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ReligionJanuary 1077

Walk to Canossa

Also called: Humiliation of Canossa, Investiture Controversy

Excommunicated in a dispute with Pope Gregory VII over the right to appoint clergy (investiture), Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV begged forgiveness at the castle of Canossa in January 1077.

Henry IV kneels before Matilda of Tuscany, with Abbot Hugh of Cluny, asking them to intercede — Vita Mathildis, c. 1115
Henry IV kneels before Matilda of Tuscany, with Abbot Hugh of Cluny, asking them to intercede — Vita Mathildis, c. 1115

Donizo · Public domain · Source

Carrying on the reforming spirit of Cluny, Pope Gregory VII banned simony and clerical marriage and in 1075 forbade lay rulers to appoint clergy. When Henry IV, who relied on bishops to govern, declared the pope deposed, Gregory excommunicated him in 1076 and released his subjects from their oaths of loyalty.

When the princes threatened to elect a new king unless the excommunication was lifted, Henry crossed the Alps in midwinter and stood barefoot in the snow for three days before the castle of Canossa in northern Italy, where the pope was staying, until he was absolved (1077). The episode became a symbol of the supremacy of papal over imperial power.

Having recovered his strength, however, Henry took Rome in 1084, and Gregory VII was driven out and died at Salerno. The Investiture Controversy was settled for the time being by the Concordat of Worms in 1122, and papal power reached its height under Innocent III in the 13th century. At this time Goryeo was near the end of King Munjong’s reign, when its aristocratic society was at its most stable.

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States at the time
Holy Roman Empire
Papal States
Places
Canossa

People

  • Pope Gregory VII1085

    leader · Pope (1073–1085) who banned simony and clerical marriage and fought lay investiture of clergy in the Investiture Controversy

  • Henry IV1050 – 1106

    monarch · Holy Roman Emperor who, excommunicated in the investiture dispute with Pope Gregory VII, begged forgiveness at Canossa in 1077

Before and after

Earlier
1054 East–West Schism
Later
1088 Rise of the Universities and Scholasticism

Themes that include this event

  • Medieval Europe and ByzantiumAD 476 – 1077

    From the fall of Rome in the West to Canossa — the feudal West built by the Franks and the papacy, Byzantium as heir of Rome, and a church divided east and west

  • Late Medieval Europe and the Renaissance1077 – 1517

    From Canossa to the eve of the Reformation — papal power at its height and in decline, towns and parliaments, royal power growing through the Hundred Years’ War and the Black Death, and the Renaissance and printing