States Of The Church

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Patrimonium Petri), the territory governed by the Pope as secular prince.

I. History — The Church of Rome, which became at an early date one of the chief Christian churches of the world, received in 321, by a special edict of the emperor Constantine, the right to accept legacies. The story, however, that Constantine presented bishop Sylvester and the Roman Church with the city of Rome and other territories is an invention, and the pretended document of donation is a late forgery, taken from the so-called Constitutum Sylvestri, which was compiled from the Gesta Beati Sylvestri (see Minch [Romans Cath.], Ueber Die Erdichtete Schenkung Constantin Des Grossen, Freiburg, 1824; Biener, De Donatione A Constantino M. imperatore in Sylvestrum pontificem collata, in his work de collectionibus canonum ecclesias Graecoe, Berlin, 1827). Under the later emperors, a large amount of property of every description, including many landed estates in various parts of Italy and France, was presented to the Roman Church; and, moreover, the emperors conferred upon the bishops of Rome many lucrative privileges, as Gratian upon Damasus in 378, Valentinian upon Leo the Great in 445, etc. The ecclesiastical prerogatives which the popes claimed as heads of the Church, and which were gradually conceded by the emperors and acquiesced in by the bishops, greatly enlarged the secular power and wealth of the popes.

Under Gregory I the landed property belonging to the Roman Church was very extensive, especially in Sicily and Gaul. But until the eighth century the Roman bishops held all this landed property subject to the sovereign authority of the emperors. The first independent possession of the popes was the town of Sutri, which Gregory II, in 728, obtained from the Longobardian king Luitprand, who had wrested it, with other territories, from the Byzantine emperors. The friendly relations between the Roman See and Luitprand ceased under Gregory III (731741), and most of the papal territory was reoccupied by the Longobardians. The pope invoked the intercession of Charles Martel, in consequence of which Luitprand, in 742, restored to Pope Zachary not only the former property of the Roman bishops, but also the four Byzantine towns of Amelia, Orta, Bomarzo, and Bieda. The pope even succeeded in disposing the king amicably toward the exarch, in reward for which he received from the Byzantine emperor two villas. King Aistulph conceived the plan of conquering and annexing all Italy, and thus forced Pope Stephen II (752757) to invoke again the aid of the Franks. Pepin, who owed his crown partly to the influence of the pope, twice (754 and 755) undertook a campaign into Italy, declined the demand of the Byzantine emperor to restore to him his former Italian possessions, gave to the pope, in addition to his former possessions, the Exarchate and the Pentapolis (the five cities of Rimini, Pesaro, Fano, Sinigaglia, and Ancona), and assumed himself the title of patricius (patron) of Rome. The original document of donation is no longer extant.

The Longobardian king Desiderius found means to put off the complete execution of the stipulations made by Pepin, and ultimately new hostilities broke out, which induced Adrian I to invoke the aid of Charlemagne, who in 744 put an end to the Longobardian kingdom, and enlarged the donations of his fathers. As the original deeds of these donations are lost, their extent can no longer be fixed with entire accuracy. The extant document in which Louis le Debonnaire sanctions the donations of Charlemagne is a forgery. In consequence of the coronation of Charlemagne as emperor by Leo III, in 800, the connection of the pope with the Eastern empire entirely ceased, and the papal documents were henceforth dated after the beginning of the reign of the new emperor. The king of the Franks, as Roman emperor, had thus become the real sovereign of Rome, who had to sanction the election of a pope. The temporal power of the popes rapidly increased under the weak Carlovingians, after whose extinction (888) the imperial dignity was, until 923, conferred upon Italian grandees, and subsequently was for some time discontinued altogether. When Otto I, in 952, reassumed the dignity of Roman emperor, he at once confirmed the papal possessions (the original document is lost, but a copy somewhat modified in the eleventh century is extant).

A document containing a donation from Otto III to Sylvester II is a forgery, and there are no other reasons for the existence of that pretended donation. In 1052 the Roman See obtained feudal right over Benevento. The countess Matilda of Tuscany promised to the pope to bequeath to him her extensive territory; but on her death the property became the subject of a violent and protracted dispute, and the claims of the popes were not recognized until 1201, by Otto IV. In the agreement between Otto and the pope the following territory was designated as papal possessions: the country from the defiles of Ceperano (on the frontier of Naples), as far as the fort of Radicofano (on the Tuscan frontier), the exarchate of Ravenna, the Pentapolis (see above), the Marches, the duchy of Spoleto, the possessions of the countess Matilda, the county of Brittenorium, with other adjacent lands expressly mentioned in the documents of the emperors from the times of Louis (which latter clauses recognized the contents of a number of spurious documents). Otto IV also promised to deo fend the claims of the pope to the kingdom of Sicily. Thus the States of the Church were firmly established, and as, since 1059, the election of the pope had been independent of the emperor, the high political position of the popes in the Christian world was confirmed.

