861 



PIUS VII. 



PIUS IX. 



862 



nominally belonged to the pope. All the disaffected and the turbulent, 

 trusting to French protection, openly insulted the papal government. 

 The pope remained confined to his palace on the Quirinal with bis 

 Swiss guard at the gates, not wishing to expose himself to violence by 

 venturing out. On the 17th of May 1809, Napoleon, who was then 

 making war against Austria, issued a decree from Vienna, m which he 

 resumed the grant of his illustrious predecessor Charlemagne, and 

 united the remainder of the Roman states to the French empire, 

 leaving to the pope his palaces and an income of two millions of 

 francs. On the 10th of June 1809, the pope issued a bull of excom- 

 munication against all the perpetrators and abettors of the invasion 

 of Rome aud of the territories of the Holy See. The bull was affixed 

 to the gates of the principal churches of Home and in other public 

 places. The text of the bull is given by Cardinal Pacca, in his 

 ' Memorie Storiche,' Appendix to the 1st part, No. V. The French 

 commander, Miollig, being afraid of an insurrection of the people of 

 Rome, who had shown unequivocal signs of attachment to their 

 sovereign, thought it expedient to remove Pius from the capital. The 

 Swiss guards made no resistance, having orders to that effect from tbe 

 pope : and protesting that he "yielded to force," Pius, taking his 

 breviary under his arm, accompanied the general to the gate, where 

 his carriage was ready, and drove off under an escort. He was taken 

 first to Grenoble in Dauphine", from whence he was removed, by order 

 of Xapoleon, to Savona in the Riviera of Genoa, where he remained 

 till June 1812, when he was removed to Fontainebleau, by an order of 

 Napoleon. During his stay at Savona, Napoleon convoked a council 

 at Paris of the bishops of his empire, but he found that assembly lees 

 docile than Le expected, and he dissolved it without any conclusion 

 being come to. The great question was how to fill up the vacant 

 gees, when the pope refused the canonical institution. The pope at 

 the same time would not recognise Napoleon's divorce from his first 

 wife Josephine. In short, Napoleon found that unarmed priests were 

 more difficult to conquer than the armies of one half of Europe. 

 (Thibaudeau, ' Le C'onsulat et I'Empire,' ch. 77; Botta, 'Storia 

 d'ltalia," b. 25.) The plan of Napoleon was to have the pope settled 

 at Avignon, or some other town of his empire, as his subject and bis 

 pensionary, and to have himself the nomination not only of the 

 bishops, but of the Cardinals also, by which means ho would have 

 added to his already overbearing temporal power the incalculable 

 support of a spiritual authority which extends over a great part of the 

 world. The resistance of Pius disappointed his views. Napoleon at 

 last imagined that by removing Pius to Fontainebleau, he might suc- 

 ceed in overcoming his firmness. Pius was again obliged to make a 

 long journey with the greatest secrecy. He arrived at Fontainebleau 

 in June 1812, and was lodged in the imperial palace, and treated 

 with marked respect. Napoleon had set out on his Russian expe- 

 dition. After his return from that disastrous campaign, in December 

 1812, he went to see the pope, embraced him, and treated him with 

 studied attention; ho also allowed several cardinals who were at 

 Paris to repair to Fontainebleau, and at last, chiefiy through their 

 persuasions, he prevailed npon the pope to sign a new concordat, the 

 25th of January 1813. It is not true, as some have stated, that 

 Napoleon, in one of his conferences with Pius, had lifted his hand 

 agninat him and struck him. Pacca ('Memorie Ktoriche,' part iii. 

 ch. 1) denies this on the authority of Pius himself, but thinks it very 

 probable that Napoleon spoke to his prisoner in an authoritative and 

 threatening tone. 



Napoleon hastened to publish tho articles of the concordat, and 

 to give them the force of laws of the empire ; after which he 

 granted free access to the pope, to all cardinals, and others who 

 chose to repair to Kontainebleau. Pius, who had scruples concerning 

 tome of the articles which he bad signed, laid them before the cardi- 

 nal*, and asked their opinion. Several of the cardinals, especially tho 

 Italian ones, such as Consalvi, Pacca, Litta, and Di Pietro, stated that 

 gome of tbe articles were contrary to the canon law and the legitimate 

 jurisdiction of tho Roman see, and pregnant with the most serious 

 evils to the Church, and they urged the necessity of a prompt retrac- 

 tation. They quoted the example of Paschal II., who, in similar 

 circumstances having ceded to the Emperor Henry V. the right of 

 investiture, hastened to submit his conduct to the judgment of a 

 council assembled in the Lateran, and the council revoked the cession. 

 [PASCHAL II.] Upon this Pius wrote to Napoleon, on the 24th of 

 March, retracting his concessions, but proposing a new basis for a 

 concordat ; Napoleon however took no notice of the retractation, except 

 by exiling some of the cardinals who, he thought, had influenced it. 

 Napoleon goon after set off for his army in Germany, and the affair 

 witb the pope remained in suspense. It was only after the defeat of 

 the French armies and their expulsion from Germany that Napoleon 

 proposed to restore to the pope the Papal States south of the Apen- 

 nines, if the pope would agree to a concordat. Pius answered, that 

 he would not enter into any negociations until he was restored to 

 Rome. On the 22nd of January 1814, an order came for the pope to 

 leave Fontainebleau the following day. None of the cardinals were 

 allowed to accompauy him. He set off accompanied by an escort, 

 and was taken to Italy. On arriving at the bridge on the river Nura, 

 in the state of Parma, he met the advanced posts of the Neapolitan 

 ; under Murat, who was then making common cause with the 

 allied powers against Napoleon. Murat had taken military occupation 



of the Roman state, but he offered to give up Rome and the Campagna. 

