Papal States, Ital. Lo Stato della Chiesa, from 754 to 1870 an independent territory under the temporal rule of the popes, also called the States of the Church and the Pontifical States. The territory varied in size at different times; in 1859 it included c.16,000 sq mi (41,440 sq km) extending north-south on the Italian peninsula, from the Adriatic Sea and lower course of the Po River to the Tyrrhenian Sea, thus including the present regions of Latium, Umbria, Marche, and eastern Emilia-Romagna.

Accumulation of Land

The nucleus of the states consisted of endowments given to the popes from the 4th cent. in and around Rome, in other areas of the Italian mainland, and in Sicily, Sardinia, and other lands; these came to be called the Patrimony of St. Peter. The popes gradually lost their more distant lands, but in the duchy of Rome papal power became stronger and increasingly independent of the Eastern emperors and of the other states in Italy.

In 754 (confirmed 756), Pepin the Short Pepin the Short (Pepin III), c.714–768, first Carolingian king of the Franks (751–68), son of Charles Martel and father of Charlemagne . Succeeding his father as mayor of the palace (741), he ruled Neustria, Burgundy, and Provence, while his brother
..... Click the link for more information. gave to Pope Stephen II Stephen II, d. 757, pope (752–57), successor of Pope St. Zacharias . When Rome was threatened by the Lombard king Aistulf, Stephen went to Gaul and appealed to Pepin the Short for help. He became the first pope to cross the Alps.
..... Click the link for more information. the exarchate of Ravenna Ravenna (rävĕn`nä), city (1991 pop. 135,844), capital of Ravenna prov.
..... Click the link for more information. and the Pentapolis (Rimini, Ancona, Fano, Pesaro, and Senigallia). (Like Pope Zacharias Zacharias or Zachary, Saint (zăkərī`əs, zăk`ərē)
..... Click the link for more information. , Pope Stephen II had recognized Pepin as rightful king of the Franks, and Pepin now needed papal assistance against the Lombards.) Over these vast territories the popes were long unable to exercise effective temporal sovereignty. In 774, Charlemagne Charlemagne (Charles the Great or Charles I) (shär`ləmān) [O.Fr.
..... Click the link for more information. confirmed the donation of his father, Pepin the Short; moreover, to give the papal claim to temporal power greater antiquity, the so-called Donation of Constantine (see Constantine, Donation of Constantine, Donation of, Lat. Constitutum Constantini, forged document, probably drafted in the 8th cent. It purported to be a grant by Roman Emperor Constantine I of great temporal power in Italy and the West to the papacy .
..... Click the link for more information. ) to Pope Sylvester I Sylvester I, Saint, pope (314–35), a Roman; successor of St. Miltiades (St. Melchiades). He was pope under the reign of Emperor Constantine I, who built for him the Lateran and other churches. St.
..... Click the link for more information. was forged. On its basis later popes also claimed suzerainty over Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia. In 1115, Countess Matilda Matilda, 1046–1115, countess of Tuscany, called the Great Countess; supporter of Pope Gregory VII in the papal conflict with the Holy Roman emperors. Ruling over Tuscany and parts of Emilia-Romagna and Umbria, she controlled the most powerful feudal state in
..... Click the link for more information. of Tuscany, by leaving her territories to the church, helped to precipitate a long struggle between popes and emperors.

In Rome itself, the popes' temporal power, almost nonexistent in the 10th cent., remained greatly limited until the 14th cent. by the interference of the emperors, by the power of the nobles, and by the ambitions of the commune of Rome, which contended that its authority also extended over the Papal States. In the 13th and 14th cent., the emperors renounced their claims to the duchy of Spoleto, the Romagna Romagna (rōmä`nyä)
..... Click the link for more information. , and the March of Ancona; however, the free communes and petty tyrannies that dominated these regions long resisted effective papal control. The Comtat Venaissin, a papal possession in S France until 1791 (though not a part of the Papal States), was acquired in 1274; in 1309, Avignon Avignon (ävēnyôN`), city (1990 pop. 86,440), capital of Vaucluse dept., SE France, on the Rhône River.
..... Click the link for more information. became the seat of the popes. From 1309 to 1417, during the "Babylonian Captivity" at Avignon and the Great Schism Schism, Great, or Schism of the West, division in the Roman Catholic Church from 1378 to 1417. There was no question of faith or practice involved; the schism was a matter of persons and politics.
..... Click the link for more information. , the Papal States were in chaotic condition, only temporarily relieved by the efforts of Cardinal Albornoz Albornoz, Gil Álvarez Carrillo de (hēl äl`värĕth kärē`lyō dā älbôrnôth`)
..... Click the link for more information. .

Control of the Territories

Actual control by the papacy of its territories began in the 16th cent., when Cesare Borgia Borgia, Cesare or Caesar (chā`zärā bōr`jä)
..... Click the link for more information. , son of Pope Alexander VI, conquered the petty states of the Romagna and Marche; after his fall (1503) most of them passed directly under papal rule. In the early 16th cent., Pope Julius II Julius II, 1443–1513, pope (1503–13), an Italian named Giuliano della Rovere, b. Savona; successor of Pius III. His uncle Sixtus IV gave him many offices and created him cardinal.
..... Click the link for more information. consolidated papal power by abolishing local autonomies and by participating effectively in the Italian Wars Italian Wars, 1494–1559, series of regional wars brought on by the efforts of the great European powers to control the small independent states of Italy.
..... Click the link for more information. . The last principalities to lose their autonomy to the popes were Ferrara (1598) and Urbino (1631). The duchy of Castro was added in 1649. Parma Parma (pär`mä), city (1991 pop. 170,520), capital of Parma prov.
..... Click the link for more information. and Piacenza were alienated (1545) through the nepotism of Pope Paul III Paul III, 1468–1549, pope (1534–49), a Roman named Alessandro Farnese; successor of Clement VII. He was created cardinal by Alexander VI, and his influence increased steadily.
..... Click the link for more information. .

