The Investiture Controversy.

For a survey and bibliographical guide, see Horst Fuhrmann, Germany in the High Middle Ages, trans. Timothy Reuter (Cambridge, 1986); Ute-Renate Blumenthal, The Investiture Controversy: Church and Monarchy from the Ninth to the Twelfth Century (Philadelphia, 1988); Colin Morris, The Papal Monarchy: The Western Church from 1050 to 1250 (Oxford, 1989).

The key texts are published in: Libelli de lite imperatorum et pontificum saeculis XI et XII conscripti, ed. Ernst Dümmler and Ernst Sackur, 3 vols. (Hannover, 1891-97).

For translations: Theodor Mommsen and Karl Morrison, Imperial Lives and Letters of the Eleventh Century (New York, 1962) and Brian Tierney, The Crisis of Church and State, 1050-1300 (New York, 1964 and reprints).

The two foundational studies remain: Auguste Fliche, la réforme grégorienne, 3 vols. (Paris, 1924-37); Gerd Tellenbach, Libertas: Kirche und Weltordnung im Zeitalter des Investiturstreites (Leipzig, 1936); ET as Church, State and Christian Society at the Time of the Investiture Contest, trans. R. F. Bennett (Oxford, 1970). And see I. S. Robinson, Authority and Resistance in the Investiture Contest: The Polemical Literature of the Late Eleventh Century (Manchester, 1978) for a previously understudied period in the controversy.

For critiques of the concept "Gregorian reform," see O. Capitani "Esiste un 'Età Gregoriana'?" Rivista di Storia e Litteratura Religiosa, 1 (1965), pp. 454-81; J. Gilchrist, "Was There a Gregorian Reform Movement?" Canadian Catholic Historical Association Study Sessions, 37 (1970), pp. 1-10; and Gerd Tellenbach, "`Gregorianische Reform'. Kritische Besinnungen," in Reich und Kirche vor dem Investiturstreit. Vorträge beim wissenschaftlichen Kolloquium aus Anlass des achtzigsten Geburtstags von Gerd Tellenbach, ed. Karl Schmid (Sigmaringen, 1985), pp. 99-113.

For a Marxist critique of the problem, see Berhard Töpfer, "Tendenzen zur Entsakralisierung der Herrscherwürde in der Zeit des Investiturstreites," Jahrbuch für Geschichte des Feudalismus, 6 (1982), pp. 163-72.

Some useful collections of articles: Josef Fleckenstein (ed.), Investiturstreit und Reichsverfassung (Vorträge und Forschungen, 17; Sigmaringen, 1973); Karl Schmid (ed.), Reich und Kirche vor dem Investiturstreit: Vorträge beim wissenschaftlichen Kolloquium aus Anlass des achtzigsten Geburtstags von Gerd Tellenbach (Sigmaringen, 1985). For ongoing work on these topics, see the journal (really more a series of symposia proceedings) Studi Gregoriani and the relevant volumes of the series Päpste und Papsttum (published in Stuttgart).

Some recent books: Paulo Golinelli (ed.), Sant'Anselmo, Mantova e la lotta per le investiture: atti del convegno internazionale di studi (Bologna, 1987); I. S. Robinson, The Papacy, 1073-1198 (Cambridge, 1990); Thomas Vogtherr, Der König und der Heilige: Heinrich IV., der heilige Remaklus und die Mönche des Doppelklosters Stablo-Malmedy (Munich, 1990).

A few useful articles on the background to some of the chief issues concerning clerical purity in the controversy: Hans Meier-Welcker, "Die Simonie im frühen Mittelalter," Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte 64 (1952/53), pp. 61-93; B. Schimmelpfennig, "Zölibat und Lage der Priestersöhne vom 11. bis 14. Jahrhundert," Historische Zeitschrift 227 (1978), pp. 1-44; Raymund Kottje, "Konkubinat und Kommunionwürdigkeit in vorgratianischen Kirchenrecht. Zu c. 12 der römischen Ostersynode von 1059," Annuarium Historiae Conciliorum 7 (1975), pp. 159-65.

On art and the Gregorian reform, see: Ernst Kitzinger, "The Gregorian Reform and the Visual Arts; A Problem of Method," Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, fifth series, 22 (1972), pp. 87-102; R. H. Hough, The Reformist Illuminations in the Gospels of Matilda (The Hague, 1973); Howard Bloch, Monte Cassino in the Middle Ages, 3 vols. (Cambridge, MA, 1986); Hèlène Toubert, Un art dirigé. Réforme grégorienne et iconographie (Paris, 1990).

On the problem of excommunication, see Roger Reynolds, "Rites of Separation and Reconciliation in the Early Middle Ages," in Segni e riti nella chiesa altomedievale occidentale, 2 vols. (Settimane di studio del Centro italiano di studi sull'alto medioevo, 33. Spoleto, 1987), 1:405-33; Elisabeth Vodola, Excommunication in the Middle Ages (Berkeley, 1986); Philip Hofmeister, "Die Excommunicatio regularis," Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschicthe, Kanonistische Abteilung, 77 (1960); Alfons Gommenginger, "Bedeutet die Exkommunikation Verlust der Kirchengliedschaft: eine dogmatisch-kanonistiche Untersuchung," Zeitschrift für Katholische Theologie, 73 91951), pp. 34-42; Richard Helmholz, "Excommunication as a Legal Sanction: The Attitudes of Medieval Canonists," Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschicthe, Kanonistische Abteilung, 99 (1982), 204-212.