the regency, in consequence of a decided relapse into madness of King
George III. The opposition thought itself returning to power; it had long
sustained against the ministers of his father the policy of the heir to
the throne; it now pleaded the cause of peace. The dangers to which the
army of Portugal was exposed, the evils it might have to undergo, formed
the subject of the debates in Parliament. The Prince Regent did not hasten
to change his cabinet, but the violence of the recriminations in the ranks
of the opposition affected the Marquis of Wellesley; he pressed his
brother to make an effort to relieve England from the enormous weight that
was crushing her. "I know it will cost me the little reputation I have
been able to obtain, and the good will of the population that surrounds
me," said Wellington; "but I shall not accomplish my duty towards England
and this country, if I do not persevere in the prudence which can alone
assure us success." Marshal Masséna had sent the eloquent and adroit
General Foy to Paris, charged with representing to the Emperor the
difficulties of the situation of the army, and the absolute need of a
supreme effort in its favor.
The general arrived at Paris at the moment when new complications were
preparing. The harshness of the proceedings of Napoleon, the violence
which he had displayed towards the small independent princes whose
territories he had confiscated, the yoke of iron under which he claimed to
place all the commercial interests of Europe, had, little by little,
effaced the remains of the youthful admiration and confidence with which
his brilliant genius had inspired the Emperor Alexander. Personally
wounded by the sudden abandonment of the matrimonial negotiations, the
Czar experienced serious uneasiness at the insatiable ambition which
threatened to invade the most distant regions. He had made some
preparations for defence, of little importance in themselves, and simply
manifesting his fears. Napoleon took umbrage at it; the mad passion for
conquests was again roused in his mind; he already meditated a new
enterprise, bolder and less justifiable than all those which he had
hitherto accomplished, necessitating efforts which became every day more
difficult. No resource would be neglected; no reinforcement could be
detached for Portugal and Spain from the armies which were being prepared
in France and Germany. The intelligent ardor of General Foy, his loyal
pleadings on behalf of Marshal Masséna, did not completely succeed in
enlightening Napoleon as to the situation of affairs in the peninsula; he
understood enough of it, however, to order new dispositions of his troops.
The corps of General Drouet, in Old Castile, and the fifth corps of the
army of Andalusia, commanded by Marshal Mortier, were to proceed to the
aid of Marshal Masséna. The emperor recommended the latter to occupy
without delay the two shores of the Tagus--to throw a couple of bridges
across, as formerly over the Danube at Essling, in order to assure his
communications whilst waiting for the reinforcements, which would permit
him to attack the English lines with 80,000 men, perhaps to seize them,
and in any case to inflict such sufferings upon the Portuguese population
and upon the English that the latter should be obliged to retire. "The
policy of the English Government inclines to change," added Napoleon; "my
grand and final efforts will at last bring us the general peace." He
commenced at the same moment his preparations for the Russian campaign.
"Everything depends of the Tagus!" Such was the watchword sent back to
Spain by General Foy, and the tenor of the correspondence between Major-
General Berthier and the leaders of the armies in the Peninsula. General
Drouet began the march with his army reduced to 15,000 men, which Napoleon
reckoned as 30,000. In consequence of the delay of the operations, only
one division of 7000 men was effectively at the disposal of the general
when he took the road from Santarem. General Gardanne, sent forward in
advance, had become alarmed through the report of a movement of the
English, and had promptly fallen back upon Almeida, leaving to the
soldiers of Massena, and to the general-in-chief himself, the wretchedness
of a hope deceived. The instructions sent to General Drouet still gave
evidence of the obstinate illusions of the Emperor Napoleon as regards the
respective situation of the two armies in Portugal. "Repeat to General
Drouet the order to go to Almeida," wrote Napoleon to Marshal Berthier,
"and to collect considerable forces, in order to be of use to the Prince
of Essling, and to aid in keeping open his communications. It will be
necessary that he should give to General Gardanne, or any other general, a
force of 6000 men, with six pieces of cannon, in order to reopen the
communication, and that a corps of the same force should be placed at
Almeida, to correspond with him. In short, it is important that the
communications of the army of Portugal should be re-established, in order
that during all the time that the English remain in the country the rear
of the Prince of Essling may be securely guarded. Immediately the English
have re-embarked he will make his headquarters at Ciudad Rodrigo, my
intention being that only the ninth corps should be engaged in Portugal,
unless the English still hold it; and even the ninth corps ought never to
let itself be separated from Almeida; but it ought to manoeuvre between
Almeida and Coimbra."
When General Drouet, collecting all his forces, arrived at length with
8000 or 9000 men at Thomar (January, 1811), Marshal Massena had been
struggling for five months in complete isolation against a situation which
became every day more critical. He had successively seized Punhete and
Leyria, constantly occupied in preparing for that passage of the Tagus
which Napoleon was recommending to him without fathoming the enormous
difficulties of the task. The soldiers had been organized into companies
of foragers, from day to day obliged to go out further from the
encampments in order to be sure of some resources, exposing themselves in
consequence to attacks from a population everywhere hostile. Marauders
often detached themselves from their regiments, living for several weeks
by veritable pillage before returning under their flags. The officers
suffered still more than the soldiers, for they did not pillage. Money and
rations failed them; their clothes were worn to rags; courage alone
remained inexhaustible; discipline grew feeble in every rank of the
military hierarchy. The lieutenants of Marshal Masséna did not experience
the same confidence in him which sustained the soldiers. The bridges at
length reached completion, thanks to prodigies of perseverance and
cleverness; bitter discussions arose every day as to the most favorable
point for the passage, when the approach of General Drouet infused joy and
hope into the entire army. General Gardanne, who commanded the vanguard,
announced the arrival of all the straggling divisions of the ninth corps,
and the orders sent to Marshal Soult for the movement of Marshal Mortier.
Money as well as reinforcements was about to rain upon the army. The
instructions of the emperor were precise. The English were to be speedily
dislodged from their famous lines; and, if it was necessary still to
blockade them for some time, the Tagus once crossed, the troops would no
longer want for resources. The plain of Alemtejo would be open to them;
the fine season was approaching; all efforts would become easy. Confidence
and cheerfulness spread through all the encampments.
