Which agreement resolved the investiture controversy by allowing the church to appoint bishops while permitting secular rulers to invest them with worldly power?

• A. Donation of Constantine
• B. Edict of Milan
• C. Concordat of Worms
• D. Council of Nicaea

Answer: (C)

The issue being tested is how authority over appointing bishops was split between church and state, a central dispute of the investiture controversy. The Concordat of Worms is the best answer because it established a twofold arrangement: the church retained the right to appoint bishops (the spiritual dimension), while the emperor could invest them with worldly, temporal authority. In practice, bishops could be elected or appointed by church officials, and after their appointment they received temporal symbols of office from the emperor, signaling the emperor’s control over secular power but not over the church’s spiritual leadership. This agreement, reached in 1122 between Pope Callixtus II and Emperor Henry V, effectively ended the fierce struggle over who had the final say in bishop appointments.

The other options don’t fit this specific settlement. The Donation of Constantine is a forged document used to claim papal supremacy over secular rulers; the Edict of Milan granted religious toleration in the Roman Empire; the Council of Nicaea dealt with defining orthodox Christian doctrine.