Papal States - Origins

The Papal States (Gli Stati della Chiesa or Stati Pontificii, "States of the Church") was one of the major historical states of Italy before the boot-shaped peninsula was unified under the Piedmontese crown of Savoy (later a republic). The Papal States comprised those territories over which the Pope was the ruler in a civil as well as a spiritual sense before 1870. This governing power is commonly called the temporal power of the Pope, as opposed to his (unique and more essential) ecclestiastical primacy. The plural is u ...

Including:

• Papal States - Origins
• Papal States - The Donation of Pippin and the Holy Roman Empire
• Papal States - The Renaissance
• Papal States - The era of the French Revolution and Napoleon
• Papal States - Italian nationalism and the end of the Papal States
• Papal States - Institutions

Read more here: » Papal States: Encyclopedia - Papal States

The Roman Catholic Church spent its first three centuries as an outlawed organization and was thus unable to hold or transfer property. After the ban was lifted by the Emperor Constantine I, the church's private property grew quickly through the donations of the pious and the wealthy; the Lateran Palace was the first significant donation, a gift of Constantine himself. Other donations soon followed, mainly in mainland Italy but also in the provinces. However, the Church held all of these lands as a private landowner, not as a sovereign entit ...

See also:

Papal States, Papal States - Origins, Papal States - The Donation of Pippin and the Holy Roman Empire, Papal States - The Renaissance, Papal States - The era of the French Revolution and Napoleon, Papal States - Italian nationalism and the end of the Papal States, Papal States - Institutions

Read more here: » Papal States: Encyclopedia II - Papal States - Origins

Italian nationalism had been stoked during the Napoleonic period but dashed by the settlement of the Congress of Vienna, which left Italy divided and largely under Austrian domination. In 1848, nationalist and liberal revolutions began to break out across Europe; in 1849, a Roman Republic was declared and the pope fled the city. Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, recently elected president of the newly declared French Second Republic, saw an opportunity to assuage conservative Catholic opinion in France, and in cooperation with Austria sent troops to ...

See also:

Papal States, Papal States - Origins, Papal States - The Donation of Pippin and the Holy Roman Empire, Papal States - The Renaissance, Papal States - The era of the French Revolution and Napoleon, Papal States - Italian nationalism and the end of the Papal States, Papal States - Institutions

Read more here: » Papal States: Encyclopedia II - Papal States - Italian nationalism and the end of the Papal States

The French Revolution proved as disastrous for the temporal territories of the Papacy as it was for the Catholic Church in general. In 1791 the Comtat Venaissin and Avignon were annexed by France. Later, with the French invasion of Italy in 1796, the Legations were seized and became part of the Cisalpine Republic. Two years later, the Papal States as a whole were invaded by French forces, who declared a Roman Republic. Pope Pius VI died in exile in France in 1799. The Papal States were restored in June of 1800, and Pope Pius VII returned, bu ...

See also:

Papal States, Papal States - Origins, Papal States - The Donation of Pippin and the Holy Roman Empire, Papal States - The Renaissance, Papal States - The era of the French Revolution and Napoleon, Papal States - Italian nationalism and the end of the Papal States, Papal States - Institutions

Read more here: » Papal States: Encyclopedia II - Papal States - The era of the French Revolution and Napoleon

When the Exarchate finally fell to the Lombards in 751, the Duchy of Rome was completely cut off from the Byzantine Empire, of which it was theoretically still a part. Pope Stephen III acted to neutralize the Lombard threat by courting the de facto Frankish ruler, Pippin the Younger. Stephen gave church sanction to Pippin's desire to depose the Merovingian figurehead Childeric III and take the throne himself; he also granted Pippin the title Patrician of the Romans. In return, Pippin led a Frankish army into Italy in 754 and 756. Pipp ...

See also:

Papal States, Papal States - Origins, Papal States - The Donation of Pippin and the Holy Roman Empire, Papal States - The Renaissance, Papal States - The era of the French Revolution and Napoleon, Papal States - Italian nationalism and the end of the Papal States, Papal States - Institutions

Read more here: » Papal States: Encyclopedia II - Papal States - The Donation of Pippin and the Holy Roman Empire

During the Renaissance, the papal territory expanded greatly, notably under Pope Alexander VI and Pope Julius II. The Pope became one of Italy's most important secular rulers as well as the head of the Church, signing treaties with other sovereigns and fighting wars. In practice, though, most of the Papal States was still only nominally controlled by the Pope, and much of the territory was ruled by minor princes. Control was always contested; indeed it took until the 16th century for the Pope to ha ...

See also:

Papal States, Papal States - Origins, Papal States - The Donation of Pippin and the Holy Roman Empire, Papal States - The Renaissance, Papal States - The era of the French Revolution and Napoleon, Papal States - Italian nationalism and the end of the Papal States, Papal States - Institutions

Read more here: » Papal States: Encyclopedia II - Papal States - The Renaissance