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Why did Henry IV demand that Pope Gregory VII resign?

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Gregory VII excommunicating Henry IV — St. Gregory VII Pope Gregory VII, after his expulsion from Rome, laying a ban of excommunication on the clergy “together with the raging king” (Henry IV of Germany), drawing from the 12th-century chronicle of Otto of Freising; in the library of the University of Jena, Germany.

Henry IV’s demand that Pope Gregory VII resign was the culmination of a deteriorating relationship centered on the struggle for authority between the church and state.

The conflict intensified after Gregory VII criticized Henry for his continued intervention in church affairs, specifically his appointment of bishops in Milan, Fermo, and Spoleto, and his refusal to sever ties with advisers who had been excommunicated by the papacy. When Gregory sent a letter in late 1075 rebuking the king and threatening him with excommunication, Henry responded with defiance.123

At an imperial assembly held at Worms in January 1076, Henry IV and a majority of the German bishops formally renounced their obedience to the pope. Henry denounced Gregory as a false monk and demanded his abdication, calling upon the Romans to elect a new pope. This impulsive act transformed a specific dispute over lay investiture into a fundamental ideological battle regarding whether the emperor or the pope held supreme authority over Christendom.123