Giovanni Battista Caprara

Giovanni Battista Caprara (29 May 1733 – 21 July 1810) was an Italian statesman and cardinal, legate of Pius VII in France, concluded the Concordat of 1801.^[1]

Life

Caprara was born at Bologna to Count Francesco Raimondo Montecuccoli and Countess Maria Vittoria Caprara. He took his name from the latter. Having entered the ecclesiastical state, he was appointed in 1758 vice-legate of Ravenna, in 1767 nuncio at Cologne, in 1775 at Lucerne, and in 1785 at Vienna,

During the summer of 1792 he was made Cardinal-Priest of the Title of Sant' Onofrio, and in August, 1800, Bishop of Jesi in the Mark of Ancona. When the Concordat between Pope Pius VII (1800–23) and the French Republic was concluded (July, 1801), Napoleon Bonaparte, then First Consul, asked for the appointment of a papal legate with residence in Paris. His choice fell upon Cardinal Caprara; he may have expected in this way little or no opposition to his plans. Caprara was appointed legate a latere for France in August, 1801; he departed at once for his destination and arrived in Paris on the 4th of October.

During the negotiations which followed concerning the execution of the Concordat of 1801 he displayed a conciliatory spirit in dealing with the ten constitutional bishops who were to be appointed to as many of the newly-established dioceses; in fact, he went contrary to specific instructions from Rome, under persistent pressure exerted by Napoleon Cardinal Caprara officiated at the Solemn restoration of public worship in the cathedral of Notre-Dame on Easter Day (18 April 1802), at which function the First Consul, the high officers of state, and the new ecclesiastical dignitaries assisted. In a letter written 18 August 1803, he protested against the Organic Articles added to the Concordat by the French Government.

In May 1802, he was appointed Archbishop of Milan, and as such he blessed, on 26 May 1805, the Iron Crown, which Napoleon placed on his own head in his new dignity of King of Italy. Otherwise Caprara retained his position as papal legate in France until his death, or rather until the imprisonment of Pope Pius VII in July 1809. Declining health saved him from the embarrassment connected with the divorce and second marriage of Napoleon (April 1810).

He died at Paris in 1810. In his last will his entire fortune was left to the hospital of Milan.

Works

• Concordat et recueil des bulles et brefs de N. S. Pie VII. sur les affaires de l'Eglise de France (1802).

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopædia. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.