RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
In terpolation a Investiture
the Council of Sardica (343). It was observed in regard to the minor orders as long as they had distinct functions, but this ceased when they became mere formal steps to the higher. The Council of Trent endeavored to restore their former actual significance, and prescribed the observance of the interstitia for them, unless the bishop should judge it better to proceed otherwise. At the present day it is customary in many places to confer the tonsure and all the minor orders on the same day. It was also decreed at Trent that a year should elapse between the minor and major orders, and between each of the latter, unless necessity or the general good required the time to be shortened, and that two major orders should never be conferred on the same day. In reference to the bishop's dispensing power, moreover, the Congregation of the Council has positively forbidden the conferring of the minor orders and the subdiaconate at the same time.
(F. W. H. WASSERSCHLEBENf.)
Bibliography: L. Thomassin, Vetus et nova ecclesice disciplina, I., ii. 35-36; P. Hinschius, Das Kirchenrecht . . in Deutschland, i. 112-113, Berlin, 1869; G. Philips, Kirchenrecht, i. 648 sqq., Regensburg, 1881; A. L. Richter, ed. W. Kahl, Lehrbuch dcs . . Kirchenrechts, p. 364, Leipsic, 1886; E. Friedberg, Lehrbuch des Kirchenrechts, p. 139, ib. 1895.
INTINCTION. See Eastern Church, III., § 5.
INTRODUCTION TO THE BIBLE. See Biblical Introduction.
INTROIT: The name given in the Latin Church to the anthem at the beginning of the communion service. It usually consists of an antiphon, a verse (or more) from a psalm or other portion of Scripture, and the Gloria Patri (see Liturgics, III., § 2). It differs considerably in the different rites in name, contents, and the time of its performance. Numerous forms exist, the Pian Missal alone containing 159. The origin is debated, some ascribing it to Pope Celestine (423 a.d.; cf. Liber pontificalis, ed. Mommsen in MGH, Gest. pont. Rom., i. 94, 1898), and others to Gregory the Great.
Bibliography: L. Duchesne, Christian Worship, pp. 116- 117, 163, 190, 439, London, 1904; DCA, i. 865-867.
INVENTION OF THE CROSS. See Cross, Invention (or Finding) of the.
INVESTITURE: In ecclesiastical language, the ceremony of inducting an abbot or bishop into his office. The subject is interesting mainly in connection with a long controversy between The the papacy and secular rulers over the Earlier right of investiture, which constitutes Practise, an important chapter of medieval history. Even before the fall of the Roman Empire there are evidences of imperial influence upon the nomination of bishops, going in some cases as far as direct nomination. In the Frankish kingdoms both the Merovingian and Carolingian rulers repeatedly named the bishops in their territories; and even when the election was made by the clergy and people, they either designated the acceptable candidate beforehand, or claimed the right to confirm the election. The influence of the secular power was still more distinctly felt in the case of abbeys erected after the Roman period;
the idea of the jurisdiction of a landowner, raised to a higher power in the case of abbeys on royal land, brought it to pass that royal nomination of the abbots was the rule, election by the chapter the exception. To these powers the Othos and the Franconian dynasty held fast. The acquisition by bishops and abbots of large territories and extensive political rights, which reached its height in the tenth and eleventh centuries, created a spiritual aristocracy not less important than the secular, which it was necessary for the kings to keep in hand by retaining the decisive voice in the filling of the offices — a claim which was not then felt to involve any invasion of the essential rights of the Church. In older times the nomination and confirmation had been made by a royal edict; but under the later Carolingians, whether an election had taken place or not, the actual installation was made by a solemn and formal ceremony, including the giving of the sovereign's hand and the taking of an oath by the candidate. After Otho I. the most usual form was the giving to the new bishop or abbot of his predecessor's pastoral staff, to which Henry III. added the delivery of the episcopal ring. The whole ceremony resembled the investiture of a temporal vassal; and since it conveyed not only spiritual, but temporal, jurisdiction, it began in the eleventh century to be designated by the term investitura. The first determined opposition to the system came from the ecclesiastical reformers of the eleventh century. It was directed prima- The rily against simoniacal bargains, but Contest in soon went further. Cardinal Humbert, Germany, in his treatise Adversus simoniacos (1057-58), came out decisively against lay investiture. In 1059 and 1063 two Roman eynods condemned the bestowal of the minor ecclesiastical offices by laymen; in 1060 synods at Vienne and Tours took the same position in regard to bishoprics and abbeys; and in 1068 the filling of the see of Milan gave occasion for these principles to be put into practise. But the first actual clash came when Gregory VII., in the Lent synod of 1075, directly denied the right of the German king to grant investiture, and enforced his denial so vigorously that Henry IV was obliged to take up the challenge by the attempt to depose Gregory at the Synod of Worms in 1076, thus opening a struggle which lasted for forty-six years. Gregory and his successors maintained their position. The Roman synod of 1080 laid down positive regulations, based upon primitive Christian practise, for the election of bishops by the clergy and people, giving the pope a deciding voice as to the validity of the election. Victor III., Urban II., and Paschal II. reiterated the same views, but had no better success than Gregory in enforcing them against Henry IV. and V. The ultimate solution of the difficulty was prepared rather by the literary discussions, in which a gradual perception appeared of the distinction between the spiritual office and the secular rights. This opened the way to attempts at accommodation. After some failures, efforts led in 1122 to the Concordat of Worms between Henry V. and Calixtus II., which ended the struggle and formed the basis of the later practise until the
Investiture Ireland