Pius VII and the history of the Papacy of the 19th Century
Barnaba Chiaramonti was a Benedictine monk and theologian from Italy. He was the first pope of the nineteenth century, reigning from 1800 to 1823.
CONTENTS
- Overview
- Civic Constitution of the Clergy
- The Concordat of 1801
- The Treaty of Tolentino
- Prisoner of Napoleon
1. Background
1. Early Life and Training
In 1742, Barnaba Niccolò Maria Luigi Chiaramonti was born in the Italian city of Cesena. His parents were of noble status. However, they were not wealthy.
Chiaramonti had family ties to church office. His mother went into the Carmelite Monastery. His older brother was a Jesuit. And he was loosely related to pope Pius VI.
Chiaramonti was educated by the Benedictines. In 1756, at age 14 he became a postulant with the Benedictines at their abbey in Cesena.
Two years after that, in 1758, he became a professed member of the Benedictines. He assumed the name of Gregorio.
Chiaramonti taught at Benedictine colleges in Parma and Rome. Then he was ordained a priest in 1765.
2. Ecclesiastical Career
Chiaramonti was related to Giovanni Angelo Braschi. In 1773, Chiaramonti became the personal confessor to Braschi. Then in 1775, Braschi was elected pope, taking the name of Pius VI.
Chiaramonti had been teaching at the Monastery of Sant’Anselmo in Rome. In 1776, pope Pius VI appointed him as the honorary abbot in of the monastery. This drew complaints from the monks of the monastery. Also, it was an act of nepotism.
In 1782, pope Pius VI appointed Chiaramonti as the Bishop of Tivoli. That was a diocese near Rome.
In 1785, pope Pius VI named Chiaramonti a Cardinal, and appointed him as the Bishop of Imola in northern Italy.
Chiaramonti was rising in power. Rapidly. He was intelligent and had the capabilities needed for leadership. But nepotism was a major factor.
2. The French Revolution
1. Overview
In the 1700s, changes took place at the national level. The changes permeated all aspects of society, including financial and political and social. But the ancien régime (“old regime”) failed to manage them.
In 1789, a financial crisis and widespread social distress led to the convocation of the Estates General. Revolutionary insurgents tried to storm and seize control of the Bastille. To regain control, the Assembly took a series of radical measures.
Beginning in 1792, to there was a series of sweeping military conflicts called the French Revolutionary Wars. They pitted France against Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, Russia, and several other countries.
In 1793, the monarchy was replaced by the French First Republic, and king Louis XVI was executed.
After another revolt in 1793, the constitution was suspended. About 16,000 people were executed in what was later referred to as the Reign of Terror, which ended in 1794.
Weakened by external threats and internal opposition, the Republic was replaced in 1795 by the Directory.
In 1799, the Consulate seized power in a military coup led by a French military officer and statesman named Napoleon Bonaparte.
From 1799 to 1804, Napoleon led the French Republic. Then from 1804 to 1814, Napoleon was the Emperor of the French. Finally, in 1815 Napoleon was once again the Emperor of the French for a brief time.
2. Civic Constitution of the Clergy
In 1790, during the French Revolution, a law was passed. It was called the Civil Constitution of the Clergy.
It gave the French government complete control over the Catholic Church in France:
- It banned religious orders
- It seized control of dioceses
- Bishops and priests were elected locally
- Clerics were required to take an Oath of aOath of Allegiancellegiance to France
- Marriage registers were removed from parishes.
- Divorces were allowed
- Clerics were allowed to marry
- The seven-day week was rejected in favor of a ten-day week, so as to avoid Sunday
It might be thought that this was a drastic attack against the Catholic church. However, Catholic leaders brought this down upon themselves. They earned it:
- Catholic leaders abused their power, especially for patronage
- Catholic leaders wanted to return France to the failed ancien régime
The Civil Constitution brought about a schism, resulting in two Catholic churches in France:
- An illegal and underground French Catholic church that was loyal to the Papacy
- A “constitutional church” that was subservient to the State
Clerics who swore allegiance to France were called “jurors.” Clerics who did not were called “non-jurors.”
Non-jurors could be victimized by society at large. For example, nuns from a hospital in Paris were publicly spanked.
The Pope repudiated the “jurors” who had signed the Oath of Allegiance.
In 1794, the government suspended the payment of salaries to clergy, even to constitutional clerics.
In 1795, the Oath of Allegiance was modified to be more political and less religious.
By 1797, the Catholic church had lost most of the rather extensive privileges it held previously. France itself was de-Christianizing.
Pius wanted to see the France situation resolved. If it became the norm in Europe, he feared Europe would be de-Christianized.
Napoleon knew religion couldn’t be rooted from France. He thought that if he could gain peace with Rome, he would win the hearts of most of France. So he met a cardinal to discuss the sale of Church property and the renewal of the Episcopacy.
