ABSTRACT
A distinction was made between the papal household, consisting of the pope's relatives and personal servants, and the papal court or curia, composed of the various administrative departments responsible for the organisation of the Church throughout western Christendom. While the papal household was based at the Vatican, the curia was divided between offices there and elsewhere in Rome. Cardinals acted collectively as the pope's innermost council of advisers, meeting with him in public and secret consistories. Ambassadors from foreign powers were among those who could attend and address public consistories. Members of the University of Paris were at the forefront of calls for a General Council of the Church to break the deadlock caused by the papal contenders refusing to give way to each other. The circumstances, in which the more important concordats were concluded, as well as some of their terms, are given in the Chronology of Public Events.
