Pope Pius VII

Pope Pius VII

Born	14 August 1742, Cesena, Papal States
Died	20 August 1823, Rome, Papal States
State of life	Benedictine monk, bishop, and pope
Religious institute or church	Benedictines (O.S.B.); Holy See
Ecclesial status	Servant of God; diocesan inquiry underway since 2021
Recognition	Nihil obstat received 2007; diocesan inquiry opened 31 October 2021

Pope Pius VII was a Benedictine monk, bishop of Imola, and pope from 1800 to 1823 who defended the Church's freedom during conflict and imprisonment under Napoleon; his cause remains open.

Overview

Pope Pius VII (Italian: Pio VII; born Barnaba Niccolò Maria Luigi Chiaramonti; 14 August 1742 – 20 August 1823) was head of the Catholic Church from 14 March 1800 to his death in August 1823. He was the leader of the Papal States from June 1800 to 17 May 1809 and again from 1814 to his death. Chiaramonti was also a monk of the Order of Saint Benedict in addition to being a well-known theologian and bishop.

Chiaramonti was made Bishop of Tivoli in 1782, and resigned that position upon his appointment as Bishop of Imola in 1785. That same year, he was made a cardinal. In 1789, the French Revolution took place, and as a result a series of anti-clerical governments came into power in the country. In 1798, during the French Revolutionary Wars, French troops under Louis-Alexandre Berthier invaded Rome and captured Pope Pius VI, taking him as a prisoner to France, where he died in 1799. The following year, after a sede vacante period lasting approximately six months, Chiaramonti was elected to the papacy, taking the name Pius VII.

Pius at first attempted to take a cautious approach in dealing with Napoleon. With him he signed the Concordat of 1801, through which he succeeded in guaranteeing religious freedom for Catholics living in France, and was present at his coronation as Emperor of the French in 1804. In 1809, however, during the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleon once again invaded the Papal States, resulting in his excommunication through the papal bull Quum memoranda. Pius VII was taken prisoner and transported to France. He remained there until 1814 when, after the French were defeated, he was permitted to return to Italy, where he was greeted warmly as a hero and defender of the faith.

Pius lived the remainder of his life in relative peace. His papacy saw a significant growth of the Catholic Church in the United States, where Pius established several new dioceses. Pius VII died in 1823 at age 81.

In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI began the beatification process, and Pius VII was granted the title Servant of God.

Life

Origins and formation

Barnaba Niccolò Maria Luigi Chiaramonti entered the Benedictines at Santa Maria del Monte, received the name Gregorio, professed vows, studied and taught theology, and was ordained a priest. Pius VI appointed him bishop of Tivoli and later Imola and created him cardinal. A conclave at Venice elected him pope on 14 March 1800 after revolutionary upheaval. This chronology keeps civil identity, Baptism, family formation, education, migration, and later ecclesial recognition in their proper order. A title conferred after death is not projected backward as though childhood or ordinary formation made the eventual judgment inevitable; the local Church and the people who shared that history retain their own agency.

Vocation and ministry

Pius VII negotiated the 1801 Concordat with France, reorganized dioceses, restored the Society of Jesus, and governed amid Napoleonic demands on papal spiritual and temporal authority. French forces occupied Rome and seized him in 1809. Detention at Savona and Fontainebleau included pressure and concessions he later retracted before he returned to Rome in 1814. The state of life stated here is therefore exact: Holy Orders, religious profession, marriage, lay consecration, or lay discipleship are related but not interchangeable realities. Membership in an institute is asserted only where the competent source documents it, and an apostolate or spiritual friendship never creates an invented postnominal.

Christian witness and legacy

Spirituality

Benedictine prayer, pastoral patience, communion, courage, and mercy shaped the papal witness proposed by the cause. His forgiveness toward Napoleon's family and defense of ecclesial freedom are notable, but a cause does not suspend critical study of concordats, the Papal States, relations with Jews, diplomacy, administration, or decisions conditioned by his era. The accessible center of this witness is sacramental faith expressed through prayer, charity, prudence, justice, fortitude, and fidelity to a concrete vocation. Reported extraordinary favors, visions, healings, or remembered sayings remain subject to historical and ecclesial discernment; none adds to revelation or replaces the Gospel, the sacraments, medical care, or responsible moral judgment.

