6 of evangelic sweetness; his imperial anta- to the Cardinal Chiaramonti made a wide gonist was a man of insatiable ambition, of impression among the inhabitants of the Cæsarian force of will. To appreciate still Legations; and these circumstances unmore thoroughly the character of this ex- doubtedly influenced the conclave in fixing emplary Pontiff, it must be remembered that upon Chiaramonti as the most eligible he had not, like his predecessor Pius VI., member of the Sacred College for the any bigoted aversion to the new doctrines vacant Papacy. If any accord was to be of the time; on the contrary, he had large brought about between Rome and revolusympathies with the philanthropic aspira- tionary France, such a character presented tions of the leading spirits of the Revolu- the greatest chances of its accomplishment. tionary school, and believed that the new It must be added also that the Pope himmovement would, in spite of the crimes and self was at first fascinated by the genius of extravagances which accompanied it, prove Napoleon. He had for him,' says Conultimately beneficial to the spiritual as well salvi in his Memoirs,' 'a mingled sense of as material interests of humanity; and that admiration, fear, paternal tenderness, and the leading principles of the new doctrines gratitude for the powerful and ready hand were not irreconcilable with the tradition- with which he re-established the Church in ary supremacy of Rome as the religious France.' Probably he felt in his heart a mistress of the world. These convictions religious conviction that such an astoundPius VII. expressed in a very remarkable ing prodigy of genius and ambition was not homily, the most significant document, so sent into the world without a Divine purfar as study of himself is concerned, which pose. From this fascination he never freed ever issued from his pen. It was published himself, even in the days when he suffered while he was Bishop of Imola, two months unmerited and even cruel persecution at after the signature of the treaty of Campo the hands of his Imperial captor. In the Formio. In this homily, addressed, on solitary oratory of his prison at Savona the Christmas Day, 1799, to the people of his victim prayed earnestly and fervently for diocese in the Cisalpine Republic, he re- his oppressor; and to his latest days his commended entire submission to the new old affection for the author of his afflictions order of things, and demonstrated that the survived the recollection of insult and inprinciples of democratic government were jury. founded on principles quite in harmony Immediately on the election of Pius VII., with the teachings of the Scriptures. He the political difficulties inseparable from the even quoted some words from the profes-union of the spiritual and temporal power sion of faith of the Vicaire Savoyard:- of the Papacy commenced, and that not 'Je vous avoue que la majesté des Ecri- with a heretic or infidel power, but with tures m'étonne; la sainteté de l'Evangile such orthodox sons of the Church as the parle à mon cœur.' The Bishop and Prince sovereigns of Austria and Naples. Previof the Church was found to be acquainted ous to the battle of Marengo, the Austrians with the writings of Rousseau, and adduced were in possession of the Legations, and them in support of his argument! indeed of the whole Pontifical territory When the French troops first invaded nearly up to the gates of Rome, which they the Legations under Bonaparte, all the had acquired by conquest from the French. other Bishops quitted their dioceses No effort had been spared to induce the Chiaramonti alone remained: this conduct new Pope to make permanent cession of caused him to be mentioned by the French the spoils of the French Republicans to General in his address to the inhabitants of Austria. The Austrian envoy, the MarAncona when he received the keys of the chese Ghislieri, was not content eveń with town. The Bishop of Ancona had left the menaces, but, on pretence of conveying the place, and, in remarking on the fact, he Pope back to Rome by sea, put him on said, Celui d'Imola, qui est aussi cardinal, board ar Austrian frigate, and kept him ne s'est pas enfui; je ne l'ai pas vu en virtually a prisoner on board for twelve passant, mais il est à son poste.' This days, during which time he harassed the praise accorded by the victorious General Pope incessantly to procure the cession of the Legations. At length Pesaro was reached, and Ghislieri escorted the Pope to Ancona, where intelligence of a surprising character reached them. The battle of Marengo had been fought. Ghislieri now ceded the Legations with alacrity, and took his leave of