Condottieri ( singular condottiero and condottiere ) were the mercenary soldier leaders ( or warlords ) of the professional, military free companies contracted by the Italian city-states and the Papacy, from the late Middle Ages and throughout the Renaissance.

As a diplomat and state official Pontano played a part of some importance in the affairs of southern Italy and in the Barons ' War, the wars with the Papacy, and the expulsion and restoration of the Aragonese dynasty.

As the seat of the Papacy, the Vatican City and its predecessor, the Papal States, has played an important role in the development of Christian music.

Under Pope Paul V ( reigned 1605 – 1621 ), a major conflict arose between Venice and the Papacy.

In Europe, the Protestant Reformation gave a major blow to the authority of the Papacy and the Roman Catholic Church.

The schism in the western Roman Church resulted from the return of the papacy to Rome under Gregory XI in 1378, ending the Avignon Papacy, which had developed a reputation of corruption that estranged major parts of Western Christendom.

He was credited not only with defending orthodoxy and Church discipline, but also the universal claims of the Papacy in spiritual and temporal affairs, and with such vigor that the Emperor was affronted.

After the restoration of the Papacy in Rome, the spiritual and temporal government of Avignon was entrusted to a gubernatorial Legate, notably the Cardinal-nephew, who was replaced, in his absence, by a vice-legate ( contrary to the legate usually a commoner, and not a cardinal ).

The French Revolution proved as disastrous for the temporal territories of the Papacy as it was for the Roman Church in general.

Because the Papacy had long claimed a form of temporal supremacy over England and Ireland, from the beginning of the 14th century, papal intervention had been particularly active, more especially in two forms.

* The temporal power of the Papacy

The Donation of Constantine had often been cited to support the temporal power of the Papacy, since at least the 11th century.

The selection of the venue for the next council, far from the armed temporal authority of the Papacy, is significant.

His ally Pippin the Younger, King of the Franks, donated the conquered lands of the former exarchate to the Papacy in 756 ; this donation, which was confirmed by his son Charlemagne in 774, marked the beginning of the temporal power of the popes as the Patrimony of Saint Peter.

As it was traditionally a royal prerogative to walk beneath a canopy, Pope Alexander VI began using the umbraculum to symbolise the temporal powers of the Papacy ; it was formerly carried by a man standing behind the Pope, and features in the Coat of arms of the Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church ( who administers the property of the Holy See sede vacante ) and the former arms of the Papal States.

This event has been seen as an attempt by the Papacy to establish a role in the creation of an emperor, which had been placed in doubt by Louis ' self-coronation in 813.

As a result, only deliberations on the role of the Papacy and the congruent relationship of faith and reason were completed, with examination of pastoral issues concerning the direction of the Church left unaddressed.

As Byzantine power weakened, though, the Papacy took an ever larger role in defending Rome from the Lombards, usually through diplomacy ,.

In Europe, where primogeniture governs succession to all monarchies except those of the Papacy and Andorra, the eldest son ( Spain and United Kingdom ) or eldest child ( Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden ) of the current monarch fills the role of crown prince or princess, depending upon whether females of the dynasty enjoy personal succession rights.

Apologists for the Vatican's role during WWII have cited Pope Pius XII's 1942 Christmas address as evidence that the Papacy and the Roman Catholic establishment did indeed condemn Nazi genocide but the relevant passage ( a single short paragraph ) in this address is so vague, obfuscated and un-specific as to offer little support for this claim.

Most damaging was the May 6, 1527, Spanish and German troops ' sacking Rome that for two decades all but ended the role of the Papacy as the largest patron of Renaissance art and architecture.

* The Power and the Glory ( about the Papacy of Pope John Paul II, especially his role in the international community )

Isaiah ) and is in many ways the quintessential symbol of the Papacy as an institution and of its central role within the Catholic Church.

The rays, ' thorns ' or nails that line and protect the vessel were incorporated during the middle ages, an addition that was deemed necessary in lieu of the then power of the Papacy.

Whatever his reasons, he ultimately became the leader of those who were energetically opposed to any addition to, or more stringent definition of, the powers which the Papacy had possessed for centuries.

Lastly is the addition of the insignia of the Papacy.

In addition to this Oak again asserted that the Vatican was allegedly originally a Vedic creation called Vatika and that the Papacy was also originally a Vedic Priesthood.

