World's Best Histories — Volume 7: France

by François Guizot; Madame de Witt

It was from Munich, on the morrow of the battle of Austerlitz and of the peace of Presburg, that Napoleon at length responded, on the 7th of January, 1806, to the letter of the Pope, in the midst of the concert of adulations and transports which were lavished on him by the vanquished as well as by his courtiers. The protest of Pius VII. recalled to him the disagreeable remembrance of an independent authority, and one which he had not been always able to submit to his will; the anger of the despot broke forth with violence at once spontaneous and measured: "Your Holiness complains that since your return from Paris you have had nothing but causes of sorrow. The reason is, that since then all those who were fearing my power and testifying their friendship have changed their sentiments, thinking themselves authorized to do so by the power of the coalition; and that since the return of your Holiness to Rome I have experienced nothing but refusals to all my designs, even those that were of the utmost importance to religion; as, for example, when it was a question of hindering Protestantism from raising its head in France. I look upon myself as the protector of the Holy See, and by this title I have occupied Ancona. I look upon myself, like my predecessors of the second and third dynasty, as the eldest son of the Church, as alone bearing the sword to protect it and to shelter it from being defiled by Greeks and Mussulmans. I should ever be the friend of your Holiness, if you would only consult your heart and the true friends of religion. If your Holiness wishes to send away my minister, you are free to do so. You are free to receive in preference the English and the Caliph of Constantinople. God is the judge who has done most for the religion of all the princes who reign."

Napoleon had excluded his brother Jerome from the succession to the Empire, but he affected to dread for France the possibility of a Protestant sovereign. It was with an increase of coarse violence that he wrote on the same day to his uncle, Cardinal Fesch: "Since these imbeciles think there will be no inconvenience in a Protestant occupying the throne of France, I will send them a Protestant ambassador. I am religious, but I am not a bigot. Constantine separated the civil from the military, and I also may appoint a senator to command in my name at Rome. Tell Consalvi— tell even the Pope himself—that since he wishes to drive my minister from Rome, I should be well able to re-establish him there. For the Pope, I am Charlemagne, because, like Charlemagne, I unite the crown of France with that of the Lombards, and my empire borders on that of the East. I expect then that his conduct towards me shall be regulated from this point of view. Otherwise I shall reduce the Pope to the position of Bishop of Rome."

The French troops did not evacuate Ancona, and the French minister remained at Rome. But soon new subjects of disagreement arose between Napoleon and the Pope, always a scrupulous observer of the neutrality which he thought due from him to all the powers. The emperor had already required that all the ports of his allies should be closed against English commerce; in proportion as his enemies became more numerous and his arbitrary power more oppressive, he extended his pretensions even over the countries neutral by situation and by state obligations. Joseph Bonaparte had just been proclaimed King of Naples; the house of Bourbon occupied in Italy only the ridiculous throne of Etruria, already on the point of being taken from them. Napoleon wished to exact from the Pope an interdiction of his ports and his territory to the exiles or the refugees who had from time immemorial been accustomed to seek an asylum in Rome. "Your Holiness would be able to avoid all these embarrassments by going forward in a straight road," wrote Napoleon to Pius VII., on February 22, 1806. "All Italy will be subject to my laws. I will not touch in any way the independence of the Holy See; I will even repay it for the injuries which the movements of my armies may occasion to it; but it must be on the condition that your Holiness will show the same regard for me in temporal affairs as I show for you in spiritual ones, and that you will cease your useless consideration for the heretical enemies of the Church, and for the powers who can do nothing for you. Your Holiness is sovereign of Rome, but I am its emperor. All my enemies ought to be yours. It is not proper then that any agent of the King of Sardinia, any Englishman, Russian, or Swede, should reside at Rome or in your states, neither that any ship belonging to these powers should enter your ports. Those who speak any other language to your Holiness deceive you, and will end by drawing down upon you misfortunes that will be disastrous." He added in his letter to Cardinal Fesch: "Say plainly that I have my eyes open, that I am not deceived any more than I choose to be; that I am Charlemagne, the sword of the Church, the emperor; and that they ought not to know that there is an empire of Russia. I make the Pope acquainted with my intentions in a few words. If he does not agree, I shall reduce him to the same position which he occupied before Charlemagne."

