Practice question · Multiple choice
Henry IV stood as a penitent at Canossa in 1077 and Gregory VII absolved him. Why do historians hesitate to call this a papal victory?
Hints
- Ask what Gregory could have done if he had wanted to refuse.
- Consider who gained an immediate practical advantage from the reconciliation.
Show the answer
A. Priests cannot refuse penitents absolution, so Henry forced Gregory's hand and could fight rebels
Why
Refusing a penitent would have contradicted the sacramental claims Gregory’s whole position rested on. Absolution therefore lifted the excommunication that was licensing the German revolt, and Henry went home and won. The conflict continued for another forty-five years, and Gregory died in exile at Salerno.
Practise The Renewal of Christendom, Eleventh to Thirteenth Centuries
The app has 3 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. History II is free to start.
More questions on The Renewal of Christendom, Eleventh to Thirteenth Centuries
- Arrange these episodes in the reform and expansion of the Latin church, earliest first.
- Eleventh-century reformers attacked clerical marriage not merely as a moral failing, but as an institutional…
- The Concordat of Worms in 1122 removed rulers from the appointment of bishops entirely.
- Match each religious movement to the innovation that distinguishes it.
- Complete the account of the abuses the reformers attacked.
- Why do historians describe the numbering of the crusades as a modern convenience?
- Arrange the stages of the Investiture Contest in order.
- In which year did the Concordat of Worms settle the investiture dispute by dividing spiritual from temporal…
- Sort each development by whether it extended the church’s reach into ordinary LAY life or reorganised the…
- The mendicant orders differed from earlier monasticism chiefly in going into towns rather than withdrawing…
- Universities appeared at Bologna and Paris as corporations of masters and students holding legal privileges.…