Church Reform and Investiture Controversy

With the rise of the reform papacy in the middle of the 11th century, a veritable conflict between the emperor and the pope was brewing over the appointment of bishops and abbots by the emperor, which fundamentally called into question the "imperial church system". In this discord, which lasted for decades, there were threats, insults, expulsion from the church, and one of the opponents knelt in the snow in front of Canossa Castle for three days. The Concordat of Worms ended the dispute in 1122, and a new era began for both the spiritual and secular powers. The papacy succeeded in hierarchising and centralising the church, accompanied by a desacralisation of kingship and the entire political sphere.