 Pius however preferred stopping at Cesena, his native town, until the 

 political horizon was cleared up. After the abdication of Napoleon 

 and the peace of Paris, Pius made his entrance into Rome, on the 24th 

 of May 1814, in the midst of rejoicings and acclamations. His faith- 

 ful Consalvi soon after resumed his office of secretary of state. By 

 the articles of the congress of Vienna the whole of the Papal States 

 were restored, including the legations, which were not however 

 evacuated by the Austrian troops until after the fall of Murat, 

 in 1815. 



The remaining years of the life of Pius wera spent in comparative 

 tranquillity, though not in idleness. He applied himself to adapt, as 

 far as it was practicable, the civil institutions of his dominions to the 

 great changes which had taken place in the social state. By a ' motu 

 proprio' of the year 1816 he confirmed the suppression of all feudal 

 imposts, privileges, monopolies, and jurisdictions; he abolished every 

 kind of torture, including that called the ' cortla,' or ' estrapade,' 

 which was formerly a frequent mode of punishment at Home ; he 

 diminished the land-tax ; retained the register of ' hypotheques,' or 

 mortgages, instituted by the French ; laid down the basis of a new 

 code of public administration, and in November of the following year 

 he published a new code of civil procedure, in which he regulated the 

 costs of judicial proceedings. He maintained the commercial courts 

 established by the French, as well as the new system of police, enforced 

 by a regular corps of carabineers, instead of the old ' sbirri/ who were 

 ineffective and corrupt. (Tournon, ' Etudes Statistiques sur Rome,' 

 b. iv., ch. 6.) Unfortunately however the old system of secret pro- 

 ceedings in criminal matters was restored, as well as that of the eccle- 

 siastical courts, which have jurisdiction also over laymen. Piua how- 

 ever made some important alterations in the form of proceeding of the 

 Inquisition, abolishing torture as well as the punishment of death for 

 offences concerning religion. He did perhaps all that he could do as a 

 pope, and certainly more than any pope had done before him. Car- 

 dinal Consalvi took vigorous measures to extirpate the banditti of the 

 Campagna; and in July 1819 he ordered the town of Sonnino, a nest 

 of incorrigible robbers, to be razed to tho ground. With regard to 

 spiritual matters, Pius concluded a new concordat with France, Naples, 

 Bavaria, and other states. He condemned by a bull the political society 

 of Carbonari, as well as other secret societies. 



In the month of July 1823, Pius, who was then eighty-three years 

 of age, had a fall in his apartments, and broke his thigh. This acci- 

 dent brought on inflammation, and after a few weeks he died on the 

 20th of August, universally regretted. He was succeeded by Leo XII. 

 Thorwaldsen was commissioned to make his monument, which has 

 been placed in St. Peter'g. 



Pius VII. stands prominent among the long series of popes for his 

 exemplary conduct under adversity, his Christian virtues, aud his 

 general benevolence and charity. Free -from nepotism, modest, unas- 

 suming, and personally disinterested, he was a staunch though tempe- 

 rate defender of the rights of his see ; and his meek bearing and 

 unblemished character engaged on his side the sympathies of the 

 whole Christian world, without distinction of community or sect, 

 during his long struggle with his gigantic and ungenerous adversary. 



PIUS VIII. (CARDINAL CASTIGLIONI), was elected in March 1829 to 

 succeed Leo XII., and died at the end of the following year. He was 

 succeeded by Gregory XVI. Nothing remarkable occurred during 

 his short pontificate. 



* PIUS IX. GIOVANNI MAMA MASTAI-FERKETTI, who assumed the 

 name of Pius on his election to the papal see, is a member of a noble 

 Italian family, and was born at Siuigaglia near Aiicona, May 13, 1792. 

 As a youth he was distinguished for a mild disposition and for his 

 works of charity. While still a child he was saved from drowning by 

 a poor ' contadino,' who lived to see him seated on what the historian 

 Macaulay calls the most ancient and venerable throne of Europe. At 

 the age of eighteen he went to Rome for the purpose of entering tho 

 body-guard of tho reigning pontiff, Pius VII. An epileptic attack 

 however prevented the attainment of his wishes, aud seems to have 

 dttermincd the course of his after-life. He entered a religious semi- 

 nary, where his gentleness and devotion proved the foundation of his 

 future distinction. In due course of time he was elevated to the 

 priesthood, and exercised the sacerdotal functions in the hospital of 

 Tata Giovanni at Rome, an institution founded for the education of 

 poor orphans. These duties however he was obliged to resign on 

 being sent out to South America on a special mission, as auditor to 

 M. Mugi, Vicar-Apostolic of Chili. In this capacity he gained some 

 insight into the secrets of politics and diplomacy, the study of which 

 led him to draw out on paper a system of political amelioration for 

 the Papal States. On his return to Europe he was appointed prelate 

 of the household to Pope Leo XII., and president of the hospital of 

 St. Michael. While holding this post his time was chiefly devoted to 

 the education of the youth of Rome and the preaching of spiritual 

 'retreats.' In 1829 he was nominated Archbishop of Spoleto, from 

 which he was translated in 1832 to the see of Imola, where his 

 charities to the poor greatly endeared him to his flock. Not long 

 afterwards he was sent to Naples as Apostolic Nuncio, and in 1840 

 he was raised to the dignity of a cardinal by the title of Saint Peter and 

 St. Marcellinus. In June 1846, on the death of Pope Gregory XVI., 

 he was elevated to the papacy. The state of affairs in the Papal 



