The Papal State

Primary culture

Umbrian (Latin)

Capital province

Roma (118)

Government

Papacy

State religion

Catholic

Technology group

Western

Papal ideas

Traditions:

+1 Diplomatic reputation

+25% Religious unity

Ecclesiastical Primacy

+2 Tolerance of the true faith

Papal Investiture and Tithes

+20% National tax modifier

Glory of Rome

−1% Prestige decay

Donation of Constantine

−25% Cost to fabricate claims

Centralize the States

+10% Production efficiency

The Vatican Museums

+1 Diplomatic free policies

The Holy Father

−10% Aggressive expansion impact

Ambition:

+5% Discipline

For the workings of the Papacy mechanic, see Papacy.

The Papal State is the collection of lands under the rule of Bishop of Rome, the Pope himself. Being a religious man, His Holiness is not able to focus all his energies on secular matters, and some of the Papal State's territories, such as

Perugia and

Urbino, have managed to assert a startling level of autonomy for themselves. If the Papacy does nothing to curb these cities' autonomy, they could slip out of Rome's grasp entirely.

His Holiness has far greater challenges ahead of him than upstart leaders of Italian communes, however. As the head of the Catholic faith, the Pope has a unique responsibility to protect the faith and spread the Word of God far beyond the confines of the Papal States' worldly borders. To the east across the Adriatic Sea, the Ottomans threaten the Christian bastions of the Balkans, and left unchecked could march into the heart of the Holy Roman Empire itself. Far to the north, the venerable monastic states of the Teutonic Order and Livonian Order, tasked by the Church with serving as Christendom's bulwarks in the Baltic, are being torn apart by envious princes, and left unsupported could be extinguished entirely. Most worrying of all, dark murmurs are beginning to spread, speaking ill not just of the Pope, but of the entire structure of the Catholic Church! These muttered calls for some sort of Reformation, left unchecked, could spell disaster for the Papacy.

All the diplomatic skills of the Pope should not be used purely in reaction to events, of course. With all the power and prestige of the Church supporting him, His Holiness could construct a great Holy League to tackle the Ottoman menace. New crusades can be called, and if they succeed then Christianity can at last be restored in Jerusalem. As explorers chart the unknown corners of the globe, missionaries can follow, spreading the faith to such far-flung regions as China and Japan. With all the prestige and power which canny Popes could possibly acquire, it might be possible to even reunite the Catholic and

Orthodox churches and end the schism.

The Papal State is the manifestation of the temporal power of the pope. Beginning with Urbino and Perugia as vassals and with the provinces of Roma, Ancona, Spoleto, Terracina and Avignon, it is relatively large and prosperous compared to other states in the region. Despite this, it is often subject to early invasion by neighbouring states such as Florence and also Provence which often seeks to acquire the landlocked and isolated province of Avignon with which it shares a border. Naples, while not posing any immediate threat due to its starting situation as a lesser partner in a personal union, will often seek to conquer the Papal State should it ever break free from its personal union with Aragon, which usually happens after Aragon's first ruler dies.

The Papal State will never accept diplo-vassalization; they have a −1000 acceptance modifier for the diplomatic action. If the Papal State is annexed then a surviving Catholic theocracy may cede their province to recreate the Papacy.

The Papal State is an end game tag and is not allowed to form any other countries. As such, it is the only starting Italian country that can't form Italy.

Missions

Main article: Papal missions

Papal missions centre around eradicating other Christian denominations from the Italian region and reacquiring lands that once belonged to it before the game start.

Events

Main article: Papal events

The Papal State's events center around the inner workings of the Catholic Church.

If a Catholic country other than the Papal State owns Rome, they may cede it, unless they have a better claim (i.e. they're Italy or the Roman Empire). Otherwise, another European Catholic country may release them if they have ceased to exist.

id

Papal State

The deep devotion of the Roman Catholics in Rome has awakened a desire for an independent state ruled by Popes of the Church. A large part of the population has expressed support for the idea of such an establishment and has now turned to $MONARCH$ for approval.

