Despite the rigour of his captivity, Pius VI was able to make known the
pontifical commands to Cardinal di Pietro at Semur; a secret agency at Lyons,
established by certain members of the Congregation, devised ingenious ways of
facilitating these communications as well as the circulation of Bulls. In
November, 1810, the Court was stupefied with the news that two Bulls of Pius VI,
addressed to the Chapters of Florence and Paris, forbade their recognizing
D'Osmond and Maury. The imperial fury was let loose. On 1 January, 1811,
Napoleon, during an audience to Maury and the canons, demanded an explanation
from d'Astros, the vicar capitular, who had received the Bull, telling him that
there is "as much difference between the religion of Bossuet and that of
Gregory VII as between heaven and hell"; d'Astros, taken by Maury himself
to police headquarters, was imprisoned at Vincennes. At the Council of State, 4
January, 1811, Portalis, a relative of d'Astros, was openly accused of treason
by Napoleon, and immediately put out of the council chamber (with a brutality
that the emperor afterwards regretted) and was then ordered to quit Paris.
Cardinals di Pietro, Oppizzone, and Gabrielli, and the priests Fontana and
Gregori, former counsellors of the pope, were thrown into prison. Maury used his
influence with the canons of Paris to induce them to apologize to Napoleon, who
received them, told them that the pope must not treat him as a roi fainéant,
and declared that, since the pope was not acting up to the Concordat in the
matter of institution of bishops, the emperor, on his side, renounced the
Concordat. The conditions of the pope's captivity were made more severe; all his
correspondence had to pass through Paris, to be inspected by the Government; the
lock of his desk was picked; he could no longer receive visits without the
presence of witnesses; a gendarme demanded of him the ring of St. Peter, which Pius VI
surrendered after breaking it in two. Chabrol, the pope's custodian, showed him
the addresses to which some of the chapters were expressing their submission to
the emperor, but Pius VI was inflexible. A commission of jurisconsults in Paris,
after discussing the possibility of a law regulating the canonical institution
of bishops without the pope's co operation, ended by deciding that to pass such
a law was almost equivalent to schism.
Napoleon was not willing to go so far. He summoned the ecclesiastical
council which he had already established and, 8 February, 1811, proposed to it
these two questions: (1) All communication between the pope and the emperor's
subjects being interrupted, to whom must recourse be had for the dispensations
ordinarily granted by the Holy See? (2) What canonical means is there of
providing institution for bishops when the pope reuses it? Fesch and Emery tried
to sway the council towards some courses which would save the papal prerogative.
But the majority of the council answered: (1) That recourse might be had,
provisionally, to the bishops for the dispensations in question; 2) That a
clause might be added to the Concordat stipulating that the pope must grant
canonical institution within a stated time; failing which, the right of
institution would devolve upon the council of the province; and that, if the
pope rejected this amendment of the Corcordat, the Pragmatic Sanction would have
to be revived so far as concerned bishops. The council added that, if the pope
persisted in his refusal, the possibility of a public abolition of the Concordat
by the emperor would have to be considered; but that these questions could be
broached only by a national council, after one last attempt at negotiation with
the pope.
