The Gallican church and the revolution;

Front matter

PRINCETON, N. J.

Shdf

Division 3X1530

Preface

supreme authority of the Church regarded them as schismatics ; at Eome they were disowned and anathematised. The reason was, that they had not received " canonical institution " at the hands of the Pope or his representatives.

According to the traditional theology of Eome, the Pope is (under Christ) the sole source and dispenser of ecclesiastical jurisdiction. This principle lay at the root of the Concordat then existing (that of Bologna) between France and Eome. But with the legislators of the Ee volution it was a primary object to subvert and extinguish that tradition, which in their eyes was the most dangerous of mediae val usurpations.

This state of things was strongly adverse to historical impartiality and accuracy. As a natural consequence, the ecclesiastical literature of that day is more or less deeply steeped in the spirit of partisanship, jealousy, and prejudice. More than the usual amount of discrepancy prevails in the original documents representing the contending parties. For instance, one of the principal authorities for the transactions of the time is the journal entitled " Annales de la Eeligion," which for many years was conducted, with conspicuous ability, zeal, and learning, by Bishop Gregoire and his associates. Its avowed object was to defend the Eevolutionary changes in religion, and the practical working of the " Constitution Civile." It abounds with information of the highest interest as to the proceedings of the Constitutional clergy; recounting at length their strenuous exertions in the cause of religious liberty, and their wonderful success in re-establishing Catholic ordinances after the fearful impieties of the Terreur. But when they have occasion to notice their rivals of the dispossessed episcopate, the authors of the " Annales " fail to observe the most ordinary rules of moderation and

PREFACE.

vii charity. Even at a moment when union among Christians was indispensable, if France was to be rescued from the abyss of national apostasy, the organ of the Constitutionals could not refrain from language of the bitterest hostility. " Ye who are rending the bosom of your country, are these, then, the maxims of the Gospel ? What ! to harass families, to subvert the State, to raise the standard of rebellion, is that your religion ? Surely, if the devil could have a religion, such is the religion he would choose. For four years past the refractory clergy have been postponing the counter-revolution from fortnight to fortnight. After having lied so often, how is it that they still find men accessible to credulity ? No ! the citizens cannot possibly shut their eyes to the criminal manoeuvres by which it is attempted to wrest from them the fruit of six years of courage, and to bring back all the abuses of despotism." *

And this besetting sin of exaggeration and false colouring is by no means peculiar to the partisans of the Kevolution. Controversialists of the opposite school, lay and clerical — Proyart, Guillon, Barruel, D'Auribeau, and especially the learned Abbe* Hulot, editor of the " Collection of the Briefs of Pius VI." — were not exempt from similar failings, and their statements must be received with habitual caution.

If, amid the Babel of tongues, we were to specify any two individuals as worthy to represent the interests of their respective camps, the choice would fall, probably, upon the Abbe Barruel and Bishop Gregoire. The works of Barruel, making allowance for a certain narrowness and captiousness too natural under his circumstances, form a sterling contribution to the Church history of his time ; his " Histoire du Clerge pendant la Kevolution " is constantly cited as an authority. It was

* AfniaJcs de la Religion, torn. i. p. 3G.

viii

PREFACE.

written, however, at a disadvantage, during the author's residence among the Emigres in England, and is open, in consequence, to the charge of occasional inaccuracy, though there is no cause to suspect it of wilful misrepresentation. Barruel published likewise an important treatise on the Concordat of 1801, which procured him the patronage of the great Napoleon. He assisted largely in the compilation of the well-known " Ami de la Eeligion," and was for several years editor of the "Journal Ecclesiastique," a celebrated organ of his party.

The " Memoires " of Bishop Gregoire are specially valuable as offering an original portraiture both of the character and career of the prelate himself and of the Eepublican society in which he lived. No man can read them without feeling how completely his adherence to the Eevolution was a matter not only of political but of religious conviction. Gregoire believed that the " principles of 1789 " were essentially those of the Gospel ; and that in promoting to the utmost of his power measures of radical reform, both in the administration of the Church and in the civil economy, he was strictly discharging the duties of his office as a Christian minister. But with all his impetuous enthusiasm in the Eevolutionary cause, Gregoire was, in practice, the most tolerant and charitable of men. All sects and all classes — Jews, Protestants, Negroes, prisoners, criminals — were alike the objects of his indiscriminate philanthropy. In the midst of the fierce struggle between the two denominations of French clergy, he studiously preserved the relations of private friendship with both. When the persecution was at its height, he frequently employed himself in planning and executing deeds of benevolence towards his separated brethren ; and if they sometimes proved ungrateful, " What does that signify to me ? " he would exclaim : " the only thing I

PREFACE.

