CHAPTER X

THE CORONATION OF THE EMPEROR

ITALY was the first country in which the great French Revolution found an echo; it was also the first in which the religious reaction made its appearance.

In the latter half of 1801 an extraordinary assembly frond the Cisalpine Republic gathered at Lyons to consider the future constitution of North Italy. The assembly unanimously elected Napoleon Bonaparte President of the Italian Republic, and at the same time passed certain laws respecting the Church, which gave the clergy a much more favorable position than they had hitherto enjoyed. And Bonaparte showed his attachment to the Church by setting the following words at the head of the new Cisalpine Constitution: “The Catholic Apostolic, and Roman Religion is the religion of the State”.

The First Consul wished the relation between State and Church in Italy to be arranged by a Concordat similar to the French one; but the authorities in the Italian Republic were very unwilling to follow him in this. The Vice-President of the Republic, Francesco Melzi, was a determined enemy of the Church; and the hostile spirit, which ruled in official circles at Milan, found expression in a decree of 23rd June 1802, which contravened the agreements of Lyons, and brought the Church into complete dependence upon the State. But Bonaparte now took up the negotiations for a Concordat, and with a sure hand led them to a happy issue with the support of those who had brought about the French Concordat. He sent the Cisalpine officials a thundering letter, and by his threats against the Italians, and his complaisance towards the Pope, the matter was brought so far that the Italian Concordat was signed in Paris on 16th September 1803; and after being ratified by the Council of State at Milan, it became law on 2nd November of the same year. But the Italian Concordat had a sequel, like that of the French one. Melzi published some further regulations of the same nature as the Organic Articles in France, and they gave the Pope fresh occasion for sorrow and complaint.

Meanwhile affairs in France developed with the usual celerity; on 18th May 1804, the First Consul was designated Emperor of the French. Directly Napoleon received the title of Emperor, it began to be said in Paris that he ought to be crowned by the Pope. The only question was, whether it should be done at Aix la Chapelle, the favorite city of Charlemagne, in Paris, or at Lyons. Bonaparte gladly agreed to the suggestion. It was his wish to found a western empire like that of Charles the Great; and although, as he often said afterwards, he considered himself called of God to be Emperor of Europe, he could not but wish the successor of St Peter to be present when the new Empire was solemnly inaugurated. And just at that moment he had special reason to desire the strongest religious and moral support that the Pope could give; for the murder of the Duke of Enghien had laid a blood-guiltiness upon his head, which only the benediction of the Pope could remove.

Cardinal Caprara immediately reported to Rome the suggestion of the Parisians, and, for his part, he thought that such a coronation could only be good for religion, the Church, and the State. On 9th May 1804 the Cardinal Legate dined with Madame Bonaparte at Saint Cloud. The newly-elected Emperor was present, and entered into confidential conversation with Caprara. “Everyone”, he said to the Legate, “tells me how glorious it would be if my anointing and coronation were performed by the Pope’s own hand, and it would also be of benefit to religion. It is not likely that any other power will protest against this proceeding. For the moment I shall not directly approach the Pope on the subject, because I do not wish to expose myself to the risk of a refusal. Will you introduce the question? and when I receive your answer, I will take the necessary steps with regard to the Pope”. On the following day, Caprara sent a report of this conversation to Rome. He said that Bonaparte had mentioned the example of Pepin, who was anointed by Pope Stephen II, and that he had “spoken with uncommon seriousness”. It was Caprara’s opinion that Pius VII, without regard to old age, health, or any other consideration, ought to come and fulfill the wish of the Emperor. In a postscript he met the objection that Napoleon might go to Rome, as Charlemagne had done, by the plea that the Emperor could not leave the centre of the empire. He even used the somewhat material argument in support of his proposal, that the coming of the Pope would draw many to Paris, and the-poor city was much exhausted by the war, and needed resources.

But at Rome there was great hesitation in agreeing to Caprara’s roposal. According to the decree of the Senate of 8th May, Napoleon was to promise to respect, and cause to be respected, “the laws with regard to the Concordat, and freedom of worship”, a regulation which seemed to protect the Organic Articles and to injure the supposed right of the Catholic Church. Added to this, it might be dangerous at the moment to make common cause with the French empire. The French bishops in England had published statements, in which they took up the cause of the ancient monarchy, and attacked the Concordat which compelled the priests to swear allegiance to the new régime in France, and to pray for it; and from Warsaw Louis XVIII issued a protest against everything that had been done since 1789. These circumstances required that Rome should be most cautious. But, on the other hand, it was evident that the fate of Rome and of the Papal States was in the hands of the new Emperor. If he were to send his troops against the city of St Peter, there was nothing else for Pius VII to do than to& leave as soon as possible for Sicily, trusting that the English fleet would protect him there.

DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY

The diplomatic negotiation thus entered upon extended over five months. Consalvi, in a letter of later date to Talleyrand, ascribes to his courage and labor the honor of having brought about the fulfillment of the Emperor’s wish. But he had great difficulties to surmount, especially because he had to deal with Napoleon’s uncle, Cardinal Fesch, who, as the ambassador of France at Rome, pleaded, in the eyes of such a diplomatist as Consalvi, his nephew’s cause with an inconvenient want of tact. Consalvi’s main impression of these negotiations was that they were painful and tiresome, and the store-keeper of the first Italian war sometimes appeared under the robes of Cardinal Fesch in the oddest ways. When, for example, Fesch, after an excited interview with Consalvi, was about to get into his carriage, and his footman asked where he would drive, he cried out ill-temperedly, “To the devil!”. A score of persons of all classes overheard it, besides the ambassador of a foreign power, and the story went round Rome.

In our days, newspaper correspondents would soon have found out the secret of the diplomatists at Paris and Rome, and the telegraph would have carried it round the world; but it was otherwise then. Only a very small circle at Paris was admitted into the thoughts of the new Emperor, and they kept their own counsel. At Rome they proceeded no less cautiously. The cardinals whose opinion was asked had the secret confided to them under the seal of confession, and it was confided only to one at a time, so that nobody knew how many people shared the secret. Cardinal Fesch sent the Emperor a memorandum in which he collected all the objections of the several cardinals. They did not agree in recognizing the legitimacy of the Emperor’s position. The Organic Articles, and the French occupation of the three Legations, which Caprara in vain tried to regain, not to mention Avignon and Venaissin, were serious hindrances, besides; for the popes had hitherto only crowned those emperors and kings who had been the support of the Church in temporal as well as other matters. As already mentioned, the oath which the Emperor was to take could not fail to be an embarrassment to the Roman Church; and what would the Bourbon family and the Austrian Emperor say to such proceedings? Would the Pope’s journey awaken the jealousy of other courts, and make them believe that he preferred France to the rest of Christendom? While the Pope was in Paris, business with other powers would be interrupted and the whole ecclesiastical machinery would come to a standstill. And when the Pope got to Paris, he might witness many a profanation of holy things. He might meet rebellious bishops, renegade priests, and Madame de Talleyrand, and no one could be certain that the respect that was due to him would be shown. The journey of Pius VI to Vienna had been very perilous, but the journey to Paris would be worse; for it was a nobler object to endeavor to lead a prince back from his errors than to crown an emperor. And what consequences might not this journey entail? All princes might in future demand that the Pope should come and crown them.

These and several other objections were brought forward by the cardinals, and they could not be removed in a day. But Cardinal Fesch was always sanguine, and his hopefulness infected the Court of Paris. On 20th June the Cardinal Legate was again at Saint Cloud. The Empress Josephine went tea him and said: “Well, are we to have the Pope at Paris to crown my husband, the Emperor?”. Caprara was embarrassed but the Empress continued: “I know quite well that it is all arranged. But your silence deserves all respect; I cannot but approve your Eminence’s silence”. The Cardinal Legate then remarked that it was not at all so certain that the Pope would come, as the Empress believed. As he could not see the Emperor that evening, he drove to Talleyrand, who received the Legate with the exclamation: “Matters are at last settled! The Pope is coming to crown the Emperor!”. To him also the Cardinal Legate was obliged to express his doubts as to whether the certainty with which the Pope’s coming was expected in court circles was really justified.

THE POPE'S REQUIREMENTS 

A few days later, Caprara sent a dispatch to Talleyrand which set forth all the difficulties connected with the Pope’s journey, and the requirements that must be met if he were to come. Rome desired that the anointing and crowning should not be alleged as the sole object of the journey; it should be understood that the Emperor wished to confer with the Pope on the ecclesiastical situation in France at large. The Emperor must also announce that it was impossible for him to leave his capital at the very beginning of his reign. The invitation must finally be brought, not by an ordinary courier, but by an embassy, consisting of two French bishops. The oath should be altered so that the scruples of Rome might be removed; and in particular the doubtful expression, “the laws relating to the Concordat”, which might imply the Organic Articles, must be altered. The ceremony itself should follow the Roman ritual for the anointing and crowning of kings; and the constitutional oath, which is not mentioned in the ritual, must be kept separate from the ecclesiastical function. It followed as a matter of course that the Pope would forget the behavior of the priests and bishops who had taken the oath, but had recanted ; but he would not see the contumacious bishops who first condemned the Civil Constitution, and afterwards denied having done so. He would come towards the close of the year, so that the coronation might take place on Christmas Day, as a parallel to the coronation of Charles the Great; and he would proceed by short stages, so as to give the faithful everywhere a share in his blessing. But he would make his stay at Paris as short as possible.

