PAPAL STATES, or STATES OF THE CHURCH. The name applied to the territory in Central Italy, varying in extent. which until the last half of the nineteenth century was under the temporal sovereignty of the Pope. The earliest origin of this dominion is difficult to assign to a definite year. Although the so-called Donation of Constantine is now known to have been a later invention, there is no doubt that he made many rich gifts to the Church, especially after his victory over Maxentius; the Lateran Palace, for a thousand years the residence of the popes, seems to have been given to them during his reign. Like other bishops, the bishops of Rome acquired by degrees not unimportant political rights; and when the scat of the Empire was re moved to Byzantium. it was partly their rich pos sessions that gave them their great influence in the affairs of Italy. By the time of Gregory the Great (590-604) the Roman See possessed at least twenty-three estates with a total area of some 1800 square miles in various parts of Italy and the adjacent islands, in Southern France. and even in Northern Africa. The begin ning of full sovereignty in the modern sense may. however, be said to have come from the presenta tion of the town of Sutri by the Lombards to the Apostles Peter and Paul in the person of Gregory II. (727). The Lombards were uncertain friends, however, and the popes were obliged to appeal to the Frankish kingdom for aid against them. In 754 Pepin transferred considerable and definite territories to Pope Gregory Ill.. and in the fol lowing year, brushing aside by conquest any claims which either the Lombards or the Byzan tine Emperor made to these lands, placed the Pope in undisputed possession of them. Charle magne increased them, until they extended from Luna, near the present Lucca, to Capua, includ ing the Duchy of Rome, the Pentapolis, _Emilia, and the Exarchate of Ravenna, or nearly the whole of Central Italy.
This sovereignty, though attacked during the troubles of the tenth century by the Italian factions. increased gradually during the eleventh and twelfth. In 1014 the Emperor Henry II. resigned half of Tuscany into the Pope's hands; Leo IX. received the lwerlord.hip of Benevento from Henry III. in m32. and the principality came into the full possession of the Holy See in 1077. on the extinction of the family which had ruled it. In 1115 the Countess Matilda of Tuscany left the Pope her fiefs of Parma. Modena, Reggio, and Garfalznana. and part of Mantua. They were, however, seized by the Emperor, and only a part of Southern Tus cany actually came into the Pope's hands. In these times, in any case, the power of the Pope was little more than a feudal suze rainty over a number of petty princes or over cities with their own government. who paid tribute to the popes and were bound to assist them with a military force in case of need. In France, Gregory X. gained the Conitat Venaissin from Philip III. in 1274, and Clement VI. bought the town of Avignon in 1348. During the Avi gnon period, however (1309-76), tile temporal sovereignty of the pope, over their Italian ter ritories was menaced or weakened by the ambi tion Of the great families, and Cola di Rienzi even succeeded for a time in shaking it off from Rome itself. In the sixteenth eentury the popes entered so largely- into the political MOVV1111•11tA of Enrope. and were of such importance to the maintenance of the balance of power, that pun dent statesmanship was able to increase their territory largely. Sixtus IV. at the end of the fifteenth century established his jurisdiction over Romagna; additions were made of Bologna in 1312, Ancona in 1332, Camerino in 1343. Ferrara
and Comacchio. the possessions of the House of Este, in 1398, Urbino in 1631, Castro and Ron eiglione, the last additions, in 1649.
Great elminges began with the end of the eighteenth century. In 1768 the Bourbon rulers of Naples seized Benevento and Pontecorvo. and in 1783 dissolved altogether the connection with the Roman See which had existed for more than seven centuries. Avignon and Venaissin were occupied from 1768 to 1774, as they had been twice in the preceding century, by the French Bourbons, and in 1791 passed under the jurisdiction of the French Republic. By the Treaty of Tolentino (1797) Pius VI. was obliged to resign the three legations of Bo logna, Ferrara, and Romagna into Napoleon's hands. and a year later the remaining territory was seized and erected into the Roman Republic. This was overthrown by the Second Coalition in June. 1799; on July 3, 1800, Pins VII. en tered Rome. which had been held by the Neapoli tans, and rePst;illisheil the old constitution in his States, now deprived of Romagna, Bologna, and Ferrara. The French again took of them, and in 1809 incorporated them with the Empire. Rome being reckoned as its second city. The Congress of Vienna restored the States of the Church, now embracing the marches of An eona and Camerino, the duchies of Benevento and Pontecorvo. and the legatilms, except a part of Ferrara. which Austria retained. In 1831 and 1848 there were risings against the Government. The former was suppressed by the aid of an Aus trian army; the latter assumed such proportions, even in Rome itself, that Pope Pins IN. was forced to flee to Gaeta. while Rome was proclaiined a re public. Ile was restored by the arms of Prance in 1849. The Austrians held the legations for the Pope until 1839, and the French occupied Rome in his behalf (except for a part of 18671 until 1870. In July, 1859. on the withdrawal of the Austrian troops. the Romagna threw off the Papal authority and declared its aun1'xanioiu to the Kin7doin of Sardinia. or. as it was to become a few months later, of Italy. After the defeat of LamgyieiverP. the Papal general 118391, Um bria. Urbino. and the Marches were annexed by Victor Emmanuel: and the isolated posses sions of Benevento anal Ponteeorvo shared Ilse same fate. In October, 1870, the French army having been withdrawn in July. the remnant of the Papal States voted for onion with the King dom of Italy. It was the original intention of Victor Emmanuel's Government to leave the part of Rome known as the Leonine city under the Pope's control as Ft emunromise: but it was rejected equally by the Pope and by the in Ihrbitants, and the Pope's jurisdiction was re stricted within the limits of the Vatican. outside of which, as a protest against the legality of the Italian occupation, he has never set foot since 1870. Roman Catholics generally, while of course not considering the temporal power as in any way essential, yet regard it as very ex pedient for the proper exercise by the Pope of his high functions that he should be independent and not the subject of any temporal ruler. This is maintained not only on theoretical grounds, but as demonstrated historically by the events of th'e Avignon captivity and by more than one incident of the period since 1S70. Consult: Manning, The Temporal Power of the Pope (London, 1S71) ; Hageliiken, Die zreltliche Nada des Papstes (Frankfort, 18G8) ; Hollinger, Papatthorn and Icirehenstaat (Munich. 18G1); HergenrOther. Der Kirehenstaat self der /ran zosischen Revolution (Freiburg, 1860) ; Still man, The Union of Italy (Cambridge, 1898). See PAPACY: ITALY; PAPAL GUARANTEES, LAW OF.