IX care for is the fact that I have been useful to them ; and may I be able to find many more opportunities of doing the same thing ! "

It was a melancholy contrast to this truly Christian example when, at the death of Gregoire in 1831, the Archbishop of Paris prohibited his clergy from administering to him the last rites of religion. The government of Louis Philippe resented this insult to one who, whatever his faults and errors, had maintained and adorned, in times of extraordinary trial, the profession of a Catholic priest. A positive order of the authorities opened the doors of the parish church to the funeral procession ; and a few ecclesiastics, strangers to the diocese, performed the usual ceremonies.

The more recent French writers who have so ably interpreted the secular history of the Eevolution touch but briefly and superficially on the concerns of the Church at that momentous epoch. They seem to have no just estimation of the character and claims of the only Church of modern days which has undergone the scathing ordeal of persecution.

They misconstrue the real drift of the ecclesiastical legislation of the Constituent Assembly ; imagining that it involved no interference with the doctrinal teaching or the constitution of the Church ; that nothing was contemplated beyond a searching measure of disciplinary and financial reform. " The Assembly," says M. Thiers, " in reforming abuses, made no aggression upon ecclesiastical dogmas, nor did it attack the authority of the Pope. With regard to its rights, it is clear to every candid mind that the Assembly did not exceed them by legislating as to the temporalities of the Church." This misrepresentation was industriously propagated by the " patriots " throughout the Revolutionary struggle. But there is no doubt, in point

X

PREFACE.

of fact, that the changes then effected involved, to say the least, important doctrine ; and, among other things, materially altered the ancient relationships of the Gallican Church with the Chair of St. Peter. The schism would never have taken place, had the questions at issue affected nothing more than the temporal fortunes of the Church, or improvements in its practical administration. But it must be borne in mind that M. Thiers and the other historians of his school are avowedly, and as it were by profession, apologists of the Ee volution. In order to justify the famous ecclesiastical programme of 1790, its authors found it necessary to announce from the beginning that they had no intention to attack institutions of a spiritual nature — their proposals were confined to matters of practical reform. And this hue of self-defence has been carefully perpetuated by their successors ever since. But the argument is inconsistent with historical fact. For what purpose was that elaborate and anxious series of negotiations undertaken in 1801 and the following year, if the misfortunes of the Church of France extended only to the loss of worldly honours, political power, and temporal emolument ? Why was it treated throughout as the primary, indispensable object, to establish terms of reconciliation with the Apostolic See ?

The work published in 1857 by Father Theiner, " Documents inedits relatifs aux Affaires Eeligieuses de la France, 1790 a 1800," is a rich store of authentic ecclesiastical records extracted from the Secret Archives of the Vatican. It consists, in the first volume, of a selection of the briefs and other decisions of the Holy See concerning the Church of France, from the year 1790 to the death of Pope Pius VI. ; which the learned editor has reproduced with the most scrupulous care from the originals, in order to preclude for all future

PREFACE.

xi time the fable once so popular with the Revolutionists, that those utterances were spurious.

Theiner has reprinted the celebrated " Constitution Civile du Clerge " from the official copy made by order of the National Assembly, and transmitted to the Sovereign Pontiff by Louis XVI. Annexed to it is the letter of Louis himself to the Pope on that occasion; and likewise an extremely curious memorial to the Holy Father by Cardinal de Bernis, specifying the concessions which it was hoped by the French Government that the Court of Rome might be induced to make at that perilous moment, with a view to avert the schism which was every day becoming more gravely imminent.