During the following centuries the popes were more intent upon preserving than upon enlarging their possessions. In 1273, Philip III presented to Gregory X the county of Venaissin, and in 1348 Clement VI purchased Avignon from Joanna, queen of Sicily and countess of Provence. During the residence of the popes at Avignon, and during the schism, the popes had to concede extensive privileges to various cities. Other parts were given as fiefs to Italian princes: thus, in 1443, Alphonso I of Naples was made papal vicar of Benevento and Terracina; but Nicholas V (1447- 1455), Pius II (1458-1464), and Sixtus IV (1471-1484) reconsolidated the papal possessions. Julius II (1503-1512) reconquered from the Venetians all the places which had formerly belonged to the pope, and even added to his territory Parma, Piacenza, and Reggio, thus giving to the States of the Church the most extensive frontier they have ever had. Parma and Piacenza were soon lost again, but in their place Camerino and Nepi were obtained. Reggio had to be abandoned in 1523, and Modena in 1527; but, on the other hand, a number of republican communities were fully subjected, as Ancona in 1532, Perugia in 1540, and the feudal relations of others, as Ferrara (1598), Urbino (1636), and the duchy of Castro (the dispute concerning which lasted until 1735), were abolished. About fifty years later the States of the Church entered into a period of rapid decline. In 1783 the government of Naples declared the feudal relation in which that kingdom had stood to Rome as terminated. In 1792 Avignon and Venaissin were annexed to France, and in 1796 another considerable tract of territory was lost.

At the peace of Tolentino, Feb. 19, 1797, Pius VI had to cede all the papal possessions situate in France, and to agree that the districts of Ferarar, Bologna, and Romagna should be incorporated with the new Transpadan Republic. On the 15th of February the republic was proclaimed in the city of Rome, the papal government was declared abolished, and the pope himself was carried into captivity. The treaty of Vienna, in 1815, restored to the pope the Marches, with Camerino, the duchy of Benevento, with the principality of Ponte-Corvo, the legations of Ravenna, Bologna, and Ferrara; and gave to the emperor of Austria the right of garrisoning Ferrara and Commacchio. Nothing was said in the treaty of Vienna about the papal claims to Avignon and Venaissin, on which account the pope protested against the portion of the treaty relating to the States of the Church.

Certain acts of Leo XII (1824) created general indignation among the inhabitants of the papal territory. In February, 1831, an insurrection broke out in Bologna, which soon spread through the whole province, and from there through the larger portion of the States of the Church. A provisional government was established, and on the 26th of February an assembly of deputies declared the abolition of the temporal power of the popes. The intervention of Austria put, however, an end to the insurrection. The representatives of the great powers found the civil administration so unsatisfactory that they urgently recommended the introduction of reforms. As these were not granted, a new insurrection occurred, which caused another intervention of Austria, and the occupation of Bologna by Austrian troops. This was at once followed by an occupation of Ancona by France, which was unwilling to leave the pope under the sole patronage of Austria. Both occupations lasted until 1838. Gregory XVI (1831-1846) convoked an assembly of deputies, in order to learn the wishes of the people, but it led to no reforms of any account. The discontent of the people continued, and showed itself in repeated revolutionary outbreaks. Pius IX (elected June 16, 1846) began to introduce important changes into the public administration (motu proprio of 2d and 14th of October, 1847, fundamental statute of 14th of March, 1848, etc.), and thus gave an impulse to a political movement which he soon found himself unable to control. He had to grant, on the 14th of March, 1848, a constitutional form of government, which was soon followed by the appointment of a liberal ministry (Mamiani) and the convocation of a Constituent Assembly.

An attempt to curb the liberal movement by the appointment of a conservative ministry (Count Rossi) failed, and the pope was compelled to consent to the appointment of a democratic ministry. On the 25th of November the pope fled from Rome in disguise, and took up his residence at Gaeta, in the kingdom of Naples. In consequence of this movement a provisional government was established at Rome, which declared the temporal power abolished, and proclaimed the republic (February, 1849). This led to a new intervention of Austria (after the defeat of Sardinia) in the legations, and to the landing in the Papal States of a French army, under Oudinot, in April, 1849. The city of Rome surrendered on the 2d of July, the papal rule was restored, and all the reforms of the first years of the reign of Pius were abolished. The political and financial condition of the States of the Church after the restoration of the pope was most deplorable, and the people continued to be dissatisfied with the papal rule. When, in 1859, in consequence of their defeat at Magenta, the Austrians had to withdraw their troops from Central Italy, Bologna and the neighboring legations (the Romagna) at once shook off the papal rule, and, together with Parma and Modena, organized them, under the name of Emilia, into a provisional state under the dictatorship of Farini. After the treaty of Zurich (Nov. 10, 1859), Austria and France proposed the convocation of a congress for the regulation of the Italian affairs, but the pope refused to take part in it, as the great powers did not agree to guarantee to him the restoration of the Romagna. Victor Emmanuel consequently, by a decree of the 18th of March, 1860, after a popular vote had declared in favor of annexation, incorporated the Romagna with the kingdom of Italy.