the Pope, who proceeded to Rome, though the Neapolitans still held possession of the city till ejected by the peace of Florence. It may be said, if the Head of the Church met with such treat ment from the hands of the champions of the ancient order of Europe, what might not be expected from a Revolutionary Power? Such conduct must doubtless have made a deep impression on the mind of Pius VII., and rendered him the more willing to enter into relations with the First Consul, who had just uttered a string of generous and magniloquent phrases in defence of the clergy and religion of Rome, which met with an eager response in the heart of the new Pontiff. ing all the obstacles which stand in the way of an entire reconciliation of France with the Head of the Church.'* This first public declaration of Napoleon in the matter of religion had, as he intended it should have, an immense effect. His vast intelligence, with prophetic ambition, was already marshalling his schemes of empire. He had long come to the conclusion that some form of national religion is a his education, his love of unity, his Italian necessity for any stable Government; and sympathies, and his natural taste for grandeur, led him to regard the Roman Catholic Church as the ecclesiastical institution best suited to his purpose. This address to the clergy of Milan was delivered eight days before Marengo. After Marengo, in defiance of the sarcasms of Deists and Voltairians at Paris, he had a Te Deum sung in the cathedral; and after the conclusion of the armistice with Austria, he expressed his de One of the most remarkable characteris-sire to enter into negotiations on the subtics of history is that of the strange parallel- ject of religious affairs in France, and reisms and coincidences of the destinies of quested that Pius VII. would send for persons who are designed to play simultanthat purpose Monsignore Spina, archbishop eously a great part in human affairs. Na-in partibus of Corinth, to Turin, and subsepoleon had crossed the Great Saint Ber- quently to Paris. nard precisely at the time at which Pius VII. was sending forth his encyclical letter announcing his elevation. He entered Milan on the 3rd of June, 1800, and before leaving that city to contest the domination of the Italian peninsula with Melas, addressed a most remarkable speech to the assembled clergy of the capital of Lombardy. He declared that whatever disorder in religious affairs had been caused by his first invasion of Italy had taken place entirely against his will. At that time, however, he was but the simple agent of a Government who had no care whatever for the Catholic religion. "At the present time I am provided with full powers, and I am decided to exercise every means I believe to be the most proper for the protection of this religion. France has learnt a lesson from her misfortunes, and has opened her eyes; she has recognised that the Catholic religion is the only anchor of salvation amid the storms of the tempest. Napoleon in this, as in all the negotiations he undertook, depended entirely upon himself for the leading principles of the arrangement, and entrusted third parties only with matters of detail. Under the guidance of M. Portalis, a well-known jurist, and one of the chief compilers of the Code Napoléon, he had already employed his vast and penetrating intelligence in mastering the chief points of ecclesiastical history, and the previous relations of the Holy See with France. M. Portalis was admirably qualified for the subordinate part he intended him to play, and was, moreover, a sincere Catholic; and to him he entrusted the chief part in the business of drawing up the Concordat with Monsignore Spina. M. de Talleyrand, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, as an ex-bishop of the Church of France, necessarily stood in too delicate a position towards a Power whom he had deserted, to be put prominently forward; he was reserved for critical emergencies. 'As soon as I can communicate with the new *Correspondance de l'Empereur Napoléon I., vol. Pope, I trust I shall have the happiness of smooth-v1. pp. 340, 341. But Napoleon had to his hand a Churchman, the Abbé Bernier, a Breton by birth, whom, with his wonderful insight into human character, he selected as a fitting instrument for the work he contemplated. Bernier was intriguing, avaricious, and unscrupulous; but he was resolute and active. He had been formerly a professed royalist, and this circumstance had enabled him to be useful to the First Consul in the pacification of La Vendée. His position, how-by the Pope, not, however without great reever, in La Vendée had become insupportable, since the