On 16 March, 1811, Napoleon summoned to the Tuileries the members of the
council and several of the great dignitaries of the empire; inveighing bitterly
against the pope, he proclaimed that the Concordat no longer existed and that he
was going to convoke a council of the West. At this meeting Emery, who died on
28 April, boldly faced Napoleon, quoting to him passages from Bossuet on the
necessity of the pope's liberty. Pius VI not yielding to a last summons on the
part of Chabrol, the council was convoked on 25 April to meet on 9 June. By this
step Napoleon expected to subdue the pope to his will. In pursuance of a plan
outlined by the philosopher Gerando, Archbishop Barral, and Bishops Duvoisin and
Mannay were sent to Pius VI to gain him over on the question of the Bulls of
institution. They were joined by the Bishop of Faenza, and arrived at Savona on
9 May. At first the pope refused to discuss the matter, not being free to
communicate with his cardinals. But the bishops and Chabrol insisted, and the
pope's physician added his efforts to theirs. They represented that the Church
was becoming disorganized. At the end of nine days, the pope, who was neither
eating nor drinking anything, being very much fatigued, consented, not to
ratify, but to take as "a basis of negotiation" a note drawn up by the
four bishops to the purport that, in case of persistent refusal on his part,
canonical institution might be given to bishops after six months. On 20 May, at
four o'clock in the morning, the bishops started for Paris with this note; at
seven o'clock the pope summoned Chabrol and told him that he did not accept the
note in any definitive sense, that he considered it only a sketch, and that he
had made no formal promise. He also asked that a courier should be sent after
the bishops to warn them of this. The courier bearing this message overtook the
bishops at Turin on 24 May. Pius VII warned Chabrol that if the first note were
exploited as representing an arrangement definitely accepted by the pope, he
"would make a noise that should resound through the whole Christian
world". Napoleon, in his blindness, resolved to do without the pope and put
all his hopes in the council.
Council of 1811
The council convoked for 9 June, 1811, was not opened at Notre Dame until
17 June, the opening being postponed on account of the baptism of the King of
Rome, just born of Marie Louise. Paternal pride and the seemingly assured
destinies of his throne rendered Napoleon still more inflexible in regard to the
pope. Only since 1905 has the truth about this council been known, thanks to
Welschinger's researches. Under the Second Empire, when D'Haussonville wrote his
work on the Roman Church and the First Empire (see below) Marshal Vallant had
refused him all access to the archives of the council. These archives Welsinger
was able to consult. Boulogne, Bishop of Troyes, in his opening sermon affirmed
the solidarity of the pope and the bishops, while Fesch, as president of the
council, made all its members swear obedience and fidelity to Pius VII. Upon
this Napoleon gave Fesch a sound rating, on the evening of 19 June, at Saint
Cloud. The emperor had packed his council in very arbitrary fashion, choosing
only 42 out of 150 Italian bishops to mix with the French bishops, with a view
to ecumenical effect. A private bulletin sent to the emperor, 24 June, noted
that the fathers of the council themselves were generally impressed with a sense
of restraint. The opposition to the emperor was very firmly led by Broglie,
Bishop of Ghent, seconded by Aviau, Archbishop of Bordeaux, Dessole, Bishop of
Chambéry, and Hirn, Bishop of Tournai. The first general assembly of the
council was held on 20 June. Bigot de Préameneu and Marescalchi, ministers of
public worship for France and Italy, were present and read the imperial message,
one draft of which had been rejected by Napoleon as too moderate. The final
version displeased all the bishops who had any regard for the papal dignity.
Napoleon in this document demanded that bishops should be instituted in
accordance with the forms which had obtained before the Concordat, no see to be
vacant for longer than three months, "more than sufficient time for
appointing a new incumbent". He wished the council to present an address to
him, and the committee that should prepare this address to be composed of the
four prelates he had sent to Savona. The address, which was prepared in advance
by Duvoisin, one of these four prelates, was an expression of assent to
Napoleon's wishes. But the council decided to have on the committee besides
these four prelates, some other bishops chosen by secret ballot, and among the
latter figured Broglie. Broglie discussed Duvoisin's draft and had a number of
changes made in it, and Fesch had some trouble in keeping the committee from at
once demanding the liberation of the pope. The address, as voted, was
nonsensical. It was not what Napoleon expected, and the audience which he was to
have given to the members of the council on 30 June, did not take place.
Another committee was appointed by the council to inquire into the pope's
views on the institution of bishops. After a conflict of ten days, Broglie
secured against Duvoisin, by a vote of 8 to 4, a resolution to the effect that,
in this matter, nothing must be done without the pope, and that the council
ought to send him a deputation to learn what was his will. Napoleon was furious
and said to Fesch and Barral: "I will dissolve the council. You are a pack
of fools". Then, on second thought, he informed the council that Pius VII
by way of concession, had formally promised canonical institution to the vacant
bishoprics and had approved a clause enabling the metropolitans themselves in
future, after six months vacancy of any see, to give canonical institution.
