270 A BRIEF SURVEY OF HUMAN HISTORY

The king therefore naturally thought that the cloak of
clericalism could not give immunity from temporal obli-
gations. Nay, fn the heat of rivalry, he even claimed appoint-
ing authority, from the bishop to the 'Pope himself. Thus
the right of "investiture" became the crux of the quarrel.
Were the Church officials to be invested with authority
by the Pope or the Emperor ? The Pope rebutted the claims
of the Emperor by attempting to appoint the person of his
own choice to the imperial office. The dispute soon degene-
rated into a series of unseemly attacks and counter-attacks
by both parties. Each tried to win over to itself the alle-
giance of the adherents of the other party. Gregory declared
Henry excommunicated and deposed ; Henry got the German
clergy to deny the authority of Gregory. Rival Popes and
Emperors were sought to be set up. On one occasion Henry
in a penitent mood humiliated himself before the Pope at
Canossa and admitted himself in the wrong. But the recon-
ciliation was only temporary. Tempers again flared up,
and finally Henry besieged Gregory in his very palace, and
the greatest of the medieval Popes died with the words " I
have loved justice and hated- iniquity, therefore I die in
•exile" on his lips.

This was only the climax and not the end of the struggle.
However, a workable compromise was reached under Henry
V (1106-25) and Pope Paschal II. By the Concordat of
Worms (1122) the controversy over investitures in Germany
-was settled. The Emperor renounced his claim to invest
the clergy with the religious emblems of the ring and the
crosier, and promised not to interfere with Church elections.
But the elections were to be held- in the Emperor's presence
and the bishop or abbot elected was to hold the fiefs and
administrative powers under the Emperor, which was sym-
bolised by a touch of the sceptre.