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The Pontifical State is variously known as the Papal States. the Roman States and the States of the Church These titles refer to the civil territory which acknowledged the Pope as temporal ruler from 754 A.D. to 1870 A.D. The term "Patrimony of Peter" originally designated land-ed possessions and other revenues that belonged to the Church of St. Peter in Rome, which, until the middle of the 8th century, was wholly private property. Later this title was applied particularly to the Dutchy of Rome, and still later to the remainder of the Pontifical State, after its reduction in size by the various seizures of territory by the Kingdom of Sardinia (Later the Kingdom of Italy). The Patrimony of Peter. By law Emperor Constantine the Great declared in 321 A.D. that the Church, for the first time, was legally qualified to own and dispose of property. With this decree, there was a rapid series of donations to the Church, the first of which was Constantine's own donation of the Lateran Palace. Wealthy Roman nobles donated estates of large size up to about 600 A.D. when war with the Lombards left few families with large possessions. Most of the donations were situated in Italy and its adjacent islands. Leo the Isaurian confiscated the most extensive and wealthy of these holdings on the Island of Sicily. Large estates near Rome, Naples, Genoa, Capri, Gaeta, Tuscany, Otranto, Osimo, Tivoli, Ancona, Umana, Ravenna, on Sardinia, Corsica, and Istria made the pope the largest landholder in Italy. The revenues were employed for administrative purposes, building and maintenance of churches, support of the pope and the clergy, and also to the relief of public and private wants. Hospitals, orphanages, and hospices were built and supported; slaves were ransomed; food was provided for Rome. Through these revenues, the Lombards were later warded off. Any ruler in Italy was compelled by necessity to recon with the largest landholder in Italy. In this position, the papacy was the first to feel the political and economic disturbances of the country. Constantine moved the seat of the Empire from Rome to Constantinople in 330 A.D. By 395 A.D. the Roman Empire was split into the Eastern Empire, with its capital at Constantinople, and the Western Empire, with its seat at Ravenna. In Rome, the pope became with increasing frequency the advocate of the populace in its needs. To prevent the destruction and capture of Rome Pope Leo I interceded with Atilla, the Hun, and with Genseric, and Pope Gelasius interceded with Theodoric. By the Pragmatic Sanction of 554 A.D. the Pope and the Senate were entrusted with the control of weights and measures, basic civil power. The Senate disappeared about 603, but the pope remained, a loyal supporter of the Emperor for 200 years. The papacy and the Senate had protected the people of Italy from the extortions of Imperial Officials. Now only the pope remained and to him went the allegiance of most of central Italy. In resisting the Lombard conquest, Ravenna, the Dutchy of Pentapolis (Rimini, Pesaro, Fano, Sinigalia and Ancona), and the Patrimony of Peter were the stumbling block to the union of the Lombard conquests in the remaining Imperial territory. Their union and solidarity was essential to their continuance. When the line they formed across central Italy was broken by the conquests of the Lombards in 739 A.D., Pope Gregory III appealed to Charles Martel, who refused help because of his alliance with the Lombards against the Saracens. By personal intercession Pope Gregory III and later Pope Zachary secured the return of various conquered lands from the Lombards. In 751 A.D. King Aistulf of the Lombards conquered Ravenna and headed toward Rome. Pope Stephen II secured aid from Pepin of the Frankish Kingdom, who marched into Italy, having stated that he refused to aid the Empire, but came to save the Pope, promising in writing to restore to the Pope the lands siezed by Aistulf. Aistulf promised to hand over the territory and Pepin executed a deed for the Pope called the Donation of 754 or the Donation of Pepin, which actually was a restoration of lands which had been held by the papacy for hundreds of years. When Pepin departed, Aistulf reneged on his promise and besieged Rome. Pepin returned to Italy in 756 A.D. and enforced his conquest on Aistulf, and at this time added more territory to the papal realms. The Emperor at Constantinople sent ambassadors to Pepin to secure these lands for the Emperor. Pepin refused, stating that he would return these lands to St. Peter. Thus was the Pontifical State officially founded. The chief advantages of the temporal power thus gained by the papacy were the guarantee of his independence from civil rulers so that it might carry out its spiritual mission as head of the church unimpeded by political dependence or interference in financial freedom, and the new ties made with the west which made possible the development of western civilization. During the rule of Charlemagne the Lombards again invaded the Pontifical State and the Frankish King in 773 A.D. entered Italy and forced Desiderius to capitulate in 774 A.D., and Charlemagne proclaimed himself King of the Lombards. Charlemagne renewed the Donation of Pepin in 781 A.D., enumerating the possessions of the pope to avoid future misunderstandings between his holdings and the papal domain. The