Work and historical significance

His pontificate restored Church structures after revolution, supported art and scholarship, reestablished religious life, and navigated a European political settlement. Cardinals, diplomats, monks, bishops, civil officials, and Catholic populations shared that history. Pius VII's personal holiness, if eventually recognized, would remain distinct from claims that every policy or temporal arrangement of his government was prudent. Historical significance belongs not only to a named candidate but also to coworkers, families, patients, students, parishioners, local clergy, religious communities, and the people served. Institutions inspired by the life remain accountable to canon law, professional standards, safeguarding, and the dignity and freedom of every person; later growth is evidence of influence, not automatic proof of sanctity.

Cause and veneration

Recognition and present status

The Holy See granted the nihil obstat in 2007, and the Diocese of Savona-Noli began the formal evidentiary phase in its cathedral on 31 October 2021. Pope Francis publicly called Pius VII Servant of God in 2024. No decree of heroic virtues has been promulgated, so he is not Venerable, Blessed, or canonized despite papal office. The controlling evidence is the dated act of the pope, Dicastery, competent diocese, eparchy, patriarchal authority, or authorized postulation cited below. Canonical stages answer different questions and cannot be collapsed: opening or validating an inquiry, recognizing heroic virtue or martyrdom, beatification, and canonization each has its own juridical effect and evidentiary threshold.

Liturgical and devotional scope

The title Servant of God gives Pope Pius VII no authorized public liturgical cult or feast and places no observance in the General Roman Calendar. Papal tomb visits, Benedictine remembrance, portraits, prayers for glorification, and bicentenary events do not authorize veneration reserved to a Blessed or Saint. O.S.B. records his real monastic profession. Anniversary Masses, pilgrimages, portraits, named institutions, private prayers, and reports of favors must be described according to that exact rank. They do not by themselves create a feast, authenticate a miracle, establish a relic cult, or authorize liturgical texts; the competent calendar and ecclesiastical authority govern every public observance.

Biography

Early life

Barnaba Niccolò Maria Luigi Chiaramonti was born in Cesena in 1742, the youngest son of Count Scipione Chiaramonti (30 April 1698 – 13 September 1750). His mother, Giovanna Coronata (? - 22 November 1777), was the daughter of the Marquess Ghini. Though his family was of noble status, they were not wealthy but rather, were of middle-class stock.

Barnaba attended the Collegio dei Nobili in Ravenna but decided to join the Order of Saint Benedict at the age of 14 on 2 October 1756 as a novice at the Abbey of Santa Maria del Monte in Cesena. Two years after this on 20 August 1758, he became a professed member and assumed the name of Gregorio. He taught at Benedictine colleges in Parma and Rome, and was ordained a priest on 21 September 1765.

Episcopate and cardinalate

A series of promotions resulted after his relative, Giovanni Angelo Braschi, was elected Pope Pius VI (1775–99). A few years before this election occurred, in 1773, Chiaramonti became the personal confessor to Braschi. In 1776, Pius VI appointed the 34-year-old Dom Gregory, who had been teaching at the Monastery of Sant'Anselmo in Rome, as honorary abbot in commendam of his monastery. Although this was an ancient practice, it drew complaints from the monks of the community, as monastic communities generally felt it was not in keeping with the Rule of St. Benedict. He served as librarian at the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls.

In December 1782, the pope appointed Dom Gregory as the Bishop of Tivoli, near Rome. Pius VI soon named him, in February 1785, the Cardinal-Priest of San Callisto, and as the Bishop of Imola, an office he held until 1816.

When the French Revolutionary Army invaded Italy in 1797, Cardinal Chiaramonti counseled temperance and submission to the newly created Cisalpine Republic. In a letter that he addressed to the people of his diocese, Chiaramonti asked them to comply "... in the current circumstances of change of government (...)" to the authority of the victorious general Commander-in-Chief of the French army. In his Christmas homily that year, he asserted that there was no opposition between a democratic form of government and being a good Catholic: "Christian virtue makes men good democrats.... Equality is not an idea of philosophers but of Christ...and do not believe that the Catholic religion is against democracy."

