Accounting and the Papal States: The influence of the Pro commissa Bull (1592) on the rise of an early modern state

Abstract

The aim of this article is to explore the role played by accounting in the building of the early modern Papal States. In particular, the study shows how the control and accountability system set up by the Pro commissa Bull (15 August 1592) allowed the Pope to concentrate and centralize political power, fostering the shift of the Papal States towards the configuration of an absolute state which can be considered the first major institutional embodiment of the modern state in the early modern period. Besides contributing to the literature on accounting and state building, this research also provides insights into the role of accounting in religious institutions. The analysis, in fact, is carried out in one of the most important religious institutions in history. Moreover, the fact that the Pope was both the political and the religious head of the Papal States allows the inference that this peculiar "dual role" could have affected the setting up of the abovementioned control and accountability system.

Accounting history and religion: A review of studies and a research agenda

“…This suggests close control by the church authorities who sought to construct “a new organizational order” which was increasingly bureaucratic and focused on economy (Bracci et al, 2010: 486). Gatti and Poli (2014) also explore the rise of the Papal State, considering the influences of the Pro c ommissa Bull (1592). Similar to Bracci et al (2010), they find high levels of control and accountability being demanded by the Pope through standing committees.…”

The state relationship with religion: Defined through disciplinary procedures of accounting and regulation

“…The disconnect between the state’s belief as to the common-good and that of citizens is evident from failure to achieve the state’s aim of universal state–church attendance (Haigh, 2001). Such controls (making visible, fining and taxing) enables comparison and differentiation (Foucault, 1991; Gatti and Poli, 2014). While direct dividing practices were also evident in the study by Madonna et al (2014) of The University of Ferrara, this study augments that research by highlighting both direct and indirect tools.…”

“…While Foucault argues that governmentality is evident in modern political thought and action, a number of Italian accounting history studies also show how governmentality tools (specifically accountability demands) increase or maintain state or religious power (e.g. Bigoni and Funnell, 2015; Gatti and Poli, 2014; Madonna et al, 2014; Sargiacomo, 2009). In addition, Yayla (2011) records the requirements for nineteenth-century Egyptian waqfs to use new accounting and calculative techniques, inspection and return surpluses to the government.…”

“…The notion of ‘state’ developed in the early-modern period (late fifteenth to late eighteenth century), when ‘several Western European states experienced the transition from the configuration of the feudal state to the modern one’ (Gatti and Poli, 2014: 475). As power had been centralised in Kings and Popes, initially the modern state commonly supported an established church (including in the emergent United States 4 ).…”

“Contra omnes et singulos a via domini aberrantes”: accounting for confession and pastoral power during the Roman Inquisition (1550–1572)

“…The impact of the thought of religious thinkers on accounting and its compatibility with local religious communities have also been studied (Cordery, 2006;Hardy and Ballis, 2005;Faircloth, 1988). This has prompted scholars to investigate the role of accounting in the centralisation of power by religious authorities (Gatti and Poli, 2014;Bigoni and Funnell, 2015;Quattrone, 2004) and the use of accounting practices by peripheral institutions to resist this attempt (Magliacani and Di Pietra, 2019).…”