The Roman people expressed well the general impression the Concordat caused by writing this verse on the base of a mutilated statue in Rome: “Pio [VI] per conservar la fede / Perdè la Sede. / Pio [VII] per conservar la Sede / Perdè la fede”—”To keep the faith, Pius [VI] lost his See. To keep the See, Pius [VII] lost his faith.”
https://www.tfp.org/pope-pius-vii-tried-negotiating-with-a-master-manipulator-and-lost/#:~:text=We%20will%20not%20follow%20the,of%20the%20entire%20French%20episcopate.
Pope Pius VII Tried Negotiating With a Master Manipulator—and Lost
In 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte made himself the First Consul of the French Republic. That title was, in itself, a deception. He pretended to be the “first among equals” while setting the stage for his dictatorship of France.
Understanding the importance of the Church in French politics. he pretended to work toward good relations with the Holy See. When his deception did not work, Napoleon unleashed religious persecution. Amicizia Cristiana played a major role in organizing a Catholic reaction. Napoleon imprisoned Pius VII in July 1809, taking the Pope from Rome to Savona. During this critical time, Amicizia courageously stood up to the Empire’s police. They acted to ensure that Pope Pius VII could continue directing the Church from his prison in Savona. Above all, Amicizia enabled the Sovereign Pontiff to speak out on the significant problems the emperor created by trying to impose his will on the Church. Unfortunately, in these usurpations, Napoleon enjoyed the collaboration of many churchmen.
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Amicizia undertook this struggle alongside various French Catholic organizations. To better understand the unfolding of events, we diverge from our ongoing narrative to briefly recall the political events that culminated in the Pope’s arrest. The following is a summary of the history of the famous French Marian Sodalities that joined Amicizia to prevent Napoleon’s complete domination of the Church.
The heroic fidelity of many Catholics during the French Revolution (1789-1794) brought martyrs to the scaffold. Unfortunately, there were also numerous defections among the episcopate and clergy. The Marian Sodalities counteracted the shameful spectacles of a constitutional church, and apostate churchmen turned into revolutionary leaders. That fidelity preserved public opinion from the scourge of revolutionary errors. At the time of the Directory (1795-1799), Napoleon realized that his spectacular military victories were not enough to consolidate the fruits of the Revolution. The loyalty of the great majority of the French who remained faithful to the Catholic Church stood in Napoleon’s way. Faithful Catholics hoped that, when the Terror ceased, the principles that had caused so much harm to France and the world would disappear.
Bonaparte did not arrive at that conclusion solely by political intuition. He ordered a public opinion survey that fully demonstrated the profound Catholic conviction of regional populations throughout France. At the same time, the knowledge he acquired from his military expeditions to Italy further convinced him that he needed to reach an accord with the Holy See.
By 1802, negotiations with Rome were advanced. The then-First Consul was forced to reveal his plan. Attempting to convince his opponents, he said:
“Only the Pope can reorganize the Catholics of France under republican obedience without bloodshed or agitations. I have asked [him] to do so. Having dominated Catholics through affection, I can suppress the foreign intermediary who reconciles the Republic with ecclesiastics. The latter’s direction will then be entirely in the government’s hands. These are my intentions. Can’t you trust me?”
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Napoleon began executing this plan shortly after the battle of Marengo (June 14, 1800). He asked the Cardinal Bishop of Vercelli, Carlo Giuseppe Filippa della Martiniana, to sound out the Holy See about the possibility of negotiations. With his customary falsehood, he did not immediately say that he wanted the Pope to accept revolutionary principles. Nor did he divulge that his ultimate aim was to win for the Revolution “the most prodigious lever of opinion throughout the world,” as he later confessed. However, his imposed conditions were very onerous for the Church. He demanded that the Pope accept the sale of ecclesiastical goods by successive revolutionary governments and, more omniously, a complete remodeling of the French episcopate.
