Concordat of Worms - Result of The Concordat of Worms

Result of The Concordat of Worms

Of the three reforms Gregory VII and his predecessors and successor popes had attempted, they had been most successful in regard to celibacy of the clergy. Simony had been partially checked. Against lay investiture they won only a limited success, and one that seemed less impressive as the years passed. During the time following the Concordat of Worms, the Church gained in both stature and power.

According to the terms of the compromise, the election of bishops and abbots was to follow proper procedure, that is, the canons of the cathedral were to elect the bishop. The monks were to choose the abbot. This was a minimum that the church had demanded. In the compromise, the pope agreed that the king or his representative had the right to be present at such elections to resolve any disputes between candidates. What this meant, in effect, was that the king would have the bishop he wanted, though some prelate would invest the new bishop with the insignia of the office. As William of Champeaux assured Henry V, he had nothing to lose by surrendering the right of investiture. In the Concordat of Worms the church accepted a face-saving concession. The king retained substantially what he already possessed—the power to fill bishoprics with men of his choice. Nevertheless, Gregory VII’s dramatization of the issue produced a significant improvement in the character of men raised to the episcopacy. Kings no longer interfered so frequently in their election, and when they did, they generally nominated more worthy candidates for the office.

The writing in the document was ambiguous, skirted some issues and avoided others all together. This has caused some scholars to conclude that the settlement turned its back on Gregory VII and Urban II's genuine hopes for reform. The emperor’s influence in episcopal was preserved, and he could decide disputed elections. If the compromise was a rebuke to the most radical vision of the liberty of the Church, on at least one point its implication was firm and unmistakable: The king, even an emperor, was a layman. This dispelled the belief that the king was someone specially appointed by the grace of God. The divine right of kings was dealt a blow from which it never completely recovered.

There exists a misconception concerning the power of the pope in the Middle Ages. Tradition affords him more power and authority than he actually possessed. It is likely the Pope in modern ages is much more powerful than those in medieval times. The most powerful of all medieval popes was Innocent III. His pronouncements on doctrinal matters and the judgments of his court were considered definitive and final. Opposing the medieval pope was the primary and unyielding authority of the state. The struggle over investiture between Pope Gregory VII and Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor had dramatized the clash between church and state. The Concordat of Worms had eased the situation for a generation. But in the end, it solved nothing. Practically speaking, the king retained a decisive voice in the selection of the hierarchy. All kings supported King John of England’s defiance of Pope Innocent III ninety years after the Concordat of Worms in the matter concerning Stephen Langton. In theory, the pope named his bishops and cardinals. In reality, more often than not, Rome consecrated the clergy once it was notified by the kings who the incumbent would be. Recalcitrance by Rome would lead to problems in the kingdom. For the most part it was a no-win situation for Rome. In this, the Concordat of Worms changed little. The growth of canon law in the Ecclesiastical Courts was based on the underlying Roman law and increased the strength of the Roman Pontiff.

The English Church was left more or less in the power of the English monarchy. This was the result of the Charter of Liberties, 1100, and the agreement at Bec in 1107. The effect of the Concordat of Worms was different. It ended a civil war that had been going on for more than fifty years. There was no going back to the situation that had preceded it. The political and social structure of Germany had forever been altered. The new generation of cardinals regarded German investiture with contempt and as an embarrassing vestige of the past. They were willing to make concessions with Henry V and his successors in order to get along. The belief after the Concordat was that investiture and the era of theocratic kingship was a discredited doctrine. The German kings had a different view of the matter. Henry V and his successors still believed they had the right and ability to name bishops. In practice, this was true, but only in the territories held by their families. Their domain in the religious sphere had been greatly diminished.

The catastrophic political consequences of the struggle between pope and emperor also led to a cultural disaster. Germany lost intellectual leadership in western Europe. In 1050, German monasteries were great centers of learning and art and German schools of theology and canon law were unsurpassed and probably unmatched anywhere in Europe. The long civil war over investiture sapped the energy of both German churchmen and intellectuals. They fell behind advances in philosophy, law, literature and art taking place in France and Italy. In many ways, Germany never caught up during the rest of the Middle Ages. Universities were established in France, Italy and England by the early 13th century. Notable are University of Bologna, 1088, University of Paris, 1150, Oxford University, 1167 and Cambridge University, 1207. The first German university, the University of Heidelberg was not established until 1386. It was immediately steeped in medieval nominalism and early Protestantism.

Kings continued to attempt to control either the direct leadership of the church, or indirectly through political means for centuries. This is seen most clearly in the Avignon Papacy when the popes moved from Rome to Avignon. The conflict in Germany and northern Italy arguably left the culture ripe for various Protestant sects, such as the Cathars, the Waldensians and ultimately Hus and Luther.