Napoleon requested the council to issue a note to this effect and sent a
deputation to thank the pope. First the committee voted as the emperor wished,
then, on more mature consideration, suspecting some stratagem on the emperor's
part, it recalled its vote, and, on 10 July, Hirn, Bishop of Tournai, speaking
for the committee, proposed to the council that no decision be made until a
deputation had been sent to the pope. Then, on the morning of 11 July, Napoleon
pronounced the council dissolved. The following night Broglie, Hirn, and
Boulogne were imprisoned at Vincennes. The emperor next thought of turning over
the administration of the dioceses to the prefects, but presently took the
advice of Maury, viz., to have all the members of the council called up, one by
one, by the minister of public worship, and their personal assent to the
imperial project obtained in this way. After fifteen days devoted to
conversations between the minister and certain of the bishops, the emperor
reconvoked the council for 5 August, and the council, by a vote of 80 to 13,
passed the decree by which canonical institution was to be given within six
months, either by the pope or, if he refused, by the metropolitan. The bishops
who passed this decree tried to palliate their weakness by saying that they had
no idea of committing an act of rebellion, but formally asked for, and hoped to
obtain, the pope's assent. Napoleon believed himself victorious; he held in his
hands the means of circumventing the pope and organizing without his co
operation the administration of French and Italian dioceses. He had brought the
Sacred College, the Dataria, the Penitentiary, and the Vatican Archives to
Paris, and had spent several millions in improving the archiepiscopal palace
which he meant to make the pontifical palace. He wished to remove the Hôtel
Dieu, install the departments of the Roman Curia in its place, and make the
quarter of Notre Dame and the Isle de Saint Louis the capital of Catholicism.
But his victory was only apparent: to make the decree of the national council
valid, the pope's ratification was needed, and once more the resistance of Pius
VII was to hold the emperor in check.
On 17 August Napoleon commissioned the Archbishops of Tours and Mechlin,
the Patriarch of Venice, the Bishops of Evreux, Trier, Feltro, and Piacenza to
go to Savona and demand of the pope his full adhesion to the decree of 5 August;
the bishops were even to be precise in stating that the decree applied to
episcopal sees in the former Papal States, so that, in giving his assent, Pius
VII should by implication assent to the abolition of the temporal power. That
Pius VII might not allege the absence of the cardinals as a reason for
postponing his decisions, Napoleon sent to Savona five cardinals on whom he
could rely (Roverella, Dugnani, Fabrizio Ruffo, Bayanne, and Doria) with
instructions to support the bishops. The emperor's artifice was successful. On 6
September, 1811, Pius VII declared himself ready to yield, and charged Roverella
to draw up a Brief approving the Decree of 5 August, and on 20 September the
pope signed the Brief. But even then, the Brief as it was, was not what Napoleon
wanted: Pius VII abstained from recognizing the council as a national council,
he treated the Church of Rome as the mistress of all the Churches, and did not
specify that the decree applied to the bishoprics of the Roman States; he also
required that, when a metropolitan gave canonical institution, it should be
given in the name of the pope. Napoleon did not publish the Brief. On 17 October
he ordered the deputation of prelates to notify the pope that the decree applied
equally to bishoprics in the Roman States. This interpretation Pius VII then
formally repudiated, and announced once more that any further decision on his
part would be postponed until he should have with him a suitable number of
cardinals. Napoleon first wreaked his irritation on the Bishops of Ghent,
Tournai, and Troyes, whom he forced to resign their sees and caused to be
deported to various towns, then, on 3 December, he declared the Brief
unacceptable, and charged the prelates to ask for another. Pius VII refused.
