Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/309

 Popes, Emperors, and Princes in the Middle Ages 221 before a man of small stature who humbly styled himself "the servant of the servants of God" has always been regarded as typifying the power of the medieval Church when directed against even the most exalted rulers of the earth. 355. Concordat of Worms (1122). The famous scene at Canossa settled nothing, however, and the struggle went on after the death of both Gregory and Henry IV. Finally a settlement was reached at the town of Worms which ended the controversy over investitures. The churchmen. were to elect their bishops and abbots and confer on them their religious powers. The German king or emperor, on the other hand, was to invest the new bishop or abbot with his fiefs and governmental powers by a touch of the scepter. The king in a way still retained his control, for he could always refuse to hand over the lands unless he was pleased with the person chosen by the churchmen. 356. Frederick I (Barbarossa) of Hohenstaufen (1152-1190). A generation after the Concordat of Worms the most famous of German emperors, next to Charlemagne, came to the throne. This was Frederick I, commonly referred to as Barbarossa ( from his red beard). He belonged to the family of Hohenstaufen, so called from their castle in southern Germany. Frederick's ambition was to restore the Roman Empire to its old glory and influence. He regarded himself as the successor of the Caesars, as well as of Charlemagne and Otto the Great. He believed his office to be quite as truly established by God himself as the papacy. He met all the old difficulties in his life-long attempt to build up a strong empire, in which he strove to include northern Italy. He failed in this attempt and died on his way to take part in a crusade to regain the Holy Land. 357. Frederick II and Southern Italy. His gifted grandson Frederick II had married the heiress to the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily, and here he built up a strong modern state far from Germany. But the popes feared the new state to the south of them, and shortly after the death of Frederick II they called in a French prince, to whom they turned over the Italian possessions of the Hohenstaufen.