Marshal Masséna alone remained sad and uneasy. He had read the despatches
which General Drouet brought him; he had smiled bitterly at the hopes and
counsels of the Emperor Napoleon; he comprehended that the reinforcements
were insufficient, and that the attempt at resistance was in advance
condemned to failure. General Drouet had the order to maintain
communications between Santarem and Almeida; already the insurrection had
closed up all the roads behind him, and new skirmishes were necessary to
open a passage. Only the corps of General Gardanne was destined to remain
in the encampments, and that corps did not amount to 1500 men. Masséna
resolved upon keeping General Drouet near himself; not without pain did he
arrive at this conclusion. Discouragement was already penetrating the
army, with a true knowledge of the situation and of the notorious
insufficiency of the succors. General Foy had just arrived, accompanied by
a small corps of recruits or convalescents, which he had formed at Ciudad
Rodrigo. Before quitting that post, he had written to Marshal Soult,
continually occupied in Andalusia: "I beseech you, Monsieur le Maréchal,
in the name of a sentiment sacred to all French hearts--of the sentiment
which inflames us all for the interests and glory of our august master--to
present at the soonest possible moment a corps of troops upon the left
bank of the Tagus, opposite to the mouth of the Zezere. It is scarcely
four days' journey from Badajoz to Breto, a village situated opposite
Punhete. The English are not numerous on the left bank of the Tagus; they
cannot dare anything in this part without compromising the safety of their
formidable entrenchments before Lisbon, which are only eight leagues from
the bridge of Rio Mazac. According to the decision that your Excellency
may arrive at, the army of the Prince of Essling will pass the Tagus, hold
in check the English on both banks of the river, will fatigue them, will
prey upon them, will keep them in painful and ruinous inaction, will form
between them and your sieges a barrier likely to accelerate the surrender
of the towns; or, on the other hand, this army, failing to effect the
passage that has become necessary, will be forced to withdraw from the
Tagus and from the English in order to find sufficient to eat, and by the
same movement will give the day to our eternal enemies, in a struggle in
which till now the chances have been in our favor. The country between the
Mondego and the Tagus being eaten up and entirely devastated, there can be
no question as to the army of Portugal having to make a retrograde step of
about five or six leagues. Hunger will follow it even into the provinces
of the north. The consequences of such a retreat are incalculable. It
appertains to you, Monsieur le Maréchal, to be at once the saviour of a
great army and the powerful instrument in carrying out the ideas of our
glorious sovereign. On the day when the troops under your orders shall
have appeared on the banks of the Tagus, and facilitated the passage of
this great river, you will be the true conqueror of Portugal."
When Marshal Soult received this eloquent and truthful summing up from
General Foy, already forestalled by the formal orders of the emperor, he
was personally in a grave embarrassment. Like Masséna in Portugal, he was
disposing in Andalusia of forces less considerable than Napoleon estimated
them in France. General Suchet, after having brilliantly accomplished his
enterprise against Tortosa, which was reduced on the 2nd of January, had
immediately commenced the difficult siege of Tarragona, which occupied
almost all his forces. General Sebastiani with difficulty sufficed for
guarding Granada; Marshal Victor was detained before Cadiz, where the
Cortes had solemnly assembled on the 4th of September. The resistance was
to be long, the place being manned by good troops, and constantly
revictualled by the English vessels. Generals Blake and Castaños had
collected their forces, and ceaselessly harassed the corps occupied by the
sieges, as well as the armies which kept the country. Marshal Soult had
just asked for important reinforcements from Paris, when he received the
order to attempt the difficult enterprise of an expedition into Portugal.
He thought he had the right to comment on the instructions sent to him,
and whilst urging the obstacles which were opposed to his prompt
obedience, he announced his intention of proceeding to the aid of Marshal
Masséna, by reducing the hostile towns found upon the road to Portugal.
The sieges accomplished, nothing more would hinder the march upon
Santarem. He advanced then, with Marshal Mortier and the fifth corps, to
the attack of Olivença, which did not oppose a long resistance. On the
27th of January he invested Badajoz.
The place was strong, protected by the Guadiana and by solid ramparts; it
communicated by a stone bridge with Fort St. Cristoval, built upon the
right bank, and defending the entrenched camp of Santa Engracia. At the
moment when Marshal Soult approached Badajoz, the corps of the Marquis de
la Romana, formerly occupied in Portugal in the service of the English,
and recently recalled by the Spanish insurrection, took possession of
these entrenchments; its indefatigable chief had just died at Lisbon. It
was in presence of these hostile forces that the fifth corps commenced the
work of a siege destined to detain them for several weeks. A successful
attack on a little detached fort permitted the marshals to attempt the
passage of the Guadiana, then much swollen by the rains, and to give
battle to the Spanish army. On the 19th of February, in the morning, upon
the banks of the Gevara, the corps of the insurgents were completely
defeated, without having been able to succeed in establishing themselves
in the entrenched camp of Santa Engracia. Marshal Soult was now in a
situation to hasten the taking of Badajoz, and to push forward into
Portugal before the Spanish army could be re-formed. He does not appear to
have conceived this idea, and resumed with perseverance the work of the
trenches. "I hope that Badajoz will have been taken in the course of
January, and that the junction with the Prince of Essling will have taken
place before the 20th of January," wrote the emperor, meanwhile. "If it is
necessary, the Duke of Dalmatia can withdraw troops from the fourth corps.
I repeat to you, everything depends upon the Tagus."
The cannon of Badajoz were heard at Santarem and at Torres Vedras, and the
hearts of the two armies beat with uneasiness and hope. Upon the arrival
of General Foy, in presence of the insufficiency of the disposable forces,
the question lay between a retreat upon Mondego and an attempt at the
passage of the Tagus. The wish of the emperor strongly expressed to Foy
himself, the patriotic honor which animated all the generals, even the
most dissatisfied, had made the balance incline in favor of a prolonged
occupation. It was necessary, then, to attempt to cross the river; the
distress which reigned in certain divisions, absolutely reduced by famine,
did not permit of hesitation; the shores of the stream were reconnoitred
with care. For a moment the idea was entertained of making use, as a
guiding mark, of the isle of Alviela, situated in the midst of the river,
as the isle of Lobau was found placed in the midst of the Danube. The
materials of the bridge were collected at Punhete, but horses were
wanting. General Eblé opposed an attempt, the advantages of which were to
be too tardily recognized. The passage from Santarem to Abrantes offered
the inconvenience of an immediate attack from the enemy in possession of
that town, recently fortified by General Hill. It was resolved to wait for
the arrival of Marshal Soult, or for the reinforcements which he had been
ordered to send into Portugal. Masséna had never believed, and did not
believe, in the promises which had been made him on this side; he
consented, however, upon the advice of all, to retard for a few days a
retrograde movement which became necessary, the impossibility of
attempting alone the passage of the Tagus being recognized. The enemy had
occupied the isle of Alviela; all the local resources were exhausted; the
reserve of biscuit assured still fifteen days' provisions to the army. The
weeks passed without news: the wind no longer brought the sound of the
cannonade; the soldiers felt themselves abandoned at the end of the world;
the anger of the generals no longer permitted them to reanimate the
failing courage of an army famished and without hope. Masséna commenced
the skilful preparations for his retreat upon Mondego. Under pretext of
effecting a concentration of the corps necessary for the passage of the
Tagus, he detached Marshal Ney towards Leyria, with a view of cutting off
from the enemy the roads to the sea, in order to form afterwards a rear-
guard. The wounded and the sick had been taken on before. On the 5th of
March, at the end of the day, the whole French army was on the march, sad
and gloomy in spite of their joy at quitting the places where they had
suffered without compensation and without glory. The materials of the
bridges, prepared with so much care by General Eblé, were burnt. General
Junot pressed forward, in order to occupy Coimbra and the Mondego--a
rallying-point indicated beforehand to all the corps.
