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4 unusual facts about Investiture Controversy


Gerd Tellenbach

Gerd Tellenbach (1903–1999) was a German historian and scholar of medieval social and religious history, particularly of the Papacy and German church during the Investiture Controversy and reform movements of the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

Investiture Controversy

By undercutting the Imperial power established by the Salian emperors, the controversy led to nearly 50 years of civil war in Germany, and the triumph of the great dukes and abbots, until Imperial power was reestablished under the Hohenstaufen dynasty.

In 1077 he traveled to Canossa in northern Italy to meet the pope and apologize in person.

As penance for his sins, and echoing his own punishment of the Saxons after the First Battle of Langensalza, he dramatically wore a hairshirt and stood in the snow barefoot in the middle of winter in what has become known as the Walk to Canossa.


Fischbachau Priory

The monastery was founded in 1087 as a priory of Hirsau Abbey against the background of the Investiture Controversy and the Hirsau Reforms, by the monks who had previously formed the small monastery founded in 1077 at Bayrischzell by Haziga of Aragon, wife of Count Otto II of Scheyern, ancestors of the Wittelsbachs.

Friesach

About 1076 Archbishop Gebhard of Salzburg, a follower of Pope Gregory VII in the Investiture Controversy, had the Petersberg fortress erected above the town in order to prevent Emperor Henry IV from crossing the Alps.

St. George's Abbey in the Black Forest

The monastery was founded in 1084–85 in the Black Forest, by the source of the Brigach, against the background of the Investiture Controversy, as a result of the community of interests of the Swabian aristocracy and the church reform party, the founders being Hezelo and Hesso of the family of the Vögte of Reichenau, and the politically influential Abbot William of Hirsau.

The Norman Anonymous

Surviving in just a single manuscript, the text is the only contribution made by the Anglo-Norman realm to the Investiture Controversy.


see also

Pope Urban II

The origins of the investiture controversy, according to Jay Rubenstein started with Pope Urban II whose central problem was a war against Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor (1056-1106).

Rudolf of Rheinfelden

Finally when the Investiture Controversy broke out and King Henry was excommunicated by Pope Gregory VII in February 1076, Duke Rudolf met with Berthold, Welf and several other princes in Trebur in order to decide on a course of action and to arrange a new election.