On 9 January, 1812, the prelates informed the pope, from the emperor,
that, if the pope resisted any longer, the emperor would act on his own
discretion in the matter of the institution of bishops. Pius VII sent a personal
reply to the emperor, to the effect that he (the pope) needed a more numerous
council and facility of communication with the faithful, and that he would then
do, "to meet the emperor's wishes, all that was consistent with the duties
of his Apostolic ministry." By way of rejoinder, Napoleon dictated to his
minister of public worship, on 9 February, an extraordinarily vehement letter,
addressed to the deputation of prelates. In it he refused to give Pius VII his
liberty or to let the "black cardinals" go back to him; he made known
that if the pope persisted in the refusal to govern the Church, they would do
without the pope; and he advised the pope, in insulting terms, to abdicate.
Chabrol, the prefect of Montenotte, read this letter to Pius VII, and advised
him to surrender the tiara. "Never", was the pope's answer. Then on 23
February, Chabrol notified the pope, in the emperor's name, that Napoleon
considered the Concordats abrogated, and that he would no longer permit the pope
to interfere in any way in the canonical institution of the bishops. Pius VII
answered that he would not change his attitude. Mme de Staël wrote to Henri
Meister: "What a power is religion which gives strength to the weak when
all that was strong has lost its strength!" The difference between the pope
and the emperor naturally reacted upon the feelings of the clergy towards
Napoleon, and upon the emperor's policy towards religion. From this time
Napoleon refused the seminarists any exemption from military service. He made
stricter the university monopoly of teaching, and Broglie, Bishop of Ghent, who,
after leaving the prison of Vincennes, had continued to correspond with his
clergy, was sent to the Island of Sainte Marguerite.
Last Great Wars: Concordat of Fontainebleau
At this time Napoleon was absolutely drunk with power. The French Empire
had 130 departments; the Kingdom of Italy 240. The seven provinces of Illyria
were subject to France. The rigour of the Continental blockade was ruining
English commerce and embarrassing the European states. The tsar would have liked
Napoleon, master of the West, to leave him freedom of action in Poland and
Turkey; enraged at receiving no such concessions, he approached England. The
French armies in Spain were exhausting their strength in a savage and
ineffectual war against a ceaseless uprising of the native population;
nevertheless Napoleon resolved to attack Russia also. At Dresden, from March to
June, 1812, he held a congress of kings, and prepared for war. It was at
Dresden, in May, 1812, that, under pretext of satisfying the demands of Francis
Joseph for gentler treatment of the pope, Napoleon decided to have Pius
VIIremoved from Savona to Fontainebleau; the fact is that he was afraid the
English would attempt a coup de main on Savona and carry off the pope.
After a journey the painful incidents of which have been related by
d'Haussonville, following a manuscript in the British Museum, Pius VII reached
Fontainebleau on 19 June. Equipages were placed at his disposal, he was desired
to appear in public and officiate; but he refused, led a solitary life in the
interior of the palace, and gave not the least indication of being ready to
yield to Napoleon's demands.
Napoleon definitely declared war against the tsar on 22 June, 1812. The
issue was soon seen to be dubious. The Russians devastated the whole country in
advance of the French armies, and avoided pitched battles as much as possible.
The victory of Borodino (7 September, 1812), an extremely bloody one, opened to
Napoleon the gates of Moscow (14 September, 1812). He had expected to pass the
winter there, but the conflagration brought about by the Russians forced him to
retrace his steps westward, and the retreat of the "Grande Armée" so
heroically covered by Marshall Ney, cost France the lives of numberless
soldiers. The passage of the Beresina was glorious. As far as Lithuania,
Napoleon shared the sufferings of his army, then he hastened to Paris, where he
suppressed General Malet's conspiracy and prepared a new war for the year 1813.
When he set out for Prussia it was his idea to extend his march beyond that
country, through Asia to India, to knock over "the scaffolding of
mercantile greatness raised by the English, and strike England to the
heart". "After this", he declared, "it will be possible to
settle everything and have done with this business of Rome and the pope. The
cathedral of Paris will become that of the Catholic world. . . . If Bossuet were
living now, he would have been Archbishop of Paris long ago, and the pope would
still be at the Vatican, which would be much better for everybody, for then
there would be no pontifical throne higher than that of Notre Dame, and Paris
could not fear Rome. With such a president, I would hold a Council of Nicæa in
Gaul."