In addition to this Oak again asserted that the Vatican was allegedly originally a Vedic creation called Vatika and that the Papacy was also originally a Vedic Priesthood.

In addition, the Papacy was forced to repay many outstanding debts to the Loredan family totaling approximately 500, 000 Ducats, an enormous sum of money.

He is memorable in history for suppressing the order of the Knights Templar and executing some of its members, and as the Pope who moved the Curia from Rome to Avignon, ushering in the period known as the Avignon Papacy.

He proved to be an able Pope, with an unlimited capacity for work and a lawyer's eye for detail, and a wise statesman, the general object of whose policy was to free the Papacy from its dependence upon Spain.

1046 Henry ended the papal schism, freed the Papacy from dependence on the Roman nobility, and laid the basis for its universal applicability.

* 1177-The Treaty or Peace of Venice is signed by the Papacy and its allies and Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor.

In the case of several countries, Gregory tried to establish a claim of sovereignty on the part of the Papacy, and to secure the recognition of its self-asserted rights of possession.

During its time in Avignon the Papacy adopted many features of the Royal court: the life-style of its cardinals was more reminiscent of princes than clerics ; more and more French cardinals, often relatives of the ruling pope, took key positions ; and the proximity of French troops was a constant reminder of where secular power lay, with the memory of Boniface VIII still fresh.

Clement V in a later engravingThe death of Pope Boniface deprived the Papacy of its most able politician who could hold his ground against the secular power of the king of France.

Pope Martin IV had hopelessly compromised the Papacy in his cause ; and the botched secular " Crusades " against Sicily and ( after Charles ' death ) Aragon greatly tarnished its spiritual power.

The collapse of its moral authority and the rise of nationalism rang the death knell for Crusading, and would ultimately lead to the Avignon Papacy and the Western Schism.

Having the " civilised " Eastern Roman Empire on its southern border was infinitely preferable to the Papacy than having to constantly deal with the troublesome Normans of Sicily.

On various occasions the popes found asylum from the tumults of Rome within its walls, and it was the meeting-place of five conclaves ( Perugia Papacy ), including those that elected Honorius III ( 1216 ), Clement IV ( 1285 ), Celestine V ( 1294 ), and Clement V ( 1305 ); the papal presence was characterised by a pacificatory rule between the internal rivalries.

From Trantor, the Second Foundationers secretly guided the development of the Galaxy ( roughly parallel to the city of Rome becoming, after the fall of its empire, the headquarters of the Papacy, with its enormous influence on the development of Medieval Europe ).

Haarlem was granted its first known indulgence by Clement V in 1309, during the Avignon Papacy.

The Estates General accomplished little, spending its time discussing the relationship of France to the Papacy and the venality of offices, but not reaching any resolutions.

The Papacy started organizing its own investigations with Pope Pius VII ; under Mussolini massive excavations were undertaken from 1938 to 1942.

A concordat with the Papacy proved almost the last act of William's long reign, but the diet repudiated the agreement, preferring to regulate relations between church and state in its own way.

It was presented to the Papacy by its Frankish conqueror in 754 and passed back and forth between the popes and the archbishops of Ravenna, was briefly a communal republic ( 1183 – 1198 ).

The French word compagnon, and its English derivation " companion ", literally connotes a " sharer of the bread " at table, and indeed the court is an extension of the great individual's household ; wherever members of the household and bureaucrats of the administration overlap in personnel, it is sensible to speak of a " court ", whether in Achaemenid Persia, Ming China, Norman Sicily, the Papacy before 1870 ( see Curia ) or the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The Papacy and the Catholic Church in particular maintained Latin language, culture and literacy for centuries ; to this day the popes are called Pontifex Maximus which in the classical period was a title belonging to the Emperor, and the ideal of Christendom carried on the legacy of a united European civilisation even after its political unity had disappeared.

In 1509, the League of Cambrai was formed between France, the Empire, Spain, and the Papacy ; in an effort to wrest from Venice its territorial empire in northeastern Italy.

This alliance put France at odds with not only the Papacy, but its erstwhile ally, the Holy Roman Empire ; as well as Spain and ultimately the Swiss Confederation.

In February 1538, Pope Paul III succeeded in assembling a Holy League ( comprising the Papacy, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, the Republic of Venice and the Maltese Knights ) against the Ottomans, but Hayreddin Barbarossa defeated its combined fleet, commanded by Andrea Doria, at the Battle of Preveza in September 1538.