Trigger conditions

Papal interaction is active
Owns province Roma
Playing with normal or historical nations
Religion is Catholic
Is not The Papal State or the Roman Empire
Italy does not exist

Mean time to happen

2 months
Modifiers

Has at least 1 cardinal: ×0.95
Has at least 2 cardinals: ×0.95
Has activated Religious Ideas: ×0.75
Is Defender of the Faith: ×0.9
Is not Defender of the Faith: ×1.1
Does not have a Theologian advisor: ×1.1
Has a level 2 Theologian advisor: ×0.9

We will never support such a state

Lose 10 prestige
Lose 1 stability
Every other Catholic country in the world gains opinion modifier “Declined to make Rome an Independent State” towards this country, giving -20 opinion for 10 years with a yearly decay of 2.
The country will not get this event again.

Rome is rightfully theirs

Province Roma:
- The Papal State gains a core on this province
- Cede province to The Papal State
- This country loses their core, if they had one
Gain 25 prestige

id

The Papal State

It truly saddens us to see that the dominions of the Pope have all but disappeared. Our strong devotion makes us the ideal candidate responsible for establishing a new Papal State. Perhaps we should cede a province of ours?

Trigger conditions Papal interaction is active Neither The Papal State nor Italy exist Religion is Catholic Government is Theocracy Is at peace Is not Teutonic Order or Livonian Order Owns at least 2 but no more than 4 non-colony provinces Owns at least one Catholic province in Europe other than the capital The owner of province Roma is not Catholic, or they refused to release the Papal States	Mean time to happen 6 months Modifiers Is Avignon: ×0.5 Capital's religion is not Catholic: ×2 Has a level 3 Theologian advisor: ×0.95 Owns only 2 non-colony provinces: ×0.75

Immediate effects Hidden effect: Choose one random owned Catholic province in Europe other than the capital, if possible one that borders another country
For the Glory of God! The chosen province: This country loses their core The Papal State gains a core Cede province to The Papal State Gain 20 papal influence Gain 25 prestige Perhaps not. Set ruler flag `refused_papacy` Lose 25 prestige

Decisions

id

Declare the Kingdom of God

With the lands of Northern Italy under the temporal power of the Holy Father rather than any Emperor or King it is now justified to declare this state the Kingdom of God on Earth.

Potential requirements Playing with normal or historical nations. Italy does not exist. The country: is the Papal State. has not enacted this decision before. is player-controlled, unless it: owns at least 15 cities. is not a custom nation.	Allow The country: is not a subject nation other than a tributary state. is not a nomad nation. is not at war. owns core provinces: Genoa (101) Turin (103) Milan (104) Modena (106) Trentino (110) Friuli (111) Venezia (112) Ravenna (114) Firenze (116) Pisa (115) Ancona (119) Perugia (2976) Urbino (2977)

Effects The country: gets the event ‘The Kingdom of God on Earth’, giving a choice of: enact tier 3 government reform Kingdom of God. gain 10 prestige. gets a permanent claim on all unowned provinces in the Italy region. is renamed to ‘Kingdom of God’.

Strategy

The below is one of many player suggested strategies for The Papal State. Bear in mind, due to the dynamic nature of the game, it may unfold differently for other players.

Advantages of the Papal State

The Papal State is virtually guaranteed maximum prestige. Their unique government type gives +0.33 prestige per development per missionary and their national ideas give another −1 prestige decay. With another +1 possible from 100 Devotion the Papal State's prestige drifts to 100 with little player intervention. This provides another −10% aggressive expansion impact and a +50% Improve relations bonus in addition to the −10% aggressive expansion impact from the national ideas.

On top of this, the Papal State has a −25% cost to fabricate claims bonus. Claimed provinces are easier to core and start with lower local autonomy—autonomy that will quickly drop thanks to the Papal State's government type.

On top of these bonuses, 100 devotion, high clergy estate influence and one of the Papal ideas can provide a total of +65% global tax modifier in a region with high tax base.

The papacy government type is also a fixed rank Kingdom tier government (Empire-tier with the Kingdom of God reform), thus granting the unique ability to join the HRE while keeping the Kingdom Rank, even without an electorate. Like all the theocracies the Papal State does not suffer a stability hit on monarch death, nor regencies. The Papal State is similar to other theocracies in not being allowed to turn their ruler into a general (unless it takes the Magister Militum Dei reform), though The Papal State does not choose an heir.