Napoleon wanted all the bishops to resign so he could start over with a brand new episcopate.
For his part, Pius hoped Napoleon would be more trustworthy than the radical Jacobines had been. But Pius was worried about the Roman Curia. They might refuse to accept a compromise.
Cardinal Consalvi wrote that Pius was prepared to do for the French what he would do for no other nation.
The first phase of the negotiations took place until 1800. A key figure was Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, who had served as a bishop and was now a foreign minister. That said, the prevailing force was Napoleon.
In the second phase, the French sent a French diplomat named François Cacault with all authority reeded to conclude the deal. However, there was no real progress. So Napoleon told Cacault to leave in early May.
So Pius sent Consalvi to Paris, with full power to negotiate. Around June 21, Napoleon pressured Consalvi to sign the document in five days. Finally, on July 15 of 1801, Consalvi signed the document
At this time there were many lay people governing the papal states. The clergy thought Pius would throw them out and put clerics back in charge. That said, Pius was not successful in reviving the papal states.
In 1801 Pius established the Noble Guard. They were a security service populated from families of nobility in Italy. Their mission was to protect the pope.
The schism was resolved with the Concordat of 1801:
3. The Concordat of 1801
During the French Revolution, the National Assembly had seized church properties and issued the Civic Constitution of the Clergy.
The Civic Constitution had turned the Catholic church into a department of the state, effectively removing it from papal authority. Subsequent laws abolished the traditional Gregorian calendar and Christian holidays.
These steps provoked the hostility of devout French Catholics against the French Revolution.
There needed to be a reconciliation between the French Revolution and devout French Catholics.
The Concordat of 1801 was that reconciliation. It was an agreement between the First French Republic and the Holy See. It was signed by Napoleon Bonaparte and Pope Pius VII in 1801.
Cardinal Consalvi wasn’t entirely satisfied with it. But it was a great instance of compromise. And it gave legitimacy to Napoleon:
- Napoleon now had a concordat with the pope
- Napoleon saved the Catholic church in France
- Napoleon brought together the people of his nation
- Napoleon guided his people into the future
For his part, Pius had to make difficult compromises:
- The Catholic church lost much of its vast property in France
- Bishops were to be named by the French government
- The Oath of Allegiance to the French government continued
Pius was worried that other nations might try a similar thing. And within the Roman Curia, Antonelli thought it gave too much power to the secular government.
There was vast opposition to the Concordat, both in Paris and in the Roman Curia.
In France, 55 bishops resigned, while 38 bishops refused to resign. Napoleon named twelve former constitutional clergy as bishops, but ten refused to retract the Oath of Loyalty.
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord proposed adding 77 organic articles to the 17 articles of the Concordat. His additional articles were highly restrictive to the Catholic church.
Despite papal protest, France added the 77 articles. Unfortunately, some bishops refused to resign, and thus a mini-schism ensued.
In 1804, the new civil code of law messed with marriage and permitted divorce.
Napoleon named, as his minister to Rome, his own half-uncle: Cardinal Joseph Fesch. This was a splendid example of nepotism.
In review, the Concordat recognized Roman Catholicism as the religion of the majority of the people of France. The Organic Articles were an attempt to turn the Catholic church into an arm of the State. The Holy See disliked the Articles but feared that if they protested, the whole Concordat would be thrown out. Some dioceses were repressed.
Here are some major points from the Concordat:
- It did not restore the vast Catholic church lands and endowments that had been seized during the Revolution and sold off.
- Catholic clergy returned from exile, or from hiding, and resumed their traditional positions in their traditional churches.
- Very few parishes continued to employ the priests who had accepted the Civil Constitution of the Clergy of the revolutionary regime.
- The balance of church-state relations tilted firmly in Bonaparte’s favor. He selected bishops and supervised church finances.
4. The Treaty of Tolentino
In 1789, the French Revolution took place. A series of anti-clerical governments came into power in the country.
In 1796, the French began a military campaign against Italy. A French military officer and statesman named Napoleon Bonaparte defeated northern Italy. Then he devoted himself to conquering the Papal States.
In 1797, nine thousand French soldiers invaded the Romagna region of the papal states, leaving the pope no choice but to surrender to the French. The pope signed the Treaty of Tolentino. It declared peace between Revolutionary France and the Papal States.
The Catholic church had to pay a giant indemnity to France. It nearly bankrupt the papal states.
During the negotiations, it became evident that Napoleon thought religion was useful for controlling people.
A pragmatic politician, Napoleon thought that good Church-State relations would promote peace in France, unlike the effect of the Reign of Terror.
The papal states remained under French control after the French soldiers left.
Chiaramonti wrote a pastoral letter to his Diocese of Imola, urging the Catholics to obey the new form of government.
Napoleon promised that if the clergy focused on pastoral needs only, they would not be repressed.
