6

of evangelic sweetness; his imperial anta- to the Cardinal Chiaramonti made a wide gonist was a man of insatiable ambition, of impression among the inhabitants of the Cæsarian force of will. To appreciate still Legations; and these circumstances unmore thoroughly the character of this ex-doubtedly influenced the conclave in fixing emplary Pontiff, it must be remembered that upon Chiaramonti as the most eligible he had not, like his predecessor Pius VI., member of the Sacred College for the any bigoted aversion to the new doctrines vacant Papacy. If any accord was to be of the time; on the contrary, he had large brought about between Rome and revolusympathies with the philanthropic aspira- tionary France, such a character presented tions of the leading spirits of the Revolu- the greatest chances of its accomplishment. tionary school, and believed that the new It must be added also that the Pope himmovement would, in spite of the crimes and self was at first fascinated by the genius of extravagances which accompanied it, prove Napoleon. He had for him,' says Conultimately beneficial to the spiritual as well salvi in his Memoirs,' ' a mingled sense of as material interests of humanity; and that admiration, fear, paternal tenderness, and the leading principles of the new doctrines gratitude for the powerful and ready hand were not irreconcilable with the tradition- with which he re-established the Church in ary supremacy of Rome as the religious France.' Probably he felt in his heart a mistress of the world. These convictions religious conviction that such an astoundPius VII. expressed in a very remarkable ing prodigy of genius and ambition was not homily, the most significant document, so far as study of himself is concerned, which ever issued from his pen. It was published while he was Bishop of Imola, two months after the signature of the treaty of Campo Formio. In this homily, addressed, on Christmas Day, 1799, to the people of his diocese in the Cisalpine Republic, he recommended entire submission to the new order of things, and demonstrated that the principles of democratic government were founded on principles quite in harmony with the teachings of the Scriptures. He even quoted some words from the profession of faith of the Vicaire Savoyard:'Je vous avoue que la majesté des Ecritures m'étonne; la sainteté de l'Evangile parle à mon cœur.' The Bishop and Prince of the Church was found to be acquainted with the writings of Rousseau, and adduced them in support of his argument!

When the French troops first invaded the Legations under Bonaparte, all the other Bishops quitted their dioceses Chiaramonti alone remained: this conduct caused him to be mentioned by the French General in his address to the inhabitants of Ancona when he received the keys of the town. The Bishop of Ancona had left the place, and, in remarking on the fact, he said, Celui d'Imola, qui est aussi cardinal, ne s'est pas enfui; je ne l'ai pas vu en passant, mais il est à son poste.' This praise accorded by the victorious General

sent into the world without a Divine purpose. From this fascination he never freed himself, even in the days when he suffered unmerited and even cruel persecution at the hands of his Imperial captor. In the solitary oratory of his prison at Savona the victim prayed earnestly and fervently for his oppressor; and to his latest days his old affection for the author of his afflictions survived the recollection of insult and injury.

Immediately on the election of Pius VII., the political difficulties inseparable from the union of the spiritual and temporal power of the Papacy commenced, and that not with a heretic or infidel power, but with such orthodox sons of the Church as the sovereigns of Austria and Naples. Previous to the battle of Marengo, the Austrians were in possession of the Legations, and indeed of the whole Pontifical territory nearly up to the gates of Rome, which they had acquired by conquest from the French. No effort had been spared to induce the new Pope to make permanent cession of the spoils of the French Republicans to Austria. The Austrian envoy, the Marchese Ghislieri, was not content even with menaces, but, on pretence of conveying the Pope back to Rome by sea, put him on board ar Austrian frigate, and kept him virtually a prisoner on board for twelve days, during which time he harassed the Pope incessantly to procure the cession of

ing all the obstacles which stand in the way of an entire reconciliation of France with the Head of the Church.**

the Legations. At length Pesaro was reached, and Ghislieri escorted the Pope to Ancona, where intelligence of a surprising character reached them. The battle of Marengo had been fought. Ghislieri now ceded the Legations with alacrity, and took his leave of the Pope, who proceeded to Rome, though the Neapolitans still held possession of the city till ejected by the peace of Florence. It may be said, if the Head of the Church met with such treatment from the hands of the champions of the ancient order of Europe, what might not be expected from a Revolutionary Power? Such conduct must doubtless have made a deep impression on the mind of Pius VII., and rendered him the more

willing to enter into relations with the First Consul, who had just uttered a string of generous and magniloquent phrases in defence of the clergy and religion of Rome, which met with an eager response in the

heart of the new Pontiff.

