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The Pope Who Subjugated Rome—And Changed Europe Forever · Chapter by Chapter — The Lost Library

• 0:00
  I mean, imagine the most powerful political figure in
• 0:02
  Europe. Oh, absolutely.
• 0:03
  The ultimate authority. Yeah, a man who literally claims
• 0:06
  divine authority over kings and emperors.
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  But he is. He's sprinting through the dirt
• 0:12
  while local St. gangs are just hurling rocks and arrows at him.
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  Right from the top of the Colosseum, no less.
• 0:17
  Exactly. It sounds like this, you know,
• 0:19
  surreal fantasy movie, but it's actually just a snapshot of 13th
• 0:23
  century Rome. Which is wild to think about.
• 0:26
  It really is, because when we think about the concept of
• 0:29
  supreme power today, we usually expect, well, absolute clean
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  control. Very organized.
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  Right. You picture like a massive tech
• 0:37
  monopoly or a modern authoritarian state where a
• 0:41
  single figure issues a command and this massive hierarchy just
• 0:45
  snaps to attention. It's.
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  Visible. It's structured.
• 0:48
  Yeah, exactly. But when you step into the
• 0:50
  actual mechanics of medieval history, that clean
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  organizational chart is just it's completely torn to shreds.
• 0:56
  Oh, completely. The historical reality is
• 0:59
  incredibly murky. I mean, we tend to look back and
• 1:01
  categorize power really neatly. Like, he's the boss, end of
• 1:05
  story. Exactly.
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  Assuming that if someone held the title of Pope or emperor,
• 1:09
  they simply waved a hand and the whole world obeyed.
• 1:11
  Right? But diagnosing how a society
• 1:14
  actually functioned back then, it requires looking past those
• 1:18
  titles. You have to examine the gritty
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  day-to-day survival tactics those leaders actually had to
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  employ and. That gritty reality is exactly
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  our focus for today. So today is Monday, May 25,
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  2026, and we want to welcome you to this deep dive.
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  It's going to be a fascinating 1.
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  Oh, for sure. We are exploring the violently
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  turbulent world of 13th century Rome, and to do this we're
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  drawing our insights specifically from Ferdinand
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  Gregorovius classic historical text.
• 1:49
  Right. His history of the city of Rome
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  in the Middle Ages. Exactly, and we are diving deep
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  into Volume 5. And Gregorovius text is just
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  incredibly rich because, well, it peels back the mythological
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  holy layers of the papacy. It gets right to the core of it.
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  Right. It shows us the raw mechanical
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  Gears of how power was actually maintained, bought and defended
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  during an era that fundamentally reshaped the Western world.
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  So our mission for you today is exactly that, to unpack the
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  mechanics of medieval power through the meteoric rise of
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  Pope Innocent the Third. A truly pivotal figure.
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  We're going to explore how spiritual authority was
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  literally bought with cold hard cash, The deeply theatrical and
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  frankly bizarre rituals of dominance.
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  Oh, the rituals are unbelievable.
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  Yeah, we'll get into that. Plus literal turf wars fought on
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  top of ancient Roman ruins and a grand geopolitical chess game
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  that permanently altered the map of Europe.
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  All happening at once. Right, we're talking about an
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  era where the ancient Roman Empire has been gone for
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  centuries, the old German Empire starting to fracture, and out of
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  this chaotic power vacuum steps a 37 year old Pope who basically
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  decides to claim absolute world domination.
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  And 37 was incredibly young for a Pope, you know?
• 3:02
  Like millennial CEO Young. Exactly.
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  He was born Letario of the Conti family and he was elected on
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  January 8, 1198. OK, but to understand the sheer
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  scale of what he achieved, we have to look at the incredibly
• 3:14
  unstable world he just inherited.
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  Right set the stage for us. Well, the 13th century was that
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  absolute peak of the Middle Ages.
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  You had Italian city states fiercely fighting for civic
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  independence against the old entrenched feudal nobility.
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  So constant conflict. Constant.
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  It was an age of revolution, really.
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  Citizens against nobles. Emerging democracies against the
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  old imperial monarchies. OK, let's unpack this, because
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  Innocent III steps up to the papal throne right in the middle
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  of all this chaos. Right in the thick.