The second volume of F. Theiner's " Documents " is devoted to the correspondence of the exiled Gallican bishops and clergy with Pius VL, with his ministers, and with each other. This unique collection is mainly occupied, as might be expected, with details of the privations and sufferings endured by the clerical victims of the Revolution, and the history of the noble " Opera pia della ospitalita Francese," the institution founded at Rome, and administered by the Pontifical Government, for their relief. It forms a series of more than sixty large folio volumes in the Vatican Library, each lettered appropriately " De charitate Sanctae Sedis erga Gallos." During the occupation of Rome by the French army, Pius VI. consigned these records to a secret hiding place known only to one or two Cardinals, where they remained till the French Church was restored to freedom and security by the Concordat of ISO 1.

Of that act of wise reparative policy the same accomplished Archivist has given us an admirable account in his work 4* Les deux Concordats," published in 1S69. I have chiefly relied on his authority ; carexii

PREFACE.

fully collating his statements, however, with those contained in the '^Memoirs of Cardinal Consalvi," and with the highly finished narrative of the Comte de Haussonville, " L'Eglise Eomaine et le Premier Empire." F. Theiner's action on this occasion was hastened, he tells us, by the sudden appearance of Consalvi's Memoirs, which had been kept concealed for nearly forty years in the custody of his literary executors. On the approach of the Italian war in 1859 it was judged advisable that they should see the light ; and M. Cretineau- Joly was commissioned to act as editor of these precious manuscripts, which were destined, in his own words, " to reveal combinations, actions, and circumstances of which history had up to that moment neither trace nor suspicion." They were given to the world in 1864 ; and this step made it necessary, in Theiner's opinion, to put forth a correction of various mistakes and contradictions into which the Cardinal had fallen through the stress of adverse circumstances under which he had written. That such was the case Consalvi himself, indeed, had ingenuously confessed, and referred his readers to his official despatches, preserved in the Eoman Archives, as the only indisputable records of his eventful ministry. These are quoted throughout F. Theiner's pages. The chief point upon which he considers that the common view of that portion of Napoleon's reign requires rectification is that of the true animus by which he was governed in negotiating the Concordat. Consalvi, he says, writing " ab irato " from his prison at Reims, confounds together two distinct epochs of Napoleon's career, and imputes to him in his character as First Consul the fatal faults which were developed subsequently in his conflict with the Church. But, as he proceeds to observe, there are moments and acts in the lives of the greatest of men which are not logically consistent with

PREFACE.

Xlll each other. It would be manifestly unjust if aberrations of the latter years of the Empire were held to efface, or even to diminish, the merits of the generous initiative taken under the Consulate. Why should we pass a severer sentence on Napoleon than that pronounced by Pius VII. himself, who had more to complain of at his hands than anyone else, and who yet never failed to testify to the end of his days that the Church owed him a debt of everlasting gratitude for having raised the fallen altars and restored Catholic worship in France ?

Whether the particular form under which Napoleon reorganised the religious edifice was the best possible in itself, and the most desirable under the existing circumstances of the French nation, is a question upon which there will always be differences of opinion. M. de Pressense, in his remarkable volume " L'Eglise et la Revolution Francaise," argues powerfully that it would have been wiser had the Consular Government maintained the system of the Directory, and declined all official connection with religion. But it is to be remembered that the moment was one of strong reaction ; and the reaction, so far as religion was concerned, was almost inevitably a return to Catholicism in the shape which had prevailed in former ages ; popular feeling would not have comprehended any other. We may well believe, then, that although self-interest and worldly ambition were doubtless the mainsprings of Napoleon's policy in seeking reconciliation with the Church of Rome, he was not insensible to the nobler purpose of restoring the ancient elements of social order and stability. The two motives, indeed, were in his mind inseparable. He desired to secure his own ascendency by replacing in its immemorial position an institution which the French had ever looked upon as the safeguard of their highest national privileges.

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PREFACE.

The "Life of the Abbe Emery, Superior of the Seminary of St. Sulpice," is a work which I have found of the greatest value in describing the difficulties with which the French Clergy had to cope under the despotism of Napoleon. The " Life of Cardinal d'Astros, Archbishop of Toulouse, by F. Caussette," is another biography of the same character, and of almost equal importance.

