The polity period begins with the imperial sack of Rome (1527). This devastating sack at the hands of largely Protestant mercenaries-theoretically in the service of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V-marks an absolute nadir of papal fortunes for the early modern period. The sack provoked the papacy to reform itself, take the Protestant revolt seriously, and initiate the Counter-Reformation (aka the Catholic Reformation).
[1]
The age of the Council of Trent (1543-1563) dramatically altered the Catholic Church, enhancing the papacy’s power within the Church and enhancing its ability to police the laity, with institutions such as the Roman Inquisition being established in 1542 by Paul III.
[2]
The index of banned books was established, tighter clerical control over canonization imposed, and in general the Catholic Church ratcheted down on orthodoxy in the face of the Protestant threat.
[3]
The sack of Rome was compounded by malaria epidemics and food shortages, to drastically reduce the population of Rome to perhaps 10,000 in 1527-28.
[4]
Despite this, the city soon recovered and boomed in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as the capital of a more or less stable Papal State, under Spanish protection. By the turn of the century, Rome’s population may have been around 100,000.
[5]
Marino has characterized the early modern city’s economy as parasitic, consuming and not producing wealth
[6]
; Goldthwaite, similarly, describes late medieval and early modern Rome thus: "Rome, however, was a city that consumed but did not produce; in contrast to Avignon, it was not a regional export market of any importance."
[5]
A major part of this consumption was cultural: "Rome...exploded [in the sixteenth century] into an enormous market for luxury goods...."
[5]
Despite the sack, the most important papal building project of the early modern period, St. Peter’s Basilica, was completed in 1626. Spanish financial and military support was crucial to the survival of the Papal State; a famous letter of Charles V, written to his son Philip II between 1545 and 1558, declared that "’the states of the church are in the center of Italy, but [they are] surrounded by ours in such a way that one can say that they form one kingdom.’"
[7]
De facto Spanish hegemony over the Papal State would not be seriously challenged between the mid-16th century and the pontificate of Urban VIII (1623-44).
[7]
By the sixteenth century, the papacy was firmly in control of the Papal State, and the polity was at peace after the end of the Great Italian Wars (1559). The Spanish alliance remained a cornerstone of papal policy into the early 18th century.
[8]
The papacy ruled Rome and the State through a sophisticated bureaucracy based on patronage, cronyism, and the purchase of offices.
[9]
[10]
The feudal barons and nobles were subject to clerical officials appointed by the Papacy.
[11]
Although this bureaucracy was usually able to meet the basic requirements of government-collecting taxes, administering justice, and protecting subjects-this does not mean that the Papal State was free of violence, famine, and so forth. Banditry remained a major problem during the period and would straight through to the late nineteenth century.
[12]
[13]
After the end of the Wars, military action involving the papacy shifted to the Mediterranean. The Ottomans had begun raiding papal possessions on the Adriatic littoral from the mid-15th century, following the fall of Constantinople. These raids were not preludes to conquest, but were a serious disruption to trade and daily life in le Marche; in 1518, Selim I’s forces had torched Porto Recanati, the port for Loreto, site of a major shrine to the Virgin. This imminent threat, compounded with the papacy’s traditional role as organizer and propagandist of the crusade, resulted in deep papal involvement in the struggle against the Ottomans. Initially, these efforts were not successful. The major Turkish victory at Prevesa (1538) opened the Central Mediterranean to Turkish raiding and piracy; the Ottomans’ alliance with the French even allowed the Turkish fleet to winter in Toulon.
[14]
This ability of the Turks to winter in the western Mediterranean exposed the coast of Lazio to Turkish piracy; for example, Andrea Doria, leading a mixed papal-Genoese fleet, was defeated by Turks and North Africans off Terracina in 1552.
[15]
Confronted with this Turkish menace, the papacy was crucial in organizing Christian campaigns against the Turks in North Africa and Greece, and in funding coastal defences for Lazio and the Kingdoms of Sicily & Naples. Pius V (1566-1572) was of particular importance in this effort, laying the groundwork for a papal fleet.