Dutchy of Rome, Ravenna, the Pentapolis, Imola, Bologna, Faenza, Derarra, Ancona, Osimo and Umana, the Patrimonies in the Sabine, Spoleto, Calabria Tuscany and Corsica areas belonged to the Pontifical State. In 787 A.D. Charlemagne added Capua and other cities in Benevento, Lombardy, Tuscany, Populonia, Savona, Toscanella, Viterbo, Bagnorea, Orvieto, Perento, Orchia, Marta and Citta di Castello. Charles was crowned. Roman Emperor on Christmas Day; 800 A.D. The protection of the Roman Emperors from this point on was a mixed blessing. The temporal independence of the pope to carry out his spiritual mission was often violated. Possession and rule of papal territory became the object of desire of Emperors, Roman nobles and Frankish Lords residing in Italy. Without the protection of the emperors the Pontifical State could not have lasted. The emperos had guaranteed free election of each new pope. Roman factions and nobles sought control of the papacy, especially at the time of election to secure the benefits of the temporal power for themselves. When the protection of the emperors was lacking the papacy fell into their hands. Louis the Pius and Lothair I renewed the imperiam guarantees to the papacy in 817 A.D. and 824 A.D., gaining at the same time civil concessions and influence at Rome. Soon the emperors were occupied with their own problems and their protection was lacking. Leo IV had to defend himself against the Saracens and against them built the Leonine Wall still seen today in the Vatican City State. Louis II later fended off the Saracens for the papacy, but his representative in Italy, the Duke of Spoleto, siezed the Pontifical State under the pretext of supervising the freedom of a papal election. Under Charles the Bald the Frankish feudal lords in Italy constantly harassed the pope. Pope John VIII had to defend himslef from the Saracens, but had to flee to France for protection from the Frankish feudal lords. For half a century afterwards the papacy was at the mercy of the struggling factions of the nobility of Rome, without papal protection. Pope John XII was left with only the Dutchy of Rome. He appealed to OTTO I of Germany to aid in regaining the rest of the Pontifical State held by Berengar. Fearing Otto's intention after he was crowned Roman Emperor in 962 A.D., John XII turned to Berengar for an alliance against Otto. In retaliation, Otto set up an anti-pope, who was unable to remain in Rome after Otto's departure. Otto exiled the successor of Pope John XII, Benedict V, who had been elected by the Romans. These conditions repeated themselves under Otto II and Otto III, until Emperor Henry II and the Romans agreed in 1014 A.D. on Benedict VII, who had been elected by the Romans. Under Pope Nicholas II the papacy tried to free itself from imperial domination by reposing the election of popes solely in the hands of the cardinals, in 1059 A.D. Emperor Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII continued the struggle. Support was sought by Gregory from the Norman Kingdom in southern Italy. Under Robert Giuscard they rescued Pope Gregory from Henry IV who had imprisoned him at Rome and had set up an antipope. The Norman Kingdom swore itself to be a papal fief. Henry V and Frederick I occupied lands willed to the Pontifical State by the Countess Matilda of Tuscany, which became a bone of contention. This had barely been settled when Henry VI siezed the Norman Kingdom and most of the Pontifical State, but at his death in 1197 A.D. the Pontifical State came back to Pope Innocent III. Emperor Frederick II siezed all the Pontifical State except the city of Rome and was in possession until his death in 1250 A.D. Pope Clement IV sought the aid of France to regain the State from the heirs of Frederick II. Charles of Anjou defeated the Imperial Forces and exterminated the House of Hohenstaufen. Now the papacy and the Pontifical State found themselves not only under the protection of France, but at its mercy. Clement V, a Frenchman, was elected pope in 1305 A.D. and was crowned at Lyons, France. In 1309 A.D. he took up his residence at Avignon, France, where the popes resided until 1376 A.D.. During this period the papal domination over the Pontifical State almost ceased. The Colonna and the Orsini contended for the supremacy of Rome and French agents in other cities received reluctant obedience. Bologna relolted in 1334 A.D.. Cola di Rienzi set up his so-called republic at Rome. With the coming of Cardinal Albornoz, a Castillian, as Vicar-General of Pope Innocent VI, in 1353 A.D. the Pontifical State was restored to the Pope and was reorganized by the cardinal under the Aegidian Constitutions, which were in effect until 1816 A.D. When Gregory XI landed in Italy in 1376 and returned to Rome in early 1377 A.D., the Pontifical State was under his control. Under Alexander VI the Pontifical State was split up into Dutchies under his Borgia relatives. After 1504 A.D. Venice siezed the Adriatic cities. Pope Julius II reconquered most of the papal territory and concluded the Holy League for the expulsion of France from Italy. Having restored the territory of the Pontifical State, Julius II added Parma, Piacenza, Reggio and Modena, which were later returned to their former rulers by Pope Leo X. Under Pope Clement VII, Emperor Charles V overran and plundered the Pontifical State and sacked Rome in 1527 A.D. Peace with Charles was