Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/306

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STATES


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STATES


the greatest jeopardy when the great struggle be- tween Frederick II and the Curia broke out. With the exception of the city of Rome the emperor had brought the States of the Church into his power. Innocent IV fled to his native city (Ecumenical Genoa and thence to Lyons, where at the thirteenth CEcumen- ical Council in 1245 he placed Frederick II under the ban of the Church and deposed him. The conflict raged for several j'ears longer, but the star of the Hohen.'itaufen was rapidly setting. The emperor's son Enzio, commander-in-chief in Central and Upper Italy, was eaptiu-ed by the Bolognese in 1249. The emperor himself died in 12.50, and his son Conrad

IV died a few years later (1254). WTaen Fred- erick's iUegitimate son Manfred undertook the con- tinuation of the struggle and had himself crowned at Palermo, the French pope Clement IV summoned to his aid the brother of King Louis IX of France, Charles of Anjou, who had accepted the Kingdom of Lower Italy as a fief of the pope. Charles vanquished Manfred in 1266 at Benevento, and Conradin, the j'outhful nephew of Frederick II, at Taghacozzo in 126S, and had this last descendant of the Hohenstau- fen house executed in the market-place of Naples. With this the danger to the papacy from the Hohen- staufenwas removed, but a worse danger took its place.

(3) From the Avignon Exile to the End of the Fifteenth Century. — The papacy was now not onl}' dependent upon the protection of France, but was also entirely at its mercy. This was seen in the utter disregard shown by Philip the Fair in his attitude toward Boni- face Vin and his successors. Clement V, a native of Southern France, did not venture to go to Italy, after his election in 1305, but had liimself crowned at Lyons, and after 1309 resided at Avignon, which now re- mained the residence of the popes until 1376. The country about Avignon constituted the County of Venaissin or the Margravate of Provence, which, on the ground of a former donation of the Counts of Tou- louse in 1273, had been given up to the pope by the French king, Philip III the Bold. The city of Avignon itself first came into the possession of the Holy See by purchase in 1348. During the residence of the popes in Avignon the papal dominion in the States of the Church almost ceased. In Rome the Colonna and Orsini fought for the supremacy. In the other cities the French regents, who were sent from Avignon, found anything but wilhng obedience. Bologna re- volted in 1334 against the pope's relative, Beltram. Cola di Rienzi deluded the Romans with the phantom of a repubhc. The state of anarchy was first ended by the Castilian Cardinal Albornoz (see Gil de Al- BORNoz, Alvarez Carillo), whom Innocent VI sent to the States of the Church as his vicar-general in 1353. Albornoz not only brought the States of the Church under subjection to the pope, but also reorganized them by means of the ^gidian Constitutions, which were in force in the States of the Church until 1S16. But the successes of Albornoz were soon nullified again, when the Great Schism occurred during the residence at Avignon. After its termination Martin

V (1417-31) sought to establish a centralized mon- archy out of the various conflicting rights, privileges, and usurpations, and in this had much success. New afflictions were brought by the period of the Renais- sance, in which visionaries of radical views loved to pose as liberators from tyranny. Thus the conspiracy of Stefano Porcaro alarmed Nicholas V in 1453, and the conspiracy of 1468 alarmed Paul II. Other dan- gers lav in the growth of iiowor of certain families of the feudal nobility in the States of the Church, in the nepotism of some of the popes, who provided for their relatives at the expense of tlie States of the Church, or in their international policies, for which the States of the Church had to suffer.

(4) From the Sixteenth Century to the Treaty of Vienna. — Under Alexander VI the States of the


Church disintegrated into a series of states held by papal relatives of the Borgia family. Cesare Borgia, whom MachiaveUi admired, laboured earnestly from his Duchy of Romagna to transform the States of the Church into a Kingdom of Central Italy. After his faU (1504) Venice sought to bring the cities on the Adriatic Sea under its power. Julius II then in his impetuous way had recourse to force to re-establish and extend the States of the Church. He conquered Perugia and Bologna and by the League of Cambrai forced Venice to give up Ravenna, Cer\'ia, Faenza, and Rimini. But, after he had been satisfied bj- the Venetians, he concluded the Holy League for the ex- pulsion of the French from Italy. It is true that the French in 1512 were once more victorious over the troops of the League at Ravenna, but thanks chiefly to the Swiss mercenaries, whom the pope had enUsted through Cardinal Scliinner, Julius attained his object. On the surrender of the Duchy of Milan to Maximil- ian Sforza, Julius II made a still further gain for the States of the Church, since Parma and Piacenza were taken from the duchy and incorporated in the States of the Church. Reggio and Modena, which belonged to the Duke of Ferrara, were also taken possession of by the pope, but his successor Leo X had to restore these cities to the duke in 1515. A dreadful catas- trophe was brought upon Rome by the vacillating pohcy of Clement VII. The disorderly troops of Charles V overran and plundered the States of the Church, occupied Rome on 6 May, 1527, and for eight days rioted there frightfully {Sacco di Roma ) . In the Castle of S. Angelo the pope was held captive until 6 December. It was long before these wounds were healed, although the pope in 1529 concluded a peace with the emperor at Barcelona and received back the States of the Church. The conclusion of peace was confirmed by the Conference of Bologna, at which Charles V on 24 April, 1530, received the imperial crown from Clement VII.

During this time as well as later a number of dis- tricts were for a time separated from the States of the Church and conferred as separate principahties by popes on their relatives. The Rovere pope Six- tus IV had in 1474 made Federigo of Montefeltro Duke of Urbino, and married Federigo's daughter Giovanna to his nephew Giovanni della Rovere. The son of this Giovanni, Francesco Maria della Rovere, came into possession of the Duchy of Urbino in 1508, during the pontificate of the other Rovere pope, Julius II. In addition to this Juhus II in 1512 con- ferred on him the Vicariate of Pesaro, which had previously been a fief in the hands of the Malatesta and since 1445 of the Sforza. Not until the male line of the Rovere became extinct in 1631 were Mon- tefeltro and Urbino together with Pesaro restored to the States of the Church. Pope Paul III in 1545 bestowed Parma and Piacenza as a duchy on his son Pier Luigi Farnese. Even after the Farnese line had become extinct, the duchies reverted, not to the States of the Church, but to a branch of the Spanish Bourbons, and finally in 1860 to Sartlinia. To make up for this Ferrara, which had once belonged to Matilda of Canossa as a papal fief, had in 1208 fallen to the Guelph family of Este, and had in 1471 been made a duchy. After the main line of the Este had become extinct in 1597, Ferrara reverted to the States of the Church, and remained [lart thereof (except during the Napoleonic period) until the Italian an- nexation in 1860. Modena and Reggio, however, fell in 1597 to a collateral line of the Este as a fief of the empire. Thus the States of the Church before the outbreak of the French Revolution embraced sulislaiitially the ti'rritory that had belonged to them at llu- time of Charloniagiie, exci>i>t that some portions of the old Duchy of Spoleto had been added in the south since the time of Innocent III.

Rapid changes cjime with the time of the French