How did the Papal States end under Pope Pius IX?
Secret societies in Italy and France plotted the overthrow of the Papal States. The king of Sardinia, through an alliance with France, forced the Austrian to withdraw from Northern Italy. Napoleon III was at war with Germany in 1870 and was compelled to recall his troops from Rome. Victor Emmanuel of Sardinia assumed the title King of Italy and the general of his army, Guiseppe Garibaldi, laid siege to Rome on September 20, 1870. Pope Pius IX surrendered the city rather than have bloodshed. This ended the pope’s governing of the Papal States. All that the pope was able to keep was St. Peter’s Basilica and Vatican Palace. Pope Pius IX would not accept these conditions, and until he died he remained, in protest, a voluntary prisoner in the Vatican. A treaty of peace was not signed between the Italian government and Pope Pius XI until 1929. 18. With the temporal power of the pope crushed, how did his spiritual influence rise? The pope was by no means occupied only with temporal problems c
