In September 1870 involved and curious Romans gathered at St Peter’s Basilica. Past the partitions of the Vatican, Pope Pius IX claimed to have been imprisoned in his personal realm. For greater than a millennium popes had ruled territory throughout central Italy from their capital in Rome. When, in 1861, King Vittorio Emanuele II had united the Italian states to create the nation of Italy, the rump of the Papal States remained distinct. On 20 September 1870, nevertheless, the Italian king took the papal capital as his personal. For individuals who questioned the popes’ proper to carry worldly authority, it was a simply and well timed act. For others, the king violated an workplace sanctioned by God. As a champion of custom, Pius IX made his emotions plain: it was the pope who had locked himself contained in the Vatican Palace. He and his successors would stay ‘prisoners’ till 1929, refusing to recognise Rome because the Italian capital by taking a single step on its soil.
