The Papal States (756-1870) were theocratic states in which the Pope had territorial sovereignty over central Italy. Its formation is closely related to the medieval Frankish kingdom.
In Europe at the beginning of the Middle Ages, two major political forces emerged, one was the theocracy of the Roman Catholic Church and the other was the secular regime of the Franks.
Soon after the emergence of Christianity, it gradually formed the Western school of the Latin language family and the Eastern school of Greek. The Eastern school is centered on Constantinople, the Western school is centered on Rome, and the Catholic Church evolved from the Basis of the Western School. In ancient Christianity, the Westerners did not prevail. In the 5th century, when foreign tribes invaded the western part of the empire, the Western Roman authorities were no longer able to support the situation, and the Roman bishop Leo I used his influence to save Rome from the Invasion of the Huns, which greatly increased the prestige of the Roman bishop and was able to rank first in the Latin churches in Italy, North Africa, Spain, and Gaul. In 476 AD, the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the relationship between ecclesiastical organizations and political institutions in Western Europe changed, on the one hand, the monarchs of various countries used and controlled the church; on the other hand, the pope was recognized as the supreme leader of the western European church. The unified and centralized Roman Empire regime no longer existed, and the feudal divisions within the countries became more and more serious. In this way, the Church had the opportunity to develop independently, and the Pope of Rome became the leader of the Church in the Supranational State.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Ostrogothic Kingdom was established in Italy, and they honored the Eastern Roman Emperor as emperor. Although the Ostrogoths embraced the Christian Aleutians, they adopted a tolerant policy toward orthodox Roman Catholicism and allowed it to freely develop its power. In 554, Justinian of the Eastern Roman Empire regained Italy for a time, and he tasked the Pope and the Roman Senate with joint administration of Rome. But by 603, the Roman Senate had disappeared, and the Pope had become the sole supreme ruler of Rome.
The Pope of Rome strengthened his direct control over the churches everywhere by sending missionaries or missions, by establishing monasteries directly under the Pope. The Pope sought not only to strengthen his control over the churches everywhere, but also to constantly strengthen his political and economic power.
As early as the end of the 6th century and the beginning of the 7th century, when Gregory I (reigned 590-604) was pope, he moved between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Lombardy Kingdom, became the ruler of the city of Rome and several provinces in central Italy, and had a large territory in Italy, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily and other islands, engaged in large-scale trade and trafficking. He sent Augustine with 40 missionaries to England to promote the monastery, making it a papal stronghold. He attached great importance to the management and organization of the church, improved the liturgy, organized the singing team, and played a huge role in improving the authority and influence of the pope. Church historians call him "the father of medieval papacy." The Church of Rome, with its superior conditions, enjoyed a high prestige among the Christian churches in Western Europe, and it preached widely in Western Europe, and its power gradually penetrated throughout Western Europe.
The alliance between the Pope and the monarchy of the Frankish Kingdom facilitated the formation of the Papal States.
The Franks in Gaul were the most powerful of the Germanic peoples. They felt that the Christian Church was deeply entrenched in Europe and believed that in order to gain the support of the Roman Empire, gain a foothold in Western Europe, and then annex other Germanic kingdoms, they would have to raise the banner of the Church of Rome. So, in 496, the Frankish king Clovis led 3,000 soldiers to be baptized in the Basilica of Notre Dame de Reims and converted to the Church of Rome. Then, the Christian flag was used to expand the territory of the Frankish kingdom.
After the Lombards invaded Italy in 568, they occupied the northern part of Italy and expanded in central and southern Italy. The pope's secular possessions and clerical property were encroached upon. At this time, although the Eastern Roman Empire was vast, its defensive capabilities were very limited, and they were now tired of dealing with the Arabs in the east, and the Eastern Roman Emperor was unable to defend Italy at all, so he had to recognize the supremacy of the Pope in Italy and let the Pope organize the power of the Lombards.