The hesitations and requirements of Pius VII gave the French government matter for many deliberations, and when it was rumored that a coronation by the Pope’s own hand was in view, the Republicans and the Free thinkers began again to move. In reply to them the Pope’s coming was defended as the best means of casting splendor upon the approaching solemnity. Who was there that better understood the arrangement of magnificent pageants than the Roman Church; and was there ever likely to be an occasion when a pageant would make a greater impression than when the Pope was present at it himself? Such considerations, however, did not weigh much with the atheistic generals and senators. The Conseil d’Etat, which had received the Concordat in silence, strongly opposed the idea of a coronation by the Pope, and even the more moderate members were scandalized by this attempt to revive the ways of the Middle Ages. Napoleon fought valiantly for his design, pointing out that a pope in the nineteenth century could not possibly enforce the claims of Gregory VII or Innocent III, and he concluded with a consideration which once again reduced the Conseil to obedient silence. “Gentlemen”, he said, “you discuss this question at the Tuileries and in Paris. Suppose you were discussing it in London, in the British Cabinet a suppose you were, to put it briefly, the ministers of the King of England, and you heard that the Pope was crossing the Alps to anoint the Emperor of the French, would you consider it as a triumph for England or for France?

TALLEYRAND'S EXPLANATIONS 

On 18th July Talleyrand was at last able to send to Pius VII the answer of the French government to his requirements. All the Pope’s anxieties about the tone of feeling in France are dismissed. It is further remarked, that it could not reasonably be expected that affairs in France after such a revolution should at once be free from all defects. Napoleon’s great and good acts, it was further remarked, were already so numerous, that it might be said that he had done more for the Pope than any other monarch had ever done in so short a time. “The reopening of the temples, the setting up again of the altars, the ordering of Divine Service anew, the organization of the clergy, the grants to the cathedral chapters, the foundation of clerical seminaries, the guarantee given to the Pope for the retention of his States, the restitution of Pesaro, Fort Saint Léon, and Urbino, the Italian Concordat, the support that was given to the conclusion of a German Concordat, the reopening of the missions, the protection of the Oriental Catholics against the Turks—did not all these things constitute a rare chain of benefits to the Church?”. As to the oath, Talleyrand explained that the expression, “laws relating to the Concordat”, only meant the Concordat itself, and not the Organic Articles. Liberty of worship was liberty for individuals to follow their conviction, and should be understood in the same way as the liberty granted to the Lutherans by Charles V in Germany, and yet he was crowned by Clement VII. As France had formerly seen Pius VI go to Vienna without feeling any jealousy, so might the other powers now without jealousy see Pius VII go to Paris. There was no reason to fear the consequences, for an empire like the French Empire could only be founded avec éclat, and it was no every-day occurrence. In conclusion, it was said that the Emperor had the greatest respect for the sacred customs of the Church, so that, as a matter of course, the ancient ritual of the Church should be followed, and the oath should be kept separate from it. But, on the other hand, the Emperor would rather not wait until Christmas; it was his wish that the coronation should take place on the 18th of Brumaire.

This answer was bound to satisfy Rome, and it was accompanied by clear proofs of the goodwill of the Emperor. On 15th July a great distribution of the order of the légion d'honneur took place, and on that occasion the Emperor took off the grand cross which he himself wore, and sent it by Talleyrand to Caprara. Then he said to him: “I flatter myself that you will accept it. It is a pleasure to me to be able to confer it upon you with the assurance that you are the first foreigner who has received this distinction”. But it always seemed as if negotiations between Rome and Paris were to encounter incessant hindrances, and a new and serious hindrance arose just when everything seemed on the point of being arranged. Evidently as a concession to the revolutionary party, Napoleon conceived the idea of dissevering the anointing from the crowning. The first was to be done by Pius VII in the church of Notre Dame, the second by a French cardinal (and therefore an imperial subject), in the church of the Invalides, just as the Archbishop of Reims in olden days had crowned the French kings. This plan met with determined opposition at Rome. The crowning was in the eyes of the people more important than the anointing. It was just the proud thought that the Pope, after such serious defeats, in such a godless age, could yet bestow royal crowns, that attracted Pius VII to Paris. For even if the higher classes saw the coronation in another light, the mass of the people would look upon it as a repetition of the medieval coronations, so full of honor for the Papacy. Napoleon saw at once that he must give way to the opposition of the Pope. But as in the Organic Articles he had found a way of escape from those parts of the Concordat that were disagreeable to him, so he had devised a way of escape from being crowned by the Pope’s hand.