Papacy

Election

Following the death of Pope Pius VI, by then virtually France's prisoner, at Valence in 1799, the conclave to elect his successor met on 30 November 1799 in the Benedictine San Giorgio Monastery in Venice. There were three main candidates, two of whom proved to be unacceptable to the Habsburgs, whose candidate, Alessandro Mattei, could not secure sufficient votes. However, Carlo Bellisomi also was a candidate, though not favoured by Austrian cardinals; a "virtual veto" was imposed against him in the name of Francis II and carried out by Cardinal Franziskus Herzan von Harras.

After several months of stalemate, Ercole Consalvi proposed Chiaramonti as a compromise candidate. On 14 March 1800, Chiaramonti was elected pope, certainly not the choice of die-hard opponents of the French Revolution, and took as his pontifical name Pius VII in honour of his immediate predecessor. He was crowned on 21 March—in the adjacent monastery church as Emperor Francis II was not pleased by the choice of the cardinal electors and did not allow them to use San Marco Basilica for the ceremony—by means of a rather unusual ceremony, wearing a papier-mâché papal tiara—the French had seized the tiaras held by the Holy See when occupying Rome and forcing Pius VI into exile. The new pope then left for Rome, sailing on a barely seaworthy Austrian ship, the Bellona, which lacked even a galley. The twelve-day voyage ended at Pesaro and he proceeded to Rome.

Concordat of 1801

One of Pius VII's first acts was appointing the minor cleric Ercole Consalvi, who had performed so ably as secretary to the recent conclave, to the College of Cardinals and to the office of Cardinal Secretary of State. Consalvi immediately left for France, where he was able to negotiate the Concordat of 1801 with the First Consul Napoleon. While not effecting a return to the old Christian order, the treaty did provide certain civil guarantees to the Church, acknowledging "the Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman religion" as that of the "majority of French citizens".

The main terms of the concordat between France and the pope included:

• A proclamation that "Catholicism was the religion of the great majority of the French" but was not the official religion, maintaining religious freedom, in particular with respect to Protestants.
• The Pope had the right to depose bishops.
• The state would pay clerical salaries and the clergy swore an oath of allegiance to the state.
• The church gave up all claims to church lands that were taken after 1790.
• Sunday was reestablished as a "festival", effective Easter Sunday, 18 April 1802.

As pope, he followed a policy of cooperation with the French Republic and subsequently Empire. He was present at the coronation of Napoleon in 1804.

Exile

Due to a reluctance to align the Papal States with the Continental System, France occupied and annexed the Papal States in 1809 and exiled Pius VII to Savona. On 15 November 1809 Pius VII consecrated the church at La Voglina, Valenza, Piedmont with the intention of the Villa La Voglina becoming his spiritual base whilst in exile. His residency was short lived once Napoleon became aware of his intentions of establishing a permanent base and he was soon exiled to France. Despite this, the pope continued to refer to Napoleon as "my dear son" but added that he was "a somewhat stubborn son, but a son still".

This exile ended only when Pius VII signed the Concordat of Fontainebleau in 1813. One result of this new treaty was the release of the exiled cardinals, including Consalvi, who, upon re-joining the papal retinue, persuaded Pius VII to revoke the concessions he had made in it. This Pius VII began to do in March 1814, which led the French authorities to re-arrest many of the opposing prelates. Their confinement, however, lasted only a matter of weeks, as Napoleon abdicated on 11 April of that year. As soon as Pius VII returned to Rome, he immediately revived the Inquisition and the Index of Condemned Books.

Cardinal Bartolomeo Pacca, who was kidnapped along with Pope Pius VII, took the office of Pro-Secretary of State in 1808 and maintained his memoirs during his exile. His memoirs, written originally in Italian, have been translated into English (two volumes) and describe the ups and down of their exile and the triumphant return to Rome in 1814.

Pius VII's imprisonment did in fact come with one bright side for him. It gave him an aura that recognized him as a living martyr, so that when he arrived back in Rome in May 1814, he was greeted most warmly by the Italians as a hero.

Relationship with Napoleon I

From the time of his election as pope to the fall of Napoleon in 1815, Pius VII's reign was completely taken up in dealing with France. He and the Emperor were continually in conflict, often involving the French military leader's wishes for concessions to his demands. Pius VII wanted his own release from exile as well as the return of the Papal States, and, later on, the release of the 13 "Black Cardinals", i.e., the cardinals, including Consalvi, who had snubbed the marriage of Napoleon to Marie Louise, believing that his previous marriage was still valid, and had been exiled and impoverished in consequence of their stand, along with several exiled or imprisoned prelates, priests, monks, nuns and other various supporters.

