The papacy was victorious in the Second War of Castro (1649). This was only the denouement of a minor episode, however, and in general the Papal State was a political fossil, undertaking no reforms in the spirit of the Enlightenment, and increasingly irrelevant to European affairs.
[1]
The first part of this period marked the definitive eclipse of the papacy as a power of any reckoning in international relations. Pope Urban VIII had annexed the Duchy of Urbino to the Papal States in 1631, thereby alienating the papacy from the other Italian powers.
[2]
The first war of Castro broke out in 1641 when Urban declared war on the Farnese, the ruling family of Parma, over the poor finances of Castro, a small fiefdom held by the Farnese just north of Rome. Tuscany, Modena and Venice joined the Farnese to resist the papacy, and inflicted humiliating defeats on the papal armies.
[3]
In 1644, the French imposed a peace settlement. Although Pope Innocent X’s troops took Castro and razed it to the ground in 1649, the papacy was now isolated internationally and increasingly irrelevant. The papacy took no part in the Peace of Westphalia, and it was also not consulted in the Franco-Spanish Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659).
[4]
The papacy took no part in European wars for the rest of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
The papacy’s irrelevance internationally can be seen as part of the decline of the Spanish empire, as had benefited from Spanish protection during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.
[5]
The French came to dominate European affairs during the reign of Louis XIV, but the struggle for power in Europe did not seriously affect the Papal State until the turn of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Warfare ravaged the peninsula in the early eighteenth century, as the (Austrian) Habsburgs and French Bourbons battled to fill the vacuum created by Spain’s gradual eclipse.
[6]
These wars were external events imposed on the Italian states, and they took as little part as possible. Spanish attempts to recruit troops at Rome in the 1730s were met by serious riots, for example.
[7]
The War of the Austrian Succession devastated areas of the Marches and Romagna, but the papacy, it seems, was powerless to prevent foreign armies’ depredations.
[7]
As the eighteenth century progressed, this weakness, even impotence, became ever more marked. Clement XI in 1720 and Clement XII called for an Italian league to expel northern rulers, but these appeals were meaningless because the papacy controlled no armies worth speaking of.
[8]
Thus, international relations between the papacy and the European powers during the later 18th century consisted of papal resistance to European states’ attempts to restrain the power of the Church.
[9]
This took its characteristic form in the French and Spanish expulsion of the Jesuit Order from their domains; in 1773, Pope Clement XIV suppressed the order.
[10]
As a reward, the French restored Avignon and the Spanish Benevento to the papacy.
[11]
The papacy opposed the French Revolution from the beginning, and by 1792, there was a schism in France between Catholics who supported the Church sanctioned by the Revolutionary regime, and those who remained faithful to Rome.
[12]
Pius VI sympathized with the Habsburgs and the revolutionary regime’s enemies, and his successor was powerless in the face of Bonaparte’s 1796 invasion of the peninsula.
[13]
Indeed, the papal ambassador Zelada’s reply to British requests for papal approval of the war against the French was the following:
[14]
"’It is true that there was a time when the voice of the Roman Pontiff was heard, respected, and obeyed; now...it is scarcely listened ever listened to, and never has any effect.’" Although the British fleet had briefly protected the Papal States’ coasts from the French, by 1796 the British had withdrawn.
[14]
Napoleon did not initially invade the Papal States proper, only the Legation cities of Ravenna, Bologna, and Ferrara; in the following peace treaty, the French annexed Ravenna, Bologna, Ancona, and the right of entry to all papal ports.
[15]
The papacy furthermore had to pay Napoleon 21 million crowns. War recommenced in 1797, and Bonaparte marched almost unopposed down the eastern coast of the peninsula, stealing whatever the papal government had not yet removed of the treasury at Loreto and forcing terms on the papacy at Tolentino in mid-February.
[16]
Refusing to acquiesce in French domination, Pius VI was arrested in February 1798 and bundled off to prison in Valence, France.
The second half the 1600s was marked by a renewal of "Christianization" efforts, i.e., to educate the laity and ensure a stricter adherence to post-Tridentine Catholicism.
