LX. 1809. Chartreuse of Florence. From thence their journey CHAP. was continued more leisurely to Alessandria, which they reached on the 15th. More than once in the course of the journey, the Pope and his companion were obliged to exert their influence with the peasants to prevent a forcible attempt at rescue, which the rural crowds, indignant at this scandalous treatment of the head of the Church, were preparing to make. Before leaving Rome, a wellconceived project had been secretly communicated to Pius VII. for delivering him from his oppressors, and securing his escape on board an English frigate, which was cruising for that purpose off Civita Vecchia; but he refused on any account to leave his post. At Florence he was separated from Cardinal Pacca, who was conducted by a separate route to Grenoble, and soon after, by a special order from Napoleon, transferred to the state prison of Fenestrelles in Savoy, where, amidst Alpine Aug. 3. snows, he was confined to a dungeon a close prisoner till the beginning of 1813. Then, as the Emperor, after the Jan. 30. disasters of the Moscow campaign, found it for his interest to conciliate the Pope, the cardinal was liberated, and joined his captive master at Fontainebleau. The Pope himself was hurried across the Alps by Mont Cenis ; but, as he approached France, the enthusiasm of the people redoubled; insomuch that, when he reached Grenoble, his cortège had rather the appearance of a beloved sovereign returning to his dominions, than of a captive pontiff on his way to confinement in a foreign land. By a singular coincidence, the enfeebled remnant of the heroic garrison of Saragossa were at that period in Grenoble; they hastened in crowds to meet their July 21. distressed Father, and, when his carriage appeared in sight, fell on their knees as one man, and received his earnest benediction. A captive pope inspired to 1 Pacca, i. these captive heroes a respect which they would never 167, 183. have felt for the mighty conqueror who had enthralled 241, 245. them both! Such, in generous and uncorrupted minds, 1813. Artaud, ii. CHAP. is the superiority religion confers to all the calamities of LX. 1809. 78. approves of the Pope's seizure. 1 Nap. in v. 261. Month. i. 130. life. Napoleon has protested at St Helena, and apparently Napoleon with truth, that he was not privy to the actual seizure of the Pope; and that, when he first received the intelligence, he was at a loss what to do with his august captive. But it requires no argument to show, that neither Las Cases, Miollis nor Radet would have ventured on such a step unless they had been well assured that it was conformable, if not to the formal instructions, at least to the secret wishes of the Emperor. And he soon gave convincing proof of this: "for as soon as he received advices of the event," says Savary, "he approved of what had been done, and stationed the Pope at Savona, revoking at the same time the gift of Charlemagne, and annexing the papal states to the French empire."* His holiness remained at Savona for above three years, always under restraint and guarded, though not in prison. Napoleon, after the Moscow campaign, having received intelligence that a squadron of English frigates was cruising in the gulf of Lyons, with the design of facilitating his escape, had him removed to Fontainebleau, where he was detained a prisoner till the return of the Emperor from the disaster of Leipsic, when his necessities gave rise to important negotiations with the aged prisoner, which will form the subject of future consideration. Canova, who had been sent for to Paris by Napoleon, to model the colossal statue which is now to be seen on the staircase of Apsley taud, ii. 285, House, interceded energetically in his behalf; but he v. 261, 262. could obtain no remission of the severe sentence; 2 the Bign. viii. 286, 288. Emperor alleging, as insurmountable charges against him, that "he was a German at heart, and had refused to June 9, 1813. 2 Sav. iv. 131. Ar 368. Nap. * "It is of little moment," says Thibaudeau, "whether Napoleon ordered the seizure of the Pope; he did not disapprove of it, he profited by it, and took upon himself its whole responsibility. His alleged discontent at Schönbrunn, when he received intelligence of the event, proves nothing; it might be part of his views to make it be believed it was done without his authority, and that he only assumed the scandal of the transaction because it was irreparable."-THIBAUDEAU, vii. 507. LX. 1809. banish the Russians and English." So tenaciously did CHAP. he hold by his prey, that not even the horrors of the Russian retreat could make him relax it; he kept his captive firm during the campaign of Leipsic; and nothing but the crossing of the Rhine by the Allied armies, in Jan. 23. spring 1814, procured the liberation of the unhappy pontiff. 1814. 