Restoration of the Jesuits

On 7 March 1801, Pius VII issued the brief Catholicae fidei that approved the existence of the Society of Jesus in the Russian Empire and appointed its first superior general as Franciszek Kareu. This was the first step in the restoration of the order. On 31 July 1814, he signed the papal bull Sollicitudo omnium ecclesiarum which universally restored the Society of Jesus to its previous provinces, and the Jesuits began to resume their work in those countries. He appointed Tadeusz Brzozowski as the Superior General of the order.

Opposition to slavery

Pius VII joined the declaration of the 1815 Congress of Vienna, represented by Cardinal Secretary of State Ercole Consalvi, and urged the suppression of the Atlantic slave trade. This pertained particularly to places such as Spain and Portugal where slavery was economically very important. The pope wrote a letter to King Louis XVIII of France dated 20 September 1814 and to King John VI of Portugal in 1823 to urge the end of slavery. He condemned the slave trade and defined the sale of people as an injustice to the dignity of the human person. In his letter to the king of Portugal, he wrote: "the pope regrets that this trade in blacks, that he believed having ceased, is still exercised in some regions and even more cruel way. He begs and begs the King of Portugal that it implement all its authority and wisdom to extirpate this unholy and abominable shame."

Reinstitution of Jewish Ghetto

Under Napoleonic rule, the Jewish Roman Ghetto had been abolished, and Jews were free to live and move where they pleased. Following the restoration of Papal rule, Pius VII re-instituted the confinement of Jews to the Ghetto, having the doors closed at night.

Other activities

Pius VII issued an encyclical Diu satis in order to advocate a return to the values of the Gospel and universalized the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows for 15 September. He condemned Freemasonry and the movement of the Carbonari in the papal bull Ecclesiam a Jesu Christo in 1821. Pius VII asserted that Freemasons must be excommunicated and it linked them with the Carbonari, an anti-clerical revolutionary group in Italy. All members of the Carbonari were also excommunicated.

His concerns about the work of non-Catholic bible societies were acknowledged by Pope Gregory XVI in the latter's 1844 encyclical letter Inter Praecipuas.

Pius VII was multilingual and had the ability to speak Italian, French, English and Latin.

Cultural innovations

Pius VII was a man of culture and attempted to reinvigorate Rome with archaeological excavations in Ostia which revealed ruins and icons from ancient times. He also had walls and other buildings rebuilt and restored the Arch of Titus. He ordered the construction of fountains and piazzas and erected the obelisk on the Pincian Hill.

The pope also made sure Rome was a place for artists and the leading artists of the time like Antonio Canova and Peter von Cornelius. He also enriched the Vatican Library with numerous manuscripts and books. It was Pius VII who adopted the yellow and white flag of the Holy See as a response to the Napoleonic invasion of 1809.

Canonizations and beatifications

Throughout his pontificate, Pius VII canonized five saints: Angela Merici, Benedict the Moor, Colette Boylet, Francis Caracciolo and Hyacintha Mariscotti. Furthermore, he beatified 27 individuals including Joseph Oriol, Berardo dei Marsi, Giuseppe Maria Tomasi and Crispin of Viterbo.

Consistories

Pius VII created 99 cardinals in nineteen consistories including notable ecclesial figures of that time such as Ercole Consalvi, Bartolomeo Pacca, and Carlo Odescalchi. The Pope also named his two immediate successors as cardinals: Annibale della Genga and Francesco Saverio Castiglioni (the latter of whom it is said Pius VII and his successor would refer to as "Pius VIII").

In addition, Pius VII named 12 cardinals whom he reserved "in pectore". One died before his nomination could ever be published (he was originally nominated in the 1804 consistory), Marino Carafa di Belvedere resigned his cardinalate on 24 August 1807 upon citing a lack of family descendance, and Carlo Odescalchi resigned the cardinalate on 21 November 1838 to enter the Society of Jesus.

