The Loss of the Church State

Abstract

It had been traditional papal policy, ever since the days of Cesare Borgia, to reform and develop the government of the Church State; indeed, it could even be said that reform dated back to the pontificate of Martin Vin the early fifteenth century. The improvement in the government came not so much from centralizing institutions as from the introduction of constitutions enjoying papal protection and the replacement of bad governors by good. As the old tyrants and vicars were removed, they were replaced by papal nominees, but these men were often in fact as powerful within their own area as the tyrants they replaced. Papal legates and governors received princely salaries; the presidents of the six legations (Bologna, the March, Romagna, Patrimony, Perugia, Campagna) each received a salary of 1200 ducats a year, and, as governor of Modena alone, Guicciardini received the same salary. Theoretically the district representatives of the papacy, the papal governors in the towns of the Church State were in fact subjected to no law or control and they had total power over the life and death of their subjects:

The pope being far off and occupied with much greater affairs, his subjects can only have recourse to him at great expense and with great difficulty, and very little likelihood of success, so they think it a lesser evil to bear the injuries done them by their governors than to seek a remedy, losing time and money and further provoking those who are in a position to damage them. Hence the governor both is and seems the master of the city.¹

The Italian League want me to make the emperor master of Italy and I will do so.

Clement VII