452 Outlines of Euivpean History Settlement of the ques- tion of lay investiture in the Con- cordat of Worms, 1 122 to the controversy over investitures in Germany.^ The Emperor promised to permit the Church freely to elect the bishops and abbots and renounced his old claim to invest with the religious emblems of the ring and the crosier. But the elections were to be held in the presence of the king, and he was permitted, in a separate ceremom-, to invest the new bishop or abbot with his fiefs and his governmental powers by a touch of the scepter. In this way the religious powers of the bishops were obviously conferred by the churchmen who elected them ; and although the king might still practically invalidate an election by refusing to hand over the lands, nevertheless the direct appointment of the bishops and abbots was taken out of his hands. As for the Em- peror's control over the papacy, too many popes, since the advent of Henry IV, had been generally recognized as properly elected without the sanction of the Emperor, for any one to believe any longer that his sanction was necessary. Frederick I (Barbarossa) of Hohen- staufen (1152-1190) Section JJ , The Hohenstaufen Emperors and THE Popes A generation after the matter of investitures had been arranged bv the Concordat of Worms the most famous of German em- perors, next to Charlemagne, came to the throne. This was Frederick I, commonly called Barbarossa, from his red beard. He belonged to the family of Hohenstaufen, so called from their castle in southern Germany. Frederick's ambition was to restore the Roman Empire to its old glor- and influence. He regarded him- self as the successor of the Caesars, as well as of Charlemagne and Otto the Great. He believed his office to be quite as truly estab- lished by God himself as the papacy. When he informed the Pope that he had been recognized as Emperor by the German nobles, he too took occasion to state quite clearly that the headship of the Empire had been " bestowed upon him by God," and he did not ask the Pope's sanction as his predecessors had done. 1 See Readings^ chap. xiii.
