The Roman Catholic Church used to be on top of the world. It was by the pope's edict that sovereign powers were instituted or ousted, that kingdoms became imperial rulers or mere subsidiaries. The papacy even granted Venice the "dominion of the sea", said grant being sealed by a ring symbolizing the union of Venice and the sea. Papacy was also the foundation of civil and international laws that time. After all, churchmen were the most educated individuals that time, not to mention the most commanding due to their claim of divine law.
Nonetheless, the decadence and unrestrained power that surrounded the medieval papacy and the Church invited abuses within its very ranks, from the highest bishops down to the lowly priests. This and the quandary caused by the Great Schism in 1378 to 1417 eventually led to the split of disillusioned religious factions headed by the likes of Calvin and Luther. The Renaissance is the time when the papacy lost its infallibility, yet was still a potent political actor all the same. The succeeding discussions delve deeper into the role of papacy, particularly in the politics of Italy, during the Renaissance period.
By now it is apparent that the pope was as much a religious leader as he was a political power player. It is understood that throughout the entire history of Italy since the time of Constantine–meaning, the Renaissance included–the papacy has played a decisive role in all aspects of Italian social organization, especially in the metropolitan areas that the church has left a lasting mark on state governance. In fact, the history of Europe, especially of Italy, is "subsumed" with that of the Church and papacy that there can be no discussion of medieval and Renaissance politics without ever a mention of the latter.
To illuminate, historians refer to thirteenth century Europe as a Christian society, the societas christiana, with the papacy claiming jurisdiction and suzerainty over the entire European and colonial Christendom. The relationship between the papacy and the vassal states, however, was more political than spiritual.
The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, on the other hand, which were the dusk of the Middle Ages and the dawn of the Renaissance, were deemed the "'forgotten centuries' of Italian church history" for reasons of religious and political upheavals largely connected with the papacy, and the sixteenth century as, finally, the time of Reformation and renewal of spiritual fervor. In all these periods, the papacy has varying roles and intensity of authority, but one thing is clear, from supremacy and infallibility during the Dark and Middle Ages, its power waned during the Renaissance as controversies after controversies rocked the foundation of the church.
