Church, STATES OF THE, or PAPAL STATES

Church, STATES OF THE, or PAPAL STATES, stretched from the Po to near Naples, and in 1859 had an area of 15,774 sq. m. and a pop. of 3,000,000. It was divided for administrative purposes into twenty districts, including the Comarca of Rome; six legations, among them those of Bologna and Ravenna; and thirteen delegations, including Ancona and Perugia. More general divisions were the Romagna, Umbria, and the March of Ancona. The war of 1859 and the popular vote of 1860 left the pope only the Comarca of Rome, the legation of Velletri, and the delegations of Civita Vecchia, Frosinone, and Viterbo, 4493 sq. m. in extent, with a pop. of about 700,000, the rest being united with Italy. The temporal power of the popes originated in a gift of the exarchate of Ravenna by Pepin to Pope Stephen II., and it reached its greatest extent under Innocent III. (1198-1216). The withdrawal of the French garrison of Rome in 1870 led to the final downfall of the pope's temporal power. See POPE, ITALY.