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  Of it, and you would think being elected the vicar of Christ, he
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  just, you know, walks into the latter and palace puts on the
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  crown and everyone bows. You would think so.
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  But according to the sources, to secure his throne, he literally
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  had to buy off the Roman citizen.
• 4:00
  Yeah, literally paying them off. He had to pay massive sums out
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  of pocket, including a tribute of £5000 just to the municipal
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  government. Which was an astronomical amount
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  of money. Oh ahead.
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  To put this in modern terms for anyone listening, this feels
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  like a massive corporate merger. Oh, that's a great analogy.
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  Right, like the new CEO takes over, but the shareholders, in
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  this case the volatile Roman public, are totally hostile.
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  Right, they are not happy. So to stop them from literally
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  burning down the corporate headquarters, he has to
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  instantly pay out these exorbitant out of pocket
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  dividends. Just to keep his job.
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  Exactly. But how does a Pope even get his
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  hands on that kind of liquid capital?
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  I mean, where is this money coming from?
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  Well, that is the crucial mechanical question.
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  See, the Church function somewhat like a multinational
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  corporation. OK, right.
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  It collected tithes, donations and land revenues from across
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  all of Christendom, so from England, France, Spain.
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  So he had this global income stream.
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  Exactly so Innocent had access to this vast international
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  treasury. He essentially used
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  international revenue to solve a local liquidity crisis because
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  the citizens of Rome had recently formed an independent
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  Republic with its own Senate, and they were notorious for
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  extracting these massive payments from newly elected
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  popes. So it's just part of the
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  process. Pretty much if you did not pay
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  this tribute, your throne was at risk before you even sat on it.
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  They would simply riot. That totally shatters the
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  illusion of unquestionable holy authority, doesn't it?
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  I mean, the Pope is being exported by his own local flock
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  before he could even start ruling the rest of the world.
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  It really does, and if we connect this to the bigger
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  picture, it reveals the fundamental structural
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  vulnerability of the papacy at that time.
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  Which was what? Exactly.
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  Well, Innocent III was drafting letters claiming to be the
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  supreme ruler of the world, but his practical physical safety
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  rested on managing a highly volatile local democracy.
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  That is quite the paradox. Yeah, he used this massive
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  distribution of wealth, dispensing it with the
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  magnificence of a grand Lord, just to convince the Roman
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  people to let him have a say in electing the city senator.
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  So he was executing A leveraged buyout of his own capital city.
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  Exactly. OK, so he successfully bribes
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  the hostile shareholders and secures his physical safety, but
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  a bribe only buys temporary peace.
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  Right. Doesn't last.
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  Forever. Exactly, if I am a Roman citizen
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  and I just watched the supposed representative of God empty his
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  wallet to save his own skin, doesn't that completely destroy
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  his aura of divine power? You would certainly think so.
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  Like how does he convince the people he is actually
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  untouchable after he just proved he can be extorted?
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  Well, he had to overwrite that memory with overwhelming
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  spectacle. The theatricality of power in
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  the Middle Ages was not just for show.
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  It was functional. Absolutely.
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  It was a vital tool of psychological governance.
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  Innocent needed to project unquestionable divine authority
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  to legitimize his rule. So how does he do that?
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  He did this through his coronation on February 27, 1198.
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  He led this magnificent procession through Rome along
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  the traditional route known as the Via Sacra.
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  And the visuals described in the sources are absolutely stagnant.
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  Picture this. The Pope perceives the Regnum
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  right, the Papal tiara. But it isn't just a heavy golden
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  crown. Originally, this tiara was made
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  of bright white Peacock feathers, later covered in
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  glowing gems with a massive Ruby at the top.
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  He mounts a White Horse draped in scarlet cloth.
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  Very dramatic. Yeah, and to show you exactly
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  where everyone stands in the pecking order, Kings are the
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  highest. Nobles are walking in the muddy
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  ground, leading his horse by the reins.
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  Right. Every single detail was designed
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  to visually communicate absolute, unshakable hierarchy.
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  It didn't leave anything to. Not at all.
