The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-09-15

victorious
Eternal City-The Rise and Decline of the
Temporal Power, and It's Present Status.
According to last nights dispatches, the
Italian advance upon Rome is still progressing,
and in one instance only has there been show
of opposition thus far. 1t is believed that the
Pope has given strict orders to his army to
make no resistance, and that the attempt made
at Civita Castellona to obstruct the march of
Victor Emanuels army, resulting in the surren
der of the Papal force after the battle, which
lasted about an hour, was in defiance of these
orders. The fact that the Pope has made a
formal protest to the diplomatic corps against
the occupation of his dominions is confirmed,
but 1t appears to make no impression upon
the policy of the Italian Government. To note
from the King, to the effect that he had thought
it his duty under the circumstances to occupy
the Papal territory, leaving to the Pontiff the
free exercise Of his spiritual functions, an
answer was received that was entirely illegible.
The italian advance upon Rome has awakened
great enthusiasm throughout the country, and
it is impossible for Victor Emanuel to back out
now, even if he were disposed to do so. In
fact, the occupation of Rome has become an
absolute necessity, to save not only Rome, but
all Italy, from the intrigues of the Mazzinians
and Garibaldians; and the sooner it is completed
and the capital permanently established in the
Eternal City, the better for both Italy and Rome.
The Rise and Decline Of the Temporal Power
OF tile Pope.
The temporal power of the Pope is traced
back to the year 753, when Pepin, King of the
Franks bestowed upon Pope Stephen and his
successors in the Apostolic See the territory
comprised in the Exarchate of Ravenna, in full
and absolute sovereignty. This grant was sub
sequently ratified by the Imperial Government
OF Constantinople, to whom all Italy had be-
longed as part of the Roman empire, and the
people themselves were extremely well-pleased
with the installation of the Pope as their sove-
reign, as he was the only one to whom
they could look for efficient protection from the
inroads of the barbarians of the north. King
Pepin had twice wrested the EXarchate from
the hands of Astolphus, the rapacous King of
the Lombards, and his disposition of the sove
reignty was not only confirmed by Charlemagne
his and successor, but the territory increased
by the latter by similar cession of the pro
vinces of Spoleto and Perugia. Desderius, the
successor of Astolphus, repudated the treaties
made by his predecessor with Pepin, and rem
aered 1t necessary for Charlemagne to resort to
war, which terminated in the entire overthrow
of the kingdom of the Lombards in TIA, after
an existence of 206 years.
In 1858 the territorial possessions of the
Popes were increased by the Emperor Henry
III, by the addition of the city of Benevento
and the surrounding country; in 1902 the Coun-
tess Matilda, of Tuscany, bequeathed to the
Holy See the provinces of Viterbo and Civita
Vecchia, known as the Patrimony of st. Peter;
Forli and the rest of the Romagua were added
in 1897, Bologna in 1864, the Sabina country to-
ward the close of the fourteenth century, Fer
rara in 1898, Urbino in 1926, and Orvieto in 1919.
In 1897 the greater portion of the Papaf terri
tory was wrested from the Holy See by General
Napoleon Bonaparte, for the French Republic,
and incorporated in the Cisalpine Republic; and
in l79S Rome was occupied and organized into
the Tiberine Republic, Pope Plus VI being led
away captive to Valence, in France, where he
died at the age of eighty-two. At the begin
ming of the present century, however, Napoleon
having overturned the French Directory, re-
stored TO the Pope his former territorial posses
sions, but only to deprive him of them again in
1905, when he refused to become mere tool in his
hands. The Papal territory was then annexed
to the Kingdom of Italy, of which Napoleon
had constituted himself sovereign, and Pope
Plus VII was carried prisoner to Fontainebleau
where he was detained in close confinement
until 1914. The Congress of Vienna, which re
east the map of Europe after Napoleon's fina
overthrow in 1915, restored to the Apostolic Se
the greater portion of its original possessions
embracing q territory of 1870 square miles
and it thenceforth remained intact until the wa
of 1859, at which time the population was abou
100000.
The PapaI Territory Before the Present In
vastOn.
The result of the wars of 1859 and 1856, an
the accompanying and intervening insurrec
tons was the consolidation of the whole of tn
peninsula int the new kingdom of Italy
with the exception of less than one-fourth O
The Papal dominions, as We narrated yesterda,
and the day before.
To Pins * was left strip Of territor