LOSS OF ABILITY TO “SCATTER THE POWER OF THE HOLY PEOPLE” (AFTER 1260 DAYS)

 

PRIOR TO FRENCH REVOLUTION (1775-1789)

“Between 1775 and 1789 Pius VI had to confront an almost universal malevolence or hostility of governments and public opinion against the Holy See. Rulers maneuvered to wrench from the Pope concessions designed to win for them popular acclaim, or to increase their authority over the clergy in their domains. Under the influence of the Enlightenment in France and England, an aggressive incredulity infiltrated the educated classes, the upper ranks of society, and even the clergy. National churches, even when they preserved regularity and piety, displayed active defiance of the absolutism of the Pope and the Roman Curia …

A pope able to hold his own against these opposing forces, oblige tax clerics to reform, and impose respect for papal authority would have needed unparalleled genius and energy. Pius VI possessed neither quality. He was sincerely intent on fulfilling his duties as administrator and defender of the Church’s rights, but he lacked firmness …

Germany was the source of the gravest fears during the 15 years preceding 1789. Anti-Roman tendencies there affected the leaders among the clergy. In 1763 Febronius issued against the authority of the Roman Pontiff a veritable manifesto, repercussions of which were to be widespread … The archbishops … issue(d) a public declaration, the Punctuation of Ems, affirming that German Catholics depended only on their bishops, to the exclusion of any papal representative. Schism seemed imminent.

In the Austrian territories the situation during the same period was still more alarming. Joseph II, Emperor … sought (1) to submit the Church in Austria completely to the State; (2) to grant tolerance to all religious confessions …

Pius VI became alarmed at the Emperor’s haste and uncompromising rigorousness … His protests proved vain …

The contagion of Josephinism reached Italy. In Tuscany Grand Duke Leopold I copied the reforms of his brother Joseph II. He found in Bishop Scipione de’ Ricci a collaborator by conviction. The Synod of Pistoia (Sep. 1786), an assembly of Tuscan priests with Ricci presiding, published decrees very hostile to papal authority. As a result the Holy See beheld itself defied by anticurialists in ultramontane territory near Rome itself …” (New Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. II, “Pope Pius VI,” pp. 398-399)

DURING FRENCH REVOLUTION (1789-1799)

“The French Revolution (1789-1799), … abruptly opened an era of perils infinitely more menacing .. Pius VI … [saw it as] a rebellion against the social order ordained by God and of a conspiracy against the Church concocted by the powers of evil … he exerted himself to condemn without equivocation the principles formulated in the Declaration of the Rights of Man. On the diplomatic level he tried to arrange a kind of holy league against the Revolution …

The invasion of Italy (1796) by Napoleon abruptly changed the situation by advancing the Revolution to the frontiers of the Papal States. The Directory intended to take vengeance on Pius VI, at least by exacting a ransom for Rome, and perhaps by destroying the papacy itself. For two years the prudence of General Bonaparte, who refused to be the destroyer of the Holy See, permitted papal diplomats to purchase somehow a precarious peace at the cost of abandoning the Legations or northern provinces of the States of the Church, at the armistice of Bologna (1796), and the Peace of Tolentino (1797).

Once Bonaparte left for Egypt, incidents inevitably occurred between Jacobins and zealous partisans of the Holy See. This furnished the pretext for a French punitive expedition against Rome. General Louis Berthier [Napoleon’s chief of staff] entered the city (Feb. 10, 1798), proclaiming the establishment of the Roman Republic, and drove out Pius VI and the Curia.

For a while the Pope sojourned in Tuscany, separated from his collaborators, and placed in circumstances that made his spiritual government of the Church impossible. The French made him captive, and began (March 1799) forcing him from city to city toward France … He reached Valence, in southeastern France, on July 14 and was held prisoner there until his death, August 28. This moment [1799] marked the nadir [lowest point] of papal fortunes in modern times.” (New Cath. Ency., Vol. 11, “Pope Pius VI,” pp. 399-400)

“… [Pius VI’s] death while a prisoner [1799] marked a low point in papal fortunes not plumbed for centuries and gave rise to a prophecy that the apostolic succession had come to a close with the demise of ‘Pius the Last.’ … The whole world [had been shown] the political impotence of the papacy in the period of Enlightenment. The end of the 18th century witnessed the deepest humiliation of the modern papacy in the wake of the French Revolution.” (New Cath. Ency., Vol. 10, “Papacy,” pp. 965-960)

“… Pius VI was a far-seeing but unfortunate pope and at his death [1799] the papacy was at its lowest ebb for many centuries past. But pontifical authority survived this crisis and before very long emerged strengthened by it.” (The Popes. A Concise Biographical History. Edited by Eric John, pp. 404-406)

 POST REVOLUTION PERIOD (1800-1814)

“The first part of [Pius VII’s] pontificate (1800-15), as indeed the whole history of Europe during these years, centered around the struggle against Napoleonic domination. The enterprises of Napoleon as first consul, then as emperor, imperiled the independence of the spiritual. Pius VII resisted this threat with increasing energy, conciliatory though he was in other respects …

Despite opposition of the cardinals, the Holy Father agreed to go to Paris for the consecration (Dec. 1804) of Napoleon as emperor … He agreed to modifications in the traditional ceremonial proposed to him beforehand by Bernier, and consented to have Napoleon crown himself …

The Pope’s remonstrances to Napoleon to improve the religious situation in France were for the most part repulsed … Pius VII … feared that the Emperor wished to extend to all Europe his religious system by introducing the spirit of the Revolution, as he had in Italy … As this Napoleonic system extended to the Italian Peninsula and approached Rome, the danger mounted that the Holy See would become a vassal of France … Events at Milan caused an irremediable rupture in the entente between the priesthood and empire …

Napoleon found himself impelled to take possession of all Italy. This led him into a conflict of ever-increasing gravity with Pius VII . .. The conquest of Naples and the occupation of the west coast completed the encirclement of Rome . . . [Napoleon] tried vainly to make the Pope yield … [Finally] General Miollis invaded Rome (Feb. 1808) … The non-Roman cardinals were driven from Rome. Pius VII, who had opposed the arrest of Pacca, his Secretary of State, was seized, carried off from Rome (July, 1809), and deported to Savona, near Genoa.

Deprived of his liberty and his counselors, the Sovereign Pontiff henceforth refused to exercise his papal authority. As a result he would not canonically appoint those nominated to bishoprics by the Emperor. Numerous sees remained vacant to the great embarrassment of the French government …

Napoleon then (June, 1812) transferred Pius VII to Fontainebleau, near Paris, to force his capitulation after the French victories in Russia. When the Russian campaign turned into a disaster, Napoleon hastened to finish with the Pope. Under compulsion Pius VII appended his signature to a project of concordat, which was intended as a basis for future negotiations and to remain secret. But Napoleon published the document, the so-called Concordat of Fontainebleau, as if it were a final one … Pius VII wrote to Napoleon in vigorous terms, but Napoleon kept the letter secret. Military reverses in France [then] induced Napoleon to liberate his prisoner, who reentered Rome on May 24, 1814.” (New Cath. Ency., Vol. II, “Pope Pius VII,” p. 402-403)

“The papacy reached a low point in power and influence during the French Revolution and the Napoleonic period, from which it gradually recovered in the nineteenth century to reach a position of prestige in the mid-twentieth century unequaled since the Middle Ages.” (Collier’s Encyclopedia, 1975 Edition, Vol. 18, ‘Papacy, P 409)

— Contributed

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