From Napoleon’s perspective, the occasion was most suitable for proposing negotiations. Pope Pius VI died in August 1799, having spent the last eighteen months of his life as Napoleon’s prisoner. In March 1800, Barnaba Niccolò Maria Luigi Cardinal Chiaramonti was elected in Venice to succeed Pope Pius VI. The new pontiff chose the name Pius VII.
Cardinal Chiaramonti, a Benedictine, belonged to the Italian nobility. Named Bishop of Tivoli and later of Imola, he tried to prevent all resistance to the Revolution under the pretext of avoiding bloodshed. In 1797, revolutionary troops invaded the Imola diocese. In a pastoral letter, the Cardinal Bishop wrote that revolutionary principles and Gospel teachings were compatible.
One of the new pontiff’s initial acts was to appoint Monsignor Ercole Consalvi as Secretary of State. Intelligent, skillful, capable, and able to adapt to any environment, this prelate had great influence over Pius VII for a long time. Pius VII raised him to the cardinalate shortly after his election. The prestige Cardinal Consalvi earned during the Venice conclave and his new honors allowed him to begin remodeling the administration of the Papal States. He was an enthusiastic admirer of Revolutionary ideas. Therefore, it was only natural that he welcomed the possibility of a dialogue with Bonaparte.
Pius VII sent the Archbishop of Corinth, Giuseppe Maria Cardinal Spina, and Father Carlo Francesco Maria Caselli to Paris in response to the First Consul’s trial balloon. Their secret mission began long and difficult negotiations. Napoleon gradually made clear his desire for the Pope to accept the Revolution and submit to Napoleon’s will in everything.
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We will not follow the sequence of impertinences, lies and threats with which Napoleon tried to force the situation. His overall strategy was to present the Holy See with a false dilemma. Napoleon insisted that the Church must make some concessions to avoid losing everything. After twenty-six rough drafts and a hasty trip by Cardinal Consalvi to Paris, Napoleon and the Pope finally reached an agreement and signed a concordat.
Pius VII announced this Concordat to the Catholic world on August 15, 1801, with the encyclical Ecclesia Christi. The French government was slow to ratify it. Indeed, it only did so after incorporating the so-called “organic articles” in the text. These seventy-seven additions to the Concordat (and another forty-four relating to Protestants) modified the agreement significantly. Presented in the form of an ultimatum, they subjected the Church to the government’s coercive power. Pius VII’s protests were to no avail. The French government claimed that it could not achieve legislative approval of the Concordat without the organic articles, creating an ambiguous situation.
Among Napoleon’s demands was the resignation of the entire French episcopate. The Holy See’s acceptance of this unprecedented imposition and Napoleon’s other demands caused a great scandal.
The Roman people expressed well the general impression the Concordat caused by writing this verse on the base of a mutilated statue in Rome: “Pio [VI] per conservar la fede / Perdè la Sede. / Pio [VII] per conservar la Sede / Perdè la fede”—”To keep the faith, Pius [VI] lost his See. To keep the See, Pius [VII] lost his faith.”
The Pope soon saw that small, gradual concessions led only to a complete loss. Insatiable, Napoleon increased his demands. When the Pope was unwilling to yield any further, Napoleon imprisoned Pius VII. The Pope did not lose everything only because the emperor, defeated by the coalition armies in 1814, could no longer make demands.
What is most astonishing about this sad episode is that Napoleon never concealed his motivations. He openly admitted that he only negotiated with the Holy See because most of the French people were Catholic. Hence, he needed the Church’s support. When he opened negotiations with Rome, his words displayed his complete lack of conviction in anything other than his own power.
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“My policy is to govern people as the majority wants to be governed. In my opinion, that is the way to recognize people’s sovereignty. It was by becoming a Catholic that I ended the Vendée war; it was by becoming a Muslim that I settled in Egypt; it was by becoming an ultramontane that I won people’s hearts in Italy. If I governed a people of Jews, I would rebuild Solomon’s Temple.”
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