Papal States - High Medieval Period

  General Description   In the 1198-1309 CE period the Papacy, from Innocent III, extended its power over the temporal realm, and over Christendom. The period ends with the Angevin exile from 1309 CE.
The term Christendom (Christianitas) reflects the supranational scope of the Papacy, which being also an international religion, had a degree of control beyond the territorial borders of the Papal State. ^[1] Whilst in previous times Rome was dominated by France and then German monarchs, under the rule of Pope Innocent III (r. 1198-1216 CE), ’the king maker of Christendom’, papal authority, particularly in influence around Europe, was at its medieval height. He initiated several crusades and presided over the Fourth Lateran Council ^[2] that defined an important Catholic ritual, the Eucharist.
Innocent III "viewed himself explicitly as the vicar of Christ, priest and king, who possessed unrivaled temporal and religious authority" ^[3] and this combined with a "general acceptance that the pope was the vicar of Christ and the growing sense of Christians, nourished by the reforms of the eleventh century, that they were part of a supranational entity, Christendom (Christianitas), and that their primary loyalty was to that body and to the pope as head of Christendom, rather than to any local, regional, or even national entity." ^[3]
Armies of the Papal States were a conglomeration of international allies, friendly towns and nobles, volunteer crusaders, and the forces directly raised by the pope. ^[4] The papal state formed many alliances with during this period, held the nominal allegiance of some polities (the Norman duchies to the south are just one good example of both of these), and held vassals of its own (albeit ones that were notoriously difficult to control). War with the Holy Roman Empire characterised the Papal State’s international relations.
Based at the Lateran Palace in Rome, the Papal bureaucracy consisted of scribes, archivists, tax collectors, papal messengers, and administrators charged with the upkeep of the city ^[5] which at this time was no greater than the size of a large town, with about 35,000 inhabitants. ^[6]

[1]: (Madigan 2015) K Madigan. 2015. Medieval Christianity: A New History. Yale University Press. New Haven.

[2]: (Vauchez 2010, 356) André Vauchez ed. Roma Medievale. Rome: Editori Laterza, 2010 [2001].

[3]: (Madigan 2015, 291) K Madigan. 2015. Medieval Christianity: A New History. Yale University Press. New Haven.

[4]: (Waley 1957, 1-30) D P Waley. January 1957. Papal Armies of the Thirteen Century, Vol. 72, No. 282, The English Historical Review. pp. 1-30

[5]: Carocci and Vendittelli, 74-75

[6]: (Brentano 1991, 13) Robert Brentano. 1991. Rome Before Avignon: A Social History of Thirteenth-Century Rome. Berkeley: University of California Press.