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  The Archdeacon places the tiara on his head and explicitly
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  declares him the father of Princess and kings, the ruler of
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  the world. The procession included
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  thousands of people moving like a glittering ghost through the
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  crumbling ruins of ancient Rome. What a visual.
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  Crossbearers, judges in long black robes, Knights and shining
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  armor displaying their family colors.
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  But embedded in this massive display of wealth and order were
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  rituals designed to establish narrative dominance.
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  Right. There are two bizarre rituals
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  along this route that we really need to talk about.
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  First, they reach the Perion Quarter.
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  The Jewish community, led by their rabbi, approaches the
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  Pope, and they present him with the Pentateuch, the Torah.
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  The Pope accepts the physical book, the Law, but he publicly
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  and loudly condemns their interpretation of it.
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  He basically tells them we honor the law but condemn your mind.
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  It was a highly orchestrated ritual of submission.
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  The Jewish community was forced to publicly acknowledge the Pope
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  as their absolute territorial Lord.
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  Just to stay in the city. Exactly to secure his tolerance
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  for their continued presence in Rome.
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  By accepting the book but rejecting their faith, the Pope
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  was performing the Church's supremacy over all other
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  historical narratives. Dictating their reality right
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  there on the street. He dictated their legal standing
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  right there on the street. But the second ritual is the one
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  I cannot get over the chair. Yes, the profession finally
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  arrives at the Lateran Palace, and this incredibly powerful man
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  who has just declared himself ruler of the world, adorned in
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  gems and white Peacock feathers, right is made to sit on a marble
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  seat known as the Celeste Cararia, the Dung Chair.
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  The dung chair, Yeah. I have to admit actual confusion
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  here. Wait, so he sits on a literal
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  pile of dung? Well, a chair named after it.
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  Why? Is this his enemies finding a
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  way to humiliate him? Or is he doing this on purpose
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  that completely undermines the Peacock feathers?
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  No, it was done entirely on purpose, and it is arguably one
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  of the most fascinating psychological customs the Middle
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  Ages produce. Really.
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  Yeah, to the modern mind, it makes no sense to mix absolute
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  supremacy with utter humiliation.
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  But the medieval mind was obsessed with dualities.
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  OK, how so? As he sat on this dung chair,
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  Cardinals would physically lift him up.
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  Reciting from the Scriptures, he raises the poor from the dust,
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  and the beggar from the dunghill.
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  So the most powerful man in Europe is essentially
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  role-playing as a beggar pulled from the track.
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  Exactly. Performing extreme humility was
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  a way to immunize himself against accusations of greed.
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  Oh, that's clever, right? After being lifted from the dung
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  chair, the Pope would grab handfuls of corns, gold, silver
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  and copper, and throw them to the roaring crowd, shouting the
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  biblical phrase silver and gold have I none, but what I have I
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  give to you. Wait, silver and gold have I
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  none? He shouts while literally
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  throwing handfuls of gold at people.
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  Literally throwing gold. The paradox is just incredible.
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  But it worked beautifully On a psychological level, the ritual
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  cemented the idea that his power didn't come from his earthly
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  wealth. Even though the Roman citizens
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  knew perfectly well he had just paid them a £5000 bribe.
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  Exactly. They knew, but the ritual said
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  his power came from a divine transformation.
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  God raised him from the metaphorical dung to rule the
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  world. They were performing the poverty
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  of Christ while dripping in an unimaginable imperial wealth.
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  But all that theatrical humility could not mask the reality of
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  his actual governance. No, not for.
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  Long because almost immediately innocent engages in blatant
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  nepotism and this directly triggers A brutal civil war
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  right in his own backyard. Yeah, claiming poverty is a
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  tough sell when you are aggressively enriching your own
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  family members, right? So what happened?
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  Well, for all his global universal ambitions, Innocent
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  was heavily entangled in local dynastic politics.
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  He used church funds to massively elevate his own
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  family, the Conti. Of course, he directed immense
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  resources to his brother Ricardo Conti to build a towering
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  fortified structure in Rome known as the Torre de Conti.
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  And he didn't stop at building towers.
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  Innocent handed his brother the highly contested feudal lands of
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  the Poli family. Right, huge tracts of land.