This first public declaration of Napoleon in the matter of religion had, as he intended it should have, an immense effect. His vast intelligence, with prophetic ambition, was already marshalling his schemes of empire. He had long come to the conclusion that some form of national religion is a necessity for any stable Government; and his education, his love of unity, his Italian sympathies, and his natural taste for grandeur, led him to regard the Roman Catholic

Church as the ecclesiastical institution best suited to his purpose. This address to the clergy of Milan was delivered eight days before Marengo. After Marengo, in defiance of the sarcasms of Deists and Voltairians at Paris, he had a Te Deum sung in the cathedral; and after the conclusion of the armistice with Austria, he expressed his de

Napoleon in this, as in all the negotiations he undertook, depended entirely upon himself for the leading principles of the arrangement, and entrusted third parties only with matters of detail. Under the guidance of M. Portalis, a well-known jurist, and one of the chief compilers of the Code Napoléon, he had already employed his vast and penetrat

One of the most remarkable characteris-sire to enter into negotiations on the subties of history is that of the strange parallel-ject of religious affairs in France, and reisms and coincidences of the destinies ofquested that Pius VII. would send for persons who are designed to play simultan- that purpose Monsignore Spina, archbishop eously a great part in human affairs. Na- in partibus of Corinth, to Turin, and subsepoleon had crossed the Great Saint Ber- quently to Paris. nard precisely at the time at which Pius VII. was sending forth his encyclical letter announcing his elevation. He entered Milan on the 3rd of June, 1800, and before leaving that city to contest the domination of the Italian peninsula with Melas, addressed a most remarkable speech to the assembled clergy of the capital of Lombardy. He declared that whatever disorder ing intelligence in mastering the chief points in religious affairs had been caused by his of ecclesiastical history, and the previous first invasion of Italy had taken place en-relations of the Holy See with France. M. tirely against his will. At that time, how- Portalis was admirably qualified for the subever, he was but the simple agent of a ordinate part he intended him to play, and Government who had no care whatever for was, moreover, a sincere Catholic; and to the Catholic religion. him he entrusted the chief part in the business of drawing up the Concordat with Monsignore Spina. M. de Talleyrand, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, as an ex-bishop of the Church of France, necessarily stood in too delicate a position towards a Power whom he had deserted, to be put prominently forward; he was reserved for critical emergencies.

"At the present time I am provided with full powers, and I am decided to exercise every means I believe to be the most proper for the protection of this religion. France has learnt a lesson from her misfortunes, and has opened her eyes; she has recognised that the Catholic religion is the only anchor of salvation amid the storms of the tempest.

'As soon as I can communicate with the new Pope, I trust I shall have the happiness of smooth-vi. pp. 340, 341.

*Correspondance de l'Empereur Napoléon I., vol.

