Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/528

 448 Outlines of European History New prohibi- tion of lay in- vestiture Henry IV angered by the language of the papal legates Gregory VII deposed by a council of German bishops at Worms, 1076 The popes who immediately preceded Gregory had more than once forbidden the churchmen to receive investiture from laymen. Gregory reissued this prohibition in 1075, just as the trouble with Henry had begun. Investiture was, as we have seen (see above, p. 441), the legal transfer by the king or other lord, to a newly chosen church official, of the lands and rights attached to the office. In forbidding lay investiture Gregory attempted nothing less than a revolution. The bishops and abbots were often officers of government, exercising Jn Germany and Italy powers similar in all respects to those of the counts. The king not only relied upon them for advice and assistance in carrying on his government, but they were among his chief allies in his constant struggles with his vassals. Gregory dispatched three envoys to Henry (end of 1075) with a fatherly letter ^ in which he reproached the king for his wicked conduct. But he evidently had little expectation that mere expostulation would have any effect upon Henry, for he gave his legates instructions to use threats if necessary. The legates were to tell the king that his crimes were so numer- ous, so horrible, and so well known, that he merited not only excommunication but the permanent loss of all his royal honors. The violence of the legates' language not only kindled the wrath of the king but also gained for him friends among the bishops. x council which Henry summoned at Worms (in 1076) was attended by more than two thirds of all the Ger- man bishops. Here Gregory was declared deposed, and many ter- rible charges of immorality were brought against him. The bishops publicly proclaimed that he had ceased to be their Pope. It ap- pears very surprising, at first sight, that the king should have received the prompt support of the German churchmen against the head of the Church. But it must be remembered that the prelates really owed their offices to the king and not to the Pope. Gregory's reply to Henry and the German bishops who had deposed him was speedy and decisive. " Incline thine ear to 1 To be found in the Readings^ chap. xiii.