Why Catholics Waged War Against the Pope – Ada Palmer
TL;DR
Distance created abstraction: In places like Denmark or Iceland, the Pope was a distant, awe-inspiring figure whose legates arrived with pomp and ceremony, making it easy to respect the office without seeing the man's flaws.
Proximity bred contempt: In Italy, you knew the Pope as the guy who beat up your brother in college, whose family rivaled yours, and whose nepotism would threaten your interests the moment he took power.
Factions outlived their meaning: The Guelphs (pro-papal) and Ghibellines (pro-emperor) began as ideological camps but over 300 years became hereditary blood feuds where "those jerks murdered Uncle Tybalt" mattered more than theology.
Loyalty paradoxes emerged: A pope from a hereditarily Ghibelline family could trigger pro-papal Guelph cities to fight against him, defending papal authority against the actual pope.
The papacy was invisible up close: Italians saw the specific dude, Giuliano della Rovere rather than Pope Julius II, making it harder to perceive the institution when the person was so familiar.
The Breakdown
Catholics waged war against the Pope because geographic proximity turned an abstract spiritual authority into a specific guy they knew personally, complete with family feuds, college grudges, and factional loyalties that predated his election. The result was Italian cities fighting the pope to defend papal authority against the pope himself.
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