In 1801, according to Remigius Ritzler, Pius VII nominated Paolo Luigi Silva as a cardinal in pectore, however, he died before his name could be published. As a result, Pius VII added the Archbishop of Palermo Domenico Pignatelli di Belmonte in his place. In the March 1816 consistory, the former bishop of Saint-Malo Gabriel Cortois de Pressigny was among the cardinals created in pectore in the consistory, though he declined the promotion. Similarly, Giovanni Alliata declined the pope's offer for elevation in the same consistory. According to Niccolò del Re, the Vice-Camerlengo Tiberio Pacca would have been created a cardinal either in the March 1823 consistory, or a future one held by the pope. However, he suggests that a series of controversies beginning in 1820 prevented the pope from naming him to the Sacred College.

The possible miracle of Pius VII

On 15 August 1811 - the Feast of the Assumption - it is recorded that the pope celebrated Mass and was said to have entered a trance and began to levitate in a manner that drew him to the altar. This particular episode aroused great wonder and awe among attendants which included the French soldiers guarding him who were in disbelief of what had occurred.

Relationship with the United States

On the United States' undertaking of the First Barbary War to suppress the Muslim Barbary pirates along the southern Mediterranean coast, ending their kidnapping of Europeans for ransom and slavery, Pius VII declared that the United States "had done more for the cause of Christianity than the most powerful nations of Christendom have done for ages."

For the United States, he established several new dioceses in 1808 for Boston, New York City, Philadelphia and Bardstown. In 1821, he also established the dioceses of Charleston, Richmond and Cincinnati.

Condemnation of heresy

On 3 June 1816, Pius VII condemned the works of Melkite bishop Germanos Adam. Adam's writings supported conciliarism, the view that the authority of ecumenical councils was greater than that of the papacy.

Death and burial

In 1822, Pius VII reached his 80th birthday and his health was visibly declining. On 6 July 1823, he fractured his hip in a fall in the papal apartments and was bedridden from that point onward. In his final weeks he would often lose consciousness and would mutter the names of the cities that he had been ferried away to by the French forces. With the Cardinal Secretary of State Ercole Consalvi at his side, Pius VII died on 20 August at 5 a.m.

He was briefly interred in the Vatican Grottoes but was later buried in a monument in St. Peter's Basilica after his funeral on 25 August.

Beatification process

An application to commence beatification proceedings were lodged to the Holy See on 10 July 2006 and received the approval of Cardinal Camillo Ruini (the Vicar of Rome) who transferred the request to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. The Congregation—on 24 February 2007—approved the opening of the cause responding to the call of the Ligurian bishops.

On 15 August 2007, the Holy See contacted the diocese of Savona-Noli with the news that Pope Benedict XVI had declared "nihil obstat" (nothing stands against) the cause of beatification of the late pontiff, thus opening the diocesan process for this pope's beatification. He now has the title of Servant of God. The official text declaring the opening of the cause was: "Summus Pontifex Benedictus XVI declarat, ex parte Sanctae Sedis, nihil obstare quominus in Causa Beatificationis et Canonizationis Servi Dei Pii Barnabae Gregorii VII Chiaramonti". Work on the cause commenced the following month in gathering documentation on the late pope.

He has since been elected as the patron of the Diocese of Savona and the patron of prisoners.

In late 2018 the Bishop of Savona announced that the cause for Pius VII would continue following the completion of initial preparation and investigation. The bishop named a new postulator and a diocesan tribunal which would begin work into the cause. The formal introduction to the cause (a diocesan investigation into the late pontiff's life) was held at a Mass celebrated in the Savona diocese on 31 October 2021.

The first postulator for the cause was Father Giovanni Farris (2007–18) and the current postulator since 2018 is Fr. Giovanni Margara.

Monuments

Pope Pius VII's monument (1831) in St. Peter's Basilica, adorning his tomb, was created by the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen.

See also

• Apostolic Prefecture of the United States
• Cardinals created by Pius VII
• Jacob Anton Zallinger zum Thurn, papal councillor in German affairs (1805 - 1806)
• John Carroll, first US bishop
• List of popes
• Scipione Chiaramonti

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Pope Pius VII — (BARNABA CHIARAMONTI).

Born at Cesena in the Pontifical States, 14 August, 1740; elected at Venice 14 March, 1800; died 20 August, 1823.