It is scarcely necessary to say that I have drawn materials largely from the almost inexhaustible treasures of the British Museum. Many years ago my attention was directed, by the kindness of Mr. Garnett, to the " Bibliotheque Historique de la Kevolution," there preserved ; which is probably the most remarkable collection of contemporary publications in existence. I have likewise made researches among the MSS. of the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris ; and have profited by examining the very curious and significant records of the 64 Comite Ecclesiastique," which have been placed among the National Archives.

I beg to offer my grateful acknowledgments to Lord Acton for the privilege of access to his magnificent Library at Aldenham. Nor can I forget to record my obligations to the late Eev. G. H. Forbes, whose friendly criticisms and suggestions were of great service to me during what was unhappily his last visit to Paris, in the autumn of 1875.

28 Holland Park, W.

January 20, 1882.

Chapter I. Page

Condition of society in France towards close of eighteenth century 1

The Gallican Church involved in general maladministration 2

Projected reformation 3

The Cahiers 4

Designs of infidel philosophers 5

Constitution Civile du Clerge" G

Secret perils of the Church ... 7-3

Abuses of the Episcopate 0

State of monasteries and of parochial clergy 10-12

Fruits of Jansenist controversy 18

Recapitulation of facts connected with Bull u Unigenitus*' 14-18

Combination of hostile parties 19

The u Ecclesiastical Committee " 20-22

Religious views of the " Cote Gauche " 23

Measures of confiscation 25

Declaration of the rights of man 2G-28

Appeal of Abbe' Gregoire 29

CHAPTER II. Confiscation a foregone conclusion 30

Talleyrand, Bishop of Autun 31

Mirabeau's motion opposed by Camus 32

Speech of Abbe* Maun- 33

Malouet advocates an Ecclesiastical Commission 34

Decree against monastic vows 35

Mirabeau's speech 30-38

Vote of November 2, 1789 39

Proposition of Martineau 40

Sale of Church domains 41

Report of Ecclesiastical Committee 42 -44

Ecclesiastical Committee remodelled 45

Monasteries suppressed 40

Dom Gerle* defends proceedings of Ecclesiastical Committee ... 4-

Excited debate 49

Protest of the u ( otd Droit " 51

Decree on disendowment 53

Establishment of Assignats 54 xvi

CONTENTS.

Chapter III. Pagb

Protests from clergy and laity 55

Constitution Civile du Clerge* 57

Martineau on Church reform 58-60

Camus on Church and State qi

The Concordat of Bologna 63-65

Debate on " Constitution Chile " 66-70

Camus on Episcopal " approbation " 71

Revenues of bishops and clergy fixed 72

Louis XVI. and Pope Pius VI 73

Papal brief of July 10, 1790 " . ' 75

Dubious policy of Louis 77

His letter to the Pope 73

Discouragement of Catholics 79

Pastoral charge of Bishop Asseline 80-84

The " Exposition des Principes " 85-87

Letter of Archbishop of Embrun 88

Delay of Apostolic See in condemning the " Constitution Civile " 90

CHAPTER IV. Louis Expilly appointed constitutional Bishop of Quimper 91

Resistance of bishops to decrees of Assembly 92

Opposition to M Constitution Civile " 93

The constitutional oath ... 95-97

Breach between the Church and Revolution 98

Mirabeau on the new Constitution 99

Alternative measure proposed by him 100

Speech of Abbe Maury 102-104

Royal assent extorted to decrees by Assembly 105

Loins submits ; grief of Queen and Princesses 106

Constitutional oath enforced 107

Scene of January 4, 1791 109

Clerical rejection of the oath m

Decree on constitutional oath 113

Mirabeau's draft address 115

" Instruction " of National Assembly 117-119

Clause to obviate necessity of canonical institution of bishops ... 120

Speech of Cazales 121

Resistance of Paris clergy 122-125

Resistance in provinces 126-128

Election of constitutional Episcopate ]29

Constitutional bishops 131

Dissensions in the provinces 133

Scruples of Louis XVI. ; vain remonstrances and opposition ... 134 .

