Pope Pius VII

Robin Anderson

Description

The French Revolution had wrought religious and civil havoc in France and the Italian states. Thousands of French priests had been killed or deported; other priests and bishops were forming a schismatic national Church; the previous Pope had been kidnapped and had died in exile. Catholics were losing the Faith and adopting an attitude of resistance to all authority..This was the beginning of the reign of Pope Pius VII (1800-1823)-one of the most difficult and confusing eras in Catholic history.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Christian theology
• Catholic Church
• Christianity

Informations

• Publié par: TAN Books
• Date de parution: 02 décembre 2000
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781505108231
• Langue: English

Extrait

POPE PIUS VII
1800 – 1823
HIS LIFE, REIGN AND STRUGGLE WITH NAPOLEON IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
Professor Robin Anderson
Copyright © 2001 by Robin Anderson.
Library of Congress Control No. 00-134500
ISBN 0-89555-678-2
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher, except that brief passages may be quoted or copied for non-profit use without permission.
Cover Illustration: Portrait of Pius VII, by Jacques Louis David (1748-1825). Louvre, Paris, France. Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource, NY.
TAN Books
Charlotte, North Carolina
www.TANBooks.com
2001
Dedicated with respect and affection to the late John J. Cardinal Wright, who asked me to write about Pope Pius VII.
    "For the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men ."
—1 Corinthians 1:25
OTHER WORKS BY THE AUTHOR
Rome Churches for English-Speaking People
The Quiet Grave (Journals)
St. Pius V
Between Two Wars—The Life of Pius XI
Gleams of English-Language Literature
Collected prose and poetry
Crisis Popes (private circulation)
CONTENTS
PROLOGUE
       A Glance Back at the 18th Century
  1. EARLY YEARS
       Benedictine Monk—Professor of Theology—Abbot—Bishop of Tivoli
  2. CARDINAL CHIARAMONTI OF IMOLA
       The Future Pontiff Faces the Revolution
  3. THE CONCLAVE OF 1800
       Cardinal Chiaramonti Is Elected Pope Pius VII—Entry into Rome—Napoleon Rises to Power
  4. THE NEW POPE AND NAPOLEON
       First Acts of Pius VII—The French Concordat—The Italian Concordat—Napoleon Asks the Pope to Crown Him Emperor of the French in Paris
  5. THE POPE IN PARIS
       Napoleon's Attempts to Overshadow the Pope—The Coronation—Enthusiastic Reception of Pius VII by the French People
  6. THE DEEPENING CONFLICT
       Pius' Return to Rome—Napoleon's Efforts to Control Italy—French Occupation of Rome and Virtual Imprisonment of Pius VII—Bull of Excommunication—Arrest and Abduction of the Pope
  7. CAPTIVITY IN SAVONA
       The Painful Journey—Homage of the People—The Armed Guards—The Pope's Daily Life—Our Lady of Mercy—Struggle over Canonical Institution of Bishops—Increasing Pressure upon Pius VII
  8. FURTHER STRUGGLES OVER CANONICAL INSTITUTION OF BISHOPS
       The Pope Resists Napoleon—Napoleon Convokes an Imperial Council—The Council Bishops Resist Napoleon—The Bishops Yield Conditionally
  9. THE CONCILIAR DELEGATION TO SAVONA
       The Pope Yields Conditionally regarding Canonical Institution—Napoleon Is Not Satisfied—Further Pressure—The Pope Stands Firm—His Great Tranquility and Charity—Pius Moved from Savona
  10. THE POPE AT FONTAINEBLEAU
       Further Pressure on Pius VII—Napoleon Visits Him—The Pope under Duress Signs a Provisional Agreement with Napoleon—The False Concordat—The Pope Retracts—Beginning of the End for Napoleon—Orders to Leave Fontainebleau
  11. RETURN TO ROME
       Return to Savona—The Intercession of Our Lady of Mercy—Pius VII Is Freed—Napoleon s Abdication—The Pope's Journey through Italy and Tumultuous Welcome in Rome
  12. AFTERMATH
       Cardinal Consalvi in London—Catholic Emancipation in England and Ireland—The Congress of Vienna—The Return of Napoleon—His "Hundred Days"—The Vienna Congress Gives the Papal Legations Back to the Pope—Waterloo
  13. RESTORATION
       Catholic Europe in Ruins—Difficulties in Setting Up a New Roman Government—Secret Societies and Brigandage—St. Gaspar del Bufalo—Religious Disorders in Italy, Germanic States and Poland—St. Clement Mary Hofbauer—Mending of Relations between the Pope and Austrian Emperor—A Time of Purging and Strengthening
  14. FURTHER RESTORATION, RESTITUTION AND REBUILDING
       The Society of Jesus—St. Joseph Pignatelli—The Benedictines—The City of Rome—The Arts
  15. THE END OF A TWENTY-THREE-YEAR REIGN
       Final Consolations and Sorrows for Pius VII—His Intervention on Behalf of Napoleon—Death of the Emperor—The Pope's Last Weeks and Peaceful Death—Monument in St. Peter's—The Character and Virtues of Pope Pius VII
       PRINCIPAL DATES IN THE LIFE OF POPE PIUS
       BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
       SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
General overview of Italy and eastern France (with modern boundaries), showing the cities that figured so prominently in the life of Pope Pius VII: Venice, Rome, Savona, Fontainebleau and Paris.
PROLOGUE
A Glance Back at the 18th Century