Lord Wellington issued forth from his entrenchments on learning the
movements which announced to him our retreat. His accustomed prudence kept
him from precipitating the pursuit by an effort that might become
dangerous; the well-known character of Marshal Ney protected the rear-
guard no less than the valor of his troops. He ranged his forces in order
of battle before Pombal, which obliged Wellington to recall the troops
which he had detached for the succor of Badajoz. But the hurry of the
retreat had resumed possession of the mind of General Drouet, ever haunted
by compunctions for his disobedience to the formal orders of Napoleon. Ney
was not in a position seriously to defend his positions against the
English; after a brilliant skirmish, he fell back upon Redinha. His
division of infantry had constantly fought under his orders in all the
campaigns of the six previous years; it disputed the land, foot to foot,
with the 25,000 English, who followed the French army, without letting
itself, for a single moment, be troubled or pressed by the superiority of
the enemy. The least offensive movement of the English columns was
responded to by a charge from our troops, which soon re-established the
distance between the two armies. Masséna, who was present at the
manoeuvres of Marshal Ney, admired them without reserve, beseeching his
clever and courageous lieutenant not to abandon the heights, in order to
give the other corps the time and space necessary for the continuance of
their march. A last engagement, which took place upon the banks of the
Soure, in front of the position of Redinha, permitted Ney at last to cross
the river, and gain the town of Condeixa.
The position was strong, and Masséna counted on the energetic resistance
of his rear-guard, in order to hinder the English, and leave time for the
different corps to reassemble at Coimbra. Marshal Ney on this occasion
failed to realize the just hopes of his chief; after a slight skirmish, he
abandoned Condeixa, and overtaking in his haste the corps that his
movement had exposed, he fell back upon the main body of the army. A
position at Coimbra became impossible, as Lord Wellington was following
closely on our divided forces. Masséna gained the Alva by a series of
clever manoeuvres, constantly thwarted by the want of discipline in his
lieutenants. Marshal Ney had let himself be surprised at Foz d'Arunce by
the English; General Régnier extended his camp to a distance, without care
for the safety of other corps; the position of the Alva was no longer
tenable. Masséna, exasperated and grieved, continued his march towards the
frontier of Spain; re-entered it without glory, after having displayed,
during six months, all the resources of his courage, and the energy of his
will in a situation which had been imprudently imposed upon him by
peremptory orders. He led back an army inured to fatigue and privations,
but disorganized by an existence at once idle and irregular, directed by
chiefs soured and discontented. The consequences of this state of things
were not long in bursting forth; scarcely had the troops taken a few days'
rest in Spain, when Marshal Masséna conceived the idea of assuming the
offensive by descending upon the Tagus by Alcantara, in order to re-enter
Portugal and recommence the campaign. Marshal Ney frankly refused to
follow him without the communication of the formal orders of the emperor.
In consideration of this act of revolt, twice repeated, Masséna took from
Ney the command of the sixth corps, which was confided to General Loyson.
Ney obeyed, not without some regret for his conduct; the ill-humor of all
the chiefs of the corps rendered the resumption of the campaign in
Portugal utterly impossible: the army was cantoned between Almeida, Ciudad
Rodrigo, and Salamanca. The emperor had just confided the general command
of all the provinces of the north to Marshal Bessières; the latter had
promised much to Marshal Massena, who still nursed the hope of a great
battle. Lord Wellington, following the French, had entered Spain.
The situation of affairs became critical, in spite of the _éclat_ of the
taking of Badajoz, which had been at length reduced to capitulate, on the
11th of March, on the eve of a general assault. Marshal Soult now found
himself pressed to fly to the assistance of Cadiz. Marshal Victor was
threatened in his positions of siege by the Spanish general Blake, and by
an English corps recently embarked at Gibraltar. But already the energetic
defence of Victor had triumphed over the enemy in the battle of Barossa.
The assailants had retired, but remained in a threatening attitude. The
army of Wellington, formerly kept immovable by Massena at Torres Vedras,
became every day a danger for those who had not been able, or who had not
been willing, to go to the aid of the expedition in Portugal. Our forces,
everywhere dispersed, were everywhere insufficient. Marshal Soult, justly
uneasy, demanded reinforcements from all sides. General Foy had returned
to Paris, in order to explain to the emperor the retreat of Masséna.
Great was the wrath of Napoleon. He had not yet opened his eyes to the
profound causes of so many repeated checks. He did not comprehend the
lessons which events were pointing out to his conquering ambition. He
imputed to his lieutenants faults sometimes inevitable, or easily to be
foreseen, in the circumstances in which they were placed. The
inexhaustible resources of his military genius were not, however, at a
loss on the occasion of this first outburst of embarrassments, destined
daily to increase. He recalled Marshal Ney, incapable of serving under any
other than himself, and replaced him by Marshal Marmont, more docile, more
skilled in questions of military organization, and very earnest in the
service of Marshal Masséna. The latter was charged with watching Lord
Wellington, and with closely following the English army. Marshal Soult
received the reinforcements which had become necessary to him in order to
defend the frontiers of Estramadura. The garrison of Badajoz was
insufficient; that of Almeida had been furnishing provisions for several
weeks to the troops of Masséna cantoned in the environs of the place;
resources began to be exhausted. Wellington was triumphing in Portugal, in
Spain, and even in England. His detractors had been constrained to admire
the wisdom of his contrivances, and to admit their success; the opposition
loudly proclaimed it in Parliament; the war party prevailed in the
councils, and nobody any longer haggled over the succors to the victorious
general. Past clamor did not trouble Lord Wellington; the flatteries of
public favor did not intoxicate him. He decided on laying siege to the
places recently conquered by the French. He himself proceeded to the
environs of Badajoz, in order to settle his plan for the campaign. The
bulk of his army were menacing Almeida.
Masséna was informed of the departure of Wellington; he conceived the hope
of profiting by his absence to inflict upon the English a startling
defeat. Hastily collecting a convoy of provisions destined to revictual
Almeida, he pressed Marshal Bessières to join with him in order to attack
the army of the enemy. Bessières lingered; the lieutenants of Masséna did
not give evidence of the ardor which still inflamed the heroic defender of
Genoa. Using on this occasion all his rights as general-in-chief, Masséna
ordered at length the concentration of the forces. He was getting ready to
set out, "without bread, without cannons, without horses," wrote he to
Marshal Bessières, resolved upon no longer deferring his attack. The Duke
of Istria (Bessières) arrived at last, on the 1st of May, with a
reinforcement of 1500 horses and a convoy of grain. When the troops
quitted Ciudad Rodrigo, on the 2nd of May, they had appeased their hunger.
About 36,000 men were under arms. Wellington had had time to rejoin his
army.
The English occupied the village of Fuentes d'Onoro, between the two
streams of the Dos Casas and the Furones; they covered thus their
principal communications with Portugal by the bridge of Castelbon over the
Coa, and defended against us the road of Almeida. The combat began (3rd
May, 1811) upon the two shores of the Dos Casas. Extremely furious on both
sides, it left the English in possession of the village. Our columns of
attack found themselves insufficient, and dispersed over too wide an
extent of country. They occupied, however, both shores of the stream,
when, night falling, caused the combat to cease. On the morrow Marshal
Masséna, changing the point of his principal effort, marched with the main
body of his forces upon Pozo-Velho. He attacked on May 5th, at daybreak.
