert (Leipzig, 1899); E. A. See also:

Freeman, The Reign of See also:William II. See also:Rufus and the See also:Accession of Henry I. (London, T882); H. W. C. See also:Davis, England under the See also:Normans and Angevin (London, 1905).

End of Article: INVESTITURE (Late Lat. investitura)

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