NAPOLEON
GOG
NAPOLEON
that he did not accept the note in any definitive sense,
tliat he considered it only a sketch, and that he had
made Tio formal promise. He also iisked that a cou-
rier should be sent after the bishops to warn them of
this. The courier bearing this mcssanc overtook the
bishops at Turin on 21 May. Pius VII warned Cha-
brol that if the first note were exploited as represent-
ing an arrangement definitely accepted by the i)ope,
he "would make a noi.se that should resound through
the whole Cliristian world"'. Napoleon, in his blind-
n(^, resolved to do without the pope and put all his
hOjjes in the council.
Council of ISll. — The council convoked for9 June, ISll. w:us not opened at Notre-Dame until 17 June, the opening being postponed on account of the bap- tism of the King of Rome, just born of Marie-Louiso. I'alernal pride and the seemingly a.ssurcd destinies of his throne, rendered Napoleon still more inflexible in regard to the i)0))e. Only since 190.") has the truth about this council been known, thanks to Welschin- ger's researches. Under the Second Empire, when D'Haussonville wrote his work on the Roman Church and the First Empire (see below) Marshal Valiant had refused him all access to the archives of the coun- cil. These archives Welschinger was able to consult. Boulogne, Bishop of Troyes, in his opening sermon affirmed the solidarity of the pope and the bishops, while Fe.sch, as president of the council, made all its members swear obedience and fidchty to Pius VII. I'pon this Napoleon gave Fesch a sound rating, on the evening of 19 June, at Saint-Cloud. The emperor had packed his council in very arbitrary fashion, choosing only 42 out of 1.50 Italian bishops to mix with the French bishops, with a view to oecumenical effect. A private bulletin sent to the emperor, 24 June, noted that the fathers of the council themselves were generally impressed with a sense of restraint. The o|)position to the emperor was very firmly led by Broglie, Bishop of Ghent, seconded by Aviau, .\rchbisho[) of Bordeaux, Dessole, Bishop of Cham- bery, and Ilirn, Bishop of Tournai. The first general
- isscmt)ly of the council was held on 20 June. Bigot
de Prdameneu and Marescalchi, ministers of public worship for France and Italy, were present and read the imperial message, one draft of which had been re- jectee! by Napoleon as too moderate. The final version displeased all the bishops who had any regard for the papal dignity. Napoleon in this document demanded that bi.'^hops should be instituted in accord- ance with the forms which had obtained before the Concordat, no see to be vacant for longer than three 7nonth.s, "more than sufficient time for appointing a new incumbent ". He wished the council to present an a<ldre.ss to him, and the committee that should prepare this address to be composed of the four pre- lates he had sent to Savona. The address, which was prepared in advance by Duvoisin, one of these four prelates, was an ex[)res.sion of assent to Napoleon's wishes. But the council decided to have on the com- mittee besides these four prelates, some other bishops chosen by secret ballot, and among the latter figured Broglie. Broglie discussed Duvoisin's draft and had a number of changes made in it, and Fesch had some trouble in keeping the committee from at once de- manding the liberation of the pope. The address, as voted, was nonsensical. It was not what Napoleon expected, and the audience which he was to have given to the members of the council on 30 June, did not take place.
Another committee was appointed by the council to inquire into the pope's views on the institution of bishops. After a conflict of ten days, Broglie secured against Duvoisin, by a vote of 8 to 4, a resolution to tlu! efTcct that, in this matter, nothing must be done without the pope, and that the council ought to send him a deputation to learn what was his will. Napo- leon was furious and said to Fesch and Barral: "I
will dissolve the council. You are a pack of fools".
Then, on second thought, he informed the council
th;it Pius VII by way of concession, had fdniially
promised canonical institution (o the v;icanl liislioprics
and had ,ap|)roved a clause enabling the MK'Iropolit.'Uis
themselves in future, after six months vacancy of any
see, to give canonical institution. Napoleon required
the council to issue a note to this cfTectt and .sent a
depvitalion to thank the pope. First the committee
voted as the emperor wished, then on more mature
consideration, suspecting some strat.agem on the em-
[jcror's part, it rcc'alled its vote, and, on 10 July, Him, '
Bi.shop of Tournai, speaking for the committee, pro-
po.scd to the council that no decision be ma(l(^ until a
deputation had been sent to the poije. Then, on the
morning of 11 July, Napoleon pronounced thi^ council
dissolved. The following night Broglie, Him, and
Boulogne were imprisoned at Vincennes. The em-
peror next thought of turning over the administration
of the dioceses to the prefects, but presently took the
advice of Maury, viz., to have all the members of the
council called up, one by one, by the minister of jiub-
lic worship, and their personal assent to the imperial
project obtained in this way. After fifteen days de-
voted to conversations between the minister and cer-
tain of the bishops, the emperor reeonvoked the coun-
cil for 5 August, and the council, by a vote of 80 to 13,
passed the decree by which canonical institution was
to be given within six months, either by the pope or, if
he refused, by the metropolitan. The bishops who
passed this decree tried to palliate their weakness by
saying that they had no idea of committing an act of
rebellion, but formally asked for, and hoped to obtain,
the pope's assent. Napoleon believed himself victori-
ous; he held in his hands the means of circumventing
the pope and organizing without his co-operation the
administration of French and Italian dioceses. He •
had brought the Sacred College, the Dataria, the Peni-
tentiary, and the Vatican Archives to Paris, and had
spent several millions in impro\'ing the archiepiscopal
palace which he meant to make the pontifical palace.
He wished to remove the Hotel-Dieu, install the de-
partments of the Roman Curia in its place, and make
the quarter of Notre-Dame and the Isle de Saint-
Louis the capital of Catholicism. But his victory was
only apparent: to make the decree of the national
council valid, the pope's ratification was needed, and
once more the resistance of Pius VII was to hold the
emperor in check.
On 17 August Napoleon commissioned the Arch- bishops of Tours and Mechlin, the Patriarch of Ven- ice, the Bishops of Evrcux, Trier, Feltro, and Piacenza to go to Savona and demand of the pope his full ad- hesion to the decree of 5 August; and the bishops were ' even to be precise in stating that the decree applied to episcopal sees in the former Papal States, so that, in giving his assent, Pius VII should by implication as- sent to the abolition of the temporal power. That Pius VII might not allege the absence of the cardinals as a reason for postponing his decisions, Napoleon sent to Savona five cardinals on whom he could rely (Ro- verella, Dugnani, Fabrizio Ruffo, Bayanne, and Doria), with instructions to support the bishops. The emperor's artifice was successful. On 6 September, ISll, Pius VII declared himself ready to yield, and charged Roverella to draw up a Brief approving the Decree of 5 August, and on 20 September the pope signed the Brief. But even then, the Brief as it was, was not what Napoleon wanted: Pius VII abstained from recognizing the council as a national council, he treated the Church of Rome as the mistress of all the Churches, and did not specify that the decree applied to the bishoprics of the Roman States; he also required ■ that, when a metropolitan gave canonical institution, it should be given in the name of the pope. Napoleon did not publish the Brief. On 17 October he ordered the deputation of prelates to notify the pope that the