As the clergy had not yet sufficiently regained its old prestige for a mission of such importance to be entrusted to a minister of the Church, the Emperor sent the invitation to Rome by his old comrade-in-arms, General Caffarelli, an enthusiastic friend of the Concordat. It was worded as follows: “Holy Father! The happy effect which the restoration of the Christian religion has had on the morals and character of my people prompts me to ask your Holiness to give me a new proof of the interest you feel in my welfare and that of this great nation, at one of the most important epochs known to the history of the world. I pray you to come and give in fullest measure a religious character to the ceremony of anointing and crowning the first Emperor of the French. This event will inaugurate a new era if it is performed by your Holiness in person. It will call down upon us and upon our people blessings from the God whose laws govern empires and families according to His will”. The Pope received Caffarelli very graciously, and Napoleon was at last near his object. Francis II of Austria took an important part in bringing things to a successful issue. Pius VII had been afraid of offending the Imperial house by crowning Napoleon as Emperor; but in the midst of the negotiations with him a message was received to the effect that Francis II, under the title of Francis I, Emperor of Austria, wished to make the imperial dignity hereditary in his house. This step was a great relief to Pius VII, for thereby the crown of Charles the Great came to be strictly without an owner. On 6th October 1804 he announced officially to the papal nuncio that he meant to go to Paris, but “not merely to anoint and crown the Emperor”. The object of his journey was to guard also the interests of religion, and he expected to have great results from it.

PIUS VII GOES TO PARIS

After a fortnight's rest at Castel Gandolfo, Pius VII returned to Rome, and delivered there at a secret assembly of cardinals on 29th October an allocution, in which he explained all the negotiations with France and the object of his journey. Napoleon hastened matters with all his might, that the coronation might at least take place on the Sunday after the 18th Brumaire (9th November). But this was impossible. The Pope was unable to leave Rome until 2nd November, after hearing Mass, and offering a long prayer in St Peter's.

He was accompanied on the journey by a small suite, consisting of six cardinals, certain prelates, court officials, and doctors. Consalvi remained at Rome, but Fesch, who was the Ambassador of France at Rome, accompanied the Pope. From the moment Pius VII set foot on French soil the travelling expenses were defrayed by the French treasury. The French officials had received orders to arrange everything in the best possible manner. In spite of the low state of the papal treasury, Pius VII had brought presents with him: for Napoleon two cameos, representing Achilles and Scipio; for Josephine some antique vases; and for the ladies-in-waiting costly rosaries. The journey lay through Florence and Alessandria to Turin, and from thence over the Alps to Lyons. Crowds of men and women gathered everywhere to receive the Pope’s blessing, and he was fêted both by high and low. The youth of Lyons sent a deputation, which had an audience of the Pope, to assure him that they shared the faith of their fathers, and were happy to confess it with heart and fervor in a district so rich in martyrdoms. The old general who was in command at Lyons brought his son to the Pope, and said: “Holy Father! Jesus Christ blessed little children; bless my child, thou, who art His vicar on earth! I wish to educate him for the Church and the Emperor”. At Lyons, however, the Pope had the sorrow of losing the aged Cardinal Borgia, the friend of all Danish visitors to Rome; he was taken ill during the festivities.

From Lyons the journey was continued to Fontainebleau, where Napoleon was to meet Pius VII, and here as everywhere the Pope travelled through “a people on their knees”. On Sunday, 25th November, he arrived at Fontainebleau. Napoleon had destined the day to hunting, in order that he might avoid a solemn reception. The first meeting between them was to seem as if it were due to chance. Pius VII therefore saw the new Charles the Great make his appearance in hunting costume, surrounded by Mamelukes and a great pack of hounds. The two sovereigns embraced each other, and got into the same carriage, to drive to Fontainebleau in a procession headed, strangely enough, by Mamelukes. On the palace staircase the Pope was received by the Empress and the courtiers, and when he had rested for some hours, the Emperor and Empress paid him a visit.

After a three days’ stay at Fontainebleau the entry in Paris took place, but in the evening; because Napoleon did not wish the Parisians to see that the Pope sat on his right hand in the carriage. A suite of rooms at the Tuileries was placed at the Pope’s disposal, and, as a delicate attention, they were furnished in the same way as the apartments in the Quirinal, so that he might feel himself at home. On 30th November he sent a letter to the Queen of Etruria in which he expressed himself quite overpowered by the goodness of the Emperor. On the same day representatives of the Senate, the Legislative Assembly, the Tribunate, and the Conseil d’Etat had audience of him. People were afraid lest the democratic and Voltairian Tribunate should introduce a jarring note among the expressions of welcome, but nothing of the kind happened. The president, Fabre de l'Aude, recalled the action of the Pope at Imola, and the improvements in the government of the Papal States which he had introduced, but passed lightly over the Concordat. At first the Parisians received Pius VII with curiosity, but this was soon changed into affection. The Pope of sixty-two, in his white dress, with his dignified and benevolent-looking features, who understood so well how to comport himself in a situation so unusual for a Pope, soon became the darling of the Parisians. Every morning the square in front of the Flora pavilion at the Tuileries, in which he lived, was filled with great crowds, who fell upon their knees when he blessed them, and Napoleon began to be jealous of the growing popularity of the Pope.

