Worms, Concordat of, 1122, agreement reached by Pope Calixtus II and Holy Roman Emperor Henry V to put an end to the struggle over investiture. By its terms the emperor guaranteed free election of bishops and abbots and renounced the right to invest them with ring and staff, the symbols of their spiritual duties. The pope granted Henry the right, in Germany, to be present at elections and to invest those elected with their lay rights and obligations before their consecration. In Burgundy and Italy his right was confined to investiture with those rights and obligations after consecration. The compromise between spiritual and temporal power that this concordat achieved remained the basis of subsequent relations between Holy Roman Emperors and the Pope.
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