His father was Count Scipione Chiaramonti, and his mother, of the noble house of Ghini, was a lady of rare piety who in 1763 entered a convent of Carmelites at Fano. Here she foretold, in her son's hearing, as Pius VII himself later related, his elevation to the papacy and his protracted sufferings. Barnaba received his early education in the college for nobles at Ravenna. At the age of sixteen he entered the Benedictine monastery of Santa Maria del Monte, near Cesena, where he was called Brother Gregory. After the completion of his philosophical and theological studies, he was appointed professor at Parma and at Rome in colleges of his order. He was teaching at the monastery of San Callisto in the latter city at the accession of Pius VI, who was a friend of the Chiaramonti family and subsequently appointed Barnaba abbot of his monastery. The appointment did not meet with the universal approbation of the inmates, and complaints were soon lodged with the papal authority against the new abbot. Investigation, however, proved the charges to be unfounded, and Pius VI soon raised him to further dignities. After conferring upon him successively the Bishoprics of Tivoli and Imola he created him cardinal 14 Feb., 1785. When in 1797 the French invaded northern Italy, Chiaramonti as Bishop of Imola addressed to his flock the wise and practical instruction to refrain from useless resistance to the overwhelming and threatening forces of the enemy. The town of Lugo refused to submit to the invaders and was delivered up to a pillage which had an end only when the prelate, who had counselled subjection, suppliantly cast himself on his knees before General Augereau. That Chiaramonti could adapt himself to new situations clearly appears from a Christmas homily delivered in 1797, in which he advocates submission to the Cisalpine Republic, as there is no opposition between a democratic form of government and the constitution of the Catholic Church. In spite of this attitude he was repeatedly accused of treasonable proceedings towards the republic, but always successfully vindicated his conduct.

According to an ordinance issued by Pius VI, 13 Nov., 1798, the city where the largest number of cardinals was to be found at the time of his death was to be the scene of the subsequent election. In conformity with these instructions the cardinals met in conclave, after his death (29 Aug., 1799), in the Benedictine monastery of San Giorgio at Venice. The place was agreeable to the emperor, who bore the expense of the election. Thirty-four cardinals were in attendance on the opening day, 30 Nov., 1799; to these was added a few days later Cardinal Herzan, who acted simultaneously as imperial commissioner. It was not long before the election of Cardinal Bellisomi seemed assured. He was, however, unacceptable to the Austrian party, who favoured Cardinal Mattei. As neither candidate could secure a sufficient number of votes, a third name, that of Cardinal Gerdil, was proposed, but his election was vetoed by Austria. At last, after the conclave had lasted three months, some of the neutral cardinals, including Maury, suggested Chiaramonti as a suitable candidate and, with the tactful support of the secretary of the conclave, Ercole Consalvi, he was elected. The new pope was crowned as Pius VII on 21 March, 1800, at Venice. He then left this city in an Austrian vessel for Rome, where he made his solemn entry on 3 July, amid the universal joy of the populace. Of all-important consequence for his reign was the elevation on 11 Aug., 1800, of Ercole Consalvi, one of the greatest statesmen of the nineteenth century, to the college of cardinals and to the office of secretary of state. Consalvi retained to the end the confidence of the pope, although the conflict with Napoleon forced him out of office for several years.

With no country was Pius VII more concerned during his reign than with France, where the revolution had destroyed the old order in religion no less than in politics. Bonaparte, as first consul, signified his readiness to enter into negotiations tending to the settlement of the religious question. These advances led to the conclusion of the historic Concordat of 1801, which for over a hundred years governed the relations of the French Church with Rome (on this compact; the journey of Pius VII to Paris for the imperial coronation; his captivity and restoration, see CONCORDAT OF 1801, CONSALVI; and NAPOLEON I). After the fall of Napoleon a new concordat was negotiated between Pius VII and Louis XVIII. It provided for an additional number of French bishoprics and abrogated the Organic Articles. But liberal and Gallican opposition to it was so strong that it could never be carried out. One of its objects was later realized when in 1822 the circumscription Bull "Paternæ Caritatis" erected thirty new episcopal sees.

