The Papal State
The Papal State
Primary culture
Capital province
Government
State religion
Technology group
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Please help with verifying or updating this infobox. It was last verified for version 1.33. |
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.
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.
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[edit | edit source]
- 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[edit | edit source]
- 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.
Papal State
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Please help with verifying or updating this infobox. It was last verified for version 1.32. |
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
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Mean time to happen
2 months
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 We will never support such a state
Rome is rightfully theirs
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The Papal State
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Please help with verifying or updating this infobox. It was last verified for version 1.32. |
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
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Mean time to happen
6 months
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Immediate effects
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For the Glory of God!
Perhaps not.
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Decisions[edit | edit source]
Declare the Kingdom of God
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Please help with verifying or updating this infobox. It was last verified for version 1.33. |
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
If the country is AI-controlled, it:
Playing with normal or historical nations. |
Allow
The country:
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| Effects
The country:
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AI will always take this decision
Strategy[edit | edit source]
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[edit | edit source]
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[edit | edit source]
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[edit | edit source]
The Papal State starts the game as the Curia Controller and the goal is to keep that control forever. The papal state doesn’t gain Papal influence like other catholic countries do and can't spend it using the curia actions either. Instead, the Papal state gets Invested influence towards becoming the next Papal controller.
The primary source of Invested influence for the Papal State is from having cardinals within its borders and they give +1 Invested influence per cardinal (instead of 0.5 Papal influence like other catholic countries receives), and that gets automatically invested on the 1st of January. Since max number of cardinals per country is 7, that is the same max amount of Invested influence the papal state can get every January 1st. There are two ways of gaining cardinals for the papal state, appoint or conquer. Appoint cardinal is done at the curia screen and costs money from the Papal states own pockets and some corruption. The other way is to take provinces from other countries that already have a cardinal present.
Secondary sources of Invested influence are Appoint cardinal in other countries and Buy Indulgence. Appoint cardinal is done at the diplomacy screen with the target country, under Papal actions. The action spends money from the Curia Treasury, or the papal states own pockets, to appoint a cardinal in the highest developed province of that country and the Papal state then gain 10 Invested influence instantly. Buy Indulgence spends money form the papal states own pockets based of total development within the Papal state to gain 10 Invested influences instantly.
Appoint cardinal within the Papal state is expensive but should be done at least once at the start of the campaign before the price gets too high (the price is based on number of cardinals in the world AND in the Papal state). To gain the other six cardinal spend Curia treasury to appoint cardinals in other countries that the Papal state will conquer soon, but not too soon, since that papal state gets a five year peace with the target country. This way the Papal state will have seven cardinals with in the first decades and already have over 100 Invested influence which should be enough to gain Papal control over the second pope.
Buy Indulgence will always be too expensive to use on a regular basis since it is the Papal states own pockets that must pay for that Invested influence. Instead use the Appoint cardinal in other countries and spend some of that enormous Curia treasury just sitting there. It is best to Appoint cardinals in many different countries instead of just a few. The key to remain in control of the curia is to makes sure no other country have more than just one or two cardinals. So, don’t appoint cardinals in blobbing countries or in countries that the blobbing catholic countries will conquer. Instead Appoint in free cities, HRE electors, medium size HRE countries and Scandinavian countries. Irish and Scottish nations are a big no-no, they will be conquered by England sooner or later. The same goes for all the small French dutchies. All of Burgundy’s and the low countries Cardinals might get handed over to Austria or France (or a third nation) after the Burgundian succession, so they should not get any appointed cardinals either. It is fine if provinces with cardinals get conquered by countries with other religions, then the cardinal will disappear, and the Papal state can appoint another cardinal gaining more Invested influence. Countries like the Knights, Riga, Livonian order, the Balkan countries comes to mind, if they remain in control of the cardinal, great! If not, great too. The reformation spawning might free up many cardinals in northern Germany and in OPMs. Be aware that the max number of cardinals is not 49, the papal state can continue appointing cardinals after 49. BUT no other cardinals will be automatically appointed (based of dev) after 49.
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. The papal states big catholic allies (Austria or France, Spain, England, Poland and so on), must be extremely limited with cardinals since allies will have great relations with the Papal state and dues gain more Papal influence. Most of them also gain extra permanent Papal influence from events, national ideas and great projects. Therefore, it could be wise to conquer great projects that provides Papal influence. Another tactic is to conquer provinces with cardinals present from nations that have multiple cardinals, if the Papal state have max cardinals the newest cardinal will disappear. This could also be done if the Papal state has a non-Catholic ally or vassal gaining a province with a cardinal present.
A more uncommon way the Papal State can 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 popes’ death. The Pope can be made general with the Tier 6: Magister Militum Dei government reform, which also helps if he is a foreign pope that needs to go, or just a bad pope.
Reform Desire Control[edit | edit source]
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[edit | edit source]
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[edit | edit source]
- 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.
- If the player joins the HRE,
- 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.
Achievements[edit | edit source]
As the Papacy, own Jerusalem and have Livonian Order, Teutonic Order and The Knights as Marches. |
Starting as the Papal State, become the Kingdom of God. |
Eastern technology group 
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 Bosnia  Byzantium  Circassia  Cyprus  Georgia  Greece  Lithuania  Montenegro  Muscovy  Novgorod  Poland  Ragusa  Russia  Serbia  Theodoro  Trebizond  Tver  Wallachia
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Anatolian technology group 
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 Ottomans
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Muslim technology group 
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 Granada
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Nomadic technology group 
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Central African technology group 
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 Kuba Mutapa
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East African technology group 
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 Ethiopia Mogadishu
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| Muslim technology group
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 Mamluks Morocco Tlemcen Tunis
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West African technology group 
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 Air Mali
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| Eastern technology group
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 Jerusalem  Karabakh
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| Muslim technology group
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 Afghanistan  Ajam  Arabia  Ardabil  Hisn Kayfa  Hormuz  Oman  Mushasha  Timurids  Qara Qoyunlu
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Indian technology group 
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 Assam  Bahmanis  Bengal  Orissa
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Chinese technology group 
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 Bali  Brunei  Dai Viet  Japan  Khmer  Korea  Majapahit  Malaya  Pagarruyung  Pasai  Sunda
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| Nomadic technology group
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 Jianzhou  Uzbek  Mongolia
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Western technology group 
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 United States
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Mesoamerican technology group 
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 Maya
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North American technology group 
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 Caddo  Cherokee  Iroquois
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Polynesian technology group 
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 Aotearoa Hawai'i Ngapuhi Ngati Awa Ngati Kahungunu Ngati Ranginui Ngati Toa Tainui Waitaha
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