Ecclesiastical State

plural Ecclesiastical States

1. archaichistoricalThe Papal States.

   In the same year a conclave was permitted to be held at Venice; and in 1800, cardinal Chiaramonti, who was elected to the papal chair, took the title of Pius VII., and resumed the dominion of the Ecclesiastical State.

   1883, George P. Putnam, Frederick B. Perkins, Lynds E. Jones, “Ecclesiastical State or States of the Church”, in The World’s Progress […], volume 1, page 360

   2 more examples

   And although in March, Captaine George Fransperg was taken with a fit of an Apoplexie, which caused his death, yet because the army was entred into the Ecclesiasticall State, and still marched forward, the Pope in the end of the moneth, resolued to come to an accord […]

   1629 [1619], Paolo Sarpi, translated by Nathaniel Brent, The Historie of the Councel of Trent […], London: Bonham Norton and John Bill, →OCLC, book 1, paragraph 97, page 43

   They solicited the aid of the miscreant Saracens, invaded the ecclesiastical State, entered the city, profaned the churches, extorted an oath of fidelity from the Romans, and dared to imprison the successor of St. Peter.

   1789–92 (date written), Edward Gibbon, Antiquities of the House of Brunswick, published 1814, pages 26–27