At the Peace of Lunéville in 1801, some German princes lost their hereditary rights and dominions through the cession of the left bank of the Rhine to France. When it became known that they contemplated compensating their loss by the secularization of ecclesiastical lands, Pius VII instructed Dalberg, Elector of Mainz, on 2 Oct., 1802, to use all his influence for the protection of the rights of the Church. Dalberg, however, displayed more ardour for his own advancement than zeal in the defence of religious interests, and the seizure of ecclesiastical property was permitted in 1803 by the Imperial Deputation at Ratisbon. The measure resulted in enormous loss for the Church, but the pope was powerless to resist its execution. The ecclesiastical reorganization of Germany now became a pressing need. Bavaria soon opened negotiations in view of a concordat and was shortly after followed by Würtemburg. But Rome would rather treat with the central imperial government than with individual states, and after the suppression of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, Napoleon's aim was to obtain a uniform concordat for the whole Confederation of the Rhine. Subsequent events prevented any agreement before Napoleon's downfall. At the Congress of Vienna (1814-15) Consalvi in vain advocated the restoration of the former ecclesiastical organization. Soon after this event the individual German States separately entered into negotiations with Rome and the first concordat was concluded with Bavaria in 1817. In 1821 Pius VII promulgated in the Bull "De salute animarum" the agreement concluded with Prussia, and the same year another Bull, "Provida Solersque", made a fresh distribution of dioceses in the ecclesiastical province of the Upper Rhine. An arrangement with Rome based on mutual concessions was likewise contemplated in England in regard to Irish ecclesiastical affairs, notably episcopal nominations (the veto). The papal administration favoured the project the more readily seeing that common resistance to Napoleon had brought the Holy See and the British Government more closely together, and that it still stood in need of the assistance of English might and diplomacy. But Irish opposition to the scheme was so determined that nothing could be done, and the Irish clergy remained free from all state control. Similar freedom prevailed in the growing Church of the United States, in which country Pius VII erected in 1808 the Dioceses of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Bardstown, with Baltimore as the metropolitan see. To these dioceses were added those of Charleston and Richmond in 1820, and that of Cincinnati in 1821.

One of the most remarkable successes of his pontificate was the restoration of the Pontifical States, secured at the Congress of Vienna by the papal representative Consalvi. Only a small strip of land remained in the power of Austria, and this usurpation was protested. In the temporal administration of these states some of the features making for uniformity and efficiency introduced by the French were judiciously retained, the feudal rights of the nobility were abolished, and the ancient privileges of the municipalities suppressed. Considerable opposition developed against these measures, and the Carbonari even threatened rebellion; but Consalvi had their leaders prosecuted and on 13 Sept., 1821, Pius VII condemned their principles. Of a more serious nature was the revolution which in 1820 broke out in Spain and which, owing to its anticlerical character, gave great concern to the papacy. It restricted the authority of ecclesiastical courts (26 Sept., 1830); decreed (23 Oct.) the suppression of a large number of monasteries, and prohibited (14 April, 1821) the forwarding of financial contributions to Rome. It also secured the appointment of Canon Villaneuva, a public advocate of the abolition of the papacy, as Spanish ambassador to Rome, and, upon the refusal of Pius VII to accept him, broke off diplomatic relations with the Holy See in 1823. This same year, however, the armed intervention of France suppressed the revolution and King Ferdinand VII repealed the anti-Catholic laws.

During the latter part of the reign of Pius VII, the prestige of the papacy was enhanced by the presence in Rome of several European rulers. The Emperor and Empress of Austria, accompanied by their daughter, made an official visit to the pope in 1819. The King of Naples visited Rome in 1821 and was followed in 1822 by the King of Prussia. The blind Charles Emmanuel IV of Savoy, and King Charles IV of Spain and his queen, permanently resided in the Eternal City. Far more glorious to Pius VII personally is the fact that, after the downfall of his persecutor Napoleon, he gladly offered a refuge in his capital to the members of the Bonaparte family. Princess Letitia, the deposed emperor's mother, lived there; likewise did his brothers Lucien and Louis and his uncle, Cardinal Fesch. So forgiving was Pius that upon hearing of the severe captivity in which the imperial prisoner was held at St. Helena, he requested Cardinal Consalvi to plead for leniency with the Prince-Regent of England. When he was informed of Napoleon's desire for the ministrations of a Catholic priest, he sent him the Abbé Vignali as chaplain.

