Profound dissatisfaction with the pervasive violence, rapacity, and greed of the age, combined with concerns particularly among the monks about their own vulnerability and that of the poor and weak, fueled a movement for monastic reform. Some early monastic reformers identified their cause with that of the Ottonians. St. Romuald of Ravenna, for example, actively supported the missionary program of Otto III. The empire represented order and stability, ideals that appealed to many monks. But some were also beginning to perceive that the imperial order helped foster the competition for rights and domains. The reign of Conrad II (1024–39), the first emperor of the Salian dynasty, permitted and even encouraged such competition. Conrad took the side of the vavasours, who wanted their lands to be hereditary, against the bishops, and he generally supported the interests of the lay aristocracy. Although there is no indication that he intended any permanent change in imperial relations with the bishops—his ties to the papacy were close enough—his actions certainly alarmed Italian ecclesiastical circles. Ultimately, Conrad’s policy did not cause any major adjustment in relations between the bishops and the empire.

Conrad’s son and successor, Henry III (1039–56), was energetic, strong-willed, and devout. He was no innovator, but his attachment to the church served to reduce the tensions that his father’s rule had created. Indeed, he resumed the close relations between the crown and the monastic reformers that had characterized the reign of Otto III and Henry II. His Italian policy bears striking resemblance to that of Charlemagne and Otto I. But he lived in different times. His efforts to settle differences among the factions disputing the archbishopric of Milan and his intervention in papal affairs in Rome placed him in the Ottonian tradition.

Henry supported reform, and reform in turn supported the empire. Some historians have portrayed his actions, particularly his interventions in papal elections, as inimical to the interests of the empire, but they too often overlook this point. By emphasizing Henry’s piety and his attachment to reform, these historians have de-emphasized the political aspects of his policy. Actually, there was a concurrence between his goals and the desires of the reformers. When Henry arrived in Rome in 1046, he found the papacy in disarray. In the continuing competition among leading Roman families for control of the papacy, the Tusculan faction had elected the corrupt Benedict IX (1032–44), but the Romans drove him from the city and replaced him with the candidate of the Crescentians, Sylvester III (1045). Benedict regained the papacy in 1045, but he sold the office to a supporter of reform, John Gratian, who was then elected as Gregory VI (1045–46). Henry therefore faced an uncertain situation just when he was seeking imperial coronation. The synods of Sutri and Rome resolved the difficulty by deposing the three previous claimants. At the behest of Henry, the bishop of Bamberg was elected as Clement II (1046–47). The new pope immediately proceeded to Henry’s coronation on Christmas Day, 1046. The Carolingian precedent—Charlemagne’s coronation also took place on Christmas Day—could hardly have been lost on his audience.

Henry III took Gregory VI back to Germany with him, aiming in this way to prevent a resurgence of internal conflict in Rome. But death soon overtook Clement, and Benedict IX again reclaimed the papacy. Henry ordered Boniface of Tuscany to drive Benedict from Rome once again and had the German Damasus II (1048) installed as pope, but Damasus died within a month. Again Henry intervened, securing the election of Bruno of Toul, who took the name Leo IX (1049–54). Leo combined strong attachment to the imperial cause with dedication to the cause of reform. Profoundly influenced by the monastic centres of reform in Germany and Burgundy, he turned especially to them for collaborators in the work of rebuilding the battered prestige of the Roman church. He brought to Rome men like the theologian Frederick of Lorraine, Hugo Candidus, and Humbert of Moyenmoutier, who became cardinal-bishop of Silva Candida, a Roman suburban diocese. The deacon Hildebrand, who had accompanied Gregory VI to Germany as his secretary, also returned to Rome and joined the papal entourage. Under Leo’s leadership the ancient body of cardinals was transformed into an effective instrument for administration of the church and promotion of reform. Leo held synods in northern Europe and Italy aimed at stirring local commitment for the program of the reformers. That program was chiefly directed at freeing churches from lay control, especially by the appointment of unworthy candidates to ecclesiastical office through simony (i.e., the practice of buying church offices), and at forbidding the pervasive practice of clerical marriage and concubinage, which threatened the substance of the church. Leo’s efforts drew their inspiration from the monastic reform movement, which had already succeeded in regaining control of many monastic properties and preventing their further alienation not only at the hands of the laity but also at those of other ecclesiastics. Although couched in moral terms, the program of the reformers served eminently practical ends.