To Kidnap a Pope: Napoleon and Pius VII

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Two ecclesiastical conseils met in late 1809 and early 1810 charged with advising the council of state on the most effective means of resolving the episcopal stand-off. Yet their modernising spirit was still present amongst an older generation of European clergy born during the second half of the eighteenth century. It is also a timely reminder of the dangers that ecclesiastical leaders face when they seek to “ride the tiger” of contemporary power politics for transient institutional gain. The book is especially intersting as it deals with the period in history that changes the whole Europe - the Napoleonic wars. They charted an impressive genealogy of anti-Catholic persecution that cast a long shadow into their republican present.

Title Detail: To Kidnap a Pope by Ambrogio A. Caiani

Through this expedient, the Empire sought to appeal to older members of the Catholic hierarchy in France who had lived through the twilight years of Gallicanism and Jansenist controversies over ecclesiology during the second half of the eighteenth century.

An interregnum of three weeks ensued, during which a streamlined version of neo-conciliarism, that left no hostages to fortune, was choreographed behind the scenes.

Ambrogio A. Caiani : To Kidnap a Pope: Napoleon and Pius VII

In this they were natural allies of the papacy, and during the Restoration made some important contributions to political thought.

Footnote 10 By 1809 events spiralled out of control, as French imperial administrators assumed that they could simply impose the concordat and reorganise the ecclesiastical administration in newly conquered territories with little or no consultation with the pope. This book demonstrates the evolution of resilience and recovery as a concept by applying it to a new context, that of courts and monarchies.