A History of the Popes: Volume III: The Protestant Reformation to the Twenty-First Century by Wyatt North

Author:Wyatt North [North, Wyatt]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Publisher: Wyatt North Publishing, LLC
Published: 2015-09-25T06:00:00+00:00

Although it had started out favorably enough, the relationship between Pius VII and Napoleon Bonaparte quickly began to disintegrate. Desiring to please Napoleon, Pius VII attended his coronation ceremony as emperor on December 2, 1804, against the advice of the Curia, but he won no benefits from this action, as he had hoped. This event has been commemorated in Jacques-Louis David’s Consecration of the Emperor Napoleon I and Coronation of the Empress Josephine. In this painting, Pius VII is depicted sitting behind Napoleon, who is crowning Josephine. After the coronation ceremony, when Pius insisted on maintaining a neutral stance in regard to the European wars, Napoleon indicated that he expected the pope’s cooperation. Napoleon orchestrated Cardinal Consalvi’s resignation in 1806, occupied the Papal States in 1808, and annexed them in 1809. Frustrated, Pius excommunicated all those involved in the taking of the Papal States, without naming Napoleon directly. Napoleon, however, could read between the lines, and arrested Pius on July 5, placing him under the guard of nearly fourteen hundred soldiers in Savona. Under duress, Pius verbally agreed to the investiture of bishops Napoleon had nominated by metropolitan archbishops. Still not appeased, Napoleon transferred Pius to Fontainebleau where he forced the exhausted pope to sign the Concordat of Fontainebleau, which implied that Pius accepted the French annexation of the Papal States. Pius later retracted his signature and was sent back to Savona in 1814. The pope was finally released from prison on March 10, 1814, and made his way back to Rome on March 24, 1815, and reinstated Cardinal Consalvi as secretary of state on May 7. Consalvi brilliantly negotiated the return of virtually all of the Papal States.

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