But the failure of the Russian campaign upset all these dreams. The
emperor's haughty attitude towards the Church was now modified. On 29 December,
1812, he wrote with his own hand an affectionate letter to the pope expressing a
desire to end the quarrel. Duvoisin was sent to Fontainebleau to negotiate a
Concordat. Napoleon's demands were these: the pope must swear to do nothing
against the four articles; he must condemn the behaviour of the black cardinals
towards the emperor; he must allow the Catholic sovereigns to chose two thirds
of the cardinals, take up his residence in Paris, accept the decree of the
council on the canonical institution of bishops, and agree to its application to
the bishoprics of the Roman States. PPius
VIIspent ten days discussing the matter. On 18 January, 1813, the emperor
himself came to Fontainebleau and spent many days in stormy interviews with the
pope though, according to Pius VII's own statement to Count Paul Van der Vrecken,
on 27 September, 1814, Napoleon committed no act of violence against the pope.
On 25 January, 1813, a new Concordat was signed. In it there was no mention
either of the Four Articles, or of the nomination of cardinals by the Catholic
sovereigns, or of the pope's place of residence: the six suburbican dioceses
were left at the pope's disposition, and he could moreover provide directly for
ten bishoprics, either in France or in Italy — on all these points Napoleon
made concessions. But on the other hand, the pope confirmed the decree of the
Council of 1811 on the canonical institution of bishops.
According to the very words of its preamble, this Concordat was intended
only "to serve as basis for a definitive arrangement". But, on 13
February, Napoleon had it published, just as it stood, as a law of the State.
This was very unfair towards Pius VII; the emperor had no right to convert
"preliminary articles" thus into a definitive act. On 9 February the
imprisoned cardinals had been liberated by Napoleon; going to Fontainebleau,
they had found Pius VII very anxious on the subject of the signature he had
given, and which he regretted. With the advice of Consalvi, he prepared to
retract the "preliminary articles". In his letter of 24 March to
Napoleon he reproached himself for having signed these articles and disavowed
the signature he had given. Napoleon had failed egregiously. He did not listen
to the advice of the Comte de Narbonne, who, in a letter drafted by young
Villemain, expressed the opinion that the pope ought to be set at liberty and
sent back to Rome. It has been claimed that Napoleon had said to his ministers
of State: "If I don't knock the head off the shoulders of some of those
priests at Fontainebleau, matters will never be arranged." This is a
legend; on the contrary, he ordered the minister of public worship to keep
secret the letter of 24 March. Immediately, acting on his own authority, he
declared the Concordat of Fontainebleau binding on the Church, and filled twelve
vacant sees. On 5 April he had Cardinal di Pietro removed from Fontainebleau and
threatened to do the same for Cardinal Pacca.
In the Dioceses of Ghent, Troyes, and Tournai, the chapters regarded the
bishops appointed by Napoleon as intruders. The irregular measures of the
emperor only exasperated the resistance of the clergy. The Belgian clergy,
warned by Count Van der Vrecken of the pope's retractation, began to agitate
against the imperial policy. Meanwhile, on 25 April, 1813, Napoleon assumed
command of the Army of Germany. The victories of Lutzen (2 May) and Bautzen (19
22 May) weakened the Prussian and Russian troops. But the emperor made the
mistakes of accepting the mediation of Austria — only a device to gain time
— and of consenting to hold the Congress of Prague (July). A letter from Pius
VII, secretly carried in the face of many dangers by Van der Vrecken, warned the
Congress of Prague that the pope formally rejected the articles of 25 January.
Napoleon continued nevertheless to send from his headquarters with the army
severe orders calculated to overcome the resistance of the Belgian clergy; on 6
August he caused the director of the seminary of Ghent to be imprisoned, and all
the students to be taken to Magdeburg; on 14 August he had the canons of Tournai
arrested. But his perils were increasing. Joseph had been driven out of Spain.