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  He basically orchestrated A bailout for a bankrupt noble
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  family just so he could legally transfer their massive lucrative
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  estates directly to his brother. Which naturally enraged the
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  Roman democratic faction. I can imagine.
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  The citizens of Rome, who had been fighting for a secular,
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  independent Republic, saw the Pope treating the city's lands
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  like his own personal family Piggy Bank.
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  So they pushed back. Heavily they were led by a man
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  named Giovanni Kapochi, an eloquent, fiery demagogue who
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  rallied the citizens against this blatant papal overreach.
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  Here's where it gets really interesting.
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  A fierce urban war breaks out from 12 O 3:00 to 12:00.
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  O4 and it was brutal. Right.
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  And the battleground isn't some open field outside the city.
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  It is the city of Rome itself, The rival noble families backing
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  the Pope or the Republic. Families like the Orsini, the
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  Anabaldi, the French Apani. All the big names.
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  Yeah, they literally build makeshift wooden and brick
• 13:02
  fortresses on top of ancient Roman monuments.
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  They used the Colosseum, the Baths of Emilius Paulus and the
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  ancient aqueducts as military bases.
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  Gregorovius paints a stunning picture of this.
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  They were walling up the spaces between ancient marble columns
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  with crude medieval brickwork. Unbelievable.
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  Yeah, the Frangipani family turned the Colosseum into their
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  own personal stronghold. When a papal ally tried to build
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  a defensive tower nearby, the Frangipani rained down a storm
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  of rocks and arrows from the upper tiers of the ancient
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  amphitheater. Just ask yourself to imagine
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  modern politicians having a literal siege war from the
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  rooftops of National Monument. Right.
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  It's so surreal. Imagine rival political parties
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  barricading themselves in the Lincoln Memorial or the Eiffel
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  Tower, lobbing boulders at each other.
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  It's urban warfare amidst the ruins of antiquity.
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  Daggers in the streets, Towers burning.
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  Chains stretched across the alleys to block cavalry charges.
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  It got so intensely dangerous that Innocent, the man who just
• 14:02
  declared himself the ruler of the world, actually had to flee
• 14:05
  Rome in fear for his life and hide in the town of Ananya.
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  Which proves how completely isolated his theoretical power
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  was from his physical reality. Totally disconnected.
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  He could dictate terms to the King of France, yet he was a
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  hostage to the clashing jurisdictions of local St.
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  barons in his own neighborhood. I mean, he could hear the
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  screaming and the crashing of stones against his own palace
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  walls. So how does a guy who gets
• 14:30
  chased out of town by local gangs actually win?
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  Because he does win. He does, yeah.
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  What does he flip the script on? Giovanni Kapochi and the
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  Democratic Faction. He won through financial
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  attrition. Innocent used the massive
• 14:42
  international wealth of the church to simply exhaust his
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  local enemy. Yeah, just outspent them.
• 14:47
  Precisely. The Roman people eventually grew
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  tired of the constant fighting. The violence was disrupting
• 14:53
  their trade, their food supplies and their daily lives.
• 14:55
  People just wanted peace. Right.
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  So Innocent brokered a peace deal, but he embedded A fatal
• 15:01
  legal concession into it. By 12 O five, he legally
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  stripped the Roman commune of its right to independently elect
• 15:09
  its own Senate. Wow.
• 15:11
  He plays the ultimate long game. He outspends the rebellion,
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  wears down their morale, and then legally rewrites their
• 15:18
  constitution so he alone has the power to appoint the city's
• 15:22
  ruler. Exactly.
• 15:23
  He completely neutralizes the Democratic threat.
• 15:26
  After five agonizing years of street fights and political
• 15:29
  maneuvering, he finally subdued the capital, and by securing
• 15:32
  Rome, he established a stable, unshakable base of operations.
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  He no longer had to look over his shoulder at local St.
• 15:38
  Kangs exactly. And having finally suppressed
• 15:40
  the local uprisings, Anderson was freed up to unleash his true
• 15:43
  political genius on the international stage.
• 15:46
  This is a huge turning point. Right, this is where he pivots
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  from a local turf war to a grand European chess game that
• 15:53
  fundamentally alters the borders of the continent.