Chiaramonti refused to take the oath of fidelity to the new government.
In his Christmas homily in 1797, Chiaramonti said “Be good Christians and you will be good democrats.”
5. Prisoner of Napoleon
During a riot in Rome, a French emissary was killed. The papacy believed it needed to put up a show of resistance, and so they put together a small army to resist the invading French. The papal army fell on February 10, 1798.
French troops under Louis-Alexandre Berthier invaded Rome and captured the 80 year-old pope Pius VI. They took him as a prisoner to France. He was imprisoned there until he died on August 29, 1799. He had died outside of Rome, and even outside of Italy.
With no pope, a Conclave needed to be called. However, it was likely that the cardinals from France and England would use the Conclave as an opportunity for their own political agendas.
Thus when Cardinal Albani called the Conclave, he held it in Venice, which was under Austrian control. More specifically, it was held on an island. The last cardinal to arrive to the conclave was Cardinal Herzan from Austria. Then the conclave opened on December 1, 1799.
In the first few weeks, two names emerged as the early front-runners: Bellisoni and Mattei. For their part, the Austrians supported Matei.
Four months passed before it became clear that Matei was gaining support. Then Cardinal Lorenzana received instructions from the king of Spain to use the exclusiva to block the election.
With that, the Conclave had to find a new candidate.
Herzon talked with Chiaramante and offered support as long as he appointed a pro-Austrian head of State. Chiaramonte said no. Herzon was favorably impressed.
On March 14, 1800, after having no pope for approximately six months, Chiaramante was elected to the papacy. He chose the name of Pius VIl. His head of state was deacon-Cardinal Ercole Consalvi (1757-1824).
At first, Pius VII took a cautious approach in dealing with Napoleon. With Napoleon he signed the Concordat of 1801, through which he succeeded in guaranteeing religious freedom for Catholics living in France.
In 1804, Napoleon wanted Pius to come to Paris to crown him as Emperor. This event would afford Pius a face-to face meeting with Napoleon, something he had never had. Cardinal Fesch told the pope that Napoleon’s oath would not include the Organic Articles.
When Pius arrived in Paris he was NOT welcomed as royalty. This deeply annoyed him.
Then Pius found out that Napoleon was only civilly married to Josephine. This was relevant to Pius because Napoleon was Catholic. Pius gave Napoleon a dispensation for this irregularity. Then there was a Catholic wedding ceremony, with Cardinal Fesch presiding.
On December 2, 1804, Napoleon was anointed as Emperor of the French. Pius was present.
Whilst Pius was in Paris, some of the Constitutional bishops submitted to Rome.
With his control of Germany and, later, Poland, Napoleon’s interests shifted to Italy. To reform the area’s economy, he began suppressing unneeded parishes and monasteries. His military actions were successful, and he was able to surround the papal states. He placed a garrison in the key location of Ancona in central Italy.
In those days, there weren’t many neutral states in Europe. So with no way to defend itself, the papal states had to be neutral.
Napoleon suggested that Pius simply recognize French sovereignty over all of Italy. Pius wrote a letter of protest. A month later, Napoleon recalled Cardinal Fesch from Rome.
In June of 1806, Cardinal Consalvi resigned, so as to help the situation with France.
In August of 1806, Napoleon resigned the title of the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. What had existed for a thousand years was finally gone.
Of course, the Holy Roman Empire was neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire.
In 1807, Napoleon wrote that Pius would only be recognized as the bishop of Rome. Napoleon threatened to call a Council.
Pius didn’t have much choice, except to invite the French envoys to Rome. They told him that he must sign a treaty with France as well as expel certain nationalities from the papal territories: Germans, English, Spanish, and Austrians.
The Roman Curia rejected the terms of the treaty. It was too harsh, and it interfered with the authority of the Catholic church.
On February 2, 1808, Napoleon marched in and seized Rome. He expelled foreign cardinals.
On May 17, 1808, the French decreed the end of the temporal supremacy of the papacy and made Rome a “Free Imperial City.”
On June 11, 1809, Pius VII issued the papal bull Quum memoranda. It excommunicated all those responsible for violating the patrimony of St. Peter.
It didn’t explicitly name Napoleon. However, Napoleon was included among those who were responsible, and thus Napoleon was excommunicated.
Napoleon was concerned that this papal bull would become a rallying cry for Catholics in France to resist. Napoleon thus told his commander to take harder measures. With that, General Radet entered the papal palace and placed the pope under arrest.
Napoleon was surprised they arrested the pope. He was worried that this secret would get out. What would the French Catholics do? The French bishops?
He came up with an idea. It was to move the offices of the Catholic church from Rome to Paris, then put Pius in charge of it.
