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Following the fall of Rome, no diplomatic relations existed between the popes and the Italian State. The Italian rulers took up residence in the pope's , when Pope Pius VI died in French captivity, and Pius VII was taken captive for six years, the tension between the Italian state and the Papacy continued for 59 years, during which time the popes claimed to be unable to leave the Vatican. While some of the Italian revolutionaries thought that the papacy would disappear without the continuance of the papal states, the popes, relieved of their temporal concerns, grew in stature during their years of "imprisonment." Eventually, it became impossible for the Italian state not to recognize the independence of the Vatican, and on February 11 , 1929 , the Lateran Treaties established political relations between Italy and Vatican City . |