Quote:
Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist
They were a political entity by literally every definition. At many times they failed to affect other political systems, but they were mostly political. In fact, in feudal England they were basically the government
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Yeah, I don't get exactly where peter12 is going with this. The various popes acted as facilitators and co-conspirators with various groups trying to gain power in Italy alone, and even amassed their own forces when they could. I'd argue that their motivations were largely secular and that they used Catholicism in order to recruit people to their cause, but they certainly were a political entity.