The Captain General of the Church (Italian: Capitano generale della Chiesa) was the de facto commander-in-chief of the papal armed forces during the Middle Ages. The post was usually conferred on an Italian noble with a professional military reputation or (later) a relative of the pope. The parallel office of Gonfalonier of the Church was more a formal and ceremonial honor than the responsibility of a tactical military leader. Pope Innocent XII removed both ranks and replaced them with the position of Flag-bearer of the Holy Roman Church (Italian: Vessilifero di Santo Romana Chiesa), which later became hereditary in the Naro Patrizi.
It was traditional for the Captain General to carry a baton of command, blessed by the pope.
Read more about Captain General Of The Church: List of Captains General, See Also
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“The captain was a duck
With a packet on his back,
And when the ship began to move
The captain said, Quack! Quack!”
—Mother Goose (fl. 17th–18th century. I saw a ship a-sailing (l. 13–16)
“The conclusion suggested by these arguments might be called the paradox of theorizing. It asserts that if the terms and the general principles of a scientific theory serve their purpose, i. e., if they establish the definite connections among observable phenomena, then they can be dispensed with since any chain of laws and interpretive statements establishing such a connection should then be replaceable by a law which directly links observational antecedents to observational consequents.”
—C.G. (Carl Gustav)
“The tavern will compare favorably with the church. The church is the place where prayers and sermons are delivered, but the tavern is where they are to take effect, and if the former are good, the latter cannot be bad.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)