Pius VII, popi from 1800 to 1823, was successor of the piece dine, lie ua- originally called Gregorio I'm- nuliii Ckiaramonti, being also of noble d< -cent, and was born in 1742 al Cesena. He first studied in the college
of Ravenna, and subsequently entered t he ( irder ol \>< n- edicrines in 1758. He was appointed lecturer on phi- losophy, and afterwards on theology, to the novices of his order, first at Parma and then at Rome. Fin- VI appointed him bishop of Tivoli. and in 17s.', made him
a cardinal and bi.-hop of Imola. When Bonaparte took possession of the legation-, and annexed them to the Cisalpine republic, cardinal Chiaramonti in a homily exhorted his (lock to submit to the new institutions, and to be faithful to the slate of which they had be- come a part. This conduct is said to have gained the approval of Bonaparte. When the news of the death of Fin- VI, in his exile at Valence, in August, 1799, came to Italy, the conclave was summoned to assemble at Venice, tben under the dominion of Austria, as Rome
wa- in a -late of anarchy. Thirty-li\e cardinals ac- cordingly assembled in the Benedictine convent of St. Giorgio Maggiore, in order to elect one of their number to the papal office, a dignity apparently not vcr\ envi- able in those troubled time-. The deliberations of the
conclave la-ted several i ths,andal last, on JIarch
1 1. 1800, cardinal Chiaramonti was chow n. and crowned
PIUS
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pope on the 21st of the same month, under the name of Pius VII. In the following July the pope made his entrance into Rome, and soon after appointed cardinal Consalvi his secretary of state, or prime minister. In the following year the peace of Luneville, bet ween France and Austria, was made, and Bonaparte, first con- sul of France, ordered his troops to evacuate the papal territories, with the exception of the legations, which had been formally incorporated with the so-called "Italian Republic." Meantime the ecclesiastical affairs of France were in a state of the greatest confusion. France was still nominally Roman Catholic, but the clergy were no longer in communication with the see of Rome, and were divided into parties. In the midst of this confusion about one half of the population of France followed no mode of worship, and professed no religion whatever. A vast number of parish churches were shut up, and had been so for ten years. Bona- parte saw clearly that a nation could not subsist with- out a religion, and that the genius of the French de- manded it rather as an institution than an internal life. He therefore resolved upon a concordat with Rome. The pope appointed the prelate Spina and the theolo- gian Caselli, who proceeded to Paris, and Bonaparte named his brother Joseph, Cretet, councillor of state, and Bernier, a Vende'an priest, to treat with the pope's negotiators. But on an intimation from Bonaparte, who was above all things anxious that the matter should be promptly settled, the pope despatched to Paris car- dinal Consalvi, who smoothed down all difficulties, and the concordat was signed at Paris, July 15, 1801, and was ratified by Pius at Rome, after some hesitation and consultation, on August 14th following. The principal scruples of the pope were concerning certain articles called "organic," which Bonaparte appended to the concordat, as if they had formed part of it, and which were proclaimed as laws of the state. Henceforth Ro- manism was the establishment of France; but, on the other hand, pope Pius VII was bound to recognise the independence of the French Church. See France.
From 1801 till 1804 Pius VII enjoyed tranquillity at Rome, which he employed in restoring order to the finances, in ameliorating the judicial administration, in promoting the agriculture of the Campagna, and in other similar cares. His personal establishment was moderate, his table frugal, his habits simple, and his conduct exemplary. In May, 1804, Napoleon was pro- claimed emperor, and some time after he wrote to the pope requesting him to crown him solemnly at Paris. After considerable hesitation Pius consented, and set out from Rome at the beginning of November of that year. The ceremony of the coronation took place in the cathedral of Notre Dame, after which the pope spent several months in Paris, visiting the public es- tablishments, and receiving the homage of men of all parties, who were won by his unassuming yet dignified behavior and his unaffected piety. In May, 1805, he returned to Rome; and his troubles began soon after. In October, 1805, a body of French troops suddenly took military possession of Ancona. Pius remonstrated in a letter which he wrote to Napoleon, who was at that time at the head of his army in Austria. It was only after the peace of Pressburg that he received an answer, in which Napoleon said that he considered himself as the protector of the Church against heretics and schis- matics, like his predecessors from the time of Charle- magne, and that as such he had occupied Ancona to pre- vent it from falling into the hands of the English or the Russians. Soon after Napoleon officially required the pope, through his ambassador at Rome, to expel from his dominions all English, Russian, Swedish, and Sar- dinian subjects, and to close his ports to the vessels of those powers who were then at war with France. Pius replied at length in a letter to Napoleon, representing to him that his request was destructive of the indepen- dence of the Papal State, and of its political neutrality, which were necessary to the welfare of the Church, and