Henry IV Pleads with Matilda of Canossa and Abbot Hugh, from the Vita Mathildis
The emperor kneeling before Matilda of Tuscany and Hugh of Cluny, illuminated about 1115 in Donizo's Vita Mathildis — within forty years of the events and by a monk of Matilda's own foundation. The composition is the argument: an emperor is shown asking.
At Canossa in January 1077 Henry IV waited outside the castle until Gregory VII lifted his excommunication. It settled nothing. The quarrel was over who appointed bishops, and bishops in Germany held land, courts and troops; an emperor who lost that appointment lost the machinery of government. The dispute ran another forty-five years to the Concordat of Worms in 1122, and the manuscript shown here was made by a partisan of the winning side. See the Investiture Controversy.
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