Bernadotte, King of Sweden, one of Napoleon's own veterans, was driving the
french troops out of Stralsund. Under Schwarzenberg, Blücher and Bernadotte,
three armies were forming against the emperor. He had but 280,000 men against
500,000. He was victor at Dresden (27 August), but his generals were falling
away on all sides. He was deserted by the Bavarian contingents in the celebrated
"Battle of the Nations" at Leipzig (18 19 October), the defection of
the Wurtembergers and the Saxons was the chief cause of his defeat. The
victories of Hanau (30 October) and Hocheim (2 November) enabled his troops to
get back to France, but the Allies were soon to enter that land.
Liberation of the Pope: End of the Empire
The liberation of the pope figured on the programme of the Allies. In vain
did the emperor send the Marchesa di Brignoli to Consalvi, and Fallot de
Beaumont, Archbishop of Bourges, to Pius VII, to open negotiations. In vain, on
18 January, 1814, when he learned that Murat had gone over to the Allies and
occupied the Roman provinces on his own account, did he offer to restore the
Papal States to Pius VII. Pius VII declared that such a restitution was an act
of justice, and could not be made the subject of a treaty. Meantime, Blücher
and Schwarzenberg were advancing through Burgundy. On 24 January, Lagorse, the
commandant of gendarmes who had guarded Pius VII for four years, announced to
him that he was about to take him back to Rome. The pope was conveyed by short
stages through southern and central France. Napoleon defeated the Allies at
Saint Dizier and at Brienne (27 29 January, 1814), the princes offered peace on
condition that Napoleon should restore the boundaries of France to what they
were in 1792. He refused. As the Allies demanded the liberation of the pope,
Napoleon sent orders to Lagorse, who was taking him through the south of France,
to let him make his way to Italy. On 10 March the prefect of Montenotte received
orders to have the pope conducted as far as the Austrian outposts in the
territory of Piacenza. The captivity of Pius VII was at an end.
The war was resumed immediately after the Congress of Chatillon. In five
days Napoleon gave battle to Blücher four times at Champaubert, Montmirail,
Chateau Thierry, and Vauchamp, and hurled him back on Chalons; against
Schwarzenberg he fought the battles of Guiges, Mormant, Nangis, and Méry, thus
opening the way to Troyes. But Lyons was taken by the Austrians, Bordeaux by the
English. Exhausted as he was Napoleon beat Blücher again at Craonne (7 March),
retook Reims and Epernay, and contemplated cutting off the retreat of Blücher
and Schwarzenberg on the Rhine. He caused a general levy to be decreed; but the
Allies had their agents in Paris. Marmont and Mortier capitulated. On 31 March
the Allies entered Paris. On 3 April the Senate declared Napoleon dethroned.
Returning to Fontainebleau, the emperor, determined to try one last effort, was
stopped by the defection of Marmont's corps at Essonnes. On 20 April he left
Fontainebleau; on 4 May he was in Elba.
At the end of ten months, learning of the unpopularity of the regime
founded in France by Louis XVIII, Napoleon secretly left Elba, landed at Cannes
(1 March, 1815), and went in triumph from Grenoble to Paris (20 March, 1815).
Louis VIII fled to Ghent. Then began the Hundred Days. Napoleon desired to give
France liberty and religious peace forthwith. On the one hand, by the Acte
Additionnel, he guaranteed the country a constitutional Government; on the
other hand (4 April, 1815), he caused the Duke of Vicenza to write to Cardinal
Pacca, and he himself wrote to Pius VII, letters in a pacific spirit, while
Isoard, auditor of the Rota, was commissioned to treat with the pope in his
name. But the Coalition was re formed. Napoleon had 118,000 recruits against
more than 800,000 soldiers; he beat Blücher at Ligny (16 June), whilst Ney beat
Wellington at Quatre Bras; next day, at Waterloo, Napoleon was victorious over Bülow
and Wellington until seven o'clock in the evening, but the arrival of 30,000
Prussians, under Blücher, resulted in the emperor's defeat. He abdicated in
favour of his son, set out for Rochefort, and claimed the hospitality of
England. England declared him the prisoner of the Coalition and, in spite of his
protests, had him taken to the Island of St. Helena. There he remained until his
death, strictly watched by Hudson Lowe, and dictated to General Montholon,
Gourgaud, and Bertrand those "Mémoires" which entitle him to a place
among the great writers. Las Casas, at the same time, wrote day by day, the
"Mémorial de Sainte Hélène", a journal of the emperor's
conversations. In the first of his captivity, Napoleon complained to Montholon
of having no chaplain. "It would rest my soul to hear Mass", he said.