Penalties of double-minded policy 136

CONTENTS. xvii

Chapter V. Pack

Brief u Caritas n condemning w Constitution Civile ■ 187-140

Reply of bishops 141

Decree licensing conventicles 142-144

Report on religious liberty presented by Talleyrand 145

Its acceptance 147

Speech of Abbe Sieves in its support 148

Tumult at the Theatin Church 149

Perplexity of Assembly 150

Case of Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld 151

Persecution in Western Departments 153

Letter of Louis XVI. to nation 154

Report on religious disturbances 155

Close of Constituent Assembly 157

Death of Mirabeau 159

Letter of Bishop of Marseilles to Pope 1 60

Authenticity of briefs denied 161

Camus on Papal authority 162

CHAPTER VI. The Legislative Assembly 165

Report on La Vende*e 100-170

State of Department of Deux-Sevres 171

Stormy debate on reports of Commissioners 172-174

Speech of Fauchet, constitutional Bishop of Calvados 175

Reply by Torn£, Bishop of the Cher 177

Gensonne" speaks from personal experience 178

Outrages in Maine et Loire and Calvados 1 70

Speech of Isnard 180-182

Vote of November 29, 1791 183

Address of Paris Directory to the King 185

The King notifies his veto 186

The Royal veto ignored ; persecution of nonjurors resumed 187

State of anarchy reported by Cahier-Gerville 188-190

De Moy on " Accord de la Religion ■ 191

Gobel refuses to censure the writer 109

Report of " Committee of Twelve " 193

Decree of May 27, 1792 195

Louis XVI. dismisses obnoxious Ministers 196

Insurrection of June 20 197

Potion suspended, but reinstated 198

Infamous edict of August 26 200

Massacres of September 1792 201

Present state of Carmelite Convent ; Chapelle des Martyrs 203

a xviii

CONTENTS.

Chapter VII. Pa Ob

Oath of liberty and equality : controversy on its character 204-206

Abbe Emery's letter to Abbe" Maury (Archbishop of Nicsea in partibus) 207-209

Maury's assertions in reply ; their veracity doubtful 210

Questions propounded to the Pope 211

Confusion and persecution amongst clergy 212

Arrest of Abbe" Emery ; imprisonment at Conciergerie 213-216

Emery's letter to Pius VI 217

Ferocious proscription and transportation 218

Emigration of clergy to Spain, Netherlands, and England 219-222

Priests at King's house, Winchester 223

Charitable fund ; necessities of aged bishops 225

Complaints at Winchester 226- 228

Fouche" at Nevers 229

Chaumette and his associates 230

Abjurations of Christianity 231-234

Speech of Bishop Gregoire 235

Defection of constitutional bishops ... 237

Worship of " Reason " decreed at Notre Dame and other churches 238-240

All churches but three closed in Paris 241

Priests rewarded for marrying or abjuring 242-244

Scenes in the provinces 245

Robespierre plans a reaction 246-248

His declaration 249

Check given to tyranny of the Commune 250

Fate of constitutional bishops 251-253

Robespierre's new religion 254-256

Plots against him ; pretexts of accusation 257

Catherine Thgot dies in prison ; fall of Robespierre 258

CHAPTER VIII. Revolution of ninth Thermidor brings reaction 259

Gregoire on liberty of worship 260-262

Speech of Boissy d'Anglas 263

Decree of toleration 264-266

The churches reopened 267

Report by Lanjuinais 268

Decree restoring fifteen parish churches in Paris 269

Contest on declaration or submission 270-272

Attempt of Royalists in Brittany 273

Execution of prisoners ; Bishop of Dol shot at Vannes 274

Clerical intrigues 275

New form of declaration enforced 276

Renewal of persecution 277

CONTENTS.

