Concordat of Worms - Concordat of London, 1107

Concordat of London, 1107

The Concordat of London in 1107 was a forerunner of the compromise that was taken up in the Concordat of Worms. In England, as in Germany, the conflict between Church and State was rife. A distinction was being made in the king's chancery between the secular and ecclesiastical powers of the prelates. Bowing to political reality, Henry I of England ceded his right to invest his bishops and abbots and reserved the custom of requiring them to come and do homage. The system of vassalage was not divided among great local lords in England as it was in France, for by right of the Conquest the king was in control.

Henry I of England perceived a danger in placing monastic scholars in his chancery and turned increasingly to secular clerks, some of whom held minor positions in the Church. He often rewarded these men with the titles of bishop and abbot. Henry I expanded the system of scutage to reduce the monarchy's dependence on knights supplied from church lands. Unlike the situation in Germany, Henry I of England used the investiture controversy was to strengthen the secular power of the king. It would continue to boil under the surface. The controversy would surface in the Thomas Becket affair under Henry II of England, the Great Charter of 1217, the Statutes of Mortmain and the battles over Cestui que use of Henry VII of England, and finally come to a head under Henry VIII of England.