Why did Florence wage a bitter, three-year war against the Pope in 1375?
The War of the Eight Saints pitted Florence against Pope Gregory XI, triggering a massive ecclesiastical liquidation and the end of the Avignon Papacy. While the conflict is named after a mysterious committee of eight, historians still debate whether the title refers to the city's tax collectors or its war council.
The conflict originated from Florentine fears of papal expansion in central Italy and resentment toward the Parte Guelfa. In 1375, Florence formed an alliance with Milan and launched a campaign to incite revolts across more than forty papal cities. Chancellor Coluccio Salutati fueled the fire by circulating letters that branded papal rule as corrupt and tyrannical, while advocating for a return to republican ideals. In response, Pope Gregory XI excommunicated the Florentine government and placed the city under interdict in March 1376, effectively outlawing religious services and permitting the seizure of Florentine property throughout Europe.
To fund the war, the Florentine Signoria initiated an unprecedented liquidation of ecclesiastical assets, seizing property and imposing heavy fines on the clergy. The financial burden was immense, with the total cost of the war reaching approximately 2.5 million florins. The military landscape shifted in 1377 when the English mercenary John Hawkwood, previously the Pope's primary commander, defected to the anti-papal coalition. Meanwhile, the Pope returned to Rome in January 1377, a move that effectively ended the Avignon Papacy, though he died shortly after in March 1378.
The war's moniker remains a subject of scholarly dispute. While the term 'Eight Saints' is widely associated with the war, it likely stems from a retrospective misapplication by historian Domenico Buoninsegni in 1445. The title may have originally referred to the 'Otto dei Preti,' an eight-member committee tasked with taxing the clergy to pay for a nonaggression pact with Hawkwood, or the 'Otto della Guerra,' the council responsible for military strategy. A peace treaty was finally signed at Tivoli in July 1378 under Pope Urban VI, requiring Florence to pay 200,000 florins and restore confiscated church property in exchange for the lifting of the interdict.
Source: War of the Eight Saints