THE EMPEROR'S MARRIAGE

December 2nd, the first Sunday in Advent, was fixed upon as the great day on which the Emperor and Empress were to be crowned. Pius VII much wished to know in good time what the ceremonial was to be, but they put him off with all sorts of excuses, so that he first became acquainted with it when it appeared in the daily papers. The day before the coronation, Josephine came to the Pope in the greatest agitation. She unburdened her mind to him, and told him that she was only civilly married to the Emperor. In 1796, amidst the disturbances of the Revolution, they had, before Barras, in the presence of a couple of witnesses, contracted a civil marriage, and two days after, the young general had departed alone for the army in Italy. Nobody suspected it. The Emperor had been so eager to have all the children of his generals christened and his relations married in church, that people thought he had himself been secretly married at the altar. Josephine had for a time been carried away by the revolutionary current, and had taken the matter lightly; many husbands and wives of her entourage had not received the blessing of the Church. But lately she had felt qualms of conscience. When the Concordat was concluded, she asked her husband to have their marriage blessed in a church; but Napoleon had opposed it, either to avoid scandal, or because he already had thoughts of divorcing her. It is indeed certain that his brothers, often in a brutal way, attempted at this time to persuade him into a divorce.

After hearing Josephine’s confession, the Pope refused to crown the Emperor and Empress until the canonical marriage had taken place, but he allowed it to be performed privately. On 1st December, about four o'clock in the afternoon, a little altar was erected with all secrecy in one of the Emperor’s rooms, and Cardinal Fesch, by the authority of Pius VII, married the imperial couple without the presence of any witnesses. The wedding ceremony remained a great secret between the few concerned; only Fesch, Berthier, Duroc, and Talleyrand were to know what had happened. After the ceremony, Fesch went to the Pope. “Is the marriage accomplished?” asked Pius VII; and when the Cardinal answered, “Yes,” he proceeded: “Well, then, we will no longer refuse to crown the Empress”. The old custom, that princes, when crowned, should communicate, Pius had purposely omitted to mention; his conscience forbade him to put any pressure upon the Emperor to partake of the Sacrament.

If we may believe the Prefect of the Palace, De Beausset, the painter Isabey had previously, by means of small wooden dolls, given the Court instruction in the coronation ceremonies, and this childish procedure had met with the approbation of Napoleon. A great part of the dresses and the arrangements was left to the decision of David, and verything was done on the most sumptuous scale.

THE CORONATION CEREMONY

The 2nd of December was a cold day, but the weather was beautiful, and the streets of Paris were thronged with people. The church of Notre Dame was decorated with gold embroidered velvet from the vaulting to the floor. On the right side of the altar a throne was erected for the Pope; at the foot of the altar stood two plain armchairs for Napoleon and Josephine. The main door of the church was closed, because an immense throne, with twenty-four steps leading up to it, was erected there, over against the altar. At nine in the morning, Pius VII drove from the Tuileries to the Archbishop’s palace, where he was attired in his papal robes. After a short rest there, he passed through one of the side doors into the church, attended by bishops, priests, and a detachment of the imperial guards. In front of him were carried the cross and the insignia of the papal dignity. At his coming all present rose to their feet, and an orchestra of 500 men played the melody set to the words of Christ, beginning: “Thou art Peter”. After kneeling at the altar, Pius VII ascended his throne, and the French bishops approached to do homage.

A whole hour the Emperor kept the assembly waiting, probably because the Master of the Ceremonies had made a faulty arrangement of the times for the different processions to start. Napoleon drove first to the Archbishop’s palace, from which the crown, the scepter, the sword, and the imperial mantle were fetched, and were carried by the generals in front of him into the church, and placed upon the altar. At his entry into the church, Napoleon was attired in an ermine cloak, and on his head he had a wreath of laurels, in which he put people in mind of the heads upon ancient coins.

He and Josephine at first took their seats in the chairs at the altar, and after the Veni Creator had been sung, the Pope asked him if he would promise to keep the laws, maintain justice and peace, and render to the ministers of the Church the honor due to them. With his hand on the Gospel the Emperor took oath: “I promise it”. After another prayer their Imperial Majesties went up to the altar, while the choir sang: “Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anointed Solomon king in Zion, and the people rejoiced and said, Let the King live for ever!”. Then the Pope anointed first the Emperor, and afterwards the Empress, on the forehead, the arms, and the hands. As soon as the anointing was over, the imperial couple returned to their places, and the High Almoner of France dried the anointed places. After the anointing, the Pope blessed the crowns, the sword, the mantles, and the rings; and when the ring, the sword, the mantle, and the scepter had been given to the Emperor, Pius VII approached the altar again to take the crown and give it also to Napoleon; but Napoleon took the crown out of the Pope’s hand and placed it on his own head. Then he took also the crown intended for Josephine and placed it on her head, after which they both walked up to the great throne, accompanied by the Emperor’s brothers, who carried their trains.

