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HOW THE PAPACY WAS AFFECTED BY NAPOLEON

The question how the papacy was affected by Napoleon’s conquest can be answered
in two ways. The first is the direct influence that it had on the papacy and the Church
during the time he was the first consul of France. The second is, how the Papacy was
affected from then on, in other words, how the reign of Napoleon influenced the papacy
for the years to come. In this paper, although we will deal only with the first question,
there are some comments referring to the second.
We start by saying that Napoleon was brought up as a Catholic, he attended mass
every day and vespers, as well as bimonthly communion, monthly confession and
catechism every Sunday. In 1984 he was transferred to a military school in Paris where
his religious formation revolved far too much around the external practices imposed by
the school discipline, as well as reflecting the 18th century spirit. He possessed a
rapacious mind finding solace in books, such as ancient classics, but especially in his
contemporaries Rousseau, Voltaire, Montesquieu, Mably, and Reynald. As a result, the
rationalism of the Enlightenment penetrated his spirit and displaced his weakly rooted
Christian beliefs. In other words, the crisis that caused Napoleon’s detachment from the
Church was intellectual rather than moral. Later he sided with the French revolution.
The fact that Napoleon abandoned the faith, did not mean that he could not use it.
As soon as he ascended to power as first Consul, he showed himself as someone intent in
promoting politics that were less restrictive towards the Church. The people reacted
benevolently. He realized that being in favour of the Church served well in wining
popularity for himself and contributed to making his rule more acceptable for the people,
a rule that became day by day more authoritarian.
He looked for reconciliation with the Church. He did it, not guided by religious
motives but guided exclusively by political interest (see Doc 4.5. pag. 45). He knew that
rural France wanted to remain Catholic. It was better to use, for his own benefit, the
influence of the priests, than to fight it. We have to remember that Napoleon was an
enlightened despot in the 18th century style, influenced by the philosophers of that period.
He did not believe Catholicism as the one true religion but believed that all religions had

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some value and they should be permitted where they existed, and of course they could be
well used for the state. He believed in controlling religion but not imposing it on others.

CONCORDAT OF 1801 (See pag. 46, doc 4.6)

Since the population as a whole clung to Catholicism, he sought to utilized. This he
considered too that for the unity of the country it was required to end the schism caused
by the civil constitution of the clergy 1790 (see page 42, doc 4.2). He obliged all bishops
(of the new and old regime) to resign and so the First Consul would name the entire
hierarchy. He recognized Puis VII’s authority but on the condition that he recognize the
legitimacy of Napoleon’s government. He even recognized the authority of the Pope to
remove bishops and appoint others but he insisted on the liberty of cults, and that
Catholicism must not be the state religion. The liberty accorded to public cult should be
submitted to police regulation if it seemed necessary. And after many difficulties he
arrived to an accord with the Church in the year 1801.
With the Concordat it was possible to restore Catholicism in France, after 10 years
of cruel persecutions against the clergy and several attempts to de-Christianize society.
Napoleon wanted to insert the ecclesiastical organization inside his vast
administrative system, as another side of public life. Even so religion had to be
attentively regulated according to the “organic articles” (see pag. 46. doc. 4.6, b).
This Concordat is of great importance not only for the Church’s history, but for the
world’s history as well. This Concordat found new ways of relating between modern
governments and Catholic Church, between civil authority and religion of the country.
For the first time in history a Concordat involving the Catholic Church within a “Catholic
country”, did not specify Catholicism as the religion of the state and instead was oriented
towards the prospective of religious liberty. It can be considered as the first “modern”
Concordat of History.
“Many historians say that in the long term, it was more useful for the Papacy than for
the modern state. In fact it recognizes the Pope’s jurisdictional authority over the
Gallican Church unknown in the past… It contributed also to create the historical

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conditions that favored the future magisterial pronouncements on infallibility and on

the primacy of the Pope over the Church”.1

CONFLICT WITH PIUS VII

The difficulties of the French Concordat were added to those of the Italian
Concordat, 1803. The coronation of Napoleon as king of Italy introduced northern Italy
to French laws and institutions that were inspired by the French Revolution. Pius VII
refused to conclude the German Concordat that proposed a ecclesiastical reorganization
in Germany. In 1806 he integrated Naples, Venice and the duchies with the kingdom of
Italy and extended to those regions the Italian Concordat and the French legal code. Pius
VII protested.
Napoleon demanded the Papal States expel foreign agents and closed his ports to
the allies. Later he asked explicitly to the Pope to close the ports to the British, he even
asked military aid against the heretics, “our common enemies”. As father of all
Christians, the Pope refused. Napoleon ordered the occupation of Rome, the annexation
of the Papal States to the French Empire, and when the Pope retaliated, by
excommunicating the perpetrators, he ordered the Pope to be removed and taken as a
prisoner to Savona, Northern Italy.
When Pius was deprived of his liberty, he refused to exercise his papal powers or to
institute bishops canonically. Vacant sees multiplied and Napoleon tried to fix this by
convening an ecclesiastical committee, but it failed. Napoleon tried to appoint Jean
Maury to the see of Paris and caused the diocesan chapter to confer on him the powers of
vicar capitular, but, Pius VII ruined his plans by sending a brief secretly to Paris that
declared Maury’s powers null. Napoleon called for an Imperial council, but the bishops
that bowed to his will individually, as a group resisted him.
Napoleon transferred the Pope to Fontainebleau, near Paris. After a disastrous
expedition to Russia, Napoleon came back and decided to overcome the Pope with a new
Concordat. The Pope signed the so called Concordat of Fontainebleau but this text was

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“Molti storici ritengono che alla lunga esso fu piu utile al Papato che non allo stato moderno. Infatti
riconobbe al Pontefice un’autorita giuridizionale sulla Chiesa gallicana sconociuta nel pasato... Cio
contribui anche a creare le condizione storiche che evrebbero favorito i futuri pronunciamenti magisteriali
sull’infallibilita pontificia e sul primato del papa sulla Chiesa”. Giovanni Sale, “Il Concordato de 1801 Tra
Napoleone e Pio VII”, la Civilta Catolica, (16 Feb 2002), 336-49.

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meant to be only a preliminary document, a sketch for a later document. Napoleon, in bad
faith, published the document. The Pope withdrew the concessions envisaged by him as
the basis of the accord. Napoleon eventually freed the Pope as military defeat
overwhelmed him.

CONCLUSION
Napoleon took revolutionary France and turned it into a military dictatorship and an
instrument of his ambitions. After his military genius had subdued Western Europe, he
introduced into the territories the ideology of the revolution, whose devotee he claimed to
be. Napoleon utilized religion to promote his policies. However he met a strong opponent
in the figure of Pius VII. They made accords, compromises for peace.
After the downfall of Napoleon the Papal States were taken back and generally
there was a much more benign attitude towards the Church. Allied powers returned the
territories to the states of the Church. Pius VII restored the Society of Jesus immediately
after his return from Fontainebleau in 1814 (where he was detained). They helped to
reorganize the Church in Europe and in the mission fields. It was very important that the
papacy, which had been much weakened since the 17th century, may have taken the lead
in this matter. From this point on dates the upswing of papal spiritual power, the trend
towards centralization of ecclesial administrative power in Rome, and the papal primacy
of jurisdiction throughout the Church.