Why have most Popes been of Italian origin?
Primarily because most of the primates who chose THE Primate have been Italian. Uhhh. The College of Cardinals elect the Pope, most of the Cardinals have been Italian.So perhaps the question should be ” Why are so many of the Cardinals Italian?” There have been 217 popes from Italy, 17 from France, 6 from Germany, 3 from Spain, and one each from England, Portugal, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Poland. One reason for so many Italians in the 16th into the 18th centuries is the Political-Religious warfare that was going on . As Catholicism and Protestantism retreated and advanced back and forth across Europe, the Papal holdings in Italy (reduced now to the Vatican) became holding ground for Catholicism. ( France had its own internal Political problems, Spain was of course strongly Catholic, but its alliance with the Pope was more one sided from the Spanish point of view, influenced by politics, first against Portugal, then more importantly against the English.) So it didn’t seem a goo