When Napoleon and Josephine were seated on the throne, the Pope approached and blessed them, and after kissing the Emperor on the cheek, he turned towards the assemblage and cried: Vivat imperator in oeternum. The assemblage took it up and shouted: “Long live the Emperor!” and the guns announced that the Emperor of the French had received the blessing of the Church.

As soon as the church ceremony was over, the Pope retired. But then came forward the presidents of the Senate, the Conseil d'Etat, the Legislative Assembly, and the Tribunate; and the Emperor, seated, and with his hand on the Gospel, took the oath, in which, amongst other things, he promised to “respect and protect equality before the laws, political and civil liberty, and the irrevocable sale of national estates”—terms which brought a breath of modern times into the mediaeval surroundings. After taking the oath, the Emperor and his consort left the church under a canopy, carried by priests. Then once more the guns were heard, and the people crowded together in the streets through which the Emperor drove. But the revolutionary generals took no part in the popular rejoicing. They saw with annoyance a son of the Revolution trampling on its religious and political ideals, and they did not conceal their ill-will; the modern Emperor, in the midst of his triumph, heard, like those of old, Fescennine verses, as he left the church of Nôtre Dame in the grand procession.

THE POPE'S DISSATISFACTION

But Pius VII was not satisfied either. It was contrary to the agreement, that Napoleon should have placed the crown on his own head. In that way the essential similarity between the imperial coronation and the kingly coronations of the Middle Ages disappeared.

How long Napoleon had had in his mind the device which he carried into effect cannot be determined; but that it was not a momentary impulse which he followed is evident from the ceremonial, as reported by Theiner, and from the final discussions between Napoleon and the Pope. Pius VII meanwhile was so exasperated at the conduct of Napoleon, that he made the request that, if the coronation was mentioned in the Moniteur, the description should follow the ceremonial as originally arranged, according to which the Pope was to place the crown upon the Emperor’s head. To this Napoleon would not agree; but on the other hand he did not wish to give the Pope any opportunity of making protests. He therefore took this course: he forbade the official paper to give any account of the coronation. Whilst all the French papers were full of descriptions of the splendid solemnity, the Moniteur observed absolute silence, although in the issue of 3rd December it had promised to give the detailed description “which our readers expect”.

The accounts of the coronation in Nôtre Dame astonished Europe, and filled all the friends of legitimist principles with resentment. From St Petersburg Joseph de Maistre wrote: “I wish, from the bottom of my heart, that the poor Pope would proceed to St Domingo to anoint Dessalines. When a man of the Pope’s dignity and importance forgets both to such a degree, one cannot but wish that he would go so far in self-degradation as to become a mere puppet of no consequence”. De Maistre even considers that the abominable crimes of Alexander Borgia were less dangerous than the disgraceful fall of his weak successor.  It took a long time before people at Rome received any news of the Pope, and Consalvi was filled with anxious forebodings. In the evening of 18th December he was informed that a balloon had descended by the lake of Bracciano, thirty five miles from Rome. A slip of paper, attached to the balloon, announced that the owner was Garnerin, the privileged aeronaut of the Russian Emperor, and that the balloon had been sent up from Paris on the 25th of Frimaire (16th December) during a banquet which the city of Paris gave in honor of “His Majesty the Emperor Napoleon”. In this way the first announcement of the coronation reached Rome; but many disbelieved it. The Duchess of Cumberland laid a wager with the French secretary of legation, Artaud, that either the whole story about the balloon was an invention, or that it was sent up by the English; for at that time the English were seen everywhere. But Consalvi and the other cardinals, who had been privy to the negotiations, breathed more freely.

As soon as Napoleon was anointed and crowned, his interest in the Pope at once diminished. He still showed great goodwill towards the Church and the clergy, and the greatest attention possible was bestowed upon the Pope. When Pius VII visited the imperial printing press, a book was presented to him, which contained the Lord’s Prayer in nearly a hundred languages, and another book was under preparation which glorified in verse his stay at Paris in almost all the tongues of the world; Silvestre de Sacy, with Hariri for his model, composed the Arabic verses in the collection. The Moniteur every day gave long descriptions of the visits paid by the Pope, and it seemed as if everything had gone well. On few occasions only did the successor of St Peter observe any ill-feeling. Once when he was blessing a crowd he noticed a man going away in order to avoid the blessing, but with happy presence of mind the Pope cried out to him: “Do not run away, Sir; the blessing of an old man never did any harm”, and the saying went round Paris.