The papal government now tried to organize a powerful army, chiefly of foreign volunteers, under the French general Lamoriciere. When, after the conquest of Naples by Garibaldi, a part of the old Neapolitan army had been united with the papal troops, the Italian government demanded the discharge of the foreign volunteers as menacing the unity of Italy, and, when the papal government refused to comply with this request, the king marched troops into the papal territory, defeated the papal troops at Castelfidardo on the 18th of September, and captured the remainder at Ancona. Umbria and the Marches now declared at once in favor of annexation, and, a popular vote having been taken, were incorporated with Italy by decree of the 17th of December. As, after the fall of Gaeta, Rome became the refuge of the expelled king of Naples, and the center of all plots against Italian unity, the Italian Party of Action loudly demanded the conquest of Rome, and in March, 1861, even the Italian Parliament declared the city of Rome the natural and indispensable capital of the kingdom. Attempts made by the Italian prime minister Cavour to prevail upon the pope to consent to a separation between his temporal and ecclesiastical power failed; and the same was the case with a proposition of Louis Napoleon to bring about a reconciliation between the Italian and the Roman governments on the basis of the existing extent of the papal territory. In 1862, Garibaldi made an attempt, at the head of an army of volunteers, to conquer Rome, and deliver Italy both from the rule of the pope and that of the French, but this movement was promptly suppressed by the Italian government. On the 15th of September, 1864, France concluded with the government of Italy a convention, by which France promised to withdraw its army of occupation from Rome within two years, while Italy, on the other hand, promised not to attack the papal territory, and even to protect it against any foreign attacks, to assume a proportional part of the papal debt, and not to oppose the organization of a papal army, provided the latter should not threaten the safety of Italy. In accordance with the provisions of this convention, the city of Rome and the papal territory were evacuated by the French troops in December, 1866. The pope has, up to this time, persistently declined all proposals to abandon his claims to the provinces which have been incorporated with the kingdom of Italy, and still more to renounce the temporal power altogether. (See Temporal Power).

II. Ecclesiastical Statistics. — The Papal States had in 1853 an area of 17,494 square miles, and, according to the census, a population of 3,124,668 souls, among whom were 9237 Israelites and 263 Protestants, while the rest were Roman Catholics. They had nine archbishoprics, viz., Rome (whose metropolite is the pope himself, represented through a cardinal vicar), Benevento, Fermo, Ferrara, Ravenna, Urbino, Bologna, Camerino, Spoleto-the last three without suffragans. The number of bishoprics was seventy-nine, of which, however, many had been permanently united, so that the actual number of bishops amounted only to fifty-eight. All the eight archbishoprics and most of the bishoprics lie in the provinces which in 1859 were annexed to Sardinia. The States of the Church, thus reduced, had in 1867 about 700,000 inhabitants.

The city of Rome had, in 1866, 210,701 inhabitants, among whom were 4567 Israelites and 429 Protestants. Convents are very numerous. There were, in 1845, 1824 convents of monks and 612 of nuns. The secular. clergy were estimated at 35,000, monks 10,000, nuns 8000. The former belong to 50, the latter to 21 different orders. The total number of clerical persons in the city of Rome was (in 1866) 7378. The superiors of most of the orders reside in Rome. (See Monachism). As the seat of the central government of the Roman Catholic Church, the States of the Church (more particularly Rome) have a number of ecclesiastical offices and boards, which are treated of in separate articles. (See Pope); (See Cardinal); (See Congregation); (See Curia Romana). See Herzog, Real-Encyklop. 7, 676 sq.; Wetzer und Welte, Kirchen-Lexikon, 6:175; Sugenheim (Protest.), Geschichte der Entstehung und Ausbildung des' Kirchenstaats (Leipzig, 1854); Scharpff (Roman Catholic), Entstehung des Kirchenstaats (1854; transl. Baltimore, 1860); Dollinger (Romans Cath.), The Church and Churches (Munich, 1861; transl. 1863); Brockhaus, Conversations- Lexikon, 8 (11th edition, 1866), 823 sq. (See Italy).

The Nuttall Encyclopedia

The Papal States, extending irregularly from the Po to Naples, of which the Pope was the temporal sovereign, now part of the kingdom of Italy.