Three Popes and the Jews as well as "replete with egregious mistakes and distortions". Lapide's work makes many claims to which he himself claims to have been the witness, but also makes other claims, generally without citing sources. One of Lapide's main goals as Consul to Milan was Vatican recognition of the State of Israel, and Zuccotti assesses that "memories of past commissions and omissions were readily sacrificed to the goal of constructing a better future". John Cornwell states that "Three Popes" is a "formidable and scholarly riposte to those who would paint Pius XII and the Holy See as villains but it carried the
Prisoner in the Vatican or from inside the basilica, and papal coronations were instead held at the Sistine Chapel. The period ended in 1929, when the Lateran Treaty created the modern state of Vatican City. The 13 May 1871 Italian Law of Guarantees, passed eight months after the capture of Rome, was an attempt to solve the problem by making the pope a subject of the Kingdom of Italy, not an independent sovereign, while guaranteeing him certain honors similar to those given to the king and the right to send and receive ambassadors. The popes—Pius IX (died 1878) and his successors Leo XIII (reigned