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The Crusading movement was launched by the papacy and its fate remained intertwined with that of the Roman pontiffs. As their role in European politics changed, so too did the movement’s. As Western Europe moved toward the modern world, secular rulers became more independent, and focused more on internal policies.   The scandal of the Avignon papacy and the Great Western Schism in the fourteenth century severely weakened the papacy, which the Protestant Revolution then completel …