The Papal State has several unique events and decisions that provide several permanent perks:

The Vatican library grants the player's choice of
- −5% administrative technology cost and −2 national unrest
- −5% diplomatic technology cost and +1 diplomatic reputation
- −5% military technology cost and +50% army tradition from battles
The Sistine Chapel gives +0.1 yearly devotion just for building it, and when decorated, can give an additional +0.1 yearly devotion and the player's choice of
- −1 national unrest when choosing Sandro Botticelli
- +0.5 yearly prestige when choosing Domenico Ghirlandaio
- +10% improve relations when choosing Pietro Perugino
- −5% idea cost when choosing Michelangelo
- +1% missionary strength when choosing to "just find someone"
The Swiss Guard may give +10% global manpower modifier if the player has good relations with Switzerland.
The Papal State can also form the Kingdom Of God, which provides another +10% manpower as well as additional prestige and devotion.

Lastly, since the yearly papal influence gained by Catholic nations is based on the Papal State relation score with them, all the Catholic nations will try to keep their relationship maxed, avoiding cases of the Papal State being unable to ally a Catholic nation because his own opinion toward said nation is negative. This also means that Catholic nations who become hostile or rival towards the Papal State will rarely gain control of the curia and are going to lose most of the perks of the Catholicism, thus granting the Papal State an automatic advantage toward enemies and rivals in the Catholic world.

All of this means that as soon as the Papal State negotiates the opening stages of the game, perhaps by appeasing Austria and joining the Holy Roman Empire, is set to become a very offensive player in the European scenario, capable of expanding fast with minimal negative repercussions.

Pitfalls

The Papal State starts small, surrounded by acquisitive opponents. The right combination of alliances should forestall aggression, but the fact that almost all the northern Italian states are in the HRE will hinder expansion. The Shadow Empire event in 1490 may remove the Italian princes from the HRE (sooner with Emperor's imperial incident). Venice and Naples are potential non-HRE rivals. As with all theocracies, the Papal State cannot have royal marriages or personal unions, and since it is not a monastic order cannot make its leader a general unless the government reform "Magister Militum Dei" is taken. Unlike other theocracies it cannot become an Empire, and cannot change its fixed government type.

Papal State is also locked into Catholicism, but cannot get the perks other Catholics get from spending papal influence and has to deal with the Reformation without the ability to adopt a more tolerant religion, starts the game with the Blasphemy Act modifier that grants +1% missionary strength, but also a −1 tolerance of heretics that stacks with the usual Catholic low heretic tolerance for a total of −4 tolerance of heretics at the start of the game. Provinces that convert during the Reformation will be locked out of conversion for 30 years, and that is a massive swing towards rebellion and due to the very low heretic tolerance, not even adopting the humanist idea group can prevent the Papal State from a loss in religious unity. Low religious unity will raise corruption, that will increase all monarch power costs up to intolerable amounts unless rooted out by investing time and an exorbitant amount of gold. Luckily the usually high stability will help in keeping rebellion and corruption under control, and the Papal State starts with a +25% religious unity modifier that will prevent things from getting truly nasty.

Other than that, the main problem is that after Italy is consolidated the Papal State is going to be surrounded by France, Austria, Hungary, and the Ottomans. Avoiding a direct border will help France remain friendly.

Influence Over the Curia

The Papal State starts the game as the Curia Controller, but since it can't gain papal influence it can't invest influence to keep its Curia Controller status.

Instead the Papal State has an automatic amount of influence invested in the curia controller election based on the number of the existing cardinals in the Catholic world, so struggling to keep the full 49 cardinal seats filled, when chance is given by event, will maximize the Papal State's ability to be the next Curia Controller. Influence can also be gained by appointing loyal cardinals to Papal provinces or conquering provinces with Cardinals. Encouraging a hostile diplomatic game towards nations that gain several cardinal seats, with an intelligent use of rivalries, hostile diplomatic relationships and event choices, will eventually lower considerably their papal influence gains, thus reducing the influence over the Curia of the most active participants to the papal election.