The conclave had dragged on for nearly four months in the Venetian island Abbey of St. George (San Giorgio) , where the electing cardinals had assembled because of political conditions in Rome and Europe on the death of Pope Pius VI. On March 15, 1800, the Benedictine Cardinal Gregory Barnabas Chiaramonti accepted election and, out of gratitude to his predecessor and benefactor, took the name of Pius VII.
Venice was then under the government of Austria, whose rulers, members of the house of Hapsburg, had from medieval times held the title of Holy Roman Emperor. 1 The Austrians would not permit the new Pope to be crowned in St. Mark's Basilica. The Emperor Francis II had paid most of the conclave expenses but was disappointed with the election. He knew Pius VII would not be the Pope he had wanted to favor his policies. So the coronation ceremony had to take place in the modest abbey church. Nor would the Austrian government permit Pius VII to make the journey to his capital, Rome, through the Papal States. 2 Pius was obliged to go much of the way by sea in a dilapidated, badly equipped old boat, escorted by the Emperor's envoy.
But by the time Pius VII would be able to enter his capital at the beginning of July, General Napoleon Bonaparte's victory over the Austrian forces at Marengo would have altered the European balance of power. The Pope would find himself no longer fettered by the Emperor Francis but rather confronted by one other man—the general who had risen to power in France, Napoleon, the " First Consul," who in a few years was to become "Emperor of the French" and lord of most of Europe.
Napoleon's fourteen-year rule (1799-1814) was to prove a very mixed blessing for France and for the Church. A man of military genius and amazing energy, he restored order after the turmoil and bloodshed of the French Revolution, launched in 1789; but Napoleon was to some extent imbued with the tenets of the Revolution. His unbounded political ambition further caused him to contest the sacred rights of the Pope and the Church, rights which he endeavored to dominate and use for ruling and extending his empire. The first half of Pius VII's reign would be taken up by his struggle with Napoleon.
The death of Pope Pius VI in France in August 1799, a prisoner of the French Revolutionaries, had left the Catholic Church in an apparently catastrophic, not to say hopeless plight. The Pope was sneeringly called "Pius VI the Last." Many thought, not for the first time, that the papacy was finished.
During the 18th century, just closing, things had gone from bad to worse. Philosophies such as Kant's in Germany and Hobbes' in England had discarded supernatural faith in divine revelation. They led the way to the so-called Illuminism of the French philosophers and encyclopaedists who purported to propagate modern science and culture. In fact, neither culture nor science were propagated. The Age of Reason was proclaimed: mankind had been in its infancy, but was now adult for the first time.
The writings of Rousseau and Voltaire had popularized notions of man's natural goodness with no need for authority and law in Church or society. The way was paved for revolution. In 1786, the Illuminatist (not Illuminist) society, secretly founded in Bavaria by Weishaupt with anarchical aims, was discovered and banned. But some of the conspirators found refuge in France, where Weishaupt managed to merge with Masonry.
Any means were considered permissible for overthrowing monarchy and lawful government, and for abolishing private property, hereditary rights, patriotism and military obedience, the family and marriage. With Machiavellian duplicity, Illuminatism appeared to be serving cultural and social interests, while pursuing its secret ends. Robespierre, Talleyrand (before becoming a Constitutional bishop 3 ), Mirabeau and the Duke of Orleans (who provided the money) were members, along with others who were to become leading protagonists of the French Revolution—including the half-mad Cagliostro, hater of priests and kings.
The pre-revolutionary movement was less a political and philosophical movement than a religious one. Jansenism, 4 originating with Jansenius, Bishop of Ypres (1585-1638), in the 17th century, was possibly the most formidable heresy that ever arose in the Church. Hostile to Rome and papal authority, and to the Jesuits in particular, it contested the Church's magisterium and power of jurisdiction, but hid its true nature under various reforming ideals.
Even after Pope Clement XI's definitive condemnation in 1713, Jansenism found ways of surviving. Benedict XIV (1740-1758), called "the Protestant Pope" by some of his cardinals for his over-conciliatory policy, was lenient with the Jansenists. The next Pope, Clement XIII (1758-1769), protested in vain to the Catholic sovereigns of Europe, who were being influenced by Jansenist counselors to banish the Jesuits, strongest defenders of the papacy and leaders in evangelization, missionary work and education. At length the succeeding Pope, Clement XIV, threatened on all sides by powerful princes and for the sake of peace, as he said, in 1773 decreed the suppression of the Society of Jesus throughout the Church.
Impartial historians admit that in bringing about the suppression of the Society of Jesus,