[17]
The wars, famines, and epidemics between 1610 and the mid-1650s had disrupted these efforts, but there was a "Tridentine revival" in the second half of the century resulting in Jesuit missions to the Kingdom of Naples, and more frequent pastoral visits by bishops.
[18]
The Inquisition, which had been institutionalized as the Roman Inquisition in the sixteenth century, was still active, although it may not have burnt as many heretics and witches as authorities north of the Alps.
[19]
The Inquisition censored books, although it was not necessarily successful at preventing their spread.
[19]
Pilgrimage remained popular, especially in Jubilee years (in this period, 1725, 1750, and 1775), and confraternities showed remarkable staying power, especially in the duchy of Benevento and the kingdom of Naples. Baptism and the Mass remained little changed, although parish records became a standard part of the Church’s institutional machinery.
The seventeenth century was a period of major demographic and economic contraction, but by the mid-18th century, recovery had begun.
[20]
Gross has estimated that in 1684, the Papal States’ trade and payment deficit was five million scudi; in 1786, the Papal States’ imports exceeded their exports by three times.
[21]
Rome remained what it had long been, a parasitic drain on the Agro Romano.
[22]
The city consisted of a small plutocracy and a vast mass of artisans, courtiers, workers, and a major substratum of the permanently indigent; pilgrims added to the city’s population and its coffers periodically. Ancona, on the other hand, experienced revived prosperity in the mid-18th century following Clement XII’s decree making it a free port.
[23]
Bologna’s economy was in decline due to the implosion of the textile trade.
[23]
An important contribution to the future demographic and economic health of Lazio was the draining of the Pontine Marshes, carried out under Popes Benedict XIV, Clement XIII, and Pius VI.
[24]
[1]: (Symcox 2002, 118) John M Marino, ed. 2002. Early Modern Italy, 1550-1796. Oxford: Oxford UP.
[2]: (Sella 1997, 9-10) Dominc Sella. 1997. Italy in the Seventeeth Century. London & New York: Longman.
[3]: (Sella 1997, 10) Dominc Sella. 1997. Italy in the Seventeeth Century. London & New York: Longman.
[4]: (Sella 1997, 11) Dominc Sella. 1997. Italy in the Seventeeth Century. London & New York: Longman.
[5]: (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
[6]: (Woolf 1979, 29) S J Woolf. 1979. A History of Italy 1700-1860: The Social Constraints of Political Change. 2nd Ed. London: Methuen.
[7]: (Woolf 1979, 35) S J Woolf. 1979. A History of Italy 1700-1860: The Social Constraints of Political Change. 2nd Ed. London: Methuen.
[8]: (Woolf 1979, 37) S J Woolf. 1979. A History of Italy 1700-1860: The Social Constraints of Political Change. 2nd Ed. London: Methuen.
[9]: (Hay 1975, 68) Denys Hay ed. 1975. The New Cambridge Modern History, I: The Renaissance, 1493-1520. Cambridge: Cambridge UP
[10]: (Hay 1975, 40) Denys Hay ed. 1975. The New Cambridge Modern History, I: The Renaissance, 1493-1520. Cambridge: Cambridge UP
[11]: (Hay 1975, 42) Denys Hay ed. 1975. The New Cambridge Modern History, I: The Renaissance, 1493-1520. Cambridge: Cambridge UP
[12]: (Hay 1975, 80) Denys Hay ed. 1975. The New Cambridge Modern History, I: The Renaissance, 1493-1520. Cambridge: Cambridge UP
[13]: (Hay 1975, 80-81) Denys Hay ed. 1975. The New Cambridge Modern History, I: The Renaissance, 1493-1520. Cambridge: Cambridge UP
[14]: (Hay 1975, 98) Denys Hay ed. 1975. The New Cambridge Modern History, I: The Renaissance, 1493-1520. Cambridge: Cambridge UP
[15]: (Hay 1975, 99) Denys Hay ed. 1975. The New Cambridge Modern History, I: The Renaissance, 1493-1520. Cambridge: Cambridge UP
[16]: (Hay 1975, 101) Denys Hay ed. 1975. The New Cambridge Modern History, I: The Renaissance, 1493-1520. Cambridge: Cambridge UP
[17]: (Sella 1997, 106-115) Dominc Sella. 1997. Italy in the Seventeeth Century. London & New York: Longman.
