Papal Finance and the Papal State
Peter Partner asserts that, from a financial point of view, the Reformation was a paradox; the final outburst against Papal exactions came at a moment when the Popes were less guilty under this charge than they had been for many centuries.
Machiavelli never missed a chance to bait the Church, and the Papal State does not escape his irony. He taunts the Popes as old and ailing men, unfit for war and dogged by approaching death. The inefficiency of their rule was proverbial; few of them could stand up to the fearful physical and mental gymnastics required of a Renaissance prince. Of all rulers, only they “possess states and do not defend them, have subjects and do not govern them.”
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