[16]
Pius granted major sources of ecclesiastical revenue to the Spanish Philip II, and was instrumental in organizing the councils and diplomatic wrangling that led to the creation of the Holy League in 1570, in particular convincing the Spanish to come to the aid of the Ventians.
[17]
The Holy League consisted of the Papacy, Spain, and Venice; by the final agreement, each party agreed to contributions for 3 years, for an annual expedition consisting of 200 galleys, 100 roundships, 50,000 infantry and 4,500 light infantry.
[18]
The Christian fleet met and decisively defeated a comparable Turkish squadron at Lepanto, off the Greek Ionian littoral, on 7 October 1571. It was the greatest battle in the Mediterranean in the 16th century, and it marked a substantive end to Turkish raiding on the papal lands and, more importantly, led to the division of the Mediterranean into a Turkish east and a Christian west. The papacy’s international prestige rose to new heights with the victory, as well, but declined during the seventeenth century due to the grasping annexation of the duchy of Urbino and Urban VIII’s foolish war of Castro in the early 1640s.
[19]
Italy enjoyed several decades of peace following the peace of Cateau-Cambresis of 1559 between France and Spain. Yet economically and demographically, the 1590s and the first half of the seventeenth century were a period of general crisis in Italy. The "decline of Italy" is a venerable aspect of early modern historiography, but depends on a particular view of what counts in assessing quality of life: see Black, (2001, 32), for an approving echo of Braudel’s comments to the contrary
[20]
Papal revenues were aided by the popes’ ability to draw on Spanish ecclesiastical revenues.
[21]
Demographically, the first half of the seventeenth century was a succession of plagues and famines in many parts of the peninsula.
[22]
A particularly virulent plague cycle hit Rome in 1656,
[23]
dropping its population from 120,000 to 100,000.
[22]
[1]: (Martin 2002, 39-42) John M Marino, ed. 2002. Early Modern Italy, 1550-1796. Oxford: Oxford UP.
[2]: (Martin 2002, 42) John M Marino, ed. 2002. Early Modern Italy, 1550-1796. Oxford: Oxford UP.
[3]: (Schutte 2002, 126-127) John M Marino, ed. 2002. Early Modern Italy, 1550-1796. Oxford: Oxford UP.
[4]: (Black 2001, 9) Christopher F Black. 2001. Early modern Italy. A social history. London: Routledge.
[5]: (Goldthwaite 2009, 173) Richard A Goldthwaite. 2009. The economy of renaissance Florence. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins UP, 2009.
[6]: (Marino 2002, 66) John M Marino, ed. 2002. Early Modern Italy, 1550-1796. Oxford: Oxford UP.
[7]: (Dandelet 2003, 221) Thomas Dandelet. 2003. "The Spanish Foundations of Late Renaissance and Baroque Rome." In Beyond Florence. The Contours of Medieval and Early Modern Italy.Paula Findlen, Michelle M. Fontaine, and Duane J. Osheim eds. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP. pp. 219-232
[8]: (Dandelet 2002, 29) John M Marino, ed. 2002. Early Modern Italy, 1550-1796. Oxford: Oxford UP.
[9]: (Dandelet 2002, 20) John M Marino, ed. 2002. Early Modern Italy, 1550-1796. Oxford: Oxford UP.
[10]: (Braudel 1973, 696-698) Fernand Braudel. 1973. The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II. Trans. Sian Reynolds. New York: Harper Colophon Books.
[11]: (Symcox 2002, 114) John M Marino, ed. 2002. Early Modern Italy, 1550-1796. Oxford: Oxford UP.
[12]: (Symcox 2002, 110) John M Marino, ed. 2002. Early Modern Italy, 1550-1796. Oxford: Oxford UP.
[13]: (Braudel 1973, 745-746) Fernand Braudel. 1973. The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II. Trans. Sian Reynolds. New York: Harper Colophon Books.
[14]: (Braudel 1973, 906) Fernand Braudel. 1973. The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II. Trans. Sian Reynolds. New York: Harper Colophon Books.
[15]: (Braudel 1973, 924) Fernand Braudel. 1973. The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II. Trans. Sian Reynolds. New York: Harper Colophon Books.