Pius VII petitioned England to accede to Napoleon's wish, and the Abbé Vignali
became his chaplain. On 20 April, 1821, Napoleon said to him: "I was born
in the Catholic religion. I wish to fulfil the duties it imposes, and receive
the succour it administers." To Montholon he affirmed his belief in God,
read aloud the Old Testament, the Gospels, and the acts of the Apostles. He
spoke of Pius VII as "an old man full of tolerance and light".
"Fatal circumstances," he added "embroiled our cabinets. I regret
it exceedingly." Lord Rosebery has attached much importance to the
paradoxes with which the emperor used to tease Gourgaud, and amused himself in
maintaining the superiority of Mohammedanism, Protestantism, or Materialism. One
day, when he had been talking in this strain, Montholon said to him: "I
know that your Majesty does not believe one word of what you have just been
saying". "You are right", said the emperor. "At any rate it
helps to pass an hour."
Napoleon was not an unbeliever; but he would not admit that anyone was
above himself, not even the pope. "Alexander the great", he once said
to Fontanes, "declared himself the son of Jupiter. And in my time I find a
priest who is more powerful than I am." This transcendent pride dictated
his religious policy and utterly vitiated it. By the Concordat, as Talleyrand
said, he had "done not only an act of justice, but also a very clever act,
for by this one deed he had rallied to himself the sympathies of the whole
Catholic world." But the same Talleyrand declares, in his "Mémoires",
that his struggle with Rome was produced by "the most insensate
ambition", and that when he wished to deprive the pope of the institution
of bishops, "he was all the more culpable because he had had before him the
errors of the Constituent Assembly". This double judgment of the former
Constitutional bishop, later the emperor's minister of foreign affairs, will be
accepted by posterity. By a strange destiny, this emperor who travelled all over
Europe, and whose attitude towards the Catholic religion was in a measure
inherited from the old Roman emperors, never set foot in Rome; through him Rome
was for many years deprived of the presence of the remotest successor of St.
Sylvester and of Leo III; but the successor of Constantine and of Charlemagne
did not see Rome, and Rome did not see him.
Chief Sources. Correspondence de Napoléon premier (1858
sqq.); Lecestre, Lettres inédites de Napoléon I (Paris, 1897); OxxEuvres de
Napoléon Bonaparte (Paris, 1822); Mémoires dictés a Sainte Hélène, ed.
Lacroix (Paris, 1904); Las Casas, Mémorial de Sainte Hélène (London, 1853);
Memoirs of Chateaubriand and Talleyrand.
General Works. Thiers, The Consulate and the Empire under Napoleon (tr.
London, 1893); Allison, History of Europe from the commencement of the French
Revolution to the restoration of the Bourbons (Edinburgh, 1849 1858); Rose, The
Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era (Cambridge, 1907); Hazlitt, Life of Napoleon
Bonaparte (London, 1894); Watson, Napoleon, a Sketch of his Life (New York,
1902); Sloane, Life of Napoleon Bonaparte (New York, 1896); Taine, Modern Régime,
tr. Durand (London, 1904); Levy, Napoléon intime (Paris, 1893; reprinted,
Edinburgh, 1910); Masson, Napoléon dans sa jeunesse (Paris, 1907); Idem, Napoléon
et sa famille (Paris, 1897 1907); Idem, Napoléon et son fils (Paris, 1904);
Idem, Napoléon inconnu (Paris, 1895); Idem, Josephine empress and queen, tr.
Hoey (London, 1899). In France Frédéric is now the foremost student of
Napoleonic history. His numerous works are indispensable for a knowledge of the
Empire.