[18]: (Sella 1997, 107) Dominc Sella. 1997. Italy in the Seventeeth Century. London & New York: Longman.
[19]: (Sella 1997, 160) Dominc Sella. 1997. Italy in the Seventeeth Century. London & New York: Longman.
[20]: (Carpanetto and Recuperati 1987, 47) Dino Carpanetto. Giuseppe Ricuperati. 1987. Italy in the Age of Reason, 1685-1789. Trans. Caroline Higgit. London/New York: Oxford UP.
[21]: (Gross 1990, 88) Gross, Hanns. Rome in the Age of Enlightenment: The post-Tridentine syndrome and the ancien regime. Cambridge, CUP.
[22]: (Carpanetto and Recuperati 1987, 15) Dino Carpanetto. Giuseppe Ricuperati. 1987. Italy in the Age of Reason, 1685-1789. Trans. Caroline Higgit. London/New York: Oxford UP.
[23]: (Carpanetto and Recuperati 1987, 16) Dino Carpanetto. Giuseppe Ricuperati. 1987. Italy in the Age of Reason, 1685-1789. Trans. Caroline Higgit. London/New York: Oxford UP.
[24]: (Carpanetto and Recuperati 1987, 48) Dino Carpanetto. Giuseppe Ricuperati. 1987. Italy in the Age of Reason, 1685-1789. Trans. Caroline Higgit. London/New York: Oxford UP.
| 33 T |
| Papal States - Medieval Period II |
| Rome |
| The Papal States | |
| Terrae Sancti Petri | |
| Patrimonium Sancti Petri | |
| Papal States Modern II | |
| Stato Pontificio |
| alliance with [---] |
| Roman Catholicism |
| Napoleonic Empire |
| continuity |
| Preceding: Papal States - Early Modern Period I (it_papal_state_3) [continuity] |
| unitary state |
| 118,000 people | 1652 CE |
| 135,000 people | 1699 CE |
| 158,000 people | 1750 CE |
| 153,000 people | 1800 CE |
| 158,000 people | 1800 CE |
| 44,000 km2 |
| 1,900,000 people | 1700 CE |
| 2,300,000 people | 1800 CE |
| Year Range | Papal States - Early Modern Period II (it_papal_state_4) was in: |
|---|---|
| (1648 CE 1800 CE) | Latium |
Statum Pontificium
The seventeenth century was a period of major demographic and economic contraction, but by the mid-18th century, recovery had begun. [1] Gross has estimated that in 1684, the Papal States’ trade and payment deficit was five million scudi; in 1786, the Papal States’ imports exceeded their exports by three times. [2] Rome remained what it had long been, a parasitic drain on the Agro Romano. [3] An important contribution to the future demographic and economic health of Lazio was the draining of the Pontine Marshes, carried out under Popes Benedict XIV, Clement XIII, and Pius VI. [4]
[1]: Carpanetto and Recuperati, 47
[2]: Gross, 88
[3]: Carpanetto and Ricuperati, 15
[4]: Carpanetto and Recuperati, 48
The polity period begins with the conclusion of the Thirty Years’ War (with the Peace of Westphalia), and the second War of Castro (1649). One end date could be 1796 CE, when the armies of the French Directorate invaded the peninsula, ending the ancien regime. Alternatively one could code the end-date as 1809 CE, when Napoleon annexed the Papal State outright, imprisoning Pope Pius VII in Savona. [1]
[1]: Grab in Davis, 47
It is hard to firmly characterize the supra-polity relations of the Papacy during this period; hegemony on the Italian peninsula shifted from the pax hispanica of the early 17th century to French and then Austrian domination, before the onset of the French revolutionary armies in 1796. I use "alliance" to denote the fact that the papacy was usually dependent on a stronger external power for protection, although the papacy was no longer engaged in wars after the end of the "War of Castro" of the 1640s. [1]
[1]: Symcox, 104
Papal State, Holy Wars
By this period, the papacy was in unchallenged control of the territory encompassed by the Papal States, especially following the War of Castro (see above).