But Napoleon had to his hand a Church- that it was useless to attempt to persuade man, the Abbé Bernier, a Breton by birth, Pius VII. to yield at once to this summary whom, with his wonderful insight into hu- ultimatum, devised with great ingenuity a man character, he selected as a fitting in- plan to save the appearance of a rupture. strument for the work he contemplated. He proposed to the Pope that, since he himBernier was intriguing, avaricious, and un- self was obliged to leave Rome, Consalvi scrupulous; but he was resolute and active. should accompany him in his carriage to He had been formerly a professed royalist, Florence, and proceed from thence to Paris, and this circumstance had enabled him to and endeavour to come to a settlement on be useful to the First Consul in the pacifi- the disputed points. This plan was adopted cation of La Vendée. His position, how- by the Pope, not, however without great reever, in La Vendée had become insupport- luctance; for the idea still prevailed at able, since the unscrupulous nature of his Rome that Paris continued to be a den of intrigues there had been discovered for ferocious assassins and brigands; and the one of his arguments to induce the peasant- Pope took leave of his bosom friend and ry to submit to the new Government was secretary with tears. Consalvi himself that the First Consul was preparing the way shared the apprehensions of the Pope; for for the return of the Bourbons. Bernier he wrote to the Cavaliere Acton, the Minisfound it necessary to remove to Paris, where ter of Ferdinand, King of Naples, The he attached himself to the fortunes of Napo- good of religion demands a victim; I am leon; and in this matter of the Concordat going to the First Consul — I march to marplaced the whole of his intriguing abilities tyrdom : the will of God be accomplished.' at the disposition of the First Consul with- This passage of Consalvi's letter was unfortunately communicated through the French Minister at Naples to the First Consul, and may probably have had some share in producing for Consalvi the reception he met with at Paris.

out reserve.

·

•

Under the conduct of these negotiators and Monsignore Spina the question of the Concordat was discussed at Paris for nearly a year, without apparently much prospect of agreement; every clause of the projected Cardinal Consalvi was a finished type of document seemed bristling with difficulties. the old Roman ecclesiastics, whose amenThe question was, moreover, simultaneously ity of manners, combined with worldly the subject of negotiation at Rome, between sagacity, caused them to be characterised M. Cacault, the French Minister there, and as half swan and half fox,' a mixture of the Pope and Cardinal Consalvi, Papal priestly suavity, diplomatic subtlety, and Secretary of State, and the Sacred College. almost feminine courtesy. In the little M. Cacault was a Breton gentleman, who world of Roman society Consalvi was called had negotiated the treaty of Tolentino on the siren,' and he was said to be as insinthe part of France; and he it was who re-uating as a perfume. He had undoubtedly ceived the famous admonition from Napo- considerable diplomatic and political ability, leon before starting for Rome: N'oubliez though there is something of self-sufficiency pas de traiter le pape comme s'il avait in his Memoirs; his habitual depreciation. deux cent mille hommes à ses ordres.' of Napoleon, and his accounts of his diploThe good sense, plain dealing, and honour-matic and colloquial triumphs, must be reable character of M. Cacault were highly ceived with suspicion from a man who had esteemed by the Roman Court, and his suffered much from the Emperor, and who, pacific counsels exercised a favourable in- after the fall of his great enemy, was fêted fluence on both parties to the negotiation. by all the Courts of Europe, and became a sort of demigod of hospitality to distinguished foreigners at Rome.

At length, after the delivery of projects and counter-projects, and infinite discussion, the First Consul became utterly impatient. and intolerant of what seemed to him to be mere irrelevant quibbles about dogmas; and M. Cacault was directed to inform the Pope that further dilatory measures might be attended with deplorable consequences as well for religion as for his temporal dominion. The French Minister was ordered to retire from Rome to Florence, unless the Concordat as last drawn up at Paris by the French negotiators was accepted. This announcement struck terror into the bosom of the Papal Court. M. Cacault, knowing

The Secretary of State of Pius VII. arrived in Paris in his cardinal's dress: he had met with no disrespect on his journey; nevertheless, he took care while in the capital not to show himself too openly. No ecclesiastic, he tells us, was to be seen in the street; and the churches were still profaned with inscriptions recalling the temporary worship of the goddess of Reason: they were dedicated to Friendship, to Abundance, to Hymen, to Commerce, to Gardens (!), to Fraternity, Liberty, and Equality; people still gave to each other the

appellation of citizens; and he himself was | derful precision of language on all the styled citizen in the course of his journey. topics in dispute between the French GovHe went at once to the Hôtel of Monsig-ernment and the Holy See; and in the nore Spina, where he immediately received course of his argument handled the general the visit of the Abbé Bernier. It was ar- question of Concordats, of the relations of ranged that he should be presented to the Church and State, and of religion, with asFirst Consul on that very day; and on in- tonishing learning, but without anger or quiry as to his costume, he was told, il de- harshness. The general story of the negovait venir le plus en cardinal possible. tiations which ensued may be found in M. Thiers. Here, with M. d'Haussonville, we merely dwell on the points on which we get additional information from the Memoirs of Cardinal Consalvi.