Special Studies. His Religious Sentiments. Bourgine, Première communion
et fin chrétienne de Napoléon (Tours, 1897); Fischer, Napoleon I, dessen
Lebens und Charaktersbild mit besonderer Rücksicht auf seine Stelling zur
christlichen Religion (Leipzig, 1904).
His Youth. Chuquet, La jeunesse de Napoléon (Paris, 1897 98); Browning,
Boyhood and Youth of Napoleon, 1760 1793 (London, 1906).
The Coming of Napoleon. Vandal, Avènement de Bonaparte (Paris, 1902
1907).
Relations with England. Coquelle, Napoleon and England (1808 1813), tr.
Knox (London, 1904); Levy, Napoléon et la paix (Paris, 1902); Wheeler and
Broadley, Napoleon and the Invasion of England, the story of the Great Terror
(London, 1908); Alger, Napoleon's British visitors and captives (Westminster,
1904); Grand Carteret, Napoléon en images, estampes anglaises (Paris, 1895);
Ashton, English Caricature and Satire on Napoleon I (London, 1884).
Relations with Spain. DeGrandmaison, L'Espagne sous Napoléon (Paris,
1908).
The Divorce. Welschinger, Le divorce de Napoléon (Paris, 1889); Rineri,
Napoleone e Pio VII (1804 1813); (Turin, 1906).
Relations with Russia. Vandal, Napoléon et Alexandre I (Paris, 1891
1894); De Ségur, Histoire de Napoléon et de la Grande Armée pendant l'année
1812, in the Nelson collection (Edinburgh, 1910).
The End. Wolseley, Decline and Fall of Napoleon (London, 1895); Rosebery,
Napoleon, the Last Phase (London, 1900); Browning, Fall of Napoleon (London,
1907); Houssaye, 1814 (Paris, 1888); Idem, 1815 (Paris, 1893 99); Idem,
Waterloo, tr. Mann (London, 1900); Seaton, Napoleon's captivity in relation to
Sir Hudson Lowe (London, 1903).
Italian and Religious Policy. De Barral, Fragments relatifs à l'histoire
ecclésiastique du 19ième siècle (Paris, 1814); DePradt, Les quatre concordats
(Paris, 1818); Ricard, Correspondance diplomatique et papiers inédits du
cardinal Maury (Paris, 1891).
Words of Erudition. Bouvier, Bonaparte en Italie: 1796 (Paris, 1899);
Driault, Napoléon en Italie (Paris, 1906); D'Haussonville, L'église romaine et
le premier empire (Paris, 1868); Welschinger, Le pape et l'empereur 1804 1815
(Paris, 1905); Rinieri, Napoleone e Pio VII, 1804 1813 (Turin, 1906); Madelin,
La Rome de Napoléon: la domination française à Rome de 1809 à 1814 (Paris,
1906); Chotard, Le pape Pie VII à Savone (Paris, 1887); Destram, La déportation
des pretres sous Napoléon I in Rev. Hist., XI (1879); De Lanzac de Laborie,
Paris sous Napoleon: la religion (Paris, 1907); Lyonnet, Histoire de Mgr d'Aviau
(Paris, 1847); Meric, Histoire de M. Emery (Paris, 1895); de Grandmaison, Napoléon
et les Cardinaux noirs (1895); Caussette, Vie du Card. d'Astros (Paris, 1853);
Guillaume, Vie épiscopale de Mgr d'Osmond (Paris, 1862); Marmottan,
L'institution canonique et Napoléon I: l'archevêque d'Osmond à Florence in
Revue Historique, LXXXVI (1904); see also bibliographies to Concordat of 1801;
Articles, the Organic; Pius VI; Pius VII. For a fuller bibliography of the
subject, consult Kirchheisen, Bibliographie de l'époque de Napoléon I (Paris,
1908); Davois, Bibliographie Napoléonienne française jusqu'en 1908; I (Paris,
1909); Rivista Napoleonica (1901 sqq.).
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