Argomenti di natura giuridica e strumenti della comunicazione pubblica durante la lotta per le investiture

During the Investiture Controversy, arguments of a juridical nature were used in preaching due to both their performative potencial, as described by Bourdieu, and the very nature of the complex mass of conflicts and problems that we are used to ascribing to that phase in European history. Indeed categories such as simony, nicolaitism, lay investiture required a predominantly canonistic reflection. Traces of this huge «war of words» are actually more closely tied to the practices of writing than to the verbal sphere, but significant episodes of contamination are not lacking. In fact, the complexity of these debates hindered their easy translation into terms useful to the immediate controversy, which often involved not only lay persons of high rank with access to the necessary clerical assistance but also large groups of citizens. For this reason the Investiture Controversy also involved some forms of “non verbal” communication, such as the trials by ordeal and the so-called “liturgical strike”, which were able to frame complex juridical problems.