In his wonderful book Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes, Eamon Duffy declares that the papacy is the oldest and most influential institution on earth. His book supports this claim by showing how the papacy has affected nearly everything in the West – wars, political leaders, art, social programs, racism, colonialism, our views on sex and gender, and the rise of Western political and legal traditions. There’s no way to cover it all but below are a few highlights on how the papacy has shaped the world you live in. I learned a lot so I hope you find something below interesting.
View on St. Peter Square. Photo credit: Canva.com
A few caveats: we will not focus on the papacy’s substantially influence on Christian doctrines but will rather focus on broader societal influences. And of course, mountains of important effects will be left out given the limits of a single blog. Lastly, I won’t be doing a moral accounting of good and bad. Rather, we’ll dip our toes into certain topics in a way that I hope you find educational.
War and Peace
When it comes to conflict, the papacy has played every role possible. At times, we see popes calling for peace and an end to conflict (e.g. WWI or the current war in Gaza). In other cases, they declared war, none more famous than Pope Urban II’s call for a vast effort, a crusade, to liberate the Holy Land from Muslims in 1095. The response across Europe was stunning. Approximately 150,000 men set out, travelling thousands of miles from places as far as Scotland and Ireland to lands far beyond the imagination. Who but a pope could make this happen?
Crusader Statues, Photo credit Canva.com
In other cases, popes encouraged, organized and helped financed war such as when Pope Pius V arranged a coalition of Catholic States to fight the Ottoman navy at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. This famous defeat of the Ottomans is considered a turning point in Europe ending forever the Ottoman threat to conquer Europe.
And, a few popes loved battle itself. Pope Julius II was known as il terrible and personally led his troops into numerous battles in Italy wearing a suit of silver armour. Some believe he chose the name Julius not for pious reasons but in honour of Julius Caesar.
Western Political and Legal Traditions
Our political and legal systems owe huge debts to the papacy.
In the twelfth century, the Papal Revolution or Gregorian Reforms, launched much of the foundations of the Western tradition. Strong, powerful popes pushed against the power of kings. This split authority led to thinking that you needed a system of rules to delineate who had what power. Previously the law was a combination of custom and whatever the monarch willed – but the papacy starts pushing for a vast expansion of law as a profession with coherent and logical rules.
The University of Bologna is Europe’s oldest university. Founded as a law school, it would contribute to the papal revolution. Photo Credit: Canva.com
Universities take off at this juncture and law becomes something important that agile minds study, increasing its sophistication and helping found the Western legal tradition. Look closely and you can see the roots of constitutionalism – namely that a monarch’s power is not unlimited but subject to certain rules. Separately, the contested authority helps gestate the idea of separating church and state.
The expansion of law also gave rise to doctrines of natural law and human rights. These ideas can create the basis for rules that are not limited by the reach of a particular monarch (the kind of thing the papacy, as perhaps the oldest international organization, is apt to help foster). What you have here are tools that will one day be used to ground the idea of an international order. Organizations like the United Nations will rely on these very notions.
Colonialism, Racism and Nationalism
Here, too, the papacy’s influence is substantial. For starters, the whole European colonial enterprise was boosted early on by the Doctrine of Discovery, a culmination of 15th century papal declarations which divvied up the Americas between Spain and Portugal. The papacy also strongly supported missionaries who converted indigenous populations away from their own traditions, seeing these traditions as heathen or possibly Satanic.
Conversely, the papacy often fought racism against Indigenous peoples. The pope and Catholic missionaries sometimes clashed with secular colonial officials who wanted to use Indigenous people as slaves or other means to income. The papacy and missionaries argued that Indigenous peoples were made in the image of God and deserved decency. Racism also impeded conversions which were the papacy’s main goal. Popes wanted new Christians and often pushed for Indigenous people in leadership positions as priests and bishops.
Saddest of all, perhaps, is the papacy’s sordid history on antisemitism. It is arguably it’s greatest stain, for which recent popes have apologized repeatedly. Conversely, the Papacy has an admirable record of speaking against religious nationalism which might again stem from the fact that it leads a global institution.
Pope John Paul II visited Israel as part of a sincere apology for the Church’s historic treatment of Jews. Photo credit: Canva.com
How do we make sense of this conflicted account? One possible pattern is this – the papacy has often seemed regrettably bad on religious persecution. Whether it was Jews, Muslims, Indigenous peoples, or massacres of Protestants, it is troubling how often a pope found this acceptable or even encouraged it. But on racial persecution, the papacy, as leaders of a multinational, multiethnic church, has often been a leading voice for decency. This is a gross oversimplification but popes have often welcomed anyone who would come to Christ (traditionally meaning the Catholic Church and not some other Christian sect) but been willing to sanction violence against those who did not.
Art, Architecture and Learning
During the Renaissance and beyond, certain popes became enamoured with beauty. Pope Nicholas V is quoted at some length as explaining how grand architecture can be what Duffy called “sermons in stone” (181) for the mostly unlettered people of the day. He also began a small library that would later become the Vatican library under a successor. The popes also restored the ruins of Rome like the Pantheon and the Arch of Titus. And of course, they commissioned the greatest artists of the day including Raphael’s painting The School of Athens and Michaelangelo’s famous ceiling in the Sistine Chapel. Rome became the premier city of the Renaissance due to the papacy.
The City of Rome
The popes played a pivotal role in the history of Rome. By the second century, they had become well-known and significant figures in the city by virtue of having many followers. They also, however, were persecuted and several were martyred. But after Constantine moved the empire’s capital to Constantinople, the pope would become Rome’s most significant person. Indeed, as the city was sacked repeatedly by Germanic tribes, the popes became the de facto civic leader, often rebuilding the city’s defenses, organizing relief for the poor, and restoring its finances. The wealth and influence of the papacy might be why Rome was able on multiple occasions to recover from periods of massive war and depopulation. The rise of secular civic leaders of both Rome and Italy in the nineteenth century was tough on the papacy as it meant an enormous loss of secular power and wealth.
The fall of the Rome in 410 began a process by which the popes would become the effective leaders of the city. Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
Conclusion
There is so much more that can be said. The popes themselves are tremendously varied – some were deeply corrupt, some nakedly sought power and wealth, and some were violent. Others were deeply devout men who helped the needy, who ate with the poor, who committed their lives to God and who, on many an occasion, suffered for it. The papacy could commit long-term systemic crimes like antisemitism or hiding sexual abuse and could also be fundamental in funding education and healthcare.
We simply cannot imagine the West without the papacy. All of those medieval conflicts between king and pope gave shape to our institutions and, without the papacy, there’s no Reformation, an event whose seismic importance cannot be overstated. Given Europe’s impact on global history, the papacy’s impact reaches even further.
The new pope, Leo XIV, takes over an institution that lacks the power and wealth of some of his predecessors, but which impacts a billion Catholics and can have a moral authority beyond that, especially when speaking on issues of poverty, war and justice. That a White Sox fan from Chicago might inherit leadership of humanity’s oldest institution is surprising indeed.
