Investiture Controversy

High school (ages 12+)
History & Culture

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/investiture-controversy

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the approximate duration?1075-1122
2. What is the primary belligerents?The Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire
3. Why did Pope Gregory VII excommunicate Emperor Henry IV?Gregory believed lay investiture was wrong and that the Pope should decide who became bishops. When Henry chose his own candidate, Gregory used excommunication to punish him.
4. How did the event at Canossa happen?In 1077, Henry IV walked barefoot in the snow for three days outside the Pope’s castle to ask for forgiveness. This showed his humility and helped him keep his power for a short time.

Lay Investiture: The practice by which secular rulers appointed and invested bishops and abbots with their symbols of office.
Simony: The buying or selling of spiritual offices or ecclesiastical preferments.