What are the "Papal States"?

[MarcoPolo]

What are the “Papal States” I see often when reading Catholic history books? Especially in the 19th century.

 

[Ridgerunner]

What are the “Papal States” I see often when reading Catholic history books? Especially in the 19th century.

After the fall of Rome, Italy, as well as the rest of Europe, fell apart into petty principalities. There were a number of reasons for that; not the least being the destruction of central authority and the coordination of societies. Fairly early on, the Pope became the de facto ruler of Rome and some outlying countryside, more or less by default. There was just no other authority extant other than various warlords and brigand bands. Lawlessness was incredibly rampant.

At a point, a convention arose that Pepin,the ruler of the Franks, donated a larger portion of the surrounding countryside to the Pope. That donation has been strongly questioned by modern historians. Pepin’s grandons, Charlemagne, who was far and away the most powerful ruler in Europe, including much of Italy, definitely did donate a substantial segment of central Italy to the Pope. That was the foundation of the “Papal States”.

For various reasons, Italy remained fragmented during the medieval and Renaissance periods; more so than the rest of Europe except, late on, in Germany, when the power of the Holy Roman Emperors (Germans) began to dissolve.

The Popes, then, were the temporal rulers of much of Central Italy right up to the late 19th Century, when Italy was united due to two Italian unificaiton movements that joined forces at that time. The Pope actually had a small army, which fought valiantly against the secular forces, but was overcome. That army was composed of Catholic men from all over the world, including the United States, but were, as I understand it, mostly Irish.

Ultimately, the Pope made an agreement with Italy during Mussolini’s reign. The Popes gave up all claim to the Papal States, and were given Vatican City as a separate “country” from Italy. I think Vatican City is about 100 acres. Also, I think a papal retreat in the Italian countryside was given to the Popes, absolutely. That remains the situation today.

The old Papal states were called “states” because Italy was traditionally divided into what had once been, and to a degree, still are, ethnic subdivisions of italy; the Romagna, Tuscany and others. The Papal States included more than one of those regions or “states”.

 

[Ridgerunner]

This really isn’t your question, but it might be interestingly related. Italy is still not quite like the other European countries. It is united by language and government, but it is not a cohesive “people” in the same sort of way that France is or Spain is. Italians in the north and those in the south are not at all fond of each other,for a number of reasons, and are quite different from each other in culture. Now and then, there are “separatist” movements in Italy; the north wanting to divorce itself from the south, and vice versa. It’s a strange place in that way.

One of my own great grandfathers came from the alpine region of northeast Italy, a region that was, at the time, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Notwithstanding that they were Italian-speakers, they considered themselves members of the"Empire" or even “Austrians”, not Italians. But then, when they came here, there was no nation of Italy, only various Italian states.

In New York City, as I understand it, there are separate Italian neighborhoods composed of, for example, Alpines or Tuscans or Calabrese or Milanese or Sicilians. They are quite different from one another, I’m told.

Italians from the various regions don’t even look alike, and they’re very conscious of that. Ethnically, they’re quite different; northern Italians having had a massive influx of Germanic peoples over the centuries, and southern Italians having had a huge intermixture of Greeks and Levantines. I was amused to discover the stations of the cross in a very old church near here. They were made in Italy in the late 19th Century and are very large and detailed. In looking at them, I discovered that all the “bad guys” (the soldiers scourging Jesus for example) are southern Italian in appearance, and all the “good guys” (the weeping women, for example and, of course Jesus and Mary) are northern Italian in appearance. Probably those particular stations were made in someplace like Milan or Turin. Doubtless there are stations somewhere in which the roles are reversed.

The “Papal States” were right in between those two extremes.