Henry IV's penance at Canossa
January 28, 1077
Stripped to a hair shirt in the Apennine snow, the excommunicated German king stood before the walls of Matilda of Tuscany's mountain castle for three days before Gregory VII agreed to see him. The pope absolved him. Going to Canossa became European shorthand for abject humiliation by church authority. Whether the penance was genuine contrition or cynical political theater has been debated by historians ever since.
In context
Also in 1077 (4 other events on record)
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- Almoravid capital at Marrakesh flourishes · Africa · Culture
Before and after in Europe
Before and after in Religion
Era
High Middle Ages (1000–1300), one of 1,306 events from that era on Saeculum.
Sources