Papacy

The Papacy is the office of the Pope, who is the Bishop of Rome and the leader of the Catholic Church. The Pope was considered the head of the Catholic Church in terms of spiritual matters, and issues letters and Papal Bulls to mediate crises or theological arguments. For centuries, the Papacy possessed the power to order military expeditions, the most significant of which were the Crusades during the Middle Ages. In succeeding generations, the Papacy's temporal power and influence grew with the spread of Catholicism.

During the Renaissance, the Papacy ruled large portions of central Italy, with its capital in Rome. The Pope was also nominally in control of the assets of the Church. However, the management of the Church's income was left to the cardinals. The Papacy was protected by a unit of personal guards, also referred to as the Swiss Guard.

History

Early history

The Pope, in early times, was a mediator between the growing factions of the Church and decided over temporal and spiritual disputes. The leaders of the Church during that time took on the title of the Bishop of Rome. These early popes guided the people in proper doctrine and helped persecuted Christians hide from their oppressors.

However, with the Edict of Milan in 313, Christianity came out of the underground, became officially sanctioned, and spread across the far-flung territories of the Roman Empire. When the Church split into East and West in 1054, the pope lost influence in the East, but gained far more political influence in the West.

Alexander VI using the Papal Staff's powers

The original Papal Staff, once carried by Saint Peter, was in fact a Piece of Eden which possessed a number of advanced abilities and served as one of the keys to a Vault located underneath what would become the Vatican. The Staff was passed down from pope to pope, until December 1499, when it was forever lost to history after becoming lodged in a secret chamber near the Vatican Vault. A number of popes were also in possession of the Faith prong of the Trident of Eden, until it was passed on to King Alfonso V of Aragon by Pope Callixtus III.

The Crusades

With autonomy in 380, succeeding popes became increasingly powerful. Outpourings of religious piety were common due to the professed ideals of knighthood, and consequently the Church found itself with a large army of devout warriors at its disposal. At the end of the 11th century, the Papacy effectively utilized this army by declaring a crusade to take back the Holy Land from the Muslims.

This First Crusade was successful in capturing Jerusalem and other vital cities in the Levant, and it was followed up by the Second Crusade as a response to the fall of the Crusader city of Edessa. The failure of the Second Crusade led to a temporary peace, which lasted until Saladin conquered Jerusalem. In response, Pope Gregory VIII called for a Third Crusade, the objective of which was to reclaim Jerusalem and Solomon's Temple. The Templars, known as the Knights Templar at the time, actively participated in this Crusade—though only for their own personal gain—and found an Apple hidden in Solomon's Temple, before they attempted to destroy the Assassin Order.

The Assassins sought to counter their efforts, and Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad was able to prevent the Templars from gaining possession of the Apple. He successfully kept Robert de Sablé and his Templar followers from creating a union between King Richard and Saladin, to begin a war against the Assassin Order. After the Crusades, Pope Clement V was manipulated by King Philip IV of France—who in turn had been coerced by the French Assassins—to disband the Knights Templar on the charges of heresy.

Renaissance

Saint Peter's Basilica

The Papacy, even after the failure of the Crusades, continued to maintain its power during the Renaissance. They sponsored lavish constructions and works of religious art as patrons of artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael. In 1471, Sixtus IV ascended to the position of Pope and continued the work of his predecessors, but he also practiced nepotism and appointed four nephews, one of which was Giuliano della Rovere, to powerful positions in the Church. Sixtus was best known for his involvement in, and supporting, the Pazzi conspiracy to assassinate Giuliano and Lorenzo de' Medici.

On his death, two candidates presented themselves: Rodrigo Borgia and Giuliano della Rovere. The cardinals, who were alleged to have been bought by Rodrigo, nominated him to be Pope, and he took the name of Alexander VI. As Pope, Rodrigo gained access to the Papal Staff, a Piece of Eden. With it, he learned the location of the Vault underneath the Sistine Chapel.

However, the Assassin Ezio Auditore was able to prevent him from entering the Vault and instead went in himself, where he received a message from the Isu Minerva. Upon exiting the Vault, Rodrigo had vanished, though the Staff still resided where it was placed. Though Ezio tried to lift it from the floor, the Staff disappeared into the ground. Ezio, along with his uncle Mario, then left the building and returned to Monteriggioni.

Alexander VI in his Papal regalia

Alexander VI also made several nepotistic appointments, including appointing his own son Cesare as a cardinal, though Cesare quit to continue the Borgia bloodline after his brother Juan Borgia the Younger died, in order to become the Captain-General of the Papal Armies. Rodrigo and Cesare ordered the closure of many merchants and stables and allowed the condition of many Roman landmarks to deteriorate. They also took choice areas of land and built towers from which they spied on and terrorized the populace, ensuring their control of Rome.

Following this, Cesare also undertook several military conquests in the name of his father, the most important of which was the Siege of Monteriggioni, where Cesare stole the Apple from Mario Auditore before killing him, and invited Ezio himself to follow him to Rome. Cesare, through his father's influence, forced Leonardo da Vinci to design war machines for the Borgia cause.

However, after Rodrigo's death at his own son's hands, Giuliano della Rovere was elected to the Papacy and took the name Julius II. He ordered the arrest of Cesare, who was incarcerated at the Castel Sant'Angelo and later the Castillo de la Mota in Spain. As well as this, Julius and his successor, Leo X, both supported the Assassins' cause.

Popes

Saint Peter 30 - 67 Pelagius I 556 – 561 Gregory I 590 – 604 Leo IV 847 - 855 Sylvester II 999 – 1003 Urban II 1088 – 1099 Callixtus II 1119 – 1124 Celestine III 1191 – 1198 Innocent III 1198 – 1216 Honorius III 1216 – 1227 Gregory IX 1227 – 1241 Clement IV 1265 – 1268 Celestine V 1294 Benedict XI 1303 – 1304 Clement V 1305 – 1314 John XXII 1316 – 1334 Martin V 1417 – 1431 Eugene IV 1431 – 1447 Callixtus III 1455 – 1458 Pius II 1458 – 1464 Paul II 1464 – 1471 Sixtus IV 1471 - 1484 Innocent VIII 1484 – 1492 Alexander VI 1492 – 1503 Pius III 1503 Julius II 1503 – 1513 Leo X 1513 – 1521 Adrian VI 1522 – 1523 Clement VII 1523 – 1534 Paul III 1534 – 1549 Paul IV 1555 – 1559 Pius IV1559 – 1565 Pius V 1566 - 1572 Sixtus V 1585 – 1590 Clement VIII 1592 – 1605 Leo XI 1605 Urban VIII 1623 – 1644 Clement XI 1700 – 1721 Benedict XIII 1724 – 1730 Pius VI 1775 – 1799 Pius X 1903 – 1914

Appearances

This list is incomplete. You can help the Assassin's Creed Wiki by expanding it.

• Assassin's Creed II (first appearance)
• Assassin's Creed: Renaissance
• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood novel
• Assassin's Creed: Initiates
• Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (mentioned only)
• Assassin's Creed: Last Descendants (mentioned only)
• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood of Venice – Creed vs Crows (non-canon)
• Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Wrath of the Druids (mentioned only)
• Echoes of History (mentioned only)
• Assassin's Creed: Nexus VR (mentioned in Database entry only)
• Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple
• Assassin's Creed: Shadows (mentioned in Database entry only)