In 1022, a major reforming council was held at Pavia under the joint authority of the emperor Henry II ⓘ and the pope Pope Benedict VIII ⓘ.

Convened during a period of growing concern over clerical discipline, the Synod of Pavia addressed two principal abuses within the Church:

• Simony ⓘ — the buying and selling of ecclesiastical offices

• Clerical marriage and concubinage — seen as incompatible with reform ideals

The council reinforced earlier reforming legislation and affirmed cooperation between imperial and papal authority in correcting moral and institutional corruption. Henry II strongly supported the decrees, aligning imperial power with the emerging reform movement that would later culminate in the Gregorian Reform ⓘ.

The synod exemplifies the early eleventh-century phase of reform, still characterised by imperial–papal collaboration rather than the later confrontations of the Investiture Controversy.