A more uncommon way the Papal State has to improve its control over the Curia is the ability to willingly increase the death chance of the Pope to cause an immediate new election. A few events available to the papacy include choices that could result in the death of the Pope, so picking those choices when the Curia is under foreign control will give a chance for a new election. Due to the papacy government type there will be no stability hit on monarch death.

Reform Desire Control

Among all the Catholic Nations the Papal State is in the unique position of being actually capable of greatly lowering the reform desire and slowing down the reformation process.

The Veneration of relics, Indulgences and Simony related events for the Papal State grant a choice between a small source of income for free and the banishment of said practices from the Catholic world at the cost of −1 stability. For each practice banished not only the reform desire is decreased by a notable −10%, but also the related event is permanently disabled for all the Catholic nations, thus permanently stopping one of the most important sources of reform desire. Lastly the witch trial event can grant another −10% decrease to the global reform desire for no cost.

If the Papal State is willing to pick all the reform desire lowering choices the reform can be slowed to the point of being irrelevant for most of the game. Due to the Papal State's abysmal heretic religion tolerance and the consequent rise in corruption due to low religious unity, this strategy has long term benefits that could outweigh the costs.

The Kingdom of God

This decision is available once most of the north Italian peninsula has been annexed. Doing this can be very valuable, since it offers +10% manpower, +1 prestige, +1 devotion and permanent claims on all of the Italian region. Moreover, it significantly reduces the cost of appointing new cardinals (both inside and outside the Papal lands) and increases the benefits from cardinals within the Papal State.

Starting tips

The Papal State begins in control of the Curia, allowing the player to begin the game with large bonuses and the ability to excommunicate rivals, allowing them to break up alliances.
The two biggest nations that the Papal State needs to worry about are Austria and France. Since the two are historic rivals, allying either one will antagonize the other but not allying either one is also quite dangerous, so be mindful of what allying either country will entail.
- Spain can also be a potential worthwhile ally if they manage to form and establish a sizeable colonial empire.
Allying Austria and improving relations to maximum can allow the player to join the HRE. Further, being allied to Austria as an HRE prince will prevent demands for unlawful territory as long as Austria remains the emperor.
Since the Papal State begins with two vassals, the Strong Duchies estate privilege can be granted immediately for more relationship slots.
Northern Italy and countries in the region possess some of the wealthiest and most developed provinces in the game, making for very lucrative targets:
- If the player joins the HRE, Florence is an attractive first target. If excommunicated, Florence incurs just under 50 aggressive expansion (no longer true for 1.30.4) and gives the player 3 very rich provinces and 2 more trade centers in the lucrative Genoa trade node.
- Venice is a tempting early target. The Papal State begins with Urbino as a vassal, and Urbino has claims on Venetian territory. Austria will usually rival Venice, so if they are allied they will be an enthusiastic participant.
- Milan is another very lucrative target for conquest, as it holds very wealthy and developed provinces. Beware, however, of the high aggressive expansion that results from conquering such high-development land. Vassalizing and integrating Milan may be a safer, albeit slower alternative.
- Naples may be vulnerable if they break out of their personal union with Aragon. You might even get a Subjugation CB by event.
- Once all of Northern Italy is under Papal rule, the Kingdom of God can be formed.
France can be a powerful ally – at least until the player shares a border with them.
Selling Avignon to France might be easier than trying to defend it, however Provence is a possible starting rival that owns an estuary city in the Genoa trade node – making it a profitable conquest. By excommunicating them first you might eliminate their alliances, and you get a casus belli with reduced aggressive expansion impact.
Influence has a lot of synergy with the Papal State's national ideas, while the core costs discount from Administrative is very helpful in the Italian region and synergize well with all the Papal State administrative power discounts and gains. Either of them should be the first idea group.
Humanist is generally not a good idea group to pick, as the Papal State starts with a hefty -4 Tolerance of Heretics, which nullifies the +2 bonus provided by the idea group. Religious on the other hand has a lot of synergy with the Papal State's gameplay.