Losing a Kingdom, Gaining the World: The Catholic Church in the Age of Revolution and Democracy 1700-1903

Throughout the early modern period, the Pope was a secular prince in central Italy. Catholicism was not merely a religion but a political force to be reckoned with. By the eighteenth-century secular states challenged the Catholic church’s temporal power. No fewer than three popes were forced out of Rome due to Revolution. These were dark days that threatened the very existence of the Church. In 1870, the secular power of the papacy was destroyed, when the newly unified kingdom of Italy stormed Rome ending centuries of papal rule. Ironically as Catholicism lost its temporal power it made huge spiritual strides expanding across the globe and gaining new converts in America, Africa and the Far East. The Catholic church between 1700-1903 lost a kingdom but gained the World.