Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/528

Rh P O P E D O M Pius VII and was mainly devoted to pointing out liow largely the false decretals, and the application of their doc trines, had been made to subserve the later pretensions of Rome, and more especially her claims to assert the supremacy of the pontiff over general councils. On the accession of Joseph II., in 1780, to the throne of Austria, a new era commenced throughout the empire. Half the monasteries and friaries were suppressed. The bulls Uni- genitus and In Ccena, Domini were declared null and void within the limits of the empire. Toleration was extended to Protestant sects and to members of the Greek Church ; and the introduction of papal dispensations within the Austrian dominions was declared unlawful, unless it could be shown that they were obtained without payment. Pius VI. vainly endeavoured to divert the emperor from his policy of reform by a personal visit to Vienna in 1782. He was received with enthusiasm by the populace, but with coldness by the emperor, and by prince Kaunitz, the emperor s chief adviser, with absolute rudeness. A few years later the outbreak of the French llevolution seemed to portend for the popedom a like fate to that which had overtaken the Jesuit order. A movement which abolished tithes, rejected Catholicism as the state religion, and con fiscated the property of the church and the monastic orders in France was not likely, when its representatives appeared in Italy, to deal leniently with papal institutions. The demeanour of the National Assembly towards Pius himself had not been disrespectful ; but the outrages on religious sentiment and decency itself perpetrated by the Convention drove the alarmed pontiff into the arms of Austria, with whom and the several reigning Italian princes he hastily concluded an offensive league. In the Italian campaign he met accordingly with no mercy at the hands of the Directory, and of Bonaparte acting as their representative. In 1797, first of all at Bologna and subsequently at Tolentino, the most rigorous conditions were imposed. The pontiff was compelled to cede to France not only Avignon and the Venaissin, but also the legations of Bologna, Ferrara, and the Romagna an extent of territory representing fully a third of the papal dominions ; while at the same time a heavy pecuniary contribution was levied. Shortly after the peace of Tolentino (February 1797) Pius was seized with an illness which seemed likely, at his advanced time of life, to prove fatal; and Napoleon, in anticipation of his death, gave instructions that no successor to the office should be elected, and that the papal government should be abolished. The sequel, however, having disappointed these expecta tions, the French ambassador in Home proceeded through his agents to foment an insurrection a design for which the demoralized condition of the capital afforded unusual facilities. The outbreak that ensued was immediately made the pretext for abolishing the existing rule, and in its place the Roman republic was proclaimed (15th February 1798). Neither his estimable character nor his advanced years served to shield the dethroned pontiff from wanton cruelty and indignities. He was treated as virtually a prisoner, his private property confiscated, and at last, after having been removed from one place of con finement to another, lie expired at Valence, in August 1799, at the age of eighty-two. It was under the protection of a schismatic power, that of the emperor of Russia, that, after a lapse of eight months, Pius VII. (1800-23) was elected pope at Venice. To ordinary observers the condition of the papacy at this time seemed almost hopeless ; and the skill with which those who guided its policy converted the very theories and events of the Revolution itself into a ladder whereby to regain the ancient vantage-ground is in its way not less re markable than that contemporary career of military genius which was before long destined to so sudden an eclipse. Latin Christendom, observes Bunsen, seems throughout its history to have been ever vacillating between two extremes that of the grossest superstition and that of the pro- foundest scepticism, of bigotry and of atheism. It can scarcely, indeed, be doubted that the tolerance and indiffer ence, the results of contempt with respect to all religious questions, which followed upon the Revolution largely favoured the reintroduction of Roman doctrine. By the curia itself the experiences of the past were interpreted in a manner eminently favourable to its own pretensions ; the altar, it was asserted, was ever the surest support of the throne, and the spiritual authority claimed by the supreme pontiff afforded the best security for the maintenance of Restora- really free institutions. Pius VII., who as Cardinal Chiara- tion f monte had at one time affected to approve of democratic [j^^ principles, succeeded in gaining the good will of Bonaparte, B ona. and his accession was shortly followed by the concordat of parte. 1801. The First Consul had already astonished the world by the startling change of opinion to which he gave ex pression in the Declaration of Milan, to the effect that &quot; society without religion is like a ship without a compass&quot;; and, having now resolved on the restoration of a monarchical form of government, he effected an apparent reconciliation with the Roman pontiff in order to strengthen his own hands. Catholicism was re-established as the state religion of France ; but the confiscated property of the church was not restored, while the pretended reintroduction of the papal authority was deprived of all real validity by append ing to the concordat certain &quot;articles organiques&quot; which effectually debarred the pontiff from the exercise of any real jurisdiction within the realm. In the concordat made with the Italian republic in 1803 the canon law was revived as the code whereby all questions not provided for in new articles were to be decided. Notwithstanding that he warmly resented the manner in which he had been duped, Pius was ultimately prevailed upon by the consummate address of Talleyrand to crown Napoleon as emperor in Paris. The immediate result of this imprudent act, as regarded the popedom, was the assertion of imperial rights in Rome itself on the part of the new emperor, and a demand that the pontiff should henceforth make common cause with him against the enemies of France. On his Aboli- refusal Pius was made a prisoner, and the temporal sove- ^ on, of reignty of the Roman see declared to be at an end. At al Fontainebleau, in 1813, a new concordat was wrung from powe r. the infirm and aged pontiff (whose position and treatment strongly recalled those of his predecessor), and he was compelled to surrender almost the last remnants of his authority in France and to disown all claim to rank as a temporal ruler. Pius VII. survived, however, not only to witness the overthrow of his oppressor, but to regain with the Restoration both his spiritual and temporal preroga tives ; and it was a notable feature in the proceedings that his resumption of the traditional pontifical rights in connexion with the legations was effected, in opposition to the wishes of Austria, with the support of England. He regained his chair, indeed, amid the best wishes of the Protestant powers, a sympathy which, had he chosen to throw his influence into the scale that favoured advance ment and reform, he might have retained unimpaired to the close of his pontificate. His policy, however, was thenceforth altogether reactionary. On the one hand he suppressed the circulation of the Scriptures in the verna cular ; on the other, by a bull of 7th August 1814, he recalled the Jesuits, who since their dispersion in Latin Christendom had transferred the scene of their labours to Prussia and Russia. In other respects Pius s adminis- g ucces tration of his office was exemplary, and the same may be S ors of said of that of his successors, LEO XII. (1823-29), Pius PiusV