118,047: 1652 CE; 135,089: 1699 CE; 157,881: 1750 CE; {153,004; 158,000}: 1800 CE. These figures are from Black, Gross, and Marino. [1] There should be brackets to reflect disagreement between Bairoch (the only systematic list of urban European demography that I have found), who estimates that Rome contained around 135,000 people in 1700, and more recent estimates in Marino and Black, who also disagree. [2] The first estimate for 1800 is from the complete table Gross [3] gives for annual population estimates for the period 1695-1820; the second is from Bairoch.
[1]: Black, 219; Gross, 55Marino, 66.
[2]: Bairoch, et. al., 47
[3]: Gross, 58
118,047: 1652 CE; 135,089: 1699 CE; 157,881: 1750 CE; {153,004; 158,000}: 1800 CE. These figures are from Black, Gross, and Marino. [1] There should be brackets to reflect disagreement between Bairoch (the only systematic list of urban European demography that I have found), who estimates that Rome contained around 135,000 people in 1700, and more recent estimates in Marino and Black, who also disagree. [2] The first estimate for 1800 is from the complete table Gross [3] gives for annual population estimates for the period 1695-1820; the second is from Bairoch.
[1]: Black, 219; Gross, 55Marino, 66.
[2]: Bairoch, et. al., 47
[3]: Gross, 58
118,047: 1652 CE; 135,089: 1699 CE; 157,881: 1750 CE; {153,004; 158,000}: 1800 CE. These figures are from Black, Gross, and Marino. [1] There should be brackets to reflect disagreement between Bairoch (the only systematic list of urban European demography that I have found), who estimates that Rome contained around 135,000 people in 1700, and more recent estimates in Marino and Black, who also disagree. [2] The first estimate for 1800 is from the complete table Gross [3] gives for annual population estimates for the period 1695-1820; the second is from Bairoch.
[1]: Black, 219; Gross, 55Marino, 66.
[2]: Bairoch, et. al., 47
[3]: Gross, 58
118,047: 1652 CE; 135,089: 1699 CE; 157,881: 1750 CE; {153,004; 158,000}: 1800 CE. These figures are from Black, Gross, and Marino. [1] There should be brackets to reflect disagreement between Bairoch (the only systematic list of urban European demography that I have found), who estimates that Rome contained around 135,000 people in 1700, and more recent estimates in Marino and Black, who also disagree. [2] The first estimate for 1800 is from the complete table Gross [3] gives for annual population estimates for the period 1695-1820; the second is from Bairoch.
[1]: Black, 219; Gross, 55Marino, 66.
[2]: Bairoch, et. al., 47
[3]: Gross, 58
118,047: 1652 CE; 135,089: 1699 CE; 157,881: 1750 CE; {153,004; 158,000}: 1800 CE. These figures are from Black, Gross, and Marino. [1] There should be brackets to reflect disagreement between Bairoch (the only systematic list of urban European demography that I have found), who estimates that Rome contained around 135,000 people in 1700, and more recent estimates in Marino and Black, who also disagree. [2] The first estimate for 1800 is from the complete table Gross [3] gives for annual population estimates for the period 1695-1820; the second is from Bairoch.
[1]: Black, 219; Gross, 55Marino, 66.
[2]: Bairoch, et. al., 47
[3]: Gross, 58
This was the extent of the Papal States in 1649, following some concessions in the Po Valley. The territory contracted and expanded slightly during the period without any substantial adjustments, thus it should be bracketed.
