This is the worst crisis that little Swaziland, locked into the north-east corner of South Africa, has suffered since independence from Britain in 1968.

ECONOMIST: Africa??s last absolute monarchy may be falling apart

In light of such precedents, the 108-acre sovereign territory of Vatican City State, mapped out on a page of the 1929 Lateran Pacts with Italy, seems a modest guarantee of the Holy See's independence (though the signature of Benito Mussolini on the page's lower right-hand corner does lend a sinister touch).

WSJ: Lux in Arcana | Capitoline Museum | The Papacy's Private Papers | By Francis X. Rocca