Introduction: The Argument within its Context

Summary

WHEN IN 1122 the Concordat of Worms forged an agreement regarding the Investiture Contest which had been brought to a head with the standoff between Pope Gregory VII and Emperor Henry IV at Canossa in 1077, as Ludger Körntgen has convincingly shown in his article “Der Investiturstreit und das Verhältnis von Religion und Politik im Frühmittelalter” (“The Investiture Controversy and the Relationship between Religion and Politics in the Early Middle Ages”), these two moments in history should not be seen as definitive and epoch-changing moments in that relationship as has been traditionally maintained in the scholarship covering the period of this historical conflict. This shift in point of view, supported by its fair share of polemical response to the various facets of the issue, would indicate that today's scholars, just like their medieval counterparts in the aftermath of the Concordat, are still grappling with an unsettling “can of Worms.”

Given its historical prominence, the scholarly literature on the Investiture Contest, both specific and contextual, is vast. While certainly the subject has not been ignored by Anglophones, understandably German scholars have been especially prolific; however, unfortunately, important books and articles on this subject by authors such as Gerd Althoff, Peter Classen, Horst Fuhrmann, Rudolf Schieffer, Hanna Vollrath, and Stefan Weinfurter have, for the most part, not been translated into English. (A recent corrective is a publication in English of fifteen essays by Althoff, eight of which first appeared in German and four of which are unpublished papers.) Furthermore, the more recent literature, the preponderance still in German, regarding the nature and impact of these events on subsequent history has taken a new interpretive shift requiring a dialogue with and a reassessment of the earlier literature. Happily the overall current state of the debate is concisely and admirably discussed by Johanna Dale in the introduction to her book Inauguration and Liturgical Kingship in the Long Twelfth Century: Male and Female Accession Rituals in England, France and the Empire.

Of course, the literature on this period of history and its impact is embedded within the larger scope of German historiography where views on the nature of medieval rulership itself have also been reassessed, taking into account the impact of nationalistic trends and historical events.