[16]: (Braudel 1973, 1083) Fernand Braudel. 1973. The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II. Trans. Sian Reynolds. New York: Harper Colophon Books.
[17]: (Braudel 1973, 1029) Fernand Braudel. 1973. The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II. Trans. Sian Reynolds. New York: Harper Colophon Books.
[18]: (Braudel 1973, 1091) Fernand Braudel. 1973. The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II. Trans. Sian Reynolds. New York: Harper Colophon Books.
[19]: (Sella 1997, 9-10) Dominc Sella. 1997. Italy in the Seventeeth Century. London & New York: Longman.
[20]: (Black 2001, 32) Christopher F Black. 2001. Early modern Italy. A social history. London: Routledge.
[21]: (Dandelet 2003, 219-232) Thomas Dandelet. 2003. "The Spanish Foundations of Late Renaissance and Baroque Rome." In Beyond Florence. The Contours of Medieval and Early Modern Italy.Paula Findlen, Michelle M. Fontaine, and Duane J. Osheim eds. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP. pp. 219-232
[22]: (Black 2001, 23) Christopher F Black. 2001. Early modern Italy. A social history. London: Routledge.
[23]: (Cipolla 1981, 90) Carlo M Cipolla. 1981. Fighting the plague in Seventeenth-century Italy. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
| 33 T |
| Papal States - Medieval Period I |
| Rome |
| Stato Pontificio | |
| Patrimonium Sancti Petri | |
| The Papal States | |
| Stato della Chiesa | |
| Papal States Modern I |
| alliance with [---] |
| Roman Catholicism |
| Papal States - Medieval Period II |
| continuity |
| Succeeding: Papal States - Early Modern Period II (it_papal_state_4) [continuity] | |
| Preceding: Papal States - Renaissance Period (it_papal_state_2) [continuity] |
| unitary state |
| 10,000 people | 1527 CE |
| 45,000 people | 1550 CE |
| 116,695 people | 1591 CE |
| 99,312 people | 1602 CE |
| 44,000 km2 |
| 1,600,000 people |
| Year Range | Papal States - Early Modern Period I (it_papal_state_3) was in: |
|---|---|
| (1527 CE 1647 CE) | Latium |
Statum Pontificum
The sack of Rome in 1527 devastated Rome and marked a nadir in the fortunes of the Papal States. The papacy gradually rebuilt its power and prestige during the 16th century, with the onset of the Counter-Reformation. The Treaty of Westphalia (1648), ending the Thirty Years’ War, was a symbolic turning point marking the eclipse of papal influence in the international affairs of Europe; the economy and demography of the Papal States, along with that of the rest of Italy, was also in marked decline by this point. 1571 CE was the year of the battle of Lepanto, in which the papally-inspired Holy League decisively defeated an Ottoman fleet in the largest naval battle in Mediterranean history. [1] It marks a high point for the papacy in terms of international prestige. However, it does not necessarily mark the Papal States’ peak economically or culturally, and papal prestige was internationally eclipsed during the seventeenth century due to its annexation of Urbino and the embarrassing War of Castro. [2]
[1]: See Braudel, vol. II, 1027-44, for the diplomatic wrangling surrounding the creation of the Holy League
[2]: Sella, 9-10
The sack of Rome in 1527 devastated the city and marked a nadir in the fortunes of the Papal States. The papacy gradually rebuilt its power and prestige during the 16th century, with the onset of the Counter-Reformation. The Treaty of Westphalia (1648), ending the Thirty Years’ War, was a symbolic turning point marking the eclipse of papal influence in the international affairs of Europe; the economy and demography of the Papal States, along with that of the rest of Italy, was also in marked decline by this point.
