But the ecclesiastical State was and remained a
thorough anomaly among the powers of Italy; in and near Rome itself,
the Papacy was defied by the great families of the Colonna, Orsini,
Savelli and Anguillara; in Umbria, in the Marches, and in Romagna,
those civic republics had almost ceased to exist, for whose devotion
the Papacy had shown so little gratitude; their place had been taken by
a crowd of princely dynasties, great or small, whose loyalty and
obedience signified little. As self-dependent powers, standing on their
own merits, they have an interest of their own; and from this point of
view the most important of them have already been discussed.
Nevertheless, a few general remarks on the Papacy can hardly be
dispensed with. New and strange perils and trials came upon it in the
course of the fifteenth century, as the political spirit of the nation
began to lay hold upon it on various sides, and to draw it within the
sphere of its action. The least of these dangers came from the populace
or from abroad; the most serious had their ground in the characters of
the Popes themselves.
Let us, for this moment, leave out of consideration the countries
beyond the Alps. At the time when the Papacy was exposed to mortal
danger in Italy, it neither received nor could receive the slightest
assistance either from France, then under Louis XI, or from England,
distracted by the Wars of the Roses, or from the then disorganized
Spanish monarchy, or from Germany, but lately betrayed at the Council
of Basle.
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