Papal States

Encyclopædia Orbis Latini

The central Italian states under papal sovereignty between 756, when Pepin the Short presented Ravenna to Pope Stephen II (reigned 752-57), and 1870. They included parts of Emilia-Romagna, Marche, Umbria, and Lazio. They were a major obstacle to the movement for Italian unification but were finally annexed in 1870. The popes refused to recognize their loss of temporal power until the Lateran Treaty (1929) established the Vatican City as an independent papal state.