The pope was a prisoner! This hadn’t happened for centuries:
- In 1110 AD, Henry V briefly held the pope prisoner
- The last time a pope had to flee Rome was 400 years earlier
The strategy of Pius was to use passive resistance. He was convinced the Catholic church would still operate, even with the pope imprisoned.
While Pius was imprisoned, no new bishops were named.
Napoleon wanted his marriage to Josephine to be dissolved so he could marry an Austrian. Cardinal Fesch suggested that since the pope was imprisoned, another church body could declare it void.
Out of the 13 Cardinals in Paris, all refused to assist.
Napoleon cut off the income of all 13, and banished them to exile. They were no longer permitted to wear red. For that reason, they were known as the “Black Cardinals.”
Pius VII remained a prisoner in France until 1814 when, after the French were defeated, he was permitted to return to Rome. In Rome, he was greeted warmly as a hero and defender of the faith.
3. The Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna was a series of international diplomatic meetings from 1814 to 1815.
It discussed and agreed upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.
The congress agreed to fully restore the papal land back to the pope, so that the papacy could retain its political independence.
Here are some of the major actions of Pius after the Congress of Vienna:
- Pius acted against the Masons
- Pius acted against the Bible Societies. The Bible Societies were Protestant groups in England that wanted to deliver Bible translations to the populace. The Catholic church feared the people reading the Bible; and thus they suppressed the Bible Societies.
- Pius restored the Jesuits. This action did not endear him to the Congress.
- The Avignon matter came up. The papacy wanted the land, but nobody was giving it to them.
- The Austrians wanted to station troops in northern Italy, so as to hold in check any political uprisings. The papacy allowed this.
- Pius needed to restore economic stability; he put Cardinal Pacca in charge of the matter.
- Pius restored the Inquisition, although he abolished torture.
- As clergy returned, they reclaimed their old benefices, which had been held by laity.
- On July 6, 1816, Pius Issued a Bull called Modo Proprio. It set up the papal states, established taxation, and set up political boundaries.
- In 1817 a new criminal code was promulgated. It was modeled on the criminal code of Napoleon.
- Pius restored the Inquisition, although he abolished torture.
Pius was instituting sweeping changes. Some Cardinals resisted. Among them were cardinals Pacca, Genga, Severolli, Somaglia, and Rivorola. They were thought of as zealots, the conservatives who resisted change.
A political tension came to exist between two parties: the Carbonari and the Sanfediesti:
- The Carbonari wanted even more reform
- The Sanfediesti wanted to stamp out reform in every sector
These two groups became major political players for about 30 years.
4. Signs of Revival
In 1800, a French priest named Pierre Coudrin founded a new religious order. It was called The Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, abbreviated “SS.CC.”
In 1816, a French bishop named Charles Joseph Eugène de Mazenod founded a new religious order. It was called The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, abbreviated “OMI”.
Their mission was to evangelize the “abandoned poor”. They were especially active among the Indigenous peoples of Canada. However, some of their schools are associated with cases of child abuse by Oblate clergy and staff.
In 1817, a French priest named Guillaume Joseph Chaminade founded a new religious order. It was called The Society of Mary, usually shortened to “Marists.”
Marists look to Mary as a model of faith and spirituality. They share their faith with other people, work with the poor, and educate and nourish the mind, the body, and the soul.
In 1819, a French philosopher named Joseph de Maistre published a book called Du Pape, or “The Pope.” It is considered his literary masterpiece.
This book praised the papacy. It was the best press coverage the papacy was given in decades.
In 1822, Pauline Jaricot founded an association to coordinate assistance for Catholic missionary efforts. It was called Propagandum Fidei, or “The Society for the Propagation of the Faith.” It is the oldest of the four Pontifical Mission Societies of the Catholic Church.
5. Passing
In July of 1823, Pius fell and broke his thigh bone. The break needed surgery, and his health was delicate.
On August 23, 1823, Pius died. He was 81 years old.
6. Conclusions
There was little to hint that Pius VII would face such a revolutionary period in Europe.
When he was pope, Pius did all that was within his power to maintain the status of the Church, given the political situation.
Pius had courage, plus he was enough of a realist to see that a new phase of church-state relations had arrived.
He was the first to consider a papacy without temporal power.
Toward the end of his papacy, Pius saw signs that the Catholic church was entering an era of revival.
NOTES
Note 1. This page was originally published on December 7, 2024. It has undergone many edits since then.
19th CENTURY PAPACY
MAJOR ERAS:
- Prelude to the 19th Century Papacy – the Political Factors
- Prelude to the 19th Century Papacy – the Religious Factors
- The Papacy of Pius VII: 1800-1823
- The papacy of Leo XII: 1823-1829
- The papacy of Pius VIII: 1829-1830
- The papacy of Gregory XVI: 1831-1846
- The papacy of Pius IX: 1846-1878
- The papacy of Leo XIII: 1878-1903
SEE ALSO: References, Church History
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