Some brilliant charges of cavalry threw the English into disorder, but the
guard refused to act without the orders of Marshal Bessières, who was not
found in time on the field of battle. The division of General Loyson went
astray in the woods, while General Reynier limited himself to keeping back
the English brigade which was directly opposed to him. The ammunition
failed; Marshal Bessières, alleging the fatigue of the teams, refused to
despatch immediately the wagons to Ciudad Rodrigo, where there was a store
of cartridges. Discussion and want of discipline had borne their fruits.
The first glorious outburst at the beginning of the day remained without
result. Masséna slept upon the field of battle, within range of the guns
of the English; but the latter had not recoiled, and everywhere maintained
their position. When the marshal, provided with ammunition, wished to
recommence hostilities, the most devoted amongst his lieutenants dissuaded
him from the enterprise. Discouragement spread among the soldiers, as ill-
humor among the officers. With despair in his heart, Masséna remained in
face of the English whilst he gave orders to blow up the ramparts of
Almeida. The movement of retreat had scarcely commenced, on the 10th of
May, when the explosion was heard which announced the execution of the
orders given. The town of Almeida existed no longer. The garrison had
succeeded in escaping the watchfulness of the English, rejoining the corps
of General Heudelet, who had been sent to meet it. "That act is as good as
a victory!" cried Lord Wellington in anger. Masséna, however, did not
allow himself to be deceived.
A few days later (16th May, 1811), Marshal Soult failed in his turn to
overcome the resistance of the English posted before Badajoz, on the
shores of the Albuera. A corps of the Anglo-Spanish army had laid siege to
the place. The efforts of the French general to seize the village of
Albuera were not successful. The marshal was constrained to place his
cantonments at some distance, without, however, withdrawing from Badajoz.
Masséna had just been recalled to France, and replaced in his command by
Marshal Marmont. He had the misfortune to be constantly sacrificed to an
ambition bolder and cleverer than his own, and to bear more than once the
punishment for faults which he had not committed. His soul remained
indomitable, even in his bitter sorrow; but his military career was
terminated. Henceforth he was to fight no more: none of the last efforts
of Napoleon were confided to the warlike genius of an ancient rival, who
had become a loyal and useful lieutenant, without ever sinking to the
_rôle_ of the courtier or the servant.
For three years past, the stubborn antipathy of the Spaniards to the
foreign yoke had been struggling foot to foot against the power of
Napoleon. For two years the most brilliant efforts of our courage had been
vainly employed against the boldly-planned resistance of the English. The
enormous sacrifices necessitated by the conquest of Spain were not
compensated for, either by repose or glory. The armies were exhausted, and
the generals grew weary of struggling with enemies impossible to destroy,
whilst they fled only to form again immediately, like the Spaniards; or
whilst they defended intrepidly positions cleverly chosen, like the
English. The power and the reputation of Wellington went on increasing in
proportion to our defeats. King Joseph, feeble and honorable, unjustly
imposed by a perfidious contrivance on a people who repelled him, carried
to France the recital of his griefs and sorrows.
Such was the situation in Spain in the month of May, 1811, after the hopes
and long illusions of the campaigns of Andalusia and Portugal. The emperor
had just experienced a great joy; he possessed at last a son. The King of
Rome was born at Paris on the 20th of March. But day by day the situation
was becoming more grave. The rupture with Russia was imminent. We had lost
one after the other our most important colonies. In 1809 the English had
seized upon our factories in the Senegal, and had succeeded in destroying
our power in St. Domingo; in the months of July and December, 1810, the
Isle of Bourbon and the Isle of France were in their turn snatched away.
Our courageous efforts on the seas were powerless to defend the ancient
possessions of France, as our brilliant valor failed in Spain to assure us
an unjust conquest. In the interim, the industrial and commercial crisis
was developing, though the superabundance of production in face of a
European market more and more restricted. At the same time the Emperor
Napoleon found himself battling with the heedlessly contracted
difficulties of the spiritual government of the Catholic Church. The new
prelates were still waiting for their bulls of institution, and the Pope
still continued a prisoner.
Napoleon took his decision. He gave orders to the appointed bishops of
Orleans, St. Flour, Asti, and Liège to repair to their sees without any
other ecclesiastical formalities. He had elevated his uncle, Cardinal
Fesch, to the archbishopric of Paris, after the death of Cardinal de
Belloy. Fesch provisionally accepted, whilst continuing to hold his
archbishopric of Lyons, the titles of which were canonically regular. The
emperor flew into a passion. He had been to pay a visit to Notre Dame
without being received by Cardinal Fesch. "I expect," said he, "to find
the Archbishop of Paris at the door of his cathedral." He ordered the
newly-elected prelate to take possession of his see. "No," said the
cardinal; "I shall wait for the institution of the holy father." "But the
chapter has given you powers." "It is true, but I should not know how to
use them in this case." "Ah!" cried the emperor, "you condemn those who
have obeyed me. I shall certainly know how to force you to it." "_Potius
mori_," replied the cardinal. "Ah! _mori, mori_," repeated the emperor.
"You choose Maury; you shall have him!"
Cardinal Maury, formerly the fiery defender of the rights and liberties of
the Catholic Church before the Constituent Assembly, was appointed
Archbishop of Paris on the 14th of October, 1810. On the 22nd, Osmond, the
Bishop of Nancy, was called to the vacant archbishopric of Florence.
Command was given to the two prelates to take possession of their sees.
From Savona, Pius VII. had often succeeded in causing some canonical
dispensations and some indications of his spiritual authority to reach the
French and Italian clergy. Several associations were formed in order to
supply him with the means for doing so. The Pope profited by them to send
to Cardinal Maury, as Archbishop of Florence, a prohibition against
ascending episcopal chairs without his institution. The brief addressed to
Florence was promptly circulated in the city. A canon and two priests were
on this account thrown into prison. At Paris the brief was secretly
committed to the Abbé d'Astros, grand capitular vicar, cousin of Portalis,
the councillor of state, and the son of the former minister of religion.
