Pope Pius VII

Pope Pius VII
Papacy began	14 March 1800
Papacy ended	20 August 1823
Predecessor	Pius VI
Successor	Leo XII
Orders
Ordination	21 September 1765
Consecration	21 December 1782 by Francesco Saverio de Zelada
Created Cardinal	14 February 1785 by Pope Pius VI
Personal details
Birth name	Barnaba Niccolò Maria Luigi Chiaramonti
Born	(1742-08-14)14 August 1742 Cesena, Papal States
Died	20 August 1823(1823-08-20) (aged 81) Rome, Papal States
Previous post	Bishop of Tivoli (1782-1785) Bishop of Imola (1785-1816) Cardinal-Priest of San Callisto (1785-1800)
Coat of arms
Sainthood
Title as Saint	Servant of God
Other popes named Pius

Pope Pius VII (14 August 1742 – 20 August 1823), born Barnaba Niccolò Maria Luigi Chiaramonti, was Pope from 14 March 1800 to his death in 1823. He was also a monk, theologian, and bishop. When he joined his religious order, he took the name of Gregorio.

In the process towards sainthood, his cause of canonization was started at the behest of Pope Benedict XVI in 2007, and he was granted the title of Servant of God.

Early life

Chiaramonti was born at Cesena, the son of Count Scipione Chiaramonti; his mother, Giovanna, was the daughter of the Marquess Ghini and through her the future Pope Pius VII was related to the Braschi family, the family of Pope Pius VI.

He joined the Benedictine Order in 1756 at the Abbey of St Maria del Monte of Cesena, where he received the monastic name Gregory. He then became a teacher at Benedictine colleges in Parma and Rome. He was ordained to the priesthood on 21 September 1765.

A series of promotions resulted after his relative, Giovanni Angelo Braschi, was elected Pope Pius VI (1775–99). 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. Though this was an ancient practice, this drew complaints from the monks of the community, as monastic communities generally felt it was not in keeping with the Rule of St. Benedict. In December 1782 the pope appointed Dom Gregory as the Bishop of Tivoli, near Rome. Pius VI soon named him, in February 1785, simultaneously both as a Cardinal-Priest, with his titular church being the Basilica of St. Callistus,^[1] and as the Bishop of Imola, an office he held until 1816.^[2]

When the French Revolutionary Army invaded Italy in 1797, Cardinal Chiaramonti cautioned temperance and submission to the Cisalpine Republic they established. 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," said the bishop.^[3]

Papacy

Papal styles of Pope Pius VII
Reference style	His Holiness
Spoken style	Your Holiness
Religious style	Holy Father
Posthumous style	Servant of God

Election

Following the death of Pius VI, by then virtually France's prisoner, at Valence in August 1799, the conclave to elect his successor met on 30 November 1799 in the Benedictine Monastery of San Giorgio 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. After several months of stalemate, on 14 March 1800, Chiaramonti was elected as a compromise candidate, certainly not the choice of die-hard opponents of the French Revolution, and took the name of Pius VII.^[3] He was crowned on 21 March, in a rather unusual ceremony, wearing a papier-mâché papal tiara, since the French had seized the originals along with Pius VI. He then left for Rome, sailing on a barely seaworthy Austrian ship, the "Bellona", which did not even have cooking facilities. The voyage took 12 days to carry him to Pesaro, from where he proceeded to Rome.

Negotiations and exile

One of Pius VII's first acts was to appoint 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."

As pope, he followed a policy of cooperation with the French-established Republic and Empire. He was present at the coronation of Napoleon I in 1804. He even participated in France's Continental Blockade of Great Britain, over the objections of his Secretary of State, Consalvi, who was forced to resign. Despite this, France occupied and annexed the Papal States in 1809 and took Pius as their prisoner, exiling him to Savona. This exile ended only with Pius' signing 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 to revoke the concessions he had made in it. This Pius 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.

Relationship with Napoleon I

Pope Pius VII at the Coronation of 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.^[4] He and the Emperor were continually in conflict, often involving the French military leader's wishes for concessions to his demands. Pius 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 Princess Marie Louise, believing that his previous marriage was still valid, and had been exiled and impoverished in consequence of their stand,^[5] along with several exiled or imprisoned prelates, priests, monks, nuns and other various supporters.

Relationship with the United States of America

Vatican Museums

Monument by Bertel Thorvaldsen on the tomb of Pius VII inside the Basilica of St. Peter.

