Governing through influence at the thirteenth-century papal court

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article uses a case study from the late 1230s to expand our understanding of how the papacy exercised power in the high Middle Ages. In the early thirteenth century, the papal court was one of Europe’s most important and innovative governing institutions. But while many historians have described the development and structure of the administrative and legal tools popes used to implement their will, less well understood is how the papal court used those tools to get things done. In 1237–8, the papal court under the leadership of Pope Gregory IX spent 14 months trying to help Florentine merchants collect money they had lent to crusaders in France. Using a remarkable set of 22 letters from Gregory’s registers, the following pages unpack the details of this case and argue that personal influence was essential to the papacy’s efforts to bring it to a successful conclusion.