The canon was moderate in his opinions as in his conduct; he conformed,
however, to the instructions of the holy father. When Cardinal Maury
wished to have the episcopal cross borne before him, the chapter abandoned
him _en masse_, in order to retire to the sacristy. A second brief from
the Pope fell into the hands of the police, "removing from the appointed
archbishop all power and all jurisdiction, declaring null and without
effect all that might be done to the contrary, knowingly or through
ignorance." The emperor flew into a rage, attributing the resistance to
the Abbé d'Astros, whom he violently apostrophized in public in a
reception at the Tuileries. "I avow that I had kept myself a little on one
side," Astros himself says; "but I did not wish to have myself sought for,
and I always presented myself when the emperor asked for me." "Before all,
monsieur, it is necessary to be a Frenchman," cried Napoleon; "it is the
way to be, at the same time, a good Christian. The doctrine of Bossuet is
the sole guide one ought to follow. With him one is sure of not losing
one's way. I expect every one to acknowledge the liberties of the Gallican
Church. The religion of Bossuet is as far from that of Gregory VII. as
heaven is from hell. I know, monsieur, that you are in opposition to the
measures that my policy prescribes. I have the sword on my side; take care
of yourself!" The Abbé d'Astros was put in prison at Vincennes, and was to
remain there until the fall of the empire. It was not long before the
Cardinals de Pietro and Gabrielli were brought there also. Portalis had
secretly learnt of the papal interdiction from his relative. He limited
himself to informing Pasquier, recently charged with the direction of the
police. He was expelled in full sitting of the Council of State by the
emperor, with the most harsh reproaches on his perfidy. "Go, monsieur,"
said he to him, "and let me never again see you before my eyes!" At the
same time, and in accordance with formal orders received from Paris, Pius
VII was surrounded with the most paltry vexations; henceforth he was
deprived in his captivity of all his old servants. The papers and
portfolios of the Pope were all seized. "Never mind my purse," said the
holy father; "but what will they do with my breviary and the office of the
Virgin?" He did not consent to deliver to Prince Borghese the ring of the
Fisherman, which he wore habitually on his finger, until he had himself
broken it. About the same time, on several occasions, Italian priests who
had refused to swear allegiance to the new state of things were
transported to Corsica. Napoleon had himself given his instructions to the
minister of religion. The boundaries of the dioceses and parishes in the
Pontifical States underwent a complete alteration. Their number was much
restricted. All the archives of the court of Rome were transported to
Paris.
The emperor had not lost the remembrance of the concessions he had
formerly obtained from Pius VII, when strong and free: he had reckoned
upon a complete submission from the aged prisoner. Already the refusal of
the holy father to the insinuations of the Cardinals Spina and Caselli had
disquieted Napoleon: he had formerly flattered himself that he could make
the Pope accept the suppression of his temporal power and the confiscation
of his states by offering him palaces at Paris and Avignon, a rich income,
and the noble grandeur of his spiritual authority over the whole Catholic
Church. The extent of this authority, such as the emperor conceived it,
was beginning to reveal itself. Napoleon wished to be the master in the
Church as in the State. The authority of the Czar over the Russian Church,
or of the Sultan over the Mussulmans, could alone satisfy his ideas.
"Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's," limiting within the
narrowest boundaries that portion which he still ostentatiously reserved
for God. He thought for a moment of regulating by a law the question of
episcopal institution. Diverted from this project by the wise counsels of
Cambacérès and of Bigot de Préameneu, he resolved upon consulting a
commission of ecclesiastics upon the convocation of a national Council.
Already a first Council had been gathered, at the time of the debates on
the investiture of the bishops. The illustrious Superior of St. Sulpice,
the Abbé Emery, had sat in it, strongly against his will. "The emperor has
appointed a commission of bishops and cardinals to examine certain
questions," wrote the Abbé Emery, to his disciple, the Abbé Nageot,
Superior of the Seminary of Baltimore. "He has desired that I should be
added to it. All that I can say to you is, that I have come forth from it
without having anything to reproach myself with; that I think God has
given me the spirit of counsel in this affair. I am sure that He has given
me the spirit of power through His holy mercy."
The Emperor Napoleon judged soundly of that spirit of power and counsel
for which the Abbé Emery piously ascribed to God all the praise. "M. Emery
is the only man who makes me afraid," said he; "he makes me do all that he
wishes, and perhaps more than I ought. For the first time, I meet a man
gifted with a veritable power over men, and from whom I ask no account of
the use to which he will put it. On the contrary, I wish to be able to
confide to him all our youth; I should die more reassured as to the
future."
Notwithstanding the ascendancy which his holy character and the firm
moderation of his spirit exercised over the emperor, the Abbé Emery was
not deceived as to his personal action in the ecclesiastical commission.
"Permit me," he wrote to the minister of religion, "out of respect for the
bishops, to abstain from taking any deliberative part, and only to have a
consulting voice; that is to say, that I may simply furnish upon the
matters which may be discussed the lights and documents which my studies
and experience may enable me to give." The Superior of St. Sulpice was
once more to give his opinion freely before the impatient and haughty
master, who claimed to subdue all wills and all consciences to his empire,
"I do not call in question the spiritual power of the Pope," said Napoleon
one day, when he had called the Ecclesiastical Commission to the
Tuileries: "he has received it from Jesus Christ; but Jesus Christ has not
given him the temporal power. It was Charlemagne who gave it to him, and
I, as the successor of Charlemagne, wish to take it away from him, because
he does not know how to use it, and because it hinders him from exercising
his spiritual functions. What inconvenience will there be in the Pope
being subject to me, now that Europe knows no other master?" "Sire,"
replied Emery, "your Majesty is better acquainted than I am with the
history of revolutions. The present state of things may not always exist.
It is not, then, necessary to change the order wisely established. The
holy father will not agree to the concessions which your Majesty demands
from him, because he cannot do it." Napoleon did not answer. The Abbé
Emery had refused to sign the propositions accepted by the Ecclesiastical
Commission; he dreaded the Council. "How is it that our bishops do not
see," wrote he, "that the means of conciliation which the emperor demands
from them are only a trick on his part to impose upon the simple, and a
mask to cover his tyranny? Let him leave the Church tranquil; let him
restore their functions to the Pope, the cardinals, and the bishops; let
him renounce extravagant pretensions, and all will soon be arranged." The
emperor, meanwhile, let it be known amongst the delegates that he intended
to send to Savona to have an understanding with the Pope. "This is a good
time to die," said Emery. God granted him this favor. He had suffered
long, and on the 28th of April, 1811, he breathed his last.
It was at this very moment that the Archbishop of Tours and the Bishops of
Nantes and Treves set out for Savona, charged to obtain from the Pope the
concessions necessary for the re-establishment of ecclesiastical order.
Already the Council had been ostentatiously convoked without the circular
letters making mention of the name of Pius VII. "One of the contracting
parties has disowned the Concordat," said the summons to attend; "the
conduct that has been persevered in, in Germany for ten years past, has
almost destroyed the episcopate in that part of Christendom; the Chapters
have been disturbed in their rights, dark manoeuvres have been contrived,
tending to excite discord and sedition among our subjects." It was in
order to prevent a state of things contrary to the welfare of religion, to
the principles of the Gallican Church, and to the interests of the state,
that the emperor had resolved upon collecting, on the 9th of July
following, in the church of Notre Dame at Paris, all the bishops of France
and Italy in national council.
The prelates delegated to Savona had for their mission to announce to Pius
VII the convocation of the Council and the repeal of the Concordat. "We
intend," said their instructions, "that the bishops should be instituted
according to the Concordat of Francis I., which we have renewed, and in
such a manner as shall be established by the Council, and shall have
received our approbation. However, it would be possible to revert to the
Concordat on the following conditions: 1st. That the Pope should institute
all the bishops that we have appointed; 2nd. That in future our
appointment shall be communicated to the Pope in the ordinary form; that
if three months after the court of Rome has not instituted, the
institution shall be performed by the Metropolitan." A letter, almost
threatening, written by nineteen bishops assembled at the house of
Cardinal Fesch, accompanied the officious propositions of the emperor. The
anger of Napoleon had weighed heavily on the Council. On the 9th of May
the three prelates arrived secretly at Savona.
