Henry V, Emperor

ENRICO V, IMPERATORE. – Son of the preceding and of Berta di Savoia, born 18 January 1081, died at Utrecht on 23 May 1123. Designated as heir in 1098 after the revolt of his brother Corrado, he was crowned king on 6 January 1099. An ambitious and unscrupulous prince, in 1104 he betrayed his father, forcing him to abdicate, and succeeded him in August 1106. Despite his protestations of loyalty to the Pope, with bold insouciance and contempt for canon law he began to appoint bishops and grant them investiture. The Church, which had already struggled so greatly against his father precisely to vindicate that freedom of investiture, could not remain passive, and the breach became inevitable.

E. nevertheless longed to gird himself with the imperial crown, even by reaching an agreement with the Pope, but the events in Germany and the difficulties that arose between 1108 and 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: E. promised to renounce every investiture, while the Pope, in the name of the bishops, promised to renounce all imperial regalia and fiefs. During the coronation ceremony, however, the bishops refused to subscribe to the renunciation demanded of them; E. then declared himself released from his oath and claimed the right of investiture; the Pope refused to crown him, but when a tumult broke out he was taken prisoner. For two months he resisted every threat, but in the end he yielded, and E. obtained as a special privilege the right to confer investitures (11 April 1111). On the 13th he was crowned emperor and soon returned to Germany, satisfied with the success he had achieved. The event, however, aroused indignation throughout the Church, and writings and petitions urged the Pope to withdraw what was described as a pravilegium, since it had been extorted by violence. Pasquale II, now free from imperial coercion and supported by all the bishops, annulled the privilege on 23 March 1112; although urged to excommunicate E., he refused to do so, hoping that he would repent, since he knew him to be engaged in serious political difficulties in Germany. In 1116 E. came to Italy to confiscate the property of the deceased Countess Matilde, although it had been bequeathed to the Church; having accomplished the undertaking with ease, he hoped to reach an accommodation with the Pope without renouncing investitures. But Pasquale II confirmed the revocation of the privilege and renewed the Gregorian decree against lay investiture.

E. then besieged Rome and seized it at the beginning of 1117, while the Pope took refuge in Benevento, and on Easter Day he had himself crowned again by an archbishop. In the following summer he returned to Germany, but, on learning of the election of the new pontiff Gelasio II (23 January 1118), he secretly returned to Rome in order to take him prisoner. Gelasio managed to escape, and E., disappointed and furious, then elected the antipope Gregorio VIII, whom Gelasio, from Capua, excommunicated together with E. To prevent the promulgation of the excommunication, the latter returned to Germany, whereupon Gelasio was able to return to Rome; but he was forced to leave it again and take refuge in France, where he died on 29 January 1119. Callisto II was elected to succeed him; although a faithful follower of the ideas of Gregorio VII, he nevertheless wished to reach an agreement with E. in order to restore peace. The German episcopate itself, which was beginning to understand the necessity of reform for the Church, encouraged him to continue along that path. For his part, at the Diet of Mainz (24 June 1119), E. also promised to make peace with the Pope. Legates of Callisto then met with E., and a preliminary agreement was reached through mutual promises, with decisions postponed until a direct conference between the Pope and the Emperor. The meeting took place at Mouzon, but for the tergi-

(from K. Langt, Munkunst des Mittelalters, Leipzig 1918, inv. 13) ENRICO VI, IMPERATORE – The emperor enthroned with the insignia of his authority. Silver coin (1100–07) – Berlin, Geldmuseum der Deutschen Reichsbank.

The negotiations with E. led to no conclusion, and at the Council of Reims (Oct. 1119) the Pope renewed the excommunication. During 1120 E. was engaged in civil struggles in Germany, at the end of which (Sept. 1122) a diet was held at Würzburg, where peace was prescribed throughout the kingdom and it was decided, with E.’s own assent, to send legates to negotiate with the Pope. The negotiations were concluded at Worms with a concordat on 23 Sept. 1122.

E. renounced every investiture by means of the ring and the pastoral staff, promised not to interfere in the elections of bishops, to restore to the Church all the goods that had been taken from it, and to assist it in its work of reform. For his part, the Pope granted that the elections of bishops should be held in the presence of the Emperor or his delegate, and that the regalia should be conferred by investiture with the sceptre. The peace was sealed by the celebration of a solemn Mass, during which E. was admitted to Communion and received the kiss of peace from Cardinal Lamberto of Ostia in the Pope’s name; the latter dispensed him from every other canonical penance. The struggle over investitures, which had afflicted the Church and the Empire for approximately 50 years, thus came to an end.

BIBLI: G. Meyer von Knoman, Jahrbücher des deutschen Rechts unter Heinrich IV und Heinrich V, 7 vols., Leipzig 1898-1909; E. Berthelsen, Das Wormser Konfrontat und seine Vorurhänder hinsichtlich Entstehung, Formulierung Rechtsgültigkeit, Breslau 1906; A. Fliche, L'Europe occidentale de 888 à 1125, Paris 1920, passim; A. Fliche-V. Martin, Hist. de l'Eglise, VIII, xv 1046, pp. 345-60.