79. fusion of the the French The situation of the city of Rome was unquestionably improved by its transference from the drowsy sway of Thorough the Church to the energetic administration of Napoleon. Roman Shortly after the annexation of the Roman states to the states with French dominions, it was declared the second city in the empire. empire. To a deputation from Rome, which arrived at Paris soon after its incorporation with the French empire, Napoleon replied:-" My mind is full of the recollections of your ancestors. The first time that I pass the Alps, I desire to remain some time among you. The French emperors, my predecessors, had detached you from the territory of the empire; but the good of my people no longer permits such a partition; France and Italy must be governed on the same system. You have need of a powerful hand to direct you. I shall have a singular pleasure in being your benefactor. Your bishop is the spiritual head of the Church, as I am its Emperor; I 'render unto God the things that are God's, and unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's."" The official exposition of the state of the empire at the close of the year, Dec. 12. portrayed in vivid colours the advantages which would arise from the government of all Italy under one system, and proclaimed the fixed determination of the Emperor never to infringe upon the spiritual authority, nor ever to permit again the temporal sovereignty, of the Church. In pursuance of these views, the Roman territory incorporated with the empire was speedily subjected to the whole regulations of the imperial regime. The Code Napoleon, the conscription, the Continental System were 512, 520. introduced in their full vigour ; prefects and subpre VOL. IX. U 1 Thib. vii. LX. CHAP. fects were established, and the taxes, levied according to French principles, carried to the credit of the imperial budget. 1809. 80. Bossuet has assigned the reason, with his usual elevaPrejudicial tion of thought, why such a spoliation of all the posseseffect of this sions of the supreme pontiff, by a secular power, ever the indepen- must be prejudicial to the best interests of religion. Church. "God had chosen," says he, "that the Church, the com measure on dence of the mon mother of all nations, should be independent of all in its temporal affairs, and that the common centre to which all the faithful should look for the unity of their faith, should be placed in a situation above the partialities which the different interests and jealousies of states might occasion. The Church, independent in its head of all temporal powers, finds itself in a situation to exercise more freely, for the common good and protection of Christian kings, its celestial power of ruling the mind, when it holds in the right hand the balance even amidst so many empires, often in a state of hostility; it maintains unity in all its parts, sometimes by inflexible decrees, sometimes by sage concessions." The principle which calls for the independence of the head of the Church from all temporal sovereignties, is the same which requires the emancipation of its subordinate ministers from dependence on the contributions of their flocks. Human nature in every rank is the same: the thraldom of vice and passion is felt alike in the cottage as on the throne. The subjection of the supreme pontiff to the direct control of France or Austria, is as fatal to his character and respectability as the control of the rural congregations is to the utility of the village pastor. Admitting that the court of Rome has not always shown itself free from tramontane influence, it has at least been less swayed than if it had had its residence at Vienna or Paris; supposing that the conclave of the cardinals has often been swayed by selfish or ambitious views, it has been much less exposed to the effects of these than if it had been wholly dependent on external potentates for sup- sion. It CHAP. 1809. 81. admirable the French But, whatever effects the dethronement and captivity of the Pope were likely to have produced, if they had Vast and continued long, on the independence and usefulness of works unthe Church, the immediate effects of the change were in dertaken by the highest degree beneficial to the city of Rome. Vast at Rome. was the difference between the slumber of the cardinals and the energy of Napoleon. Improvements, interesting alike to the antiquary and the citizen, were undertaken in every direction. The majestic monuments of ancient Rome, half concealed by the ruins and accumulations of fourteen hundred years, stood forth in renovated splendour. The stately columns of the temple of Jupiter Tonans, relieved of the load of their displaced architrave, were restored to the perpendicular from which they had swerved during their long decay; the beautiful pillars of that of Jupiter Stator, half covered up with fragments of marbles, revealed their exquisite and now fully discovered proportions. The huge interior of the Coliseum, cleared of the rubbish which obstructed its base, again exhibited its wonders to the light. The channels which conducted the water for the aquatic exhibitions, the iron |