Chabrol, the Prefect of Montenotte, announced their visit to the Pope.
"They can come in when they wish," replied Pius VII. For four months the
old man had been living alone, without external communication, deprived of
his friends and his servants, without pen and ink, gently accepting his
sufferings, but visibly enfeebled in mind and body. Disturbed at first, he
soon recovered himself, talked familiarly with the bishops, and limited
himself to asking that he might be granted the support of a few of his
counsellors on this grave occasion. The request was denied in the most
respectful manner; the prelates delegated by the Emperor Napoleon offered
their assistance to the holy Father. The letter of the nineteen bishops
dwelt upon the hope that the Pope would engage himself to do nothing
contrary to the declarations of the Gallican Church in 1682; Pius VII
protested that he had never had any intention of doing so, but that it was
impossible for him to enter into any written engagement on the subject,
the declaration having been condemned by Pope Alexander VIII. He
discussed, without bitterness, the question of canonical institution,
whilst altogether repelling the propositions put forth by the bishops.
"All alone by himself, a poor man could not take upon himself such a great
change in the Church," said he, smiling.
The discussion was prolonged, not only on the part of the prelates, but
also on the part of the Prefect of Montenotte, who had frequent interviews
with the Pope, using by turns menaces and caresses, seeking to act on the
mind of Pius VII by the interposition of his physician, Dr. Porta,
completely devoted to the imperial service. The Pope was complaining of
his health; his intellect appeared at times affected by his long anguish.
"The chief of the Church is in prison, and alone," said he, "nothing can
be decided by him."
The virtues of Pius VII, like his natural weaknesses, contributed to the
trouble of his conscience and his mind. Gentle and good, easily tormented
by scruples, he was tossed about between the conviction of the duties
which he owed to the holy see, and the fear of prolonging in the Church a
grave disorder, which might bring about grievous consequences. In his
interviews with the bishops he yielded everything, whilst thinking he was
resisting, and finished by accepting a note, drawn up under his own eyes,
containing in principle all the required concessions. He had not signed
it, but the negotiators were contented with what they had obtained. "This
morning we have drawn up the whole clearly and in French," wrote the
Archbishop of Tours. "We have presented it to the Pope, he has desired a
few changes in expression, some addition of phrases, some trifling
erasures, and there has resulted from it an _ensemble_ quite as good, and
indeed much better than we flattered ourselves on obtaining a few days
ago." Next day, May 20th, in the morning, the negotiators took the road to
Paris.
They had scarcely got a few leagues from Savona, and already the Pope was
seized with remorse. Ill for several days past, deprived of sleep by the
agitations of his mind and conscience, he reproached himself for all the
articles of the note he had agreed to, and fell into a state of suffering
which gravely disquieted his jailers. "I cannot conceive how I could
accept these articles," repeated Pius VII; "some of them are tainted with
heresy; it is an act of folly on my part, I have been half mad." "Absorbed
in a complete silence, he closed his eyes in the attitude of a man who
pondered deeply," wrote Chabrol, on May 23rd; "he only roused himself to
cry out, 'Happily, I have signed nothing.' I told him to put full
confidence in that which he had adopted in his conscience, which had no
need of signatures, nor of conventions made by civil laws. He answered me
that from that moment he had lost all peace of mind, and he has again
fallen into the same absorbed reverie."
Thus the courage, and even the reason, of the unfortunate pontiff
momentarily gave way under the pressure of a moral suffering beyond his
forces. In order to calm him, Chabrol was obliged to despatch a courier in
pursuit of the bishops, withdrawing the concessions implied in the first
article of the note; then, at last, the scruples of the Pope were
concentrated.
"This suppression is absolutely necessary," said he, "without which I
shall raise a disturbance in order to make my intentions known." In
advance, and by the very fact of the violent pressure exercised over a
captive, old, sick, and alone, the emperor found himself in reality
disarmed in face of the Council which he had just convoked; the concession
which he had snatched from Pius VII became null, for the pope was
protesting from the depth of his prison.
Napoleon judged thus; he did not avail himself of the articles immediately
denied in the note drawn up by his negotiators, and painfully accepted by
the Pope. In fact, the undertaking at Savona had failed; it began again at
Paris, where the Council at length assembled on June 17th. The emperor had
beforehand sought to intimidate a few of the priests called to take part
in it. During his recent journey in Normandy he had Bois Chollet, the
Bishop of Séez, called before him, accused of rigor towards the priests
who had lately accepted the constitution. "You wish for civil war; you
have already engaged in it," cried Napoleon, "you have embrued your hands
in French blood. I have pardoned you, and you will not pardon others,
miserable wretch; you are a bad subject, give me your resignation
immediately." One of the canons of Séez, the Abbé Le Gallois, learned and
virtuous, and who was looked upon as exercising a great influence over his
bishop, was conducted to Paris, and put in prison in La Force. "The canon
is too clever," said the emperor, "let him be brought to Vincennes." Le
Gallois was to pass nine months there, and only the fall of the Empire was
to put an end to his detention.
"Your conscience is a fool!" said Napoleon to De Broglie, Bishop of Ghent,
whom he had made a chevalier of the legion of honor, when the latter
protested against a clause in the oath. He had said as much to other
prelates whom he had just convoked to the Council. It is a serious case
for absolute power when it enters into a struggle with the most noble
sentiments of human nature. The Emperor Napoleon had come to that point
when he regarded as his enemies freedom of thought and freedom of
conscience amongst his subjects still suspected of independence,
_littérateurs_ or bishops.
Ninety-five prelates assembled, on the 17th of June, in the morning, in
the church of Notre Dame. They were joined by nine bishops appointed by
Napoleon, although they had not yet received canonical institution. At the
second séance, when the affairs of the Council began to be seriously
considered, the Ministers of Religion of France and Italy took their
places in the assembly. In opening, on the 16th, the session of the Corps
Législatif, the emperor had haughtily proclaimed his supremacy. "The
affairs of religion," he said, "have been too often mixed up with, and
sacrificed to, the interests of a state of the third order. I have put an
end to this scandal forever. I have united Rome to the Empire. I have
accorded palaces to the popes at Rome and in Paris. If they have at heart
the interests of religion, they will often desire to sojourn at the centre
of the affairs of Christendom. It was thus that St. Peter preferred Rome
to a sojourn in the Holy Land."
