Pope Pius VII

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Pius VII, O.S.B., born Giorgio Barnaba Luigi Chiaramonti (August 14, 1740 – August 20, 1823), was Pope from March 14, 1800 to August 20, 1823.

Chiaramonti was born at Cesena, the son of conte Scipione Chiaramonti; his mother was of the noble house of Ghini. He was educated at the college reserved for the sons of nobles at Ravenna before joining the Benedictine order in 1756 to continue his studies. He then became a teacher at Benedictine colleges in Parma and Rome. His career became a series of swift promotions following the election of a family friend, Giovanni Braschi, as Pope Pius VI (1775–99). In 1776 Pius VI appointed the 26-year old Barnaba, who had been teaching at the monastery of San Callisto in Rome, abbot of his monastery, to complaints from the brothers. After making him a bishop Pius made him a cardinal in February 1785.

From the time French forces invaded Italy in 1797, the cardinal cautioned temperance and submission to the Cisalpine Republic. In his Christmas homily that year in 1797 he asserted that there was no opposition between a democratic form of government and the constitution of the Catholic Church.

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Election as Pope

Image:Pius VII.jpg Following the death of Pius VI, virtually Napoleon I's prisoner, at Valence in August 1799, the conclave met on November 30, 1799 in the Benedictine monastery of San Giorgio, Venice. There were three main candidates, two of whom proved to be unacceptable to the Habsburgs, whose candidate, Cardinal Mattei, could not secure sufficient votes. After several months of stalemate, Chiaramonti was elected as a compromise candidate. He was crowned Pope Pius VII at Venice on March 21, 1800 in a rather unusual coronation, wearing a papier-mâché papal tiara, the original having been seized by the French along with Pius VI. Then an Austrian vessel brought him to Rome.

One of Pius VII's first acts was to appoint Ercole Consalvi, who had acted as secretary to the recent conclave, to the college of cardinals and to the office of secretary of state.

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Napoleon I and the Pope

From the beginning of his papacy to the fall of Napoleon I in 1815, Pius VII would be completely involved with France. He and Napoleon I would continually be in conflict, often involving the French military leader's wishes for concessions to his demands, while the Pope, although he almost always gave in to Napoleon I, wanted only the return of the Papal States, and later on the release of the 13 Black Cardinals along with several exiled or imprisoned clergymen, monks, nuns, priests, his various supporters including his secretaries of state, and his own release from exile.

Napoleon I realized the importance of religion as a means to increase obedience and his control over the French people. It was not until the conclave of Cardinals had gathered to elect a new Pope that Napoleon I decided to bury Pope Pius VI who had died several weeks earlier, with a gaudy ceremony in an effort to gain the attention of the Catholic church. This eventually led to the Concordat of 1801 negotiated by Ercole Consalvi, the Pope's secretary of state, which re-systemised the linkage between the French church and Rome. However the concordate also contained the "Organic Articles" which Consalvi had fiercely denied Napoleon, but which the latter had installed regardless.

Image:A022ht 5 SedeGest.jpg Against the wish of most of the Curia, Pius VII travelled to Paris for Napoleon I's coronation in 1804. Although the Pope and the papacy were promised several luxurious gifts and monetary donations, the Pope had initially denied most of these offers. In the event, Napoleon I failed to send most of these promised gifts, however he did produce a Papal Tiara, which presented as its main jewel one that had previously been confiscated by Napoleon I from Pope Pius VI.

The papacy had suffered a major loss of church lands in Germany following the Peace of Lunéville (1801), when a number of German princes had compensated for their losses by seizing ecclesiastical property. Whatever hopes Pius VII may have had with Napoleon I, the Papal States were eventually taken by the French around 1808, and when Napoleon I subsequently was excommunicated, one of his officers saw an opportunity to gain praise. Although Napoleon I had captured Castel Sant'Angelo and intimidated the Pope by pointing cannons at his papal bedroom, he did not instruct one of his most ambitious lieutenants, Lieutenant Rachet to kidnap the Pope. Yet once Pius VII was a prisoner, Napoleon I did not offer his release; the Pope would be moved throughout Napoleon I's territories, in great sickness at times, though most of his confinement would take place at Savona. Napoleon I would send several delegations of his supporters to pressure the Pope into various issues, from giving up his power, to signing a new concordat with France. Image:Pius VII monument.jpg

The Pope would remain in confinement for over 6 years, and not return to Rome until 1814 when British forces freed the Pope on a pursuing chase of Napoleonic forces. The Pope in a final remark on the situation, had his seceretary compose a letter to the British government asking for better treatment of the exiled emperor at Saint Helena. One of the final lines of the note can be quoted as to state, “He [Napoleon I] can no longer be a danger to anybody. We would not wish him to become a cause for remorse.”

At the Congress of Vienna (1814–1815) the Papal States were largely restored.

Pope Pius VII's monument (1831) in St. Peter's Basilica, Rome, is by the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, a Protestant.

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