HENRY V, EMPEROR. — Son of the preceding by Bertha of Savoy, born 18 Jan. 1081, crowned at Utrecht on 23 May 1125. Designated as successor in 1098 after the revolt of his brother Conrad, he was crowned king on 6 Jan. 1099. An ambitious and unscrupulous prince, in 1104 he betrayed his father, forcing him to abdicate, and succeeded him in August 1106. Despite professions of loyalty to the Pope, with bold audacity and contempt for canon law he began to confer investiture upon bishops. The Church, which had already struggled so much against his father to vindicate precisely that freedom of investiture, could not remain passive, and the rupture became irreparable.
Henry, however, coveted the imperial crown, even if it meant coming to terms with the Pope, but events in Germany and the difficulties that arose between 1108–1109 prevented him from carrying out his plan. Only in August 1110 was he able to descend into Italy; he easily subdued Lombardy and Tuscany and celebrated Christmas at Florence. In February 1111 negotiations begun with the Pope led to the Concordat of Sutri: Henry promised to renounce all investiture, while the Pope, on behalf of the bishops, renounced all regalia and imperial fiefs. During the coronation ceremony, however, the bishops refused to subscribe to the renunciation demanded; Henry declared himself thereby freed from his oath and reasserted his right to investiture. The Pope refused to crown him, but when a tumult broke out he was taken prisoner. For two months he resisted all threats, but in the end yielded, and Henry obtained as a special privilege the right to confer investiture (11 Apr. 1111). On the 13th he was crowned emperor and immediately returned to Germany, satisfied with the outcome. The deed, however, provoked indignation throughout the Church; with writings and petitions people implored the Pope to withdraw what was seen as a *privilegium* extorted by force. Paschal II, now free from imperial coercion and supported by all the bishops, on 23 March 1112 annulled the privilege; yet, though urged to excommunicate Henry, he refused to do so, hoping for his repentance, knowing him to be beset by grave political difficulties in Germany.
In 1116 Henry came to Italy to seize the estates of the deceased Countess Matilda, though they had been bequeathed to the Church; he easily accomplished his aim and hoped to reach an agreement with the Pope without renouncing investiture. But Paschal II confirmed the revocation of the privilege and renewed the Gregorian decree against lay investiture.
Henry then besieged Rome and took possession of it at the beginning of 1117, while the Pope took refuge at Benevento, and on Easter Day he had himself crowned again by an archbishop. In the following summer he returned to Germany, but learning of the election of the new pope, Gelasius II, on 23 Jan. 1118, he secretly returned to Rome to capture him. Gelasius managed to escape, and Henry, disappointed and enraged, chose the antipope Gregory VIII, whom Gelasius, from Capua, excommunicated together with Henry. To hinder the promulgation of the sentence, Henry returned to Germany, and Gelasius was able to return to Rome; but he was forced once more to depart and take refuge in France, where he died on 29 Jan. 1119. Calixtus II was elected in his stead. Though a faithful follower of the ideas of Gregory VII, he nevertheless desired to come to an agreement with Henry to restore peace. Even the German episcopate, which now began to grasp the necessity of reform for the Church, encouraged him to pursue this path. Henry, for his part, at the Diet of Mainz in 1119, promised to make peace with the Pope. Legates of Calixtus then met with Henry, and a preliminary agreement of mutual promises was reached, deferring decisions to a direct meeting between the Pope and the emperor. The encounter took place at Mouzon, but nothing was concluded because of Henry’s evasions, and at the Council of Reims (Oct. 1119) the Pope renewed the excommunication.
During 1120 Henry was occupied in Germany with civil strife, and at its conclusion (Sept. 1121) a diet was held at Würzburg where peace was prescribed for the entire realm and it was decided, with Henry’s assent, to send legates to negotiate with the Pope. The negotiations were concluded at Worms with a concordat on 23 Sept. 1122.
Henry renounced all investiture by ring and staff, promised not to interfere in the elections of bishops, to restore to the Church all property taken from it, and to assist in the work of reform. In return, the Pope conceded that episcopal elections should take place in the presence of the emperor or his delegate and that regalia should be granted by investiture through the scepter. The peace was sealed with the celebration of a solemn Mass, during which Henry was admitted to Communion and received the kiss of peace from the cardinal-bishop of Ostia on the Pope’s behalf, who dispensed him from any further canonical penance. The struggle over investiture, which had convulsed Church and Empire for nearly thirty years, thus came to an end.