The Funding of the Papal Fleet in the War Against the Turks: Public Debt, New Taxes and Collection Problems (1526-1588)

The formation of a squadron of galleys operating in the war in the Mediterranean often clashed with financial needs. The papacy and the Apostolic Camera had limited resources for equipping galleys, and the path of direct taxation of the Papal State's communities was not always practicable. The creation of monti by the Apostolic Camera was undoubtedly an instrument that enabled the popes to finance war expenditure with greater continuity. The Camera's first monte, Monte della Fede, was founded in 1526 by Clement VII Medici to raise 200,000 gold scudi to cover military expenses against the Turks. The Pope considered an imminent collapse of Christianity against the infidels to be possible, and in April 1542 decided to equip three galleys, in addition to the three already in service. Pope Paul III was aware of the financial problems that might ensue from increased military expenditure, in particular the doubling of the fleet of galleys. Therefore, he ordered the cities and lands under his rule, both mediate and immediate subiectae, to pay, for a period of six months, the amount required to maintain the galleys, crews, provisions and weapons. The greatest effort to equip war galleys in the sixteenth century came under Pope Sixtus V (1585-1590), who dismantled the ancient consistory system with his bull Immensa Aeterni Dei, 1588, and replaced it with a complex system of fifteen permanent congregations, nine to deal with the spiritual matters of the Church and six with the temporal affairs of the State. In 1588 the Pope enacted a tax of 102,500 scudi per year for a permanent squadron of ten galleys, which patrolled the State's coasts and took part in naval operations against the Sultan together with allied Catholic fleets.