On the United States' suppression in the First Barbary War of the Muslim Barbary Pirates along the southern Mediterranean coast, who kidnapped Christians for ransom and slavery, Pope 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.”^[6]

Condemnation of heresy

On 3 June 1816, Pius VII condemned the Melkite Bishop Germanos Adam's works, which supported Conciliarism, placing the authority of Ecumenical Councils over that of the papacy.^[7]

Death and burial

As he neared the end of his life, he moved quite slow and was not in the most perfect of health due to his age. On 6 July 1823, Pius VII fell in his apartment and fractured his thigh after he slipped on the tiles. He became bedridden for the remainder of his pontificate. Pius VII breathed his last in on 20 August 1823 due to his injury and was buried in a monument in Saint Peter's Basilica after his funeral on 25 August 1823.^[8][9]

Beatification process

On August 15, 2007, the Holy See contacted the diocese of Savona-Noli that Pope Benedict XVI had declared "nihil ostare" (nothing against) for 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.^[10]

Monuments

Pope Pius VII's monument (1831) in St. Peter's Basilica, Rome, is by the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, a Protestant.

See also

• Apostolic Prefecture of the United States
• Cardinals created by Pius VII
• John Carroll, first US bishop
• Palazzo Ghini

Notes

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pius VII.

References

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

Further reading

• Anderson, Robin. Pope Pius VII, TAN Books & Publishers, Inc., 2001. ISBN 0-89555-678-2
• Hales, E. E. Y. The Emperor and the Pope: The Story of Napoleon and Pius VII (1961) online
• Thompson, J. M.Napoleon Bonaparte: His Rise and Fall (1951) pp 251-75

v t e Popes of the Catholic Church List of popes canonised Tombs extant non-extant Antipope Pope emeritus Papal resignation Pope-elect 1st–4th centuries Peter Linus Anacletus Clement I Evaristus Alexander I Sixtus I Telesphorus Hyginus Pius I Anicetus Soter Eleuterus Victor I Zephyrinus Callixtus I Urban I Pontian Anterus Fabian Cornelius Lucius I Stephen I Sixtus II Dionysius Felix I Eutychian Caius Marcellinus Marcellus I Eusebius Miltiades Sylvester I Mark Julius I Liberius Damasus I Siricius Anastasius I 5th–8th centuries Innocent I Zosimus Boniface I Celestine I Sixtus III Leo I Hilarius Simplicius Felix III Gelasius I Anastasius II Symmachus Hormisdas John I Felix IV Boniface II John II Agapetus I Silverius Vigilius Pelagius I John III Benedict I Pelagius II Gregory I Sabinian Boniface III Boniface IV Adeodatus I Boniface V Honorius I Severinus John IV Theodore I Martin I Eugene I Vitalian Adeodatus II Donus Agatho Leo II Benedict II John V Conon Sergius I John VI John VII Sisinnius Constantine Gregory II Gregory III Zachary Stephen II Paul I Stephen III Adrian I Leo III 9th–12th centuries Stephen IV Paschal I Eugene II Valentine Gregory IV Sergius II Leo IV Benedict III Nicholas I Adrian II John VIII Marinus I Adrian III Stephen V Formosus Boniface VI Stephen VI Romanus Theodore II John IX Benedict IV Leo V Sergius III Anastasius III Lando John X Leo VI Stephen VII John XI Leo VII Stephen VIII Marinus II Agapetus II John XII Benedict V Leo VIII John XIII Benedict VI Benedict VII John XIV John XV Gregory V Sylvester II John XVII John XVIII Sergius IV Benedict VIII John XIX Benedict IX Sylvester III Benedict IX Gregory VI Clement II Benedict IX Damasus II Leo IX Victor II Stephen IX Nicholas II Alexander II Gregory VII Victor III Urban II Paschal II Gelasius II Callixtus II Honorius II Innocent II Celestine II Lucius II Eugene III Anastasius IV Adrian IV Alexander III Lucius III Urban III Gregory VIII Clement III Celestine III Innocent III 13th–16th centuries Honorius III Gregory IX Celestine IV Innocent IV Alexander IV Urban IV Clement IV Gregory X Innocent V Adrian V John XXI Nicholas III Martin IV Honorius IV Nicholas IV Celestine V Boniface VIII Benedict XI Clement V John XXII Benedict XII Clement VI Innocent VI Urban V Gregory XI Urban VI Boniface IX Innocent VII Gregory XII Martin V Eugene IV Nicholas V Callixtus III Pius II Paul II Sixtus IV Innocent VIII Alexander VI Pius III Julius II Leo X Adrian VI Clement VII Paul III Julius III Marcellus II Paul IV Pius IV Pius V Gregory XIII Sixtus V Urban VII Gregory XIV Innocent IX Clement VIII 17th–20th centuries Leo XI Paul V Gregory XV Urban VIII Innocent X Alexander VII Clement IX Clement X Innocent XI Alexander VIII Innocent XII Clement XI Innocent XIII Benedict XIII Clement XII Benedict XIV Clement XIII Clement XIV Pius VI Pius VII Leo XII Pius VIII Gregory XVI Pius IX Leo XIII Pius X Benedict XV Pius XI Pius XII John XXIII Paul VI John Paul I John Paul II 21st century Benedict XVI Francis Book Category Pope Portal Catholicism Portal

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