restored in 1529 A.D. and the Pontifical State restored to the papacy in 1530. In 1797 France annexed Ferarra, Bologna and Romagna to the Cis-Alpine Republic. The year 1798 A.D. saw the rest of the Pontifical State incorporated into the Roman Republic by the French, with the accompanying imprisonment of the Pope. Napoleon I added part of the Pontifical State to his Kingdom of Italy and the rest to France during 1808-1809 A.D. With the Congress of Vienna at the end of the Napoleonic Wars the Pontifical State was established in its old dimensions with a few minor changes under the rule of the pope in 1815. Mazzini in 1831 established a provisional government at Bologna. Gregory XVI sought the aid of Austria to restore peace in 1831 and in 1832 to quell the revolt.. In Italy a plan for national unity became popular - a federation of Italian States with the pope as president, excluding foreign princes, with two chambers of government under the Presidency of the pope. When Pope Pius IX was elected in June of 1846 there were extravagant hopes with the election of a liberal pope who formed a cabinet council for the state and a militia and suggested to Sardinia and Tuscany a customs union. Liberals in Rome were then displeased with the exclusion of the laity from the government of the Pontifical State. The fundamental law for the Pontifical. State proclaimed May 14, 1846, forbad the Chamber to interfere in spiritual and mixed matters and gave the College of Cardinals veto power over the actions of the Chamber. When revolts in Milan and Venice occurred, the liberals expected Pius IX to make war against Austria. But on April 29, 1848, the pope publicly refused to make war against a catholic power and his popularity ended abruptly. Mazzini demanded a republic at Rome. Charles Albert's defeat at Custozza weakened the monarchical party and the republicans became bolder. The Pope's liberal minister, Rossi, proposed a confederation of Italian States and was assasinated Nov.15, 1848. Pius IX was attacked but managed to escape Nov, 24 to Gaeta and the Republic of Rome was declared Feb. 9, 1849. Austria had quelled all revolts in Northern Italy. Now France sent troops and took Rome for Pius IX, in order to offset Austria's success. Austria entered the Pontifical State from the north and Neopolitan troops from the south. Rome fell to the French July 2, 1849 and Pope Pius IX returned from Gaeta to Rome on April 12, 1850. Pius IX revoked the constitution and the French garrison remained in Rome to protect the pope's sovereignty. In 1859 France back the Piedmontese King of Sardinia against the Austrians and defeated them at Magenta and Solferino. Napoleon III, unknown to the Italians, made a quick peace with the Austrians by which Austria gave up Lombardy but not Venetia. A provision was made for an Italian Federation with Austria as a member and the Pope as its head. The rulers of the various states of northern Italy were not returned to power, so Cavour for Sardinia set up apparently independent governments in Florence, Modena and Bologna, backed by England. Quickly these voted union with Sardinia. For annexing Bologna, Pope Pius IX excommunicated Victor Emmanuel. Garibaldi and his 1000 insurgents took Sicily and headed for Naples. The government at Turin which had manuevered this now became "alarmed" and sent their army south through the Pontifical State, seizing the Marches and defeating an untrained Papal Army at Castel Fidardo near Ancona, Sept. 18, 1860. They advanced into the Kingdom of Naples and conquered it, holding a plebicite to annex all this territory to Sardinia. Venetia was added to the new Kingdom of Italy in 1866 A.D. The French garrison had withdrawn from Rome in December, 1866, and Garibaldi invaded the remaining papal territory from the Kingdom of Italy in 1867. The French forces returned and defeated Garibaldi at Mentano, north of Rome, Nov. 3, 1867. The French forces garrisoned Rome until July, 1870, when the Franco-Prussion War broke out when they were withdrawn. When Napoleon III was taken prisoner by the Germans, Italy invaded the remnant of the Pontifical State, the Patrimony of Peter, and after a token resistance by the papal troops, they breached the walls of Rome on Sept. 20, 1870, and established Rome as the capital of the kingdom of Italy. Pope Pius IX, in protest at the unlawful siezure of the last of the papal territory, became a voluntary prisoner behind the walls of the Vati-can. He refused a one-sides agreement from the Italian Government in the form of the Law of Guarantees of May 13, 1871. Each succeeding pope retired behind the walls of the Vatican upon his election in protest, as Pope Pius IX had done and the problems of the Papacy and Italy went unsolved until the Lateran Pact of 1929, 59 years later. (Lateran Pact- Cf. Vatican Notes Vol. VII #1 pp.8-10; Volume VII #2 pp 5-7) The Pontifical State ceases to exist Sept. 20, 1870, 1116 years after its beginning in 754 A.D. From: • Rev. H. A. Phinney, Vatican Notes Volume XVIII, Number 5, March - April 1970, Page 2 • Rev. H. A. Phinney, Vatican Notes Volume XVIII, Number 6, May - June 1970, Page 6 • Rev. H. A. Phinney, Vatican Notes Volume XIX, Number 1, July - August 1970, Page 13 • Rev. H. A. Phinney, Vatican Notes Volume XIX, Number 2, September - October 1970, Page 11 • Rev. H. A. Phinney, Vatican Notes Volume XIX, Number 3, November - December 1970, Pages 11 & 12 |
