L’incertezza nei concetti politici altomedievali fino allo scontro tra “regnum” e “sacerdotium”

In the ninth century, political treatises emphasised the close link between the obedience of sovereigns to the ecclesiastical hierarchy and the possibility of avoiding the uncertainty of human events in order to consolidate kingdoms. The investiture contest led to the crisis of this model. The Cadalus schism (1061) marked a profound break in relations between the papacy and the empire, a sort of point of no return insofar as the rift between the Roman reformist group and the imperial court led to a new and different consideration of the contribution that the regnum could make to the reformist cause and, more generally, of its ability to guarantee salvation in collaboration with the sacerdotium.