WI: Emperor Otto wins the Battle of Bouvines?

For Church: the ability of the French monarchs to harness all of France's large population's resources and their relatively centralized administration after the great reforms (literally re-forms) of government of Louis VII and Philippe II made France the most powerful naton in Europe. Only the fact that it was surrounded by lukewarm or outrightly hostile neighbors prevented it from completely dominating the continent from the early 13th to the middle 14th centuries. Being the most powerful state in Europe and the source of many of the Church's revenues, as well as being able to project its power into the southern Mediterranean both economically and militarily led to France dominating the Papacy, and of course the popes even moved to Avignon to escape the Roman mob/nobles, as well as to cater to the kings of France. This "Babylonian captivity" of the Papacy in France, complete with the popes excommunicating people and nations who didn't want to be France's bitch (like in the Aragonese Crusade and the Albigensian Crusade before it), for material gain and French royal power instead of any spiritual reason, really decreased the pope's prestige. Part of the pope's power in medieval Europe was that often he could order warmongers to cease fighting or at least tone it down, and they would listen. Nobles, burghers, churchmen, and regular people were in awe of and grateful for his power in being able to better their lives in this way. The popes after the early 1200's tended to be warmongers themselves, supporting bloody wars that pitted France against the English (the HYW), that was more of a French dynastic/succession dispute than a war between nations, at least in its first phase. This coupled by the existence of antipopes (the Western Schism) and factors out of their control (end of the Medieval Warm Period, the Black Death) greatly decreased belief in the pope and directly strengthened reformist sentiment, culminating in the Reformation. Centuries before Martin Luther and Jan Hus there were communities in many areas (particularly southern France and the Rhineland, to my knowledge) who followed Catholicism rather weakly and already used Protestant practices. At times they were persecuted, their leaders tortured and forced to change their ways, but for the most part difficulty of travel and communications made them safe, able to continue and spread their """heresy""". There's a reason that there was a papal Inquisition (not tied to the state as in Spain) centuries before the Reformation.

Sorry for the rant anyway, but you can see how the great weakening of French royal authority here will actually strengthen the Papacy's moral position, barring other similar circumstances with another state (Naples? Spain?).
 
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