• 15:56
  This transition from local warlord to international
• 16:00
  kingmaker is where Innocence Legacy is truly cemented, right?
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  See, he took advantage of a massive power vacuum.
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  The German Empire, which had historically been the greatest
• 16:10
  military threat to the Papacy, was thrown into utter chaos
• 16:14
  following the sudden death of Emperor Henry the 6th.
• 16:16
  And Henry the 6th leaves behind a widow and a four year old
• 16:19
  toddler named Frederick. Yes, who is the heir to the
• 16:22
  Kingdom of Sicily down in the South?
• 16:25
  So Anderson steps in, becomes the legal guardian of this
• 16:27
  toddler, and protects him from rogue German barons like Mark
• 16:31
  Waldo trying to steal the Kingdom.
• 16:33
  Right, he secures the South, but that is just the southern front.
• 16:36
  What's happening in the? North up in Germany, a massive
• 16:38
  succession crisis erupts for the Imperial throne itself.
• 16:42
  To understand the German conflict, think of Germany at
• 16:44
  this time not as a unified country, but as a fractured
• 16:47
  patchwork of competing warlords and noble houses.
• 16:50
  Got it. 2 main factions emerge to claim the throne.
• 16:54
  You have the Gulfs, who are backed by the English crown and
• 16:57
  elect a leader named Otto. OK, Otto.
• 17:00
  On the other side you have the Hohenstaufins, the established
• 17:04
  German imperial family who elect Philip of Swabia.
• 17:07
  Germany is immediately plunged into a devastating civil war.
• 17:11
  And what does innocent do? He sits back in Rome, watches
• 17:14
  them bleed each other dry, and masterfully plays them against
• 17:17
  one another. He decides to throw his immense
• 17:20
  weight behind Otto, the Gulf candidate.
• 17:23
  Yes, he does. But he doesn't do this out of
• 17:24
  the goodness of his heart or like shared religious value.
• 17:27
  Oh, not at all. He backs Otto to extract a
• 17:30
  massive, unprecedented geopolitical concession in 12
• 17:34
  O1. Innocent leverages his support
• 17:36
  to make Otto sign the Treaty of News.
• 17:38
  What did that treaty do? In this legal document, Otto
• 17:41
  officially recognizes the vast territorial borders of the Papal
• 17:44
  States. He essentially signs away the
• 17:46
  Empire's historical claims to huge swaths of central Italy,
• 17:50
  granting the Church massive physical territory.
• 17:52
  So he treats the papal endorsement like a bargaining
• 17:55
  chip in a modern geopolitical land swap.
• 17:57
  That's exactly what it was. But let me ask you this by
• 18:00
  playing kingmaker, by pitting these secular emperors against
• 18:03
  each other and explicitly negotiating national borders,
• 18:07
  wasn't the Pope stepping way out of his spiritual lane?
• 18:11
  What's fascinating here is innocence, Philosophical
• 18:14
  masterstroke. He didn't just step out of his
• 18:17
  lane, he completely redefined where the lanes were drawn to
• 18:21
  begin with. Oh, really?
• 18:22
  He flipped centuries of established historical
• 18:26
  precedent. For 400 years, ever since
• 18:29
  Charlemagne and his Carolingian dynasty united Europe, the
• 18:32
  emperors believed they were the ones who appointed Pope.
• 18:34
  'S the secular emperor was considered the ultimate
• 18:37
  authority. The emperors thought the Church
• 18:39
  worked for them. Innocent establishes A radical
• 18:41
  new doctrine. He argues that the Pope is the
• 18:44
  sun and the Emperor is merely the moon.
• 18:46
  The sun and the moon, right? The moon has no light of its
• 18:49
  own, it only reflects the light of the sun.
• 18:51
  Therefore, the secular empire derives its entire legitimacy,
• 18:55
  its light, from the Church. Oh wow.
• 18:57
  He claimed the absolute divine right to judge, examine, and
• 19:01
  install the emperor. He essentially argued that all
• 19:04
  political power ultimately flows from the papacy.
• 19:07
  That is wild. He is looking at the most
• 19:09
  heavily armed warlords in Europe and telling them you are only
• 19:13
  king because I allow you to reflect my light.
