RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Pius VI- VII
nel of the Tuscan Council (Apr-June, 1787). And as Leopold I. kept adhering to his plans of reform, there ensued a conflict with the pope; while, in turn, the Tuscan envoy was recalled from Rome. It was only when Leopold ascended the imperial throne (1790) that these complications reached an end; Ricci resigned, and Ferdinand III. receded. Nor was the situation less grave, as affecting the pope, in the kingdom of Naples. In 1779, the royal exequatur was refused to quite a series of papal briefs; in 1780, the king claimed a general patronal right over the benefices, then over the bishoprics; in 1782, the tribunal of the inquisition was dissolved in Sicily; while from 1788, the custom was discontinued, of long centuries' duration though it had been, of offering a tent and the so-called " feudal tribute " at the festival of SS. Peter and Paul. By and by the number of unoccupied bishoprics became so large that in 1791 the pope at last conceded the king's right of presentation of three candidates, whereupon sixty-two episcopal sees were supplied.
The outbreak of the French Revolution (q.v.) involved most incisive consequences for the Church. The " civil constitution of the clergy," still proposed for acceptance under Louis XVI., was Conflict rejected by Pius VI.; and, in fact, with France. 50,000 priests, following the precedent of 130 bishops, refused the oath in connection with this new ruling. Thereupon, in Sept., 1791, the National Assembly answered by annexing Avignon and Venaissin. Then when a secretary of the French embassy in Rome had been assassinated there by the rabble, in 1793, and when the pope took part in the coalition against France, Bonaparte declared war on him, advanced upon Rome, and compelled Pius VI., during the truce of Bologna, 1796, to relinquish a large part of the States of the Church (see Papal States). When disturbances were renewed, General Berthier occupied Rome in 1798; and had Pius VI., who was ill, transported first to Florence, then to Valence, where he died Aug. 29, 1799. K. Benrath.
Bibliography: For his bulls, etc., consult either N. S. Guillon's Collection generate des brefs et instructions de Pie VI., 2 vols., Paris, 1798; the Collectio brevium . of L. H. Halot, 2 parts, Rome, 1800; or the Collectio bullarum, brevium . . , London, 1803. For his life and acts consult: Ranke, Popes, ii. 453 sqq., iii. no. 165; P. P. Wolf, Geschichte der romisch-katholischen Kirche unter . Pius VI., 7 vols., Zurich, 1793-1802; G. de Novaes, Storia de' sommi Pontefici, Rome, 1822; P. Baldassari, Hist, de I 'enlevement et de la captivite de Pie VI., Paris, 1839; F. Beccatini, Storia di Pio VI., 4 vols., Venice, 1841; G. C. Cordare, De Profectu Pii VI. ad aulam Viennensem, ed. J. Boerus, Rome, 1855; F. Petrucelli della Gattina, Hist, diplomatique des conclaves, iv. 211 sqq., Paris, 1866; A. von Reumont, Geschichte der Stadt Rom, iii. 2, pp. 660 sqq., Berlin, 1870; A. M. de Franclieu, Pie VI. dans les prisons du Dauphine, Grenoble, 1878; I. Bertrand, Le Pontificat de Pie VI. et VatMisme revolutionnaire, Paris, 1879; F. H. Reusch, Index der verbotenen Biicher, vol. ii., Bonn, 1885; H. Schletter, Die Reise des Papstes Pius VI. nach Wien, and Pius VI. und Josef II., 2 vols., Vienna, 1892-94 (valuable for the literature named); Pie VI., sa vie, son pontificat (1717-99), Paris, 1907; Nippold, Papacy, pp. 20, 36; Bower, Popes, iii. 390-419.
Pius VII. (Luigi Chiaramonti) : Pope 1800-23. He was born at Cesena (57 m. n.e. of Florence) Aug. 14, 1740. At the age of sixteen he entered the IX.— 6
Benedictine order, became a lecturer in the cloister at Parma and later in Rome. His predecessor made him bishop of Tivoli, then of Imola, and in 1785, cardinal. When the French army approached Imola, he still maintained his residence in his episcopal city. On that occasion (1797), he contrived to save the town from spoliation and even maintained good terms with Republican powers.
Shortly before he was taken captive, Pius VI. had prescribed that the conclave should be held in that city in the neighborhood of which the most cardinals might happen to be at his death, only not in Rome. So they assembled -in Venice, and on Mar. 14, 1800, Chiaramonti was elected unanimously, and in July he entered Rome as Pius VII. For secretary of state he appointed Cardinal Ercole Consalvi (q.v.), whose first achievement of note was the conclusion of the concordat with France (see Concordats and Delimiting Bulls, VI., § 1), which restored most of its rights to the Roman Catholic Church, and annulled episcopal power in favor of the papal absolute supremacy. However, in virtue of the " Organic Articles " (1802), the first consul deprived these concessions of nearly all significance, insomuch that the pope protested. Yet both sides wished to avoid a rupture, and in the following year, Pius VII. appointed the consul's uncle (Joseph Fesch, q.v.) a cardinal.
Meanwhile in Germany, when by terms of the peace of LuneVille, in 1801, the left bank of the Rhine had fallen to France, the secularization of the temporal dominions of the Church was brought to pass despite every protest; and the Elector Dalberg of Mainz, against the will of the Curia, was elected primate of Germany. Even thus early, Napoleon put forth still greater demands, as, when the senate had named him hereditary ruler of France, he desired the pope to consummate the imperial coronation. Reluctantly, but yet in the hope of thereby gaining concessions for the Church, Pius VII. performed the ceremony of anointing (Dec. 2, 1804), but when he was about to place the crown on the sovereign's head, Napoleon forestalled him, crowned himself, and placed the diadem on the head of his consort, Josephine. All demands by the pope on occasion of this journey came to naught; what satisfaction he felt was on account of the deportment of the French people, who were charmed by his presence. At Florence, on his return journey, he received the full submission of Bishop Ricci of Pistoja (see Ricci, Sctpione de').
But heavy clouds were gathering from France. The emperor demanded the dissolution of his brother Jerome's marriage, desiring Jerome to marry a princess— a prelude to his own course later. When the pope firmly refused, Napoleon declared the marriage dissolved. In 1808, he managed to find occasion to occupy Rome; in 1809, he declared it a French city; and when for this reason he was put under the ban, he had the pope and Cardinal Pacca carried captive to Savona. But even here Pius VII. would not bend, and refused the confirmation of the French bishops appointed by the emperor until finally the enervating torments of his captivity induced him to an oral assent. But when, owing to continued confinement at Fontainebleau, the tor-
Pius VII-X