XIX

PAGK

Conduct of Abb6 Emery 278

Emery on the new declaration 270

Division in Archiepiscopal Council 280

The " Day of the Sections " 281

Last act of the Convention 282

CHAPTER IX. Anti-Christian character of Directory 283

Decrees of Five Hundred, April 11, 1796 284

Speech of Portalis 285

Members of the two councils 286

Speech of Camille Jordan 287

Speech of Royer Collard 289

Ephemeral triumph of reactionists 290

The eighteenth Fructidor 291

Terrorist reaction 292-294

New oath of u hatred to royalty " 295

Abbe Emery's opinion respecting oath 296

Tyranny of the Directory 297

Observance of Decadi enforced 298-300

Resistance of Bishop Gr£goire 301

Heterogeneous succession of public ordinances ... 302

Encyclical of " Eveques Reunis " 303-305

Second encyclical letter 306

AVisdom of its regulations 307

National Council at Paris, August 15, 1797 309

Opening discourse of Claude Lecoz, Bishop of Rennes 310

The " Decree of pacification B ... 311-313

Labours of the Council 314

Close of National Council 315

Overtures to Pope disregarded 316

Directory seize this pretext for open hostility 317

Napoleon Bonaparte announces rupture of armistice 318

Treaty of Tolentino 319

Bonaparte's letter to Mgr. Caleppi 319-321

Revolution at Rome 322

CHAPTER X. Elevation of Napoleon Bonaparte to power 324

State of parties 325

Decrees of Directory repealed 326

Speech of Bonaparte at Milan 327

Death of Pius VI. at Valence 328

The Conclave at Venice 329

Cardinal Chiaramonte elected ; assumes name of Pius VII 330

Bonaparte and Pius VII 331

a 2

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CONTENTS.

PAGE

Spina, Archbishop of Corinth, sent to Paris 332

Treats with Talleyrand and Abbe Bernier 333

Bernier demands resignation of exiled bishops to be enforced ... 334

French project for Concordat 335

First Consul claims consideration towards constitutional clergy ... 336

Rejected projects of Concordat 337

First Consul refuses to make slightest modification ; threatened

rupture 338

Journey of Consalvi to Paris 339

Consalvi's first audience 341

Second National Council 343

Prolonged discussions with Consalvi 344-346

Bonaparte accepts Concordat 347

The surreptitious Concordat 348-350

Consalvi's threatened departure 351

Intervention of Austrian ambassador 352

Stipulation for Catholic liberty 353

Joseph Bonaparte on acceptance of treaty by Napoleon 354

Merits of Concordat 355

A mortal blow dealt by it to constitutional schism 356

Close of Second National Council 357

Gre'goire's strong opposition to Concordat 358

CHAPTEE XL

Difficulties in nomination of new bishops 359

Bonaparte insists on admission of constitutionals 360

Retractation required by Consalvi ; he quits Paris 361

The Bull " Ecclesia Christi " 362

Brief " Tarn multa ac tarn prseclara " 363

Brief " Post multos labores " 364

Resignation of constitutional bishops ; Cardinal Caprara appointed

Legate 365

Bonaparte and Cardinal Caprara 366

Poitalis appointed Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs 368

Portalis and the new Episcopate 369

Remonstrances of Cardinal-Legate 370

Delays in publishing Concordat 371

Resignation of bishops in France and elsewhere 372

Objections urged by those resident in England 373

Several resident in Germany address the Pope 374

Letter of Dulau d'Allemans, Bishop of Grenoble, to Pope 375

Pastoral Letter of Archbishop of Bordeaux 376

Bull " Qui Christi Domini," and brief" Quoniam favente Deo " ... 377

Bonaparte nominates new Episcopate 378

Compromise by constitutional bishops 379

Bernier accused of deceiving Cardinal Legate 380

Self-defence of constitutionals 381

Prevarication on both sides 383

CONTENTS.