Under Pius's reign Rome was also the favourite abode of artists. Among these it suffices to cite the illustrious names of the Venetian Canova, the Dane Thorwaldsen, the Austrian Führich, and the Germans Overbeck, Pforr, Schadow, and Cornelius. Pius VII added numerous manuscripts and printed volumes to the Vatican Library; reopened the English, Scottish, and German Colleges at Rome, and established new chairs in the Roman College. He reorganized the Congregation of the Propaganda, and condemned the Bible Societies (q.v.). In 1805 he received at Florence the unconditional submission of Scipione Ricci, the former Bishop of Pistoia-Prato, who had refused obedience to Pius VI in his condemnation of the Synod of Pistoia. The suppressed Society of Jesus he re-established for Russia in 1801, for the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in 1804; for America, England, and Ireland in 1813, and for the Universal Church on 7 August, 1814.

On 6 July, 1823, Pius VII fell in his apartment and fractured his thigh. He was obliged to take to his bed, never to rise again. During his illness the magnificent basilica of St. Paul Without the Walls was destroyed by fire, a calamity which was never revealed to him. The gentle but courageous pontiff breathed his last in the presence of his devoted Consalvi, who was soon to follow him to the grave.

The Bulls of Pius VII are partly in Bullarii Romani continuatio, ed. BARBERI, XI-XV (Rome, 1846-53); DROCHON, Mémoires de cardinal Consalvi (Paris, 1896); PACCA, tr. HEAD, Historical Memoirs of Cardinal Pacca (London, 1850); ARTAUD DE MONTOR, Histoire du Pape Pie VII (3rd ed., Paris, 1839); WISEMAN, Recollections of the Last Four Popes (Boston, 1858); ALLIES, The Life of Pope Pius VII (2nd ed., London, 1897); MACCAFFREY, History of the Catholic Church in the Nineteenth Century (2nd ed., Dublin and St. Louis, 1910); ACTON, The Cambridge Modern History: vol. X, The Restoration (New York, 1907); SAMPSON, Pius VII and the French Revolution, in Amer. Cath. Quarterly Rev. (Philadelphia, Apr., 1908-). See also bibliographies to 1801; CONSALVI, ERCOLE; NAPOLEON I (BONAPARTE).

External links

• Media related to Pius VII at Wikimedia Commons
• Works by or about Pius VII at Wikisource
• Literature by and about Pope Pius VII in the German National Library catalogue
• Works by and about Pope Pius VII in the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (German Digital Library)

Further reading

• Mary H. Allies (1897). Pius the Seventh (1800-1823), by Mary H. Allies. Burns.
• Anderson, Robin. Pope Pius VII, TAN Books & Publishers, Inc., 2001. ISBN 0-89555-678-2
• Browne-Olf, Lillian. Their Name Is Pius (1941) pp 59–130 online
• Caiani, Ambrogio. 2021. To Kidnap a Pope: Napoleon and Pius VII. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300251333
• Hales, E. E. Y. "Napoleon's duel with the Pope" History Today (May 1958) 8#5 pp 328–33.
• Hales, E. E. Y. The Emperor and the Pope: The Story of Napoleon and Pius VII (1961) online Archived 7 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine
• Thompson, J. M.Napoleon Bonaparte: His Rise and Fall (1951) pp 251–75
• Philippe Boutry: Pio VII. In: Massimo Bray (ed.): Enciclopedia dei Papi. Volume 3: Innocenzo VIII, Giovanni Paolo II. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2000 (treccani.it)
• Bernd Blisch (1994). "Pope Pius VII". In Bautz, Traugott (ed.). Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German). Vol. 7. Herzberg: Bautz. cols. 670–673. ISBN 3-88309-048-4.
• Michael Matheus, Lutz Klinkhammer (eds.): Eigenbild im Konflikt. Krisensituationen des Papsttums zwischen Gregor VII. und Benedikt XV. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, 2009, ISBN 978-3-534-20936-1.

Bibliography

• Full list of Pius VII's writings (IT)

Encyclicals

• Diu Satis | Text (EN) | Text (IT)
• Ex quo Ecclesiam | Text (IT)
• Il trionfo | Text (IT)
• Vineam quam plantavit | Text (IT)

Motu proprio

• Le più colte | Text (IT)

Papal bull

• Ecclesiam a Jesu Christo | Text (IT)

Papal briefs

• Magno et acerbo

Sources

• Catholic Encyclopedia "Pope Pius VII"
• Pope Pius VII