unscrupulous nature of his intrigues there had been discovered for one of his arguments to induce the peasantry to submit to the new Government was that the First Consul was preparing the way for the return of the Bourbons. Bernier found it necessary to remove to Paris, where he attached himself to the fortunes of Napoleon; and in this matter of the Concordat placed the whole of his intriguing abilities at the disposition of the First Consul with that it was useless to attempt to persuade Pius VII. to yield at once to this summary ultimatum, devised with great ingenuity a plan to save the appearance of a rupture. He proposed to the Pope that, since he himself was obliged to leave Rome, Consalvi should accompany him in his carriage to Florence, and proceed from thence to Paris, and endeavour to come to a settlement on the disputed points. This plan was adopted out reserve. The luctance; for the idea still prevailed at Under the conduct of these negotiators and Monsignore Spina the question of the Concordat was discussed at Paris for nearly a year, without apparently much prospect of agreement; every clause of the projected Cardinal Consalvi was a finished type of document seemed bristling with difficulties. the old Roman ecclesiastics, whose amenThe question was, moreover, simultaneously ity of manners, combined with worldly the subject of negotiation at Rome, between sagacity, caused them to be characterised M. Cacault, the French Minister there, and as half swan and half fox,' a mixture of the Pope and Cardinal Consalvi, Papal priestly suavity, diplomatic subtlety, and Secretary of State, and the Sacred College. almost feminine courtesy. In the little M. Cacault was a Breton gentleman, who world of Roman society Consalvi was called had negotiated the treaty of Tolentino on the siren,' and he was said to be as insinthe part of France; and he it was who re-uating as a perfume. He had undoubtedly ceived the famous admonition from Napo- considerable diplomatic and political ability, leon before starting for Rome: N'oubliez though there is something of self-sufficiency pas de traiter le pape comme s'il avait in his Memoirs; his habitual depreciation. deux cent mille hommes à ses ordres.' of Napoleon, and his accounts of his diploThe good sense, plain dealing, and honour-matic and colloquial triumphs, must be reable character of M. Cacault were highly esteemed by the Roman Court, and his pacific counsels exercised a favourable influence on both parties to the negotiation. At length, after the delivery of projects and counter-projects, and infinite discussion, the First Consul became utterly impatient and intolerant of what seemed to him to be mere irrelevant quibbles about dogmas; and M. Cacault was directed to inform the Pope that further dilatory measures might be attended with deplorable consequences as well for religion as for his temporal dominion.' The French Minister was ordered to retire from Rome to Florence, unless the Concordat as last drawn up at Paris by the French negotiators was accepted. This announcement struck terror into the bosom of the Papal Court. M. Cacault, knowing ceived with suspicion from a man who had suffered much from the Emperor, and who, after the fall of his great enemy, was fêted by all the Courts of Europe, and became a sort of demigod of hospitality to distinguished foreigners at Rome. The Secretary of State of. Pius VII. arrived in Paris in his cardinal's dress: he had met with no disrespect on his journey; nevertheless, he took care while in the capital not to show himself too openly. No ecclesiastic, he tells us, was to be seen in the street; and the churches were still profaned with inscriptions recalling the temporary worship of the goddess of Reason: they were dedicated to Friendship, to Abundance, to Hymen, to Commerce, to Gardens (!), to Fraternity, Liberty, and Equality; people still gave to each other the appellation of citizens; and he himself was derful precision of language on all the styled citizen in the course of his journey. topics in dispute between the French GovHe went at once to the Hôtel of Monsig-ernment and the Holy See; and in the nore Spina, where he immediately received the visit of the Abbé Bernier. It was arranged that he should be presented to the First Consul on that very day; and on inquiry as to his costume, he was told, il devait venir le plus en cardinal possible. course of his argument handled the general question of Concordats, of the relations of Church and State, and of religion, with astonishing learning, but without anger or harshness. The general story of the negotiations which ensued may be found in M. Thiers. Here, with M. d'Haussonville, we