These figure are from Gross. [1] Although Beloch provides figures for individual cities in the Papal State for the period 1500-1800, he does not tally up the figures for a composite total. [2] Precise information for population totals on Lazio for this period would only be obtainable by doing archival research in the various collections of the Vatican. Marino has estimated that there were about 13.3 Italians on the peninsula as a whole around 1600. [3]
[1]: Gross, 60
[2]: Bairoch, 185-241
[3]: Marino, 57
These figure are from Gross. [1] Although Beloch provides figures for individual cities in the Papal State for the period 1500-1800, he does not tally up the figures for a composite total. [2] Precise information for population totals on Lazio for this period would only be obtainable by doing archival research in the various collections of the Vatican. Marino has estimated that there were about 13.3 Italians on the peninsula as a whole around 1600. [3]
[1]: Gross, 60
[2]: Bairoch, 185-241
[3]: Marino, 57
Rome; large provincial cities (Bologna, Perugia); towns; villages
1. Rome: Rome contained around 160,000 people by 1750, and was unquestionably the largest city of the papal states.
[1]
Marino has described it as a parasitic city with no productive base.
2. Large provincial cities: Bologna (65,000 inhabitants in 1718;
[2]
70,964 inhabitants in 1791
[3]
)
3. towns: Provincial centers such as Perugia (which contained around 17,385 people in 1656
[4]
and 13,997 people in 1736
[5]
served as administrative centers for provincial government.
4. villages: Market towns such as Norcia, with 2146 residents in 1736
[6]
Ancona, which held 20,000 people in the mid-seventeenth century, had declined to about 7,000 inhabitants around 1700,
[2]
following papal suppression of religious and ethnic minorities there.
[1]: Marino, 66
[2]: Carpanetto and Ricuperati, 16
[3]: Beloch, 240
[4]: Black, 219
[5]: Bairoch, 230
[6]: Beloch, 230
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.
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 Carmelites and Franciscans.
5. Parish priests and the rank and file of the orders: The quotidian representatives of the Church
6. deacons: usually, charged with the upkeep of churches; the Roman deacons still probably played a role in the upkeep of the city.
Pope; cardinals and other ecclesiastical officials appointed to command armies; mercenary commanders and corps commander; unit commanders; rank and file troops
1. Pope
2. Cardinals and other ecclesiastical officials appointed to command armies
3. mercenary commanders and corps commander
4. Unit commanders
5. Rank and file troops.
Pope; Cardinals and legates; rectors and governors; the papal curia; rural landlords & barons; village leaders, and provincial officials
1. Pope: The pope remained the head of a vast bureaucracy and leader of the papal state.
2. Cardinals and legates: The cardinals’ palaces in Rome were in effect sub-headquarters of the papal bureaucracy.Cardinal-legates ruled Bologna, Ferrara, Ravenna, and Forli (the Legation cities) as papal representatives.
[1]
3. Rectors and governors: These were provincial officials deputed by the pope to run the provinces of the State.
3. The curia: The vast complex of religious and secular administration based in Rome, in the various papal palace complexes.
4. Rural landlords & barons: landholders in the countryside with significant estates, who often either dominated local government or could influence decision-making.
5. village leaders: I use this category to denote minor officials in the provinces of the papal states, who often were appointed locally.
[1]: Davis, 269
Professional military officers served the papacy and were stationed in the Papal States.
No mention of regular, institutionalized procedures for promotion based on performance.
Canon law, papal bulls, and various constitutions all applied in the Papal States.
Is this a piped network that connects the drinking water to individual settlements?
mnemonic devices in Latin instruction in the late Middle Ages. perhaps retained for this period.
Saints’ lives, miracle stories, and Counter-Reformation materials circulated.
Benedict XIV issued the "Immensa Pastorum Principis" a papal bull against the enslavement of the indigenous peoples of the Americas and other countries.
Clerical officials regularly drew up dispatches, tax lists, and so forth.
I have not found any clear evidence of paper currency, but letters of credit and bills of exchange were sophisticated enough by this point to count as paper currency.
This refers to a postal service that not only serves the ruler’s needs, but carries mail for private citizens.
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.
Certainly being used in the 15th CE but maybe hand-guns had supplanted them in use by 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.
Certainly being used in the 15th CE but maybe hand-guns had supplanted them in use by 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.
I coded these as "present", along with spears and swords, to account for such ceremonial outfits as the papacy’s Swiss Guards.