Papacy

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The Papacy is the office of the pope. Besides its religious role as the official catholic order, it acted as a government ruling over a large part of Italy (of which only remains today the Vatican city-state enclaved in Rome). Its capital was Rome.

Historically, the Papacy has been the subject of urban legend and ancient controversy. Tales of secret 'behind-the-scenes' power-brokers have caught the attention of modern fiction, with Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code weaving the Catholic Church, and the Papacy, into a story that casts them as conspirators attempting to cover up a secret so powerful that it risks destroying Christianity as a whole.

While the Pope is, by tradition, always male, stories have been told of at least one woman that was elected to the position; nicknamed 'Pope Joan', written accounts consider her to be a fair-minded and well-liked Pope. However, her secret was revealed in an unspecified way; some versions of the story say that she gave birth on a crowded street during a Papal procession. Other more 'generous' tellings say that she lived comfortably, well into her later years. Whether she lived or died is largely irrelevant, however -- to this day, historians are divided on whether she even existed in the first place.