merely dwell on the points on which we get additional information from the Memoirs of Cardinal Consalvi. - And here ensued a strange scene of surprise for the Cardinal. He dressed himself for the audience, not in his scarlet dress, but in black, with red stockings, cap, and collar. The master of the ceremonies in- The leading points of the Concordat on troduced him to a small apartment on the which the First Consul insisted were these: ground-floor of the palace, where there was resignation of all the bishops both those no noise or sound of motion, and went to in exile and those styled constitutional; a take the orders of the First Consul. He new allotment of dioceses; a new clergy to returned immediately, and led the Cardinal be established in place of the old; bishops through a side door which opened on to the to be nominated by the First Consul and ingreat staircase, into an immense saloon full ducted by the Pope, and all the clergy to of people all splendidly attired. It hap- be salaried by the State. There was to be pened to be a day of military parade or a renunciation of all the former property of grand reception at the Tuileries, a circum- the Church. There was to be a police des stance of which the Cardinal was ignorant. cultes that is to say, the performance of Perhaps the trick was not intentional. But acts of public worship was to be made subConsalvi, just alighted from his journey, ject to civil authority and the decisions of full of the excitement of travel, and of his the Conseil d'Etat; and such priests as arrival in a strange capital, coming upon had married during the revolution were to this unexpected crowd, naturally considered be admitted to reconciliation with the at first that he was the subject of a coup de théatre. M. de Talleyrand proceeded to conduct him towards another apartment. The Cardinal took breath. He was about surely to be introduced to the private cabinet of the First Consul; but alas! he was shown into another saloon, of graver and more august appearance than any he had yet passed through. Three individuals occupied a prominent place. These were evidently the three Consuls, of whom the centre figure advanced towards him, and after M. de Talleyrand had gone through the ceremony of presentation, said - Church. The Church of Rome had opposed difficulties and delays to all these demands of Napoleon. The point about which there was the greatest disagreement was that comprised in the expression police des cultes; and, moreover, the Papacy insisted that the Catholic Apostolic Roman religion should be declared in the preamble of the Concordat the religion of the State; or, failing that, the dominant religion. Representations were made in vain to Consalvi, that to declare the Roman Catholic the dominant religion would create immense opposition in France in the present state of public opinion on religious matters, and that it would uselessly irritate all 'Je sais le motif de votre voyage en France. members of other creeds. On this point alone Je veux que l'on ouvre immédiatement les con- there was infinite discussion. The conferférences. Je vous laisse cinq jours de temps, et je vous préviens que si, a l'expiration du cin-ences had already lasted twenty-four days, quieme jour, les negociations ne sont pas termi-and there seemed no hope of coming to any nées, vous devrez retourner à Rome, attendu compromise. The First Consul grew so que, quant à moi, j'ai pris mon parti pour une telle hypothèse.' irritated at last, that he suffered a council of the constitutional clergy to assemble in Paris to discuss Church affairs, with a view of impressing Consalvi with the necessity of greater expedition. These were the first words which Cardinal Consalvi heard from the lips of the man whom M. Cacault called 'l'homme terrible,' The signing of the Concordat was to take 'le petit tigre,' and they were pronounced place at the house of Joseph Bonaparte, with coldness and dignity. Consalvi made who had been appointed one of the French a conciliatory reply; after which, the First Commissioners; and the scene which enConsul, standing as he was before all pres- sued there, according to Consalvi, is unent, spoke with energy, vivacity, and won-paralleled in the history of diplomacy. Ac cording to his account, when they were pro- objected to by Consalvi, that concerning ceeding to sign the document, Bernier pro- the police des cultes, should be inserted as duced a paper and placed it before Con- it stood in the Abbé Bernier's copy: on salvi for signature as though it were the this point he would admit of no comproConcordat agreed upon; but, to his aston- mise. Then Consalvi was summarily