And here ensued a strange scene of surprise for the Cardinal. He dressed himself for the audience, not in his scarlet dress, but in black, with red stockings, cap, and collar. The master of the ceremonies in- The leading points of the Concordat on troduced him to a small apartment on the which the First Consul insisted were these: ground-floor of the palace, where there was resignation of all the bishops - both those no noise or sound of motion, and went to in exile and those styled constitutional; a take the orders of the First Consul. He new allotment of dioceses; a new clergy to returned immediately, and led the Cardinal be established in place of the old; bishops through a side door which opened on to the to be nominated by the First Consul and ingreat staircase, into an immense saloon full ducted by the Pope, and all the clergy to of people all splendidly attired. It hap- be salaried by the State. There was to be pened to be a day of military parade or a renunciation of all the former property of grand reception at the Tuileries, a circum- the Church. There was to be a police des stance of which the Cardinal was ignorant. cultes that is to say, the performance of Perhaps the trick was not intentional. But acts of public worship was to be made subConsalvi, just alighted from his journey, ject to civil authority and the decisions of full of the excitement of travel, and of his the Conseil d'Etat; and such priests as arrival in a strange capital, coming upon had married during the revolution were to this unexpected crowd, naturally considered be admitted to reconciliation with the at first that he was the subject of a coup de théatre.

Church.

The Church of Rome had opposed difficulM. de Talleyrand proceeded to conduct ties and delays to all these demands of Napohim towards another apartment. The Car-leon. The point about which there was the dinal took breath. He was about surely to greatest disagreement was that comprised in be introduced to the private cabinet of the the expression police des cultes; and, moreFirst Consul; but alas! he was shown into over, the Papacy insisted that the Catholic another saloon, of graver and more august Apostolic Roman religion should be declared appearance than any he had yet passed in the preamble of the Concordat the religion through. Three individuals occupied a of the State; or, failing that, the dominant prominent place. These were evidently the religion. Representations were made in three Consuls, of whom the centre figure vain to Consalvi, that to declare the Roman advanced towards him, and after M. de Catholic the dominant religion would create Talleyrand had gone through the ceremony immense opposition in France in the presof presentation, said ent state of public opinion on religious matters, and that it would uselessly irritate all members of other creeds. On this point alone there was infinite discussion. The confer

'Je sais le motif de votre voyage en France. Je veux que l'on ouvre immédiatement les conférences. Je vous laisse cinq jours de temps, et je vous préviens que si, a l'expiration du cin-ences had already lasted twenty-four days, quieme jour, les negociations ne sont pas termi-and there seemed no hope of coming to any nées, vous devrez retourner à Rome, attendu compromise. The First Consul grew so que, quant à moi, j'ai pris mon parti pour une irritated at last, that he suffered a council telle hypothèse.' of the constitutional clergy to assemble in Paris to discuss Church affairs, with a view of impressing Consalvi with the necessity of greater expedition.

The signing of the Concordat was to take place at the house of Joseph Bonaparte, who had been appointed one of the French Commissioners; and the scene which ensued there, according to Consalvi, is unent, spoke with energy, vivacity, and won-paralleled in the history of diplomacy. Ac

These were the first words which Cardinal Consalvi heard from the lips of the man whom M. Cacault called 'l'homme terrible,' 'le petit tigre,' and they were pronounced with coldness and dignity. Consalvi made a conciliatory reply; after which, the First Consul, standing as he was before all pres

cording to his account, when they were pro- | objected to by Consalvi, that concerning ceeding to sign the document, Bernier pro- the police des cultes, should be inserted as duced a paper and placed it before Con- it stood in the Abbé Bernier's copy: on salvi for signature as though it were the this point he would admit of no comproConcordat agreed upon; but, to his aston- mise. Then Consalvi was summarily reishment, when he cast his eyes on the pa- quested to decide on one of two things, to per, he perceived that the clauses before admit the article or break off all negotiahim in nowise corresponded with those tion. Consalvi was in the greatest state of agreed upon and accepted by the First anguish; nevertheless, he refused to admit Consul. It was, in fact, a totally different the article.

