Exceptionalism. Three treaties about power and money changed Europe ; Think of popes and kings as self-interested ; Short-term decisions, lasting consequences ; Europe: unexpected exceptionalism ; Europe's unique feature -- Two swords, one church. Iconoclasm, the papal states, and escape from Constantinople ; The birth of papal nepotism ; Papal maneuvers to increase political power ; The struggle over the increase of bishops ; The pope's war with the Holy Roman Emperor -- The concordat game. The terms of the concordats ; The process of bishop selection before the concordats ; The concordat game ; Key implications of the concordat game -- Secularism surges. The game's third outcome: Avignon and rebellion against the church ; The church's changing use of punishment ; The secularization of bishops ; The wealth of dioceses ; Wealth and secularization of bishops: a first test ; Assessing the expected costs of defying the church ; Wealthy sees for secular bishops and poor sees for religious bishops -- The road to prosperity. Maneuvers to influence economic growth ; Four Lateran Councils: combating secular economic growth ; Secular maneuvers for growth ; Growth, crusades, and the commercial revolution -- The road to Papal serfdom and liberation. Gamble on bishops, gamble on vacant sees ; Breaking from the church: French wealth and the Avignon papacy ; Testing when France was ready to rebel ; The church contemplates reform; Protestants rebel ; Art and the rise of secularism -- The birth of states, the birthing of representative democracy. The concordat: a step toward modern sovereignty ; War and accountability ; War and state building ; The concordats and accountable states ; Secularism, wealth, and parliaments ; Rubber stamps or real parliaments ; Did parliaments help or hurt monarchs? -- Today. The altered tides of power ; The concordats and today's quality of life ; Innovation and discovery ; Insights for today.