xxi

The Concordat is presented to the Legislature 384

The u Articles organiques " 385

Concordat accepted by Legislature 387

Displeasure and remonstrances of Pope 388

Proclamation of Bonaparte on Easter Day, 1802 389

Solemn festival at Notre Dame 390

Berthier entraps the Generals to be present 391

Cacault's report on sentiments of the Vatican 392

Protest of the " Petite Eglise " 393

Its extinction 394

CHAPTER XII. Bonaparte assumes the Imperial diadem 396

Seeks coronation at the hands of Pius VII 397

Grief of Pope at death of Duke d'Engliien 398

Objects to certain clauses of coronation oath 399

Assurances of Cardinal Fesch 400

Pope consents to crown Bonaparte at Paris 401

His journey ; is conducted by Napoleon to Tuileries 402

Address of President of legislative body 404

The Pope at Paris ; the four refractory bishops 405

Pius insists on marriage of Napoleon and Josephine 406

The coronation 407-409

Pope visits scientific and charitable institutions ; draws up memorial 410

Napoleon respectfully refuses consent to Pope's demands 411

Alterations desired by Pope in existing law of divorce 413

Matters of secondary importance granted by Emperor 414

Papal demands and expostulations 415

Napoleon's visions of ecclesiastical and temporal sovereignty ... 416

Seizes on Ancona in capacity of Protector of the Holy See 417

Declares himself Emperor of Rome 418

Protest of Pius VII. against Napoleon's claims 419-421

( ategorical reply demanded to i'resh demands 422

Animosity of Napoleon against Cardinal Consalvi 423

Ultimatum from Paris rejected by Pope ; he is earned into captivity 424

CHAPTER XIII. Napoleon's resolve to transfer Pope to France ; its object 425

The " Catechisme de l'Empire " 426-428

Is published with oiliciai sanction of Cardinal Caprara 429

Cardinal Fesch recalled from post of French Ambassador at Rome 430

Intervenes to procure certain changes in Catechisme 431

Pius VII. a captive at Savona ; declines to institute French bishops 432

Fruitless appeal by Archbishop of Tours 433 xxii

CONTENTS.

Archbishopric of Paris offered to Cardinal Fesch 434

The Abbe d' Astros Vicar Capitular of Notre Dame 435

Inspires Cardinal Fesch with doubts ; Napoleon appoints Maury... 436

Steadfast opposition of Abbe d'Astros 437

Pope's secret correspondence with dAstros 438

Napoleon appoints Ecclesiastical Commission ; Emery a member ... 439 Questions proposed to Commission ; suggestion of a National Council 440-444

Emperor's question relating to Bull " Quum memoranda ilia die "... 445

Reply of Commissioners 446

Abbe Emery on Ecclesiastical Commission 447

Proceedings of Emperor to procure divorce from Josephine 449

Cardinals ordered to repair to Paris : thirteen absent from Imperial

marriage 450

Fouche vainly combats their resolution to absent themselves ... 451

Indignation of Emperor ; their reception on next day at Tuileries 452

Brief to the Archdeacon of Florence communicated to Maury . . . 453

Brief to Abbe d'Astros seized ; Maury's traitorous conduct 454

D'Astros interrogated by Savary ; imprisoned for life 455

The " black " cardinals, Count Portalis and others, imprisoned ... 456 Address of Chapter of Notre Dame received with satisfaction by

Napoleon 457

Bigot de Preameneu, Minister of Public Worship 458

CHAPTER XIV. Napoleon summons Ecclesiastical Commission ; two new members 459

Questions for their consideration ; their replies 460

Torrent of invective from Emperor ; reply of Abbe Emery 461

The Emperor reduced to silence ; starts another topic 462

Emery again replies candidly ; Napoleon taunts bishops 463

Letters of Convocation issued to National Council 464

The deputation to Savona ... • 465

Their reception ; Pope objects to additional clause to Concordat ... 466

Hesitation ; he finally consents ... 467

Opinion of Cardinal Pacca of bodily and mental state of Pope ... 468

First session of National Council at Paris 469

Napoleon deeply offended ; rebukes Cardinal Fesch 470

Opposition of Council to Napoleon 471

Duvoisin's draft of address to Emperor scrutinised and corrected ... 472

Bull " Quiim memoranda. " denounced 473

Napoleon refuses to receive address 474

Debate ; the incompetency of Council voted 475

Stormy scene between Emperor and Cardinal Fesch 476

Napoleon dissolves the Council 477

Council reassembled 478

Second deputation to Savona 479

Brief signed by Pope 480

CONTENTS.

xxiii

PAGE

Cardinals comfort Pius VII. ; hopes of his liberation ; crooked

policy of Napoleon 481

Bishops of Council dismissed ; prisoners liberated 482

Letter of Napoleon to Prince Borghese ; the Pope to be transferred

to Fontainebleau 483

Hurried journey across the Alps; Pius VII. reaches Fontainebleau 484

Propositions submitted to him by Bishop of Nantes 485

Napoleon visits Pius VII. ; Concordat of Fontainebleau 486

Remorse of Pius VII 487

Napoleon imparts Concordat to Senate as a definitive treaty ... 488

Letter from Pope absolutely revoking and annulling it 489

Napoleon conceals his indignation ; inflicts annoyances 491

Release of Pope stipulated by Allied Powers 492

Decree of Napoleon liberating Pius 493