Staten Island

(stat'n i'land,) off the S.E. coast of Tierra del Fuego, S. America, and is divided by Le Maire Strait from King Charles' Land; S. Lat. 54° 52′ 8", W. Lon. 63° 43′ 5″. States of the Church, (The,) or PONTIFICAL STATES, a cluster of petty states in Central Italy, formerly grouped together to form a sovereignty under the rule of the Pope, and constituting his power as a temporal prince. During the early ages, the Roman and other urban peoples of Italy, as a kind of safeguard against the irruptions and exce es of the Northern barbarians, placed themselves under the protectorate of the Pontiffs, who at that period vigorously upheld the rights of the Church against all outside enemies. In 720 A. D., Rome became independent of the Eastern Empire, and, six years later, Pope Gregory III. received by ce ion of the king of the Lombards, the cities of Fano, Rimini, Pesaro, Forli, Ravenna, Urbino, Cesena, Comacchio, besides 15 other towns. Thus was created the nucleus of a territorial power, which, in course of time, gained large acce ions. In 1278 the Papal States comprised, with the above, the duchy of Spoleto, the March of Ancona, the exarchate of Ravenna, and the cities of Perugia, Bologna, and Bertinoro. Later were added to these, Parma, Placentia, Reggio, Faenza, and the Romagna. In 1830 the people of the northern legations rose in revolt, and were thereupon occupied by Austrian troops, while the French at the same time occupied Ancona. From 1848 till 1859, the legations remained under papal authority upheld by Austrian bayonets, even as the city of Rome itself was preserved to the Pope by a French garrison. In July of that year, however, the Romagna threw off the yoke and placed itself under Sard in i an rule; a course of procedure followed in a few months afterward,by the Marches, Pesaro, Urbino, Ancona, .; and, in June, 1870, the little strip of territory which remained to the Pope became definitively annexed to the new Italian kingdom. [s. 853]