same company in splendid array whom he had found there on the day of his arrivalall the ministerial functionaries, the chief generals and the aides-de-camp of the First Consul, and a host of persons who would learn with extreme satisfaction the news of the rupture of negotiations between

instrument. The astonishment of Joseph, To add to Consalvi's embarrassment, all he says, was equally great with his own, this high pressure had been put upon him and he believed it to be unfeigned. He to finish the Concordat with a view of anquestioned the Abbé Bernier, who then nouncing its conclusion in a great banquet stammered out that the change had been to be held that very day at which he himmade by order of the First Consul, self was to be present. Consequently, in who would accept no other stipulations. less than an hour he was at the Tuileries, Consalvi, indignant according to his where he found the apartments crowded statement at this piece of trickery, de- with the same high dignitaries, and the clared he would not sign the document as it stood, and the whole work of the conference seemed at an end. Joseph, however, who had hitherto had nothing to do with the negotiation, appealed to the reason of the Cardinal; he set forth how prejudicial further delay would be to the interests of the Church; he declared that the settle- the Government and the Papacy. The ment of the Concordat had already been announced in the Government papers, and that his brother, who was accustomed to yield to no obstacles, would be roused to the highest pitch of fury and indignation if "Eh bien ! monsieur le cardinal, vous avez the announcement given to the public in voulu rompre! Soit. Je n'ai pas besoin de his own journals in a matter of such Rome. Je n'ai pas besoin du pape. Si Henri importance should be falsified. Consalvi VIII., qui n'avait pas la vingtième partie de ma consented to reopen the negotiation. It puissance, a pu changer la religion de son pays, was then five o'clock in the afternoon, and bien plus le saurai-je faire, et le pourrai-je moi! they began the discussion anew. Neither En changeant de religion, je la changerai à presJoseph Bonaparte nor the Abbé Bernier would allow Consalvi peace or respite till the affair was finished; they plied him with arguments the whole night through, and it was noon the next day before the Concor-ce dat was settled. The discussion had lasted nineteen hours!

First Consul received the Papal Secretary with a terrible frown, and addressed him in that harsh loud cutting tone which was peculiar to him when displeased:

que toute l'Europe, partout où s'étend l'influence
de mon pouvoir. Rome s'apercevra des pertes
qu'elle aura faites. Elle les pleurera, mais il
n'y aura plus remède. Vous pouvez partir : c'est
qu'il vous reste de mieux à faire. Vous avez
voulu rompre.
Eh bien soit, puisque vous
l'avez voulu. Quand partez-vous?"
Après diner, général,” replied Consalvi.'

66

The document having been thus drawn up, Joseph left to communicate it to the According to Consalvi's account, the First Consul. One clause had been can- First Consul was surprised by the promptcelled altogether, as Consalvi declared pos-ness of this reply; however, the Roman itively that he had no powers to grant it; Cardinal began to argue gently and at and Joseph expressed his fears, before leav-length that all points had been settled but ing Consalvi, that his brother would not ac- this one of the police des cultes, and this he cept the Concordat as it now stood even after this last nineteen hours' manipulation. He returned in a short time with an air of vexation, and said the First Consul had at first flown into a fit of exasperation, and torn the paper into a hundred fragments; but that, at his urgent entreaty, he had at last, with the greatest difficulty, been persuaded to accept the Concordat in its last form, upon condition, however, that the article

wished to submit to the Pope, but such liberty was denied him. Bonaparte, however, would not be pacified, and concluded the discussion by saying, Rome versera des larmes de sang sur cette rupture.'

After dinner Consalvi had to submit to another attack from the Austrian Ambassador, Graf von Cobentzel, who besought Consalvi to endeavour, for the welfare of the Holy See and of Europe, to bring the