Vatican City was brought into being by the Lateran Treaty.
 As the official ecclesiastical seat of the pope, Saint John Lateran is the papal cathedra
 But the Popes did not recognize the Italian king's right to rule in Rome, and they refused to leave the Vatican compound until the dispute was resolved in 1929; Pope Pius IX (18461878), the last ruler of the Papal States, was referred to as a "prisoner in the Vatican"