It was against Cardinal Consalvi, formerly the clever and firm negotiator of the Concordat, that the emperor, assisted by Cardinal Fesch, nursed his suspicions and his anger; he regarded him as systematically hostile to France; but the attachment of the Pope for his minister remained unshakable; it was from Consalvi alone that a voluntary submission might be hoped for. "If he loves his religion and his country, tell Consalvi, plainly," wrote the emperor to his uncle, "that there are only two courses to select from—either to do always what I wish, or to quit the ministry."

The moderation and prudent resolutions of the Roman ministry showed itself in the response of the Pope to the requirements of Napoleon. Already an obscure Englishman—Mr. Jackson, for a long time accredited to the King of Sardinia—had excited the mistrust of Napoleon, who insulted him in official documents. "An English minister, the disgrace of his country, found in Rome an asylum. There he organized conspiracies, subsidized brigands, hatched perfidies, bribed assassins; and Rome protected the traitor and his agents—becoming a theatre of scandal, a manufactory of libels, and an asylum of brigandage." The only crime of Jackson had been to keep his court au courant with the state of affairs in Rome. Quietly, and with all the respect his character merited, Cardinal Consalvi prevailed on Mr. Jackson to quit Rome. The cardinals were assembled in secret Consistory. Cardinal Fesch was not summoned; he was informed that they were aware of his opinions, and that his station as ambassador disqualified him for the Council of the holy father.

The Consistory did not deceive itself for a single instant as to the consequences that the concessions demanded by Napoleon would forcibly draw in their train. "We all saw," says Cardinal Consalvi in his memoirs, "that far from admitting the neutrality of the Holy See, Bonaparte expected it in the capacity of feudatory and vassal to take up the quarrels of France in no matter what war the latter might subsequently be engaged. The Holy See might then see itself, any morning or evening, attacked by Austria or Spain, or by all the Catholic or non-Catholic powers. What! the sole ambition or greed of France was to have the right of despoiling the holy father of his title of the common father of the faithful, and of compelling the representative of a God of Peace and the head of the religious world, to sow everywhere desolation and ruin, by keeping in a perpetual state of war the nations owing fealty to the tiara."

So many reasons, human and divine, as evident to common sense as to conscience, decided the response of the Pope. He was moderate, tender, prudent; but he replied categorically to the requirements of the emperor. Pius VII wished to remain neuter, and not to drive from his states the English or the Russians; he did not admit the claim of the emperor to exercise over Rome a supreme protectorate. "The Pope does not recognize, and never has recognized, any power superior to himself. Your Majesty is infinitely great; you have been elected, crowned, consecrated, recognized emperor of the French, but not emperor of Rome. There exists no emperor of Rome."

There was a good deal of boldness in repelling so haughtily the imperial pretensions; the Pope and Cardinal Consalvi were soon involved in a still more dangerous course. The accession of the new King of Naples had been announced to the court of Rome, by Cardinal Fesch, in arrogant terms: "The throne of Naples being vacant by a penalty incurred by the most scandalous perfidy of which the annals of nations have ever made mention, and his Majesty having found himself under the necessity of shielding this country, and the whole of Italy, from the madness of an insensate court, has judged it suitable to his dignity to confide the destinies of this country, which he loves, to a prince of his own house. The undersigned doubts not but that the Pontifical Government will see in this happy event a new guarantee of the system of order, justice, and consistency, which he has always had at heart to establish in all the places which have submitted to his influence."

To this circuitous demand for the recognition of Joseph Bonaparte, the Pope replied by urging his ancient feudal rights over the kingdom of Naples—"agreements," said Cardinal Consalvi, "which have always been observed, especially in the case of conquests; not only at the establishment of a new dynasty, but also at the commencement of each new reign."

It was going very far back into history to reclaim doubtful rights. Napoleon keenly criticised the pretension: "His Majesty needs to make no researches to become aware of the fact that in times of ignorance the court of Rome usurped the right of giving away crowns and temporal rights to the princes of the earth; but if we found that in other ages the court at Rome dethroned sovereigns, preached crusades, and laid entire kingdoms under interdict, we should also discover that the Popes have always considered their temporal power as springing from the French emperors; and the court of Rome, without doubt, does not claim that Charlemagne received from it the investiture of his kingdom. If this is to go on," added Napoleon, brusquely abandoning his historic researches, "I shall cause Consalvi to quit Rome, and make him responsible for what he is trying to do, because he is evidently bought by the English. He will see whether or not I have the power to maintain my imperial crown. Lay stress on that word imperial, and not royal, and upon the fact that the relations of the Pope with me must be those of his predecessors with the emperors of the west." [Footnote: Draft of a note sent to Talleyrand by the emperor.]