Dissolution and Resolution

After the Counter Reformation Counter Reformation, 16th-century reformation that arose largely in answer to the Protestant Reformation; sometimes called the Catholic Reformation. Although the Roman Catholic reformers shared the Protestants' revulsion at the corrupt conditions in the church, there
..... Click the link for more information. (16th cent.) the spiritual power of the papacy grew while its political power waned. Papal troops, mostly Swiss and other mercenaries, offered almost no resistance to the French invaders under Napoleon Bonaparte (see Napoleon I Napoleon I (nəpō`lēən, Fr. näpôlāōN`), 1769–1821, emperor of the French, b.
..... Click the link for more information. ) in 1796. Pius VI Pius VI, 1717–99, pope (1775–99), an Italian named G. Angelo Braschi, b. Cesena; successor of Clement XIV. He was created cardinal in 1774. Early in his reign he was faced with the attempts of Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II to "reform" the church by
..... Click the link for more information. and his successor, Pius VII Pius VII, 1740–1823, pope (1800–1823), an Italian named Barnaba Chiaramonti, b. Cesena; successor of Pius VI, who had created him cardinal in 1785.
..... Click the link for more information. , saw their states curtailed, occupied, and twice abolished between 1796 and 1814. The Congress of Vienna fully restored (1815) the states of the papacy and placed them under Austrian protection.

Conspiracies and revolutions (notably of 1831 and 1848–49) characterized the following decades. Pius IX Pius IX, 1792–1878, pope (1846–78), an Italian named Giovanni M. Mastai-Ferretti, b. Senigallia; successor of Gregory XVI . He was cardinal and bishop of Imola when elected pope.
..... Click the link for more information. was liberal at his accession and granted his states a constitution, but the events of 1848 turned him against the revolutionists. During the Risorgimento Risorgimento (rēsôr'jēmĕn`tō) [Ital.
..... Click the link for more information. , only French intervention at Rome prevented the total absorption of the Papal States. After the Austrians left (1859) Bologna and the Romagna, both united (1860) with the kingdom of Sardinia, as did Marche and Umbria. Giuseppe Garibaldi Garibaldi, Giuseppe (gărĭbôl`dē, Ital. j
..... Click the link for more information. invaded the remaining Papal States twice but was prevented from taking Rome—in 1862 by the intervention of Victor Emmanuel II Victor Emmanuel II, 1820–78, king of Sardinia (1849–61) and first king of united Italy (1861–78). He fought in the war of 1848–49 against Austrian rule in Lombardy-Venetia and ascended the throne when his father, Charles Albert , abdicated
..... Click the link for more information. of Italy, and in 1867 by Napoleon III Napoleon III (Louis Napoleon Bonaparte), 1808–73, emperor of the French (1852–70), son of Louis Bonaparte (see under Bonaparte , family), king of Holland.
..... Click the link for more information. .

The fall of Napoleon permitted Victor Emmanuel to seize Rome in 1870. However, Pius IX refused to recognize the loss of temporal power and became a "prisoner" in the Vatican; his successors followed his example. The so-called Roman Question was only resolved in 1929 by the Lateran Treaty Lateran Treaty, concordat between the Holy See and the kingdom of Italy signed in 1929 in the Lateran Palace, Rome, by Cardinal Gasparri for Pius XI and by Benito Mussolini for Victor Emmanuel III.
..... Click the link for more information. , which, among other things, established Vatican City Vatican City (văt`ĭkən), independent state (2005 est. pop. 900), 108.
..... Click the link for more information. .

Bibliography

See L. M. Duchesne, The Beginnings of the Temporal Sovereignty of the Popes, A.D. 754–1073 (1898, tr. 1908); D. P. Waley, The Papal State under Martin V (1958); P. Partner, The Lands of St. Peter: The Papal State in the Middle Ages and the Early Renaissance (1972). See also bibliography under papacy papacy (pā`pəsē), office of the pope, head of the Roman Catholic Church.
..... Click the link for more information. .

Papal States

Italian Stati Pontifici

Territories of central Italy over which the pope had sovereignty from 756 to 1870. The extent of the territory and the degree of papal control varied over the centuries. As early as the 4th century, the popes had acquired considerable property around Rome (called the Patrimony of St. Peter). From the 5th century, with the breakdown of Roman imperial authority in the West, the popes' influence in central Italy increased as the people of the area relied on them for protection against the barbarian invasions. When the Lombards threatened to take over the whole peninsula in the 750s, Pope Stephen II (or III) appealed for aid to the Frankish ruler Pippin III (the Short). On intervening, Pippin “restored” the lands of central Italy to the Roman see, ignoring the claim of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire to sovereignty there. This Donation of Pippin (754) provided the basis for the papal claim to temporal power. More land was gained when the papacy acquired the duchy of Benevento in 1077, and Popes Innocent III and Julius II further expanded the papal domain. The rise of communes and rule by local families weakened papal authority in the towns, and by the 16th century the papal territory was one of a number of petty Italian states. They were an obstacle to Italian unity until 1870, when Rome was taken by Italian forces and became the capital of Italy. In 1929 the Lateran Treaty settled the pope's relation to the Italian state and set up an independent city-state (see Vatican City).