reishment, when he cast his eyes on the pa- quested to decide on one of two things, to per, he perceived that the clauses before admit the article or break off all negotiahim in nowise corresponded with those tion. Consalvi was in the greatest state of agreed upon and accepted by the First anguish; nevertheless, he refused to admit Consul. It was, in fact, a totally different the article. instrument. The astonishment of Joseph, To add to Consalvi's embarrassment, all he says, was equally great with his own, this high pressure had been put upon him and he believed it to be unfeigned. He to finish the Concordat with a view of anquestioned the Abbé Bernier, who then nouncing its conclusion in a great banquet stammered out that the change had been to be held that very day at which he himmade by order of the First Consul, self was to be present. Consequently, in who would accept no other stipulations. less than an hour he was at the Tuileries, Consalvi, indignant according to his where he found the apartments crowded statement at this piece of trickery, de- with the same high dignitaries, and the clared he would not sign the document same company in splendid array whom he as it stood, and the whole work of the con- had found there on the day of his arrivalference seemed at an end. Joseph, how- all the ministerial functionaries, the chief ever, who had hitherto had nothing to do generals and the aides-de-camp of the with the negotiation, appealed to the reason First Consul, and a host of persons who of the Cardinal; he set forth how prejudi- would learn with extreme satisfaction the cial further delay would be to the interests news of the rupture of negotiations between of the Church; he declared that the settle- the Government and the Papacy. The ment of the Concordat had already been First Consul received the Papal Secretary announced in the Government papers, and with a terrible frown, and addressed him in that his brother, who was accustomed to that harsh loud cutting tone which was yield to no obstacles, would be roused to peculiar to him when displeased: the highest pitch of fury and indignation if "Eh bien ! monsieur le cardinal, vous avez the announcement given to the public in voulu rompre! Soit. Je n'ai pas besoin de his own journals in a matter of such Rome. Je n'ai pas besoin du pape. Si Henri importance should be falsified. Consalvi VIII., qui n'avait pas la vingtième partie de ma consented to reopen the negotiation. It puissance, a pu changer la religion de son pays, was then five o'clock in the afternoon, and bien plus le saurai-je faire, et le pourrai-je moi! they began the discussion anew. Neither En changeant de religion, je la changerai à presJoseph Bonaparte nor the Abbé Bernier que toute l'Europe, partout où s'étend l'influence would allow Consalvi peace or respite till de mon pouvoir. Rome s'apercevra des pertes the affair was finished; they plied him with qu'elle aura faites. Elle les pleurera, mais il arguments the whole night through, and it n'y aura plus remède. Vous pouvez partir : c'est faire. Vous avez was noon the next day before the Concor-ce qu'il vous reste de mieux voulu rompre. dat was settled. The discussion had lasted nineteen hours! Eh bien soit, puisque vous l'avez voulu. Quand partez-vous?" Après diner, général," replied Consalvi.' The document having been thus drawn up, Joseph left to communicate it to the According to Consalvi's account, the First Consul. One clause had been can- First Consul was surprised by the promptcelled altogether, as Consalvi declared pos- ness of this reply; however, the Roman itively that he had no powers to grant it; Cardinal began to argue gently and at and Joseph expressed his fears, before leav-length that all points had been settled but ing Consalvi, that his brother would not accept the Concordat as it now stood even after this last nineteen hours' manipulation. He returned in a short time with an air of vexation, and said the First Consul had at first flown into a fit of exasperation, and torn the paper into a hundred fragments; but that, at his urgent entreaty, he had at last, with the greatest difficulty, been persuaded to accept the Concordat in its last form, upon condition, however, that the article this one of the police des cultes, and this he wished to submit to the Pope, but such liberty was denied him. Bonaparte, however, would not be pacified, and concluded the discussion by saying, Rome versera des larmes de sang sur cette rupture.' After dinner Consalvi had to submit to another attack from the Austrian Ambassador, Graf von Cobentzel, who besought Consalvi to endeavour, for the welfare of the Holy See and of Europe, to bring the |