The popes returned to fix their court at Rome in 1371. and the government then assnmed a more regular form, occasionally inter rupted however by insurrections of the people of Rome. A great part of the territory, especially north of the Apennines, continued in the hands of petty princes or tyrants. Alexander VI., in the year 1500, cent his son, Cesare Borgia, who extirpated the tyrants of the Marches. .Julius II., the successor of Alexander VI., put himself at the bead of an army, conquered Romagna, Bologna, and Perugia, and from that time the Papal State acquired its present compact form. Ferrara was annexed to it in 1597, the duchy of Urbino in 1632, after the death of the lust duke Della Revere without issue, and in 1050 the duchy of Castro and Ronciglione.
In 1797 Bonaparte detached the four legations, Bologna, Ferrara, Ravenna, and Forli, and annexed them to the Cisalpine republic. In 1793 the French troops invaded Rome and drove away the pope. In 1801 the pope was restored to Rome and its territory, except the lega tions. In 1808 Napoleon detached the Marches, which he annexed to his kingdom of Italy, and in 1809 he took possession of Rome and the southern part of the Papal State and annexed it to the French empire. In 1814 the pope was restored to his dotniuions. Soon after bia accession the present reigning Pope Pius IX., after a series of liberal concessions to his subjects, appointed a ministry, at the head of wh ch was Count Rossi, and granted a constitutional parliament, consisting of 99 members popularly elected. The democratic party
however were still unsatisfied. Count Rossi was assassinated at the very entrance of the Chamber of Deputies (Nov. 15, 1848); a demo cratic ministry was forced upon the pope, who however seized the earliest opportunity (Nov. 25) to escape from Rome to Gaeta, where he placed himself under the protection of the king of Naples. A provisional junta was instituted in Rome, and a constituent assembly called, which proclaimed a republican form of government, and declared the pope divested of all temporal power (Feb. 8, 1849). Against this the pope protested, and appealed to the great Catholic powersfor intervention in his behalf. The National Assembly of the Drench Republic, Spain, and Naples sent troops in support of the rights of the Holy See ; the French army under General Oudinot commenced to besiege the Eternal City on the 23rd of June. After considerable resistance the city surrendered unconditionally on the 3rd of July ; the French took possession of the city, and soon after proclaimed the authority of the pope, who however did not return to Rome till April 12, 1850. Whilst the French were putting down the republican spirit in Rome the Austrians were similarly occupied in the Legations and Marches, and with equal success.