Letter to the Pope

Letter to the Pope  (1804)  by Napoleon Bonaparte

As published in Joseph Knight's 1896 Napoleon's Addresses: Selections from the Proclamations, Speeches and Correspondence of Napoleon Bonaparte, edited by Ida M. Tarbell.

Most Holy Father:

The happy effect produced upon the character and morality of my people by the re-establishment of religion induces me to beg your Holiness to give me a new proof of your interest in my destiny, and in that of this great nation, in one of the most important conjunctures presented in the annals of the world.

I beg you to come and give, to the highest degree, a religious character to the anointing and coronation of the first Emperor of the French. That ceremony will acquire a new lustre by being performed by your Holiness in person. It will bring down upon our people, and yourself, the blessing of God, whose decrees rule the destiny of Empires and families.

Your Holiness is aware of the affectionate sentiments I have long borne towards you, and can thence judge of the pleasure that this occurrence will afford me of testifying them anew.

We pray God that He may preserve you, most Holy Father, for many years, to rule and govern our mother, the Holy Church.

Your dutiful son,

Napoleon.