So many books, monographs and articles have been written around the "Roman Question" that a word of explanation or even of apology for the present study may be called for. Before as well as after 1929, the year in which the Lateran Treaty declared resolved the conflict which had divided Italy and the Papacy for nearly sixty years, professors and their students in a dozen lands have one after the other committed to the learned world their particular analysis of the international position of the Papacy. The variety of opinions which can be found in these studies is itself a remarkable testimony to the unique cha­ racter of the Holy See in the modern organization of international society. Even today, more than two decades after the dispute between the Quirinal and the Vatican had been finally resolved, it cannot be said that perfect uniformity of views yet prevails among writers in international law. Even today, when partisan passions have had time to cool and to leave the court clear for objective studies, there are many questions that cannot be adequately explained by any of the conventional criteria. Perhaps, indeed, the reason for the apparent futility of many of these writings has been the belief that the Papacy could really be forced into everyone of the categories developed by modern international law.