On taking his seat at the Council, Bigot de Préameneu, then Minister of
Religion, pronounced in his turn a discourse which history ought to assign
to its true origin. The emperor enumerated, by the mouth of his minister,
his numerous grievances with regard to the court of Rome, dioceses without
bishops, the prelates deprived of canonical institution. "By this means
the Pope has tried to create troubles in the Church and in the state. The
sinister projects of the Pope have been rendered null by the firmness of
the chapters in maintaining their rights, and by the good feeling of the
people, accustomed to respect only the legitimate authorities. His Majesty
declares that he will never suffer in France as in Germany, that the court
of Rome should exercise on vacancies in the sees any influence by vicars
apostolic, because the Christian religion being necessary to the faithful,
and to the state, its existence would be compromised in countries where
vicars, whom the government might not recognize should be charged with the
direction of the faithful. His Majesty wishes to protect the religion of
his fathers; he wishes to preserve it; and yet it would be no longer the
same religion if it ceased to have bishops, and if one claimed to
concentrate in himself the power of all. His Majesty expects, as emperor
and king, as protector of the Church, as the father of his people, that
the bishops should be instituted according to the forms anterior to the
Concordat, and without a see ever remaining vacant over three months, a
time more than sufficient for its being filled up."
The declaration fell like a thunderbolt in the midst of the Council. With
the exception of a very small number of prelates acquainted with the
negotiations of Savona, or in the confidence of the emperor, the mass of
the bishops, come from a distance, ignorant or deceived, thought to find
peace accomplished, or on the way of being accomplished, in the Church
between the civil power and the holy see. On the previous evening all had
applauded the words of Boulogne, Bishop of Troyes, then the most
celebrated amongst the religious orators, when he cried, "Whatever
vicissitudes the see of Peter may experience, whatever may be the state
and condition of his august successor, we shall always be linked to him by
the bonds of respect and filial reverence. This see may be removed, it can
never be destroyed. They may deprive it of its splendor, they can never
deprive it of its force. Wheresoever the see may be, there all others will
meet. Wheresoever this see may be transported, all Catholics will follow
it, because wheresoever it may be settled there will be the stem of the
succession, the centre of government, and the sacred depository of the
apostolic traditions." When the prelates were successively called upon to
give their consent to the opening of the Council, Mgr. d'Aviau, Archbishop
of Bordeaux, replied, "Yes, I wish it; excepting, nevertheless, the
obedience due to the sovereign pontiff, an obedience to which I pledge
myself on oath." All the members of the Council, its president, Cardinal
Fesch, at the head of it, took the oath of allegiance to the Catholic
Church, apostolic and Roman, and at the same time a "faithful obedience to
the Roman pontiff, successor of St. Peter, the prince of the apostles, and
successor of Jesus Christ."
Such was not the end which the emperor had proposed to himself in
convoking the Council, and his wrath towards Cardinal Fesch was violent,
as well as towards Boulogne. "I have ever in my heart the oath taken to
the Pope, which seemed to me very ill-timed," wrote he to Bigot de
Préameneu; "make researches to discover what is meant by this oath, and
how the parliaments regarded it. Let the sittings of the Council be
secret, and let it not have, either in session or in committee, any motion
of order. The report that you make to the Council ought not to be
printed." The commissions were to be appointed by ballot; the first
elected was charged with drawing up the address to the emperor. The task
was confided to the Bishop of Nantes, Mgr. Duvoisin, clever and wise, well
advanced in the good graces of Napoleon, and who had been one of the
delegates to Savona. To the first objections that his colleagues presented
to him, the prelate responded that his draft of the address had received
the approval of the emperor.
It was much to presume on the docility of an assembly, incomplete in
truth, for a very small part of the Italian and German bishops had been
convoked, independent, however, by character and station. Whilst Mgr.
Duvoisin submitted his draft with regret to a revision which allowed
nothing to remain of the complaisance but lately evinced for the imperial
policy, an obscure prelate demanded that the entire Council should entreat
from the emperor the liberty of the Pope. "It is our right; it is also our
duty," cried Dessolles, Bishop of Chambery; "we owe it not only to
ourselves, but we owe it also to the faithful of our dioceses--what do I
say, to ail the Catholics of Europe, and of the whole world? Let us not
hesitate; let us go, we must, let us go to throw ourselves in a body at
the feet of the emperor, in order to obtain this indispensable
deliverance." And as timid objections began to manifest themselves in the
assembly, "What, messieurs?" resumed the bishop, "the Chapter of Paris has
been able to ask for mercy to M. d'Astros, one of its members, and we will
not have the courage to ask for the freedom of the Pope. And why should
the emperor be provoked at it? Messeigneurs, the Divinity himself consents
to be solicited, persecuted, importuned with our prayers; sovereigns are
the image of God upon earth; by what right ought they to complain if we
act towards them as towards the Master of Heaven?"
Emotion overcame all the members of the Council; the moderates and the
waverers were drawn along by the ardor of the prelates personally attached
to the Pope, or nobly resolved upon sustaining their convictions even to
the end. The old Archbishop of Bordeaux, the Bishops of Ghent and of
Troyes, claimed at once the liberty of the pontiff, and his canonical
right to use the ecclesiastical thunderbolts. "Judge the Pope, if you
dare, and condemn the Church if you can," cried Mgr. d'Aviau. The prelates
pledged to the imperial power wished to adjourn the discussion; when they
came to the vote on the draft of the address, now without color or life,
Cardinal Maury proposed that it should only be signed by the president and
the secretaries. This overture suited all the timid characters; the
address was voted by sitting and standing. The emperor did not show
himself satisfied. "The bishops are much, mistaken if they think to have
the last word with me," said he. The Bishop of Chambery alone found favor
in his eyes. "One is never to be blamed for asking for the freedom of his
chief," said Napoleon. He had an order sent to the Council to answer his
message on the subject of canonical institution within eight days, without
losing time in useless discussions. A few of the more moderate bishops
happened to be going out of the Tuileries from the imperial mass; the
emperor approached them. "I have desired to act by you as princes of the
Church," said he; "It is for you to say if you will henceforth be only
beadles, The Pope refuses to execute the Concordat; ah, well! I no longer
wish for the Concordat." "Sire," said Osmond, "your Majesty will not tear
with your own hands the finest page in your history." "The bishops have
acted like cowards!" cried Napoleon, with violence. "No, sire," again
replied the prelate, who had so lately accepted the Archbishopric of
Florence without waiting for canonical institution, "they are not cowards,
for they have taken the side of the most feeble." The emperor turned his
back on him.
"The only and exclusive object of the council of 1811," the Abbé de Pradt
has said in his "Histoire des quatre Concordats," "was to regulate the
order of Canonical Institution, and to provide that it should not
henceforth be hindered by any other cause than the objections urged
against the appointments by the Pope. In this lay the whole dispute
between the holy see and the princes. It was not only his own affairs that
Napoleon was attending to in this settlement, it was also those of other
sovereigns, whom he spared by his example the embarrassments which awaited
them." The Council felt the extreme importance of the question. After a
lively discussion, and in spite of the persistency of the prelates
favorable to the court, the commission appointed for this purpose would
not pronounce upon the message of his Majesty before sending a deputation
to the holy Father, who might set forth to him the deplorable state of the
churches in the empire of France and in the kingdom of Italy, and who
might confer with him on the means of remedying these evils. "The emperor
requires a decree of the Council before consenting to the sending of the
deputation," repeated Cardinal Fesch and his friends. "That would be a
sure method to make everything fail," cried the Bishop of Tournay, "for it
would be exactly like saying to the Pope: Your purse or your life; give us
the bulls and we shall be satisfied with you." Cardinal Fesch was
constrained to carry to Napoleon the vote of the commission.
