gloomy and calamitous. In the earl\ period of that fearful Btruggle Pius VI had solemnly condemned the abrupt changes made in France concerning the dis- cipline and the property of the clergy, though in all secular matters he had wisely abstained from interfer- iny sort, But in January, 1793, a complication a most serious nature. A young man. Hugo Basseville, an agent of the French republican party, whih hi- way to Naples, where lie was to be secre- tary of embassy, stopped in the Eternal City. and made a foolish demonstration in the I lorso, apparently to. sound the opinions of the people. He appeared in a carriage with several tricolored Hags, and distributed revolu- tionary tract.-, vociferating something about liberty and against tyrant-; but a mob collected; he was dragged out of his carriage, and mortally stabbed in several places by the populace. The military arrived too late, and
t bough s ■ ol the murderers were am Bted and tried,
the French government charged the papal authorities with having been a party to the crime. The result was that the breach widened, and that finally the pope joined the league of tin- sovereigns against France. In 1796, when Bonaparte invaded Northern Italy, he took I □ of the legations, but at the -aim- time offered
to the pope condition- of peace. These, however, it was impossible lor Pius to accept, and the papal troops wite marched against the French, The defeat of the
papa. \ loll,, wed. and alter tin poSSt --ion of Anemia and
Loreto, pea,,- was established al Campo Formio in < >cr.,
1 7 '. » 7 . The condition- of peace were very onerous, and
add. d vexation to vexation againsl the unfortunate pope, who, old and infirm, was unequal to the difficulties which crowded upon him. Heavy contributions were imposed by the French I >irectorv,and Ferrara, Romagna,
and the Bolognese were incorporated with the new W founded Cisalpine republic; the price of peace, in line.
was the revocation of the papal edicts launched againsl
th, .i.in-i ni-t-. and the acknowledgment of the civil COnStituti if the French clergy, To make bad mat- ters worse, some disorders in Rome between the French and Italian-, in the course of which the French general Duphot was shot, gave a pretext to the French Directory l,,r tin- expedition of Berthier, w ho arrived in Home on February LO, and occupied the Vatican. Pius VI, for- saken by si of the cardinals, who had escaped, re- mained in the Vatican. On the 15th a tree ol Id, city was raised in the (amp,, Vaccino, and Rome was for- mallj declared a republic Berthier afterwards sent an
officer to intimate to the pope that he inu-l renounce
hi- temporal sovereignty. I'm- answered that he had received it from Cod and by the free election ol men. and could not renounce it; that he was eight] years old, and his troubles could not be ,,l long duration, hut that he was determined to do nothing derogatory to bis
high office. Next came I he , ,,miui-.-ai '\ -g< neral of the
French army. who. after taking an inventory of all the valuables that still remained in the papal residence, or- di nd Pius to prepare to set out in two days. The pope said he culd not oppose force, but pretested against this new act of violence. (>n Feb. -jii Fin.- AT left the Vatican with a few- attendants, and, escorted by a strong detachment of cavalry, took the road to Florence. He was lodged at tir>t iii a convent near Siena, and after- wards in the Carthusian convent near Florence, where lie remained till the following year, when the French. having driven out of Tuscan] tin- -rand-duke Ferdi- nand, and being threatened h\ the Au-t ro-llilssians who
were advancing to the Adige, ordered the pope to be transferred to France. He was taken to Grenoble, and afterwards to Valence, on the Rhone, where he died in August of that year | L799). Just before his death the Roman republic had ceased to exist, the French being driven out of Italy by the Austro-Russians, and Rome was occupied by Austrian ami Neapolitan troops. In the year 1802, after the resl , iral ion of the papal govern- ment, the remains of Fius VI wen- transferred to Rome by leave of the first consul Bonaparte, at the request of hi- mii cessor, Pius VII, and deposited w ith solemn pomp in the church ol St. Peter. The hulls published by Pius VI are in Bullar. Roman, contin. sumtnor. /'■ ntif. de- mentis XJ 1 1. ( 'It in. A / I '. I'ii 1 7 constitution* .--. < tc, quas Coll. Barbieri, opp. it stud. J,'. Segredi (Rom. 1835, f.t. vii-x); cont. constit. I'ii 17. Pius VI greatly i nlarged the museum of the Vatican, which he made one of the richest in Europe in works of sculpture, vases, precious marbles, and other remain- of antiquity : .and he caused a splendid set of engravings of the objects in this mu- seum to be published, under the title of MllSeO Pio Ch- un ntino. He made additions to the church of St. I'd, r. and embellished Rome with new palace-, fountains, and other structures. His internal administration wa> lib- eral and mild, an unusual freedom of opinion and speech prevailed at Rome, and a number of learned men gath- ered thither from other parts of Italy. Many foreigners came to settle in that capital, the tine art- wen- encour- aged by the pope and several of the cardinals, and mod- ern Rome was reviving the brilliant period of Leo X when the struggle with the French Directory darkened the scene. See. besides the memoirs by liceattine (Venice. 1801,4 vols.); Tavanti (Flor. 1804,3 vol-, it,,. ; Gesch. des Papstes Pius VI (Vienna, 1799); Bourgoing's Memoires ill Pit 17 (Par. 1799); Ferrari. Vita J'ii VI (Patav. 1802) ; Nbvaes, Sommi Pontifici, voL xvi, xvii; Artaud. Hist. -As souv. Poniif. Rom. (Par. 1849), vol. viii; Wolff. Gesch. der hathol. Kirch unter Pius 17 (Zurich, 1797-1802, 7 vols. 8vo).