ATTEMPTS TO RETAIN THE POPE 

In spite of goodwill on the part of Napoleon and the Parisians, Pius VII longed to go home, but Napoleon did all he could to keep him. It was evident that it was the Emperor’s intention, if possible, to induce the Pope to remain in France. One day a high officer—Pius VII would never reveal his name—proposed to him that he should take up his abode at Avignon and establish a Papal palace in the Archbishop’s residence at Paris: a privileged quarter of the city should then be formed, in which the ambassadors to the Pope should live. It is evident from this that Napoleon—for that he was the moving spirit is beyond doubt—had advanced so far in his plans for a State Church, that the Pope henceforth was to sink down to the level of an imperial chaplain. Pius answered the officer that he would never willingly acquiesce in such a plan. If they were to use force, they would only have at Paris “a poor monk called Barnabas Chiaramonti”. Before he left Rome he had made arrangements to meet such an emergency, so that a new pope would immediately be elected.

The people of Rome wished much to have the Pope back. On the night between the last day of January and the first of February, their city was overtaken by a great calamity. The Tiber had overflowed its banks, and had inundated a part of the city with such rapidity that the inhabitants had to save themselves by escaping to the house-tops, where they stood and cried: Barcarolo, a noi! Pieta! pane! Consalvi himself arrived on the scene, got a boat launched, and in his cardinal’s dress went from roof to roof with food for the unfortunate people. Artaud, who was himself an eye-witness of this action, relates how the example of the Cardinal had a striking effect upon other leading men of Rome.

The news of this disaster made Pius long to return to Rome; but before he left he formulated his claims to the Emperor. He asked for the abolition of several abuses, and of those laws which were contrary to the dogmas of the Church. This was the case with the regulations of the Code Napoleón about divorce, and with several of the Organic Articles, especially the acknowledgment of the Gallican propositions. He demanded that the bishops should have their old right of watching over the morals and conduct of their priests, and that the old laws about the observance of Sundays and holy days should again be put in force. Married priests should be prohibited from teaching; the monastic orders should be introduced again, or at least be tolerated. And finally, the Catholic religion must be declared to be the dominant religion in France. This letter was accompanied by another, in which the Pope touched upon the loss of his provinces. In accordance with the prompting of his conscience, and trusting to the Emperor’s sense of justice, he pointed out that if he had to bear the heavy expenses connected with the Papacy he could not do without the territories which the French had taken from him. “It would, moreover, help to maintain equilibrium in Italy, to restore his lands to a prince who had no other weapons of defence than temporal weakness and spiritual dignity”. The Emperor ought to imitate Charles the Great, who gave back to the Pope what he had conquered from the Lombards; and if there ever were a peace congress, the Papal chair must send a representative to it, not to interfere in the temporal negotiations of the sovereigns, but to see to the interests of the Papacy. The papal appeal ended with the expression of the wish that Pius VII and Napoleon might obtain the same renown as Stephen IV and Saint Louis.

REPLY TO PIUS'S DEMANDS

This document Pius VII delivered personally to Napoleon at Malmaison. The Emperor received it kindly, but he reserved his answer to the different points; and it was evident, as Cardinal Antonelli reports to Consalvi, that there was no chance whatever of regaining the lost provinces. The Pope was further confirmed in the hopelessness of his case when, on 15th March, Melzi, at the head of an embassy of Cisalpine officials, offered Napoleon the royal crown of Italy. There was no likelihood that the new King of Italy would begin his reign by restoring to the Pope some of his best provinces, especially considering how opposed to the Papacy feeling then was in the north of Italy.

Nevertheless the Pope received detailed and respectful answers to all his grievances. In the two replies produced by the joint study of Napoleon and Portalis, a line of action is indicated which at that time was the only possible and right one, since it points to what could be realized under the then existing conditions. But such regard to existing conditions could not be reconciled with the claim of the Papacy to have absolute sovereignty. The claim to have the lost provinces restored was first answered. The Emperor declared that “he had always thought that it would be to the advantage of religion that the Pope at Rome should be looked up to, as not only the head of the Church, but also an independent sovereign”. The Revolution, however, had destroyed the Pope’s temporal power, and had damaged his spiritual power also, until the Emperor had at last succeeded, after many victories, in re-erecting the altars, and leading 30,000,000 Catholics back to their allegiance to St Peter’s chair. But because the authority of religion had been maintained, resistance to it was by no means broken, and against such enemies as those of the Church power and riches were of no avail. Hatred and jealousy would rise against it, the very moment it obtained more temporal power and splendor. The amiable personality of Pius VII secured greater deference to the Papal chair than the riches and power of former times. Nevertheless, the Emperor was highly disposed to secure for the Pope better temporal conditions, if God should permit the right moment to present itself. The constitution of the State, and his sacred oath, forbade him at that time to do what he would like; but if God granted him life, he hoped to be able “to improve and extend the Holy Father’s territory. He would always consider it an honor and good fortune to be one of the strongest supports of the Papal chair”.

