HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



241 



empire. The loss of Cayenne, 

 (which had been taken by the Por- 

 tuguese, assisted by the Enghsh, 

 December, 1808) and Martinico 

 was confessed. But their resto- 

 ration, with great improvements, 

 was prognosticated. A promise 

 was made not to oppose the in- 

 dependence of the Spanish colo- 

 nies provided they did not form a 

 coimection with England. — But 

 there was nothing that Buonapart6 

 seemed to contemplate with so 

 much satisfaction, or to consider 

 as of so much importance to the 

 stability of his empire as the fall of 

 the papal power, both temporal 

 and spiritual. The first and general 

 decree for annexing the Roman, 

 as well as other territories, men- 

 tioned in our last volume,* was is- 

 sued at Bayonne, May, 1808, and 

 a French army towards the end of 

 that year entered Rome, drove 

 away the cardinals, and secured 

 the person of the pope. In the year 

 1809, Buonaparte proceeded to 

 settle a new government in the ec- 

 clesiastical states, which by his de- 

 cree, followed by an army, he had 

 usurped in the preceding year. By 

 bringing his holiness a prisoner to 

 Avignon he cut him off from his 

 council of cardinals, from the means 

 of issuirg his bulls, and from the 

 power of convoking a constitution- 

 al council of the church, and stript 

 him of all that external pomp which 

 contributed to give him dignity, 

 respectability and authority in the 

 sight of the Italian and other na- 

 tions. Buonaparte still thought it 

 necessary to pretend in his annual 

 expose that it was by no means his 

 design, or wish to interfere with 

 the spiritual mission that had been 



Vol. LI. 



Hist, of Eu 



given by Jesus Christ to the pastors 

 of the church, and which Saint 

 Peter and the most pious of his suc- 

 cessors had fulfilled with so much 

 purity and sanctity, and so much 

 to the advantage of religion. It 

 was a benefit, Buonaparte observed, 

 conferred on religion to strip it of 

 all that was foreign to its nature, 

 and to re-establish it on the foun- 

 dation of evangelical purity. The 

 pope who was a servant of the ser- 

 vants of God, as well as others, 

 ought to render to Ccesar the 

 things that are Ccesar s. If the 

 archbishops and bishops nominated 

 by the emperor, were free from per- 

 sonal reproach,the popewas obliged, 

 according to the terras of the con- 

 cordat, immediately to give then> 

 canonical institution. 



la short Buonaparte had not 

 only usurped the temporal domi- 

 nion of the pope, but seemed de- 

 termined now to assume to be him- 

 self the head of the church. He 

 had on sundry occasions, especially 

 when he had met with signal suc- 

 cess in his career of ambition and 

 conquest, given broad hints, or 

 rather plainly signified, that he 

 considered himself as having a di- 

 vine mission ; an idea that he pro- 

 bably borrowed from Mahommed, 

 whom he appears to have had much 

 in his thoughts. After the decisive 

 battle of Wagram, he sent a cir- 

 cular letter to his bishops from 

 Znaim, 13 July, 1809, ordering 

 prayers and thanks to God for the 

 protection he had manifestly afford- 

 ed to the French arms. " Our lord 

 Jesus Christ," said he, " though 

 sprung from the royal blood of 

 David, did not choose to take upon 

 him the exercise of any temporal 



authority. 

 EOPE p. 239. 

 R 