Thus, the Italian people, including the Eastern Roman soldiers in Italy, united around the Pope, who worked for the recovery of Italian territory for Eastern Rome on the one hand, and on the other hand, for his own recovery of the religious property. In 733 AD, the Eastern Roman Emperor Leo III confiscated ecclesiastical property in southern Italy, a move that infuriated the Pope, whose relations with the Eastern Roman Empire deteriorated dramatically. In order to compensate for the loss of ecclesiastical property, the pope was more anxious to recover and occupy the territory occupied by the Lombards.
At this time, the Frankish kingdom was in the late merovingian dynasty, and the power was in the hands of the palace minister Charles Matt. In 737, the last king of the Merovingian dynasty died, and Charles did not have a new king, but ruled directly himself, and actively supported missionary activities. In 740, Gregory III (712-744) gave him the title of Roman nobleman and gave him the key to the tomb of St. Peter. Charles also promised to help the Pope against the Lombards, but unfortunately Charles died in 741, and his wish to help the Pope fight the Lombards failed.
After the death of Charles Matt, his son Pepin succeeded him as Chancellor of the Frankish Kingdom, and because of his short stature, he was known as "Pipin the Short" (714-768).
In 751, The Dwarf Pi Ping established himself as king, usurped the throne of the Merovin dynasty, and founded the Carolingian Dynasty. Because the usurpation of power was approved by the Pope, the Frankish monarchy was more closely related to the Roman ecclesiastical power.
After Pepin ascended to the throne, at the request of the Pope, he attacked the Lombards, who were hostile to the Pope, twice in 754 and 756, forcing the Lombards to abandon the Italian territories they had occupied, including the Eastern Roman capital of Ravenna in Italy and most of the Viceroyalty. At the same time, in order to thank the Pope for his coronation, Pepin gave the more than 40,000 square kilometers of territory taken back to the Pope, an event known in the history of the Church as "Pepin's Dedication of the Land", which laid the foundation of papal jurisdiction, which was the beginning of the Papal State.
The formation of the Papal States was due to the Frankish king, so the papal states were invisibly subject to the Frankish kings. In this way, medieval Europe began its journey under these two regimes.
In 774, Charlemagne gave the cities of Benevento and Venice to the Pope, and the papal states gradually expanded. At this time, a forged so-called Constantine Imperial Decree was circulating in Europe, which stated that secular rule over Rome and the western part of the Roman Empire belonged to Bishop Sylvester I and his successors. For seven centuries before the Renaissance and the Reformation, the document was used by the Pope as a basis for a struggle for secular power. In the 9th and 10th centuries, feudal lords arose, and the pope still nominally held the territory of the Papal States.
From the 11th century onwards, the power of the Papal State gradually increased, the 12th to 13th centuries was the heyday, the Papal Period of Avignon, the Papal State demanded local autonomy within the Papal State, many cities were actually under the rule of feudal nobility, Innocent VI sent Cardinal Arbornoz as an envoy to Italy to restore papal power, successfully re-establishing the papal state order, so that the pope could return to Rome in 1377. When Austria occupied Rome in 1527, the Papal States was recognized as an independent state. In 1791 France annexed the Papal territories in Avignon. In 1798 Napoleon entered Rome, forcing Pius VI to relinquish the territory of the Papal States and abolishing his secular powers to establish the Roman Republic. In 1800 Pius VII re-established the Papal States. Nine years later Napoleon incorporated it into The French Map. In 1815 the Congress of Vienna restored the Papal States and entrusted Austrian protection. After the Ano-Italian War of 1859-1860, two-thirds of the territory and three-quarters of its subjects were incorporated into the Kingdom of Sardinia, barely managing to maintain Rome and its surroundings only under the protection of France. When the Franco-Prussian War broke out in 1870, the French army withdrew from Rome, all the territory of the Papal States was incorporated into Italy, Rome was designated as the capital of Italy, and the Pope retreated to the Vatican City northwest of the city of Rome, and the Papal State de facto no longer existed. In 1929, Mussolini signed the Treaty of Lateran with Pius XI, formally recognizing the Pope's sovereignty over the independent Vatican City State, and the name papal state was no longer used.