The Papacy was a key member of the Holy League, a coalition of Christian powers funded in part by the Spanish monarchy and directed against the Ottoman Turks, during this period (the active life of the League was roughly 1570-73 [1] . The code should be bracketed reflect that at the beginning of the period through 1559, the papacy was at times at war with the Spanish, and because the Holy League had largely ceased functioning by around 1580. Generally speaking, the period after 1559 was marked by Spanish hegemony throughout Italy, the pax hispanica. [2] Dandelet and Symcox characterized the papacy during this period as, generally, beholden to the Spanish, along with the other principalities of the Peninsula, such as Tuscany and Ferrara; this arrangement was only challenged beginning in the 1610s, by the Kingdom of Savoy. [3] Furthermore, the papacy and the city of Rome in particular benefited tremendously from Spanish financial assistance and cultural patronage. [4]
[1]: See Braudel, 1125-42, for the end of the League)
[2]: Dandelet in Marino
[3]: See Symcox in Marino, 165, for the Savoyard challenge to the pax hispanica
[4]: Dandelet in Findlen, et. al., 221
Papal State, Holy Wars
The papal bureaucracy (the curia) was, to a significant degree, able to enforce decisions and collect taxes for the papacy during the second half the period. The foundations of political power in the Papal State during this period remained a unity of interests between the Roman nobles, the rural nobility of the Papal States and Lazio in particular, and the papal government. [1] This internal arrangement was usually based on a wider context of Spanish protection of the papacy and bankrolling its armies. [2] Brackets should be added, however, to reflect the fact that clerical officials appointed by the papacy were not always superior, in practice, to these nobles, particularly in rural areas and on the fringes of the Papal State.
[1]: Symcox in Marino, 114
[2]: Dandelet in Marino, 25
Figures are for Rome; although the population shrank to around 10,000 following the sack of 1527, it quickly recovered to be the largest city in the Papal States. [1] Black notes that Bologna’s population in 1581 was around 70,661, however, making it possibly larger than Rome for a brief period between the 1550s and 1591. [2]
[1]: The numbers are taken from Bairoch, et. al., 47
[2]: Black, 218
Figures are for Rome; although the population shrank to around 10,000 following the sack of 1527, it quickly recovered to be the largest city in the Papal States. [1] Black notes that Bologna’s population in 1581 was around 70,661, however, making it possibly larger than Rome for a brief period between the 1550s and 1591. [2]
[1]: The numbers are taken from Bairoch, et. al., 47
[2]: Black, 218
Figures are for Rome; although the population shrank to around 10,000 following the sack of 1527, it quickly recovered to be the largest city in the Papal States. [1] Black notes that Bologna’s population in 1581 was around 70,661, however, making it possibly larger than Rome for a brief period between the 1550s and 1591. [2]
[1]: The numbers are taken from Bairoch, et. al., 47
[2]: Black, 218
Figures are for Rome; although the population shrank to around 10,000 following the sack of 1527, it quickly recovered to be the largest city in the Papal States. [1] Black notes that Bologna’s population in 1581 was around 70,661, however, making it possibly larger than Rome for a brief period between the 1550s and 1591. [2]
[1]: The numbers are taken from Bairoch, et. al., 47
[2]: Black, 218
This was the extent of the Papal States in 1649, following the papacy’s cession of some cities in the Po Valley to the Farnese and Este; the brackets reflect that these areas, in the extreme north of the Papal States, passed back and forth between de facto independence, acknowledgment of papal suzerainty, and direct submission to the papacy during the period.
This figure is from Black and predates the beginning date of the polity period.
[1]
ET: McEvedy and Jones estimate 12,000,000 for the whole of Italy in 1600 CE, an increase from the previous century.
[2]
We don’t know where this increase occurred although we do estimate that the population of Rome "boomed" in the 16th Century. However, this could be rebound after the depopulation that followed the sack of Rome 1527 CE, and may not represent a demographic trend as such. Even so, it was an impressive recovery despite the famines and plagues. We could use the figure again for this period as a rough guess.
[1]: Black, 218
[2]: (McEvedy and Jones 1978, 107)
levels. The papal palace complexes within Rome; Rome; large provincial cities (Bologna, Ancona); towns; villages
Papal palace complexes: The papal palaces in Rome-especially the Lateran and the Vatican-contained increasingly large bureaucracies.
1. Rome: The largest city of the Papal States; although the 1527 sack reduced the population, the city quickly recovered.