The emperor did not think highly either of the skill or the character of
his uncle, and was not particular how he treated him. "He will not reject
you," said the cardinal to a lady with a petition, "I have been turned out
of doors, yes I, twice in a single day." He essayed vainly to explain to
Napoleon the canonical reasons which had determined the commission.
"Still more theology," replied the emperor; "hold your tongue; you are an
ignoramus. In six months I should get to know more than you. Ah! the
commission votes thus! I shall not get the worst of it. I shall dissolve
the Council and all will be finished. It is of small consequence what the
Council wishes or doesn't wish, I shall declare myself competent,
following the advice of the philosophers and lawyers. The prefects will
appoint the curés, the chapters, and the bishops. If the metropolitan does
not choose to institute them, I will shut up the seminaries, and religion
will have no more ministers." The violence of the insult and the grandeur
of the situation elevated the soul of Cardinal Fesch. "If you wish to make
martyrs, commence in your own family, sire," said he. "I am ready to give
my life to seal my faith. Be perfectly assured that unless the Pope shall
have approved this measure, I, the metropolitan, will never institute any
of my suffragans. I go even further: if one of them should bethink
himself, in my default, of instituting a bishop in my province, I would
excommunicate him immediately."
It was then that Napoleon recognized the advantages of the abortive
attempt at Savona. "You are all noodles," said he to his ecclesiastical
counsellors, "you do not understand your position. It will then be for me
to extricate you from the affair; I am about to arrange everything." He
dictated upon the spot the draft of a decree based upon the concessions at
first accepted by the Pope. "The deputation of bishops to the holy Father
has removed all difficulties," said he; "the Pope has condescended to
enter into the difficulties of the Church; the sole difference is to be
found in the length of the delay; the emperor wished for three months, the
Pope asked for six. This difference not being of a nature to break up the
arrangement already concluded, it became henceforth the duty of the
Council to enact it. The deputation to the holy Father should convey to
him the thanks of the prelates and the faithful."
At first the commission of the Council almost entirely fell into the trap.
Could it be doubted that the authorization given by the Pope appeared to
cut the question whilst reserving the rights of the holy see. The
Archbishop of Bordeaux alone protested in the first place; he soon rallied
to his side Broglie, Boulogne, and the Bishop of Tournay. In spite of the
most ardent efforts of the bishops favorable to the court the majority of
the commission ended by rejecting the decree. "You will answer for all the
future evils of the Church," said the Archbishop of Tours to the Bishop of
Ghent, "and I cite you before the tribunal of God." "I await you there
yourself," replied Broglie.
The emperor appeared to acquiesce without anger in the decision of the
commission. "What is it in the decree that most displeases the bishops?"
he asked of Cardinal Fesch. "It is the demand for it to be converted into
a law of the state," replied the Archbishop of Lyons. "If that hinders
them, they have only to take it out," replied Napoleon; "I can just as
well make it a law of the state when I please." Cardinal Fesch gave a
report of his mission; he promptly broke up the sitting (July 10th). On
the following morning the Council was dissolved. In the night the bishop
of Ghent, Troyes, and Tournay were arrested in their beds, taken to
Vincennes, and kept in secrecy. The Duc de Rovigo was opposed to the
arrest of the Archbishop of Bordeaux. "We must not touch M. d'Aviau," said
he; "he is a saint, and we shall have everybody against us."
The Marshal Gouvion St. Cyr had but recently given a peremptory reason
against select companies. "There are not many brave men in the world,"
said he; "when you collect them all in the same corps, there is not enough
leaven elsewhere to make the dough rise." Deprived of the most resolute of
its members, the Council found itself in the hands of Napoleon like dough,
soft and unresisting. The grand reasons, the elevated and powerful
arguments which the captive prelates had made so important, lost all
influence over the mass of their colleagues. "One is afraid of Vincennes
and one has no desire to loose one's revenues," replied Cardinal Fesch to
the entreaties of the persons who solicited the fathers of the Council to
use their efforts in favor of the prisoners. By fear or persuasion the
bishops, when personally urged and worked upon, bent one after another
under the imperial will. The news from Savona were that the Pope's health
was improved and that he was inclined to go back to the original
concessions. The Council, dissolved on the 11th of July, quietly assembled
again on the 5th August. The signature of about eighty bishops was
considered certain. The public discussion was not renewed; the Archbishop
of Bordeaux alone protested against sanctioning all the imperial claims by
a decree, thirteen or fourteen prelates joining their mute protest to
Aviau's declaration; and the votes were decided by sitting and rising.
Subject to a power which they durst not discuss, the Fathers of the
Council disliked to proclaim openly their personal subservience. The
decree drawn up by the Emperor Napoleon came back to his hands confirmed
by the approbation of the Council "Our wine was not considered good in the
wood," said Cardinal Maury cynically, "you will find it better in
bottles." A deputation of bishops set out for Savona.
A few months afterwards, under the pressure of the same arbitrary and
sovereign will, Pius VII., now alone at Fontainebleau as he had been in
his prison at Savona, had in his turn to yield in a certain measure to
Napoleon's demands. As it had recently been at Savona, he was destined to
see his concessions deformed and exaggerated in order to serve as a basis
for a convention which he never ratified. On the day after the Council he
showed no displeasure to the bishops who had come as delegates, but
promised the investiture of the twenty-seven prelates who were nominated,
and even gave to the deliberations of the Council a sort of sanction in a
brief which he reserved to himself the right of drawing up. The form of it
did not please the emperor, who sent it back to the Council of State for
examination. The bishops who still remained in Paris waiting for the
decisions of the holy Father were sent to their dioceses. "I don't wish to
have a meeting of saints always here," said the emperor to Rovigo. In
summoning the Council he had made the blunder of reckoning upon the easy
docility of an assembly. "To ask men questions is to acknowledge their
right to be deceived," said the Parisians on the day after the refractory
bishops were arrested; "why does he summon a Council to imprison
afterwards those who are not of his opinion?" The triumph obtained by
Napoleon over the terrified prelates did not add to his glory, though it
assisted in lessening for the moment his ecclesiastical difficulties. All
the dioceses were now provided with bishops, and order was restored to the
chapters. That was all the emperor then wished, his outrages upon the
independence of consciences and on personal liberty weighing nothing in
his balance. He was accustomed to set little value on rights which
prevented the accomplishment of his designs. He had brought the bishops to
submission, imposed upon the captive Pope a partial acceptance of his
will, loftily vindicated the heritage of Charlemagne, and proclaimed his
moral and religious supremacy: and now, leaving Pius VII. still at Savona
and the refractory prelates at Vincennes, there was nothing more to keep
him in Paris. The Russian campaign was already preparing.