• 19:16
  Pretty much. And the craziest part is it
• 19:18
  actually works. When Philip of Swabia is
• 19:21
  assassinated in 12 O 8, Otto is left as the sole ruler.
• 19:25
  Otto comes to Rome in 12 O 9 and is crowned Emperor by Innocent.
• 19:29
  But then, in a classic historical plot twist, Otto
• 19:33
  immediately betrays the Pope. Naturally, once Otto has the
• 19:36
  crown securely on his head, he realizes he gave away far too
• 19:39
  much territory in the Tree of Neus, so it turns his army
• 19:42
  around and starts attacking the very Papal States he had just
• 19:44
  sworn in writing to protect. Endless betrayal.
• 19:46
  Endless. What strikes me is that even
• 19:48
  military betrayal doesn't stop innocence momentum.
• 19:51
  His psychological grip on Europe was so strong that you have
• 19:54
  other Royals like King Peter of Aragon in Spain voluntarily
• 19:58
  sailing to Rome. Peter of Aragon.
• 20:00
  Peter literally hands over his entire independent Kingdom to
• 20:03
  the Pope, swears to be his feudal vassal, and promises to
• 20:08
  pay a massive yearly tribute, all just to get the Pope to
• 20:11
  officially crown him. He gives away his country
• 20:14
  sovereignty for the optics of papal approval.
• 20:16
  It's unbelievable. It perfectly illustrates the
• 20:18
  sheer, inescapable gravity Innocent had generated.
• 20:22
  Through a combination of financial leverage, legal
• 20:25
  maneuvering, and relentless ideological framing, he had
• 20:29
  transformed the Papacy into the supreme feudal overlord of
• 20:32
  Europe. The spiritual and the political
• 20:34
  were no longer separate spheres. Not at all innocent.
• 20:37
  Fuse them into a single devastating weapon.
• 20:40
  So what does this all mean? Why does this 13th century
• 20:43
  geopolitical chess match matter to you?
• 20:45
  Listening to this right now. It's a great question.
• 20:47
  Because whether you are navigating complex corporate
• 20:50
  politics, observing your local government, or making sense of
• 20:53
  global international news, the story of Innocent III reveals A
• 20:57
  fundamental, timeless truth about power.
• 21:00
  True power requires operating on multiple levels simultaneously.
• 21:04
  Absolutely. You cannot just rely on a grand
• 21:07
  narrative or a fancy title. You have to manage the physical,
• 21:11
  gritty reality on the ground. Innocent understood that.
• 21:16
  You need the dazzling theoretical framework.
• 21:19
  The Sun, the Moon Doctrine, the Peacock rock feathers, the claim
• 21:22
  to divine right, but you also need to know how to fund a war
• 21:25
  and win a rock throwing contest in the alleys of your own
• 21:27
  neighborhood. He managed the chaotic physical
• 21:30
  street fights while meticulously crafting a grand, unshakable
• 21:35
  ideological narrative. He really did.
• 21:36
  He outspent his local enemies and he out maneuvered his
• 21:39
  international ones. But I want to leave you with a
• 21:42
  final thought to ponder, building on everything we've
• 21:44
  unpacked today. OK.
• 21:46
  Innocent III successfully merged spiritual authority with
• 21:49
  ruthless territorial politics to create an unprecedented papal
• 21:53
  empire. Very true.
• 21:55
  But in doing so, by making the church behave exactly like a
• 21:58
  power hungry secular state, trading land for endorsements
• 22:01
  and manipulating secessions, did he actually plant the seeds of
• 22:05
  the church's eventual downfall in secular politics?
• 22:08
  Oh, that's an interesting question.
• 22:10
  Right. By tying divine authority so
• 22:12
  closely to border disputes, treaties, and political
• 22:15
  maneuvering, did he inadvertently teach the emerging
• 22:19
  nations of Europe that the church wasn't a spiritual
• 22:21
  sanctuary above the fray, but just another political rival to
• 22:25
  be eventually conquered? When you look closely at the
• 22:28
  mechanics of history, the diagnosis is rarely clean.
• 22:31
  It is brilliantly, violently messy, something for you to Mull
• 22:34
  over as you step back out into the modern world.