Analysis Of The Fiscal System Of The Rome Catholic Church In The15-16^th Century

After the Great Occidental Schism in1378,due to unceasing attacks of thesecular scepter,the fiscal system of the Rome Catholic Church was on the edge ofdisintegration,and the economic life of the church was also challenged by a growingphenomenon of financial deficit.In order to preserve papal authority,a series ofchanges of the original fiscal system was put into practice by the Roman Church. Newfiscal measures such as selling offices and barter ranks,debit and credit sides, issuingpapal debt began to exert a growing important effect, which not only helped thechurch break the financial crisis,but also injected modern characteristic to the church.So far, scholars who pay attention to fiscal problems of the Rome CatholicChurch have been numbered.The focal point of this thesis is to analysis the fiscalsystem of the Rome Catholic Church in15-16th century,and expound the significanceto the modern Europe. The author has drawn the conclusion that the Italy bankers hadplayed a very important role in this stage of fiscal system reform of the church.Theirintervention not only changed the fiscal system structure of the church, but theofficials constitution pattern have been changed, and further affectedpolitical,economic and cultural life of Western Europe. The new stratum,carrying theRoman Church,transited to modern time. From then on, the destiny of the church wasclosely related to the merchants.And the latter, began to serve as key positions in thechurch, the secularization of the church also accelerated.More specifically, the thesis consists of three chapters:Chapter I describes details of the fiscal system in15-16thcentury, specificallyincluding the power transition for the financial system, and operating mode change ofthe fiscal system of the Catholic Church.Chapter II intensively elaborates the historical background of executing newfiscal system, including the revenue decrease of of the church, the structure changingof the fiscal expenditure，attacks of the secular scepter to the papal financial authorityand the bankers benefit needs for the church economy.Chapter III focuses on the influences which the fiscal system changing leadsto,especially elaborates the relations between the secularization progress of the churchand internationalization of Italy banks with the fiscal system of the church.