Papal States

American  

plural noun

1. the areas comprising a large district in central Italy ruled as a temporal domain by the popes from a.d. 755 until the greater part of it was annexed in 1860, by Victor Emmanuel II: the remaining part, Rome and its environs, was absorbed into the kingdom of Italy in 1870.

---

Papal States British  

plural noun

1. Also called: States of the Church.  the temporal domain of the popes in central Italy from 756 _ad until the unification of Italy in 1870

---

Example Sentences

The Torlonias, immigrants from France to Napoleon’s Italy, became bankers to the Papal States and the Bonaparte family, acquiring immense wealth, an impressive real-estate portfolio and a string of noble titles.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 25, 2025

"Unlike the Kingdom of Naples, for example, the production of documentation related to earthquakes has certainly been poorer in the Papal States, of which the Marche Region was a part in the 15th century."

From Science Daily • Nov. 1, 2023

The wall’s aim was to limit passage between French territory and the Comtat Venaissin, an enclave controlled by the Papal States.

From New York Times • Feb. 23, 2021

But, after the Italian kingdom fully conquered the Papal States, in the nineteenth century, the church became “more priestly,” as Faggioli put it.

From The New Yorker • Oct. 28, 2018

Even in the debate on the address in answer to the speech from the throne this party demanded intervention, at first indeed only diplomatic, in favour of the Papal States.

From Church History, Vol. 3 of 3 by Kurtz, J. H.