Later on, Portalis composed a definite answer to the different points which the Pope had advanced in the first of his letters. With regard to the complaint that the French laws allow divorce, he says: “The civil law cannot forbid divorce in a country where religious parties are tolerated, which permit it”. It would have shown but little wisdom suddenly to alter a legislation which fifteen years of revolution had naturalized in France. Besides, civil laws can only be relatively good; ideal demands must be adapted to the historical conditions of the nation. But in order not to disturb consciences, a circular of the time of the Consulate gave the priests permission to refuse to marry divorced persons in church so long as their consorts were alive. When the Pope demanded the restoration of the old right of the bishops over their priests, the State was obliged, in the face of such a demand, to maintain its right to judge offences committed by priests, because priests are citizens. Canonical offences were quite another matter; such questions would immediately be referred by the State to the bishops. As to the Pope’s wish for legislation respecting holy days, it was maintained that good example is more important than legislation. In the country there was more piety, and there the sanctity of Sunday would be more easily preserved; but in the towns it could not be enforced, because many would thereby suffer loss of income, and because many, as experience taught, by being forced to rest, would indulge in vices and crimes. The Pope’s wish that married priests should not be employed as teachers would be respected, but his claim to have the Catholic religion declared to be the dominant one could not be complied with. “It is such in reality”, says the reply, “because it is the religion of the Emperor, of the imperial family, and of the majority; a law that contained such a definition would be of no real good, but would only expose religion itself to great dangers. In the existing spiritual conditions such a law would reawaken old hatreds and create new enemies for Catholicism”.

Nobody will deny that the Emperor and his councilors were right in their objections; even Augustin Theiner says: “Everybody must admit that unfortunate and deplorable circumstances did not allow Napoleon just then to go further”. But, on the other hand, it can easily be understood that Pius VII, who was always sanguine, had relied more on the friendliness of the Emperor than he ought to have done, and had believed him able to do more than he did. He returned home with disappointed hopes and anxieties over the possible consequences of the step he had taken; and this disappointment was so great that it cast dark shadows over what was otherwise bright in his journey. When Consalvi, eight years afterwards, comes to speak of the papal visit to Paris, “his memory and his pen refuse to tell of all the humiliations which the Pope had to suffer there”. These words contain exaggeration no doubt, but it is certain that the friendship between the Emperor and the Pope had cooled a good deal when they parted. Napoleon was disappointed because the Pope would not remain in France. But the good relationship was not yet disturbed by any real breach. On Sunday, 24th March, Pius christened, with his own hand, Louis Napoleon, the son of Louis Bonaparte and Hortense Beauharnais. The Emperor stood godfather: Madame Leticia was the child’s god­mother. Nine cardinals and fifteen archbishops and bishops were present. To those outside, everything betokened the most cordial relations between the head of the State and the head of the Roman Church; but Pius was no longer comfortable in Paris, and he became more and more eager to go home.

The Emperor and the Pope travelled separately, although they travelled the same way, in order that people might have the opportunity of paying proper homage to them both; but they met afterwards at Turin. Napoleon had found his people in jubilation: Pius had again seen the people on their knees. From Turin, the Pope continued his journey through Parma, Modena, and Florence. There he met Scipione de' Ricci, who at last made his submission, and on 16th May he re-entered his capital. The Cardinal of York went to meet him at the head of the cardinals, and there was joy everywhere. The Pope’s first steps were directed to the altar of St Peter’s; there he cast himself upon his knees to thank God, while a Te Deum resounded through the vaulting of the church. On 26th June he called together the College of Cardinals, and gave an account of his journey. In this he stated briefly that on 2nd December “the anointing and coronation of the Emperor and of his illustrious consort, our beloved daughter in Jesus Christ, Josephine, were carried out in the most solemn manner”. He dwelt, besides, upon all the bright points of the journey; much had already been accomplished, and this was an earnest of further advantages to the Church in the future.

Before this communication was made to the College of Cardinals, Napoleon had been crowned at Milan on 26th May; and some weeks later he published the famous decree relating to the ordering of the clergy, which demolished the last traces of the Revolution, and of Gallicanism in the Italian Church. This decree also called forth dissatisfaction at Rome, because it violated the Italian Concordat. According to the Concordat, the Emperor was not to take such measures without the co-operation of the Pope, but Napoleon forgot that completely, in his eagerness to have everything speedily arranged. When Rome complained of this forgetfulness, Napoleon was vexed, and informed Pius VII “that he had several times told His Holiness before that the Roman Court was much too slow, and that it pursued a policy which might have been good enough in the past centuries, but was no longer suited to this”. The bitter pill was, however, wrapped up in so many kind expressions that Pius VII was on the whole pleased with the letter, because it showed “the Emperor’s attachment to religion and his opposition to the false philosophy of the century”

It was not long, however, before Pius VII came to feel that hand in hand with the Emperor’s friendliness towards the Church, there went a great want of respect for the successor of St Peter. To induce Pius VII to come to Paris, Napoleon had hinted that he would be prepared to go to Rome himself “with a good escort”, if the Pope would not choose to come to him. That “good escort”, moreover, he had close at hand, and he did not hesitate to use it, when he no longer had his own way.