2. Large provincial cities: Bologna, Ancona, Ferrara.
3. Towns: Provincial centers such as Perugia served as administrative centers for provincial government.
4. Villages: Market towns such as Norcia.
levels. Pope; cardinals; archbishops; bishops, abbots, and directors of the religious orders; parish priests and rank and file of the religious orders; deacons
1. Pope: The undisputed head of the Roman Catholic Church, and pontifex maximus
2. Cardinals: Since the Middle Ages, they had assumed ever-greater powers in the Church, electing popes, overseeing dioceses in some cases, and handling theological disputes
3. Archbishops: Overseers of suffragan bishoprics; some archbishops were cardinals
4. Bishops, abbots, directors of the religious orders: Bishops of individual dioceses (such as the bishop of Lucca); abbots, heads of abbeys; directors of the religious orders: The leaders of orders such as the Jesuits, Carmelites, and Franciscans.
5. Parish priests and the rank and file of the orders: The quotidian representatives of the Church, corresponding to the parish.
6. deacons: usually, charged with the upkeep of churches; the Roman deacons still probably played a role in the upkeep of the city.
levels. Pope; cardinals and other officials appointed by the popes to command armies; unit commanders; rank and file troops
1. Pope: The pope was still the overall commander of papal armies, and Julius II (1503-1513) was notorious for taking the field with his troops like a secular military leader.
2. Cardinals and other appointees: Papal troops were often part of wider coalitions during this period (such as the Holy League of 1570-71), and so were under the command of Spanish or Austrian Habsburg commanders.
3. Mercenary commanders: The great age of the condottieri was over, and so this level should, perhaps, be bracketed as equivalent to "other appointees."
4. Unit commanders: commanders of infantry regiments, artillery units, and so fort.
5. Rank and file troops: The papacy maintained garrisons in the Papal State, especially in fortress towns such as Loreto (a fortified shrine on the Adriatic, and often threatened by Turkish squadrons). In addition, Spanish troops often supported the Papacy or did the fighting for the popes.
Pope; Cardinals and legates; rectors, counts, and dukes; the papal curia; garrison commanders, village leaders, and provincial officials
1. Pope: The pope remained the head of a vast bureaucracy and leader of the papal state, and by the late sixteenth century his authority was rarely directly challenged in the Papal State.
2. Cardinals and legates: The cardinalate was a fundamental part of the administration and politics of the Papal State. Legates-often, themselves, cardinals-handled diplomatic business outside of the papal states. The cardinals’ palaces in Rome were in effect sub-headquarters of the papal bureaucracy.
3. Rectors, counts, governors: These were the clerical officials sent out by the papacy to the provinces of the Papal State..
3. The curia: The papal bureaucracy was a massive, complex machine founded on bribery, the sale of offices, and patronage politics. The sale of offices within the curia had long been routinized, but following the Council of Trent (1545-1563), the Counter-Reformation began curtailing the nepotism and corruption that characterized the Renaissance-era papacy.
[1]
4. Garrison commanders, village leaders: I use this category to denote minor officials in the provinces of the papal states, who often were appointed locally; the unit of territory would be the parish, which remained the basic unit of religious and administrative organization in the Papal State until at least the Napoleonic invasions, and in many ways beyond.
[2]
[1]: Martin in Marino, 30
[2]: Reynolds, 79
there is no indication that there were regular, institutionalized procedures for promotion based on performance.
As in earlier periods, the Papal States possessed foundational legal texts in the form of the Codex Iustinianus, canon law, papal bulls, and the various constitutions and edicts that governed individual territories’ relationship with the papacy as a central power. The Constitutiones egidianae (1357) still remained the basis for mundane law and administration in the Papal States.
Historians, notaries, and the full range of other record-keepers were active throughout the period.
Historians, notaries, and the full range of other record-keepers were active throughout the period.
This may warrant a bracket once the coding schemata is complete, because I have not found direct mentions of mnemonic devices; my "present" code is due to the use of mnemonic devices in Latin instruction, for the late Middle Ages.
Sacred texts include the Catholic bible and the writings of the Fathers.
Saints’ lives, spiritual guides, collections of various papal writings, and monastic rules are examples of this genre.
