Note 490 — BOOK V.

The ceremony of giving possession of lands or offices, was, by the feudal law, accompanied with the delivery of certain symbols. In conformity to this practice, princes conferred bishoprics and abbeys by the delivery of a crozier and a ring, which was called their investiture: and as consecration could not take place till after investiture, this, in fact, implied their appointment also. The popes at length finding how much such a practice tended to render the clergy dependent on the temporal power, inhibited their receiving investiture from laymen by the staff and ring, which were emblems of their spiritual office. The compromise of Henry with Paschal enacted, that in future the king would not confer bishoprics by the staff and ring; but that the bishops should perform the ceremony of homage, in token of submission for their temporals: the election by these means, remaining, nominally, in the chapter, or monastery.