The Pope was an Italian patriot, and besides, the Duce patently wanted a deal to earn himself goodwill from Catholics. So in the Lateran accords of 1929, the Vatican State was born, the world’s smallest sovereign power, the size of an English country-house garden, carrying with it a silver spoon in the form of 1,750 million lire, presented by the Italian government – rather less than had been on offer from the Italian monarchy to Pius IX, but still a very substantial sum.