The latter part of this period made up the seventeenth-century crisis, following the Price Revolution brought on by the influx of New World silver. [1] From the early fifteenth century and on into the seventeenth, the papacy controlled the mines of Tolfa through Florentine investors. [2]
[1]: Marino, 64
[2]: Goldthwaite, 173
Although by this period international banking had reached a level of complexity by which towns like Florence often used bills of sale and credit in a way similar to paper currency, paper currency made by central banks did not exist yet.
By this point the economy of the Papal State was mostly monetized, as with most of Italy. However, the concept of articles as money and the practice of this was unlikely lost completely.
This should be bracketed. I have not found any specific mentions of postal stations, but the ongoing bureaucratization of the post delivery system would probably have led to this.
This should be bracketed. The Spain-Italy route was, in theory, intended for royal and diplomatic correspondence alone, but private citizens could probably use it occasionally, hence the bracket.
I should emphasize, however, that stone walls of all sorts had largely given way by this period to earthworks and integrated, artillery-resistant fortifications (such as the fortezze stelle, the famous Italian star-forts.
By this point, stand-alone fortresses were a more common way to defend a city than continuous, multi-circle wall-circuits. Good examples from just north of the Papal States are found in Florence: During the 16th century, the Medici built the Fortezza da Basso and the Fortezza da Belvedere on opposite ends of the city; combined, their artillery dominated the city. Coastal fortresses became increasingly common along the Adriatic coast to defend the Papal State from Turkish raids, after 1530 or so. [1]
[1]: Mallet & Shaw, 184
Added by Ed: Catapults, even if they no longer could bring down walls, could still be used to throw fire, diseased men or animals over walls. Don’t have access to enough of the following reference to know if the Papal States did this but certainly the technology was still available for use in some offensive capacity. [1] Otherwise, entirely supplanted by the gunpowder artillery.
[1]: Michael Mallett (2009) Mercenaries and their Masters: Warfare in Renaissance Italy. Pen & Sword Military. Barnsley.
The battle of Pavia (1525) proved the value of arquebusiers, and firearms dominated European warfare from thereon, although Charles VIII had used mobile artillery in his initial (1494-1498) invasion of Italy. [1] Papal States 1450s CE: "the large scale introduction of hand firearms. The earliest hand firearm was the schioppetto or hand-gun, and the introduction of these has been postulated as earl as the late thirteenth century. By the second half of the fourteenth century there is a good deal of sporadic evidence of their use but almost entirely in the defence of towns. The primitive hand-gun was three or four feet long, rather cumbersome and shapeless and had to be fired with a match. ... by the 1430’s there was growing evidence of groups of specialist hand-gun men in the field armies. ... appeared in the papal army from at least the mid-1450’s." [2] The arquebus was introduced in the late 15th CE. [2]
[1]: Mallett and Shaw, 152
[2]: Michael Mallett (2009) Mercenaries and their Masters: Warfare in Renaissance Italy. Pen & Sword Military. Barnsley.
”The exact moment of their invention is till a matter of dispute, but throughout the fourteenth century there is plenty of evidence of their use in Italy. Florence was already making cannon which fired iron balls in 1326, and the papal army in the fourteenth century was one of the best equipped in this respect." [1]
[1]: Michael Mallett (2009) Mercenaries and their Masters: Warfare in Renaissance Italy. Pen & Sword Military. Barnsley.
The Papal States often used foreign mercenaries who may have had access to the crossbow. Certainly being used in the 15th CE (inferred for this time?): “In the Papal States Spoleto had developed a considerable arms industry and supplied crossbow bolts, shields and lances to the army.” [1]
[1]: Michael Mallett (2009) Mercenaries and their Masters: Warfare in Renaissance Italy. Pen & Sword Military. Barnsley.
As far as I have read, dogs were not used within the Papal States. The Spanish, however, used war dogs against the natives when conquering the Americas.
The Papacy maintained a standing fleet of various size during this period, and contributed galleys to the Holy League, an alliance of Christian powers against the Ottoman Turks. [1] The papacy also provided the Spanish monarchy with an annual contribution (the quinquenio) to build war galleys for use against the Ottomans. [2]
[1]: Dandelet in Marino, 18
[2]: Braudel, 1029