stylistic:style_transfer
Sovereignty of the Papal States

Pius IX was not only pope but, until 1870, also the last sovereign ruler of the Papal States. As a secular ruler he was occasionally referred to as "king", though it is unclear whether the Holy See ever accepted this title. Ignaz von Döllinger, a fervent critic of Pius' infallibility dogma, considered the political regime of the pope in the Papal States "wise, well-intentioned, mild-natured, frugal and open for innovations". Yet there was controversy. In the period before the 1848 revolutions, Pius was a most ardent reformer advised by such innovative thinkers as Antonio Rosmini (1797–1855), who reconciled the new free-thinking concerning human rights with the classical natural law tradition of the church's political and economic teaching on social justice. After the revolution, however, his political reforms and constitutional improvements were minimal, remaining largely within the framework of the 1850 laws mentioned above.