The Renaissance papacy had a difficult beginning, in that the office had been split between Rome and Avignon between 1378 and 1417, as antipopes competed with the pope in Rome. This Great Schism was resolved by the Council of Constance, which installed Martin V as the new pope. Although two antipopes also demanded recognition, the Western Church followed Martin V as their leader.
The word papacy derives from papa, Italian for “father,” and the pope functioned as the spiritual father of the Western Church. As was the Catholic Church in general, 15th-century popes were concerned about abuses within the papacy. Pope Pius II (1405-64), for example, denounced corruption during the 1458 meeting of the college of cardinals that elected him as pope: “The richer and more influential members of the college summoned the rest and sought to gain the papacy for themselves or their friends. They begged, promised, threatened, and some, shamelessly casting aside all decency, pleaded their own causes and claimed the papacy as their right” (Ross and McLaughlin 1968, p. 631). Pius II was well aware that the papacy offered wealth and prestige. The pope ruled the Papal States, consisting of Romagna, Umbria, the Marches, Campagna, Marittima, Rome, and the Patrimony of Saint Peter, with Ferrara as his vassal. (Some of these regions were claimed by others at various times.) These were productive agricultural regions that also manufactured textiles and paper, with a salt mine in Cervia and an alum mine in Tolfa. Income from the Papal States was managed by the Roman Curia, supervised by the col-
Handbook to Life in Renaissance Europe
Lege of cardinals and the pope himself. The popes of the Renaissance represented many types of men, from libertines who had numerous illegitimate children to saintly scholars who promoted the study of theology. The most memorable Renaissance popes are discussed in the sections that follow.
World History
