Page:Vactican as a World Power.djvu/353

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BLACK CARDINALS" 339

the Pope's death the new election would take place under Napoleon's control. Consalvi, who spent many difficult hours in Rome because, though he got on excellently with the higher officers of the Imperial government, he refused to recognize this itself, was compelled to bow to military force and to leave for Paris during the same year. The manner in which tie Cardinals and prelates conducted themselves, and their attitude toward the monarch who was under the ban and who was tormenting the Church, was nothing short of being a unified protest. Of the twenty-nine who were in Paris on the day that Napoleon was wedded to Maria Louisa of Austria, thirteen had de- clared the divorce from Josephine unlawful because not the Pope but a canonical court lacking jurisdiction had endorsed it and proclaimed it. They did not attend the church ceremony; and among their number was Consalvi, whose imperturbable self-seclusion expressed most elo- quently the protest against the new situation. Their resistance was so obvious that Napoleon let them know that he no longer regarded them as Cardinals. They were forbidden to appear in purple, wore simple clerical dress and were for this reason henceforth known as "Black Cardinals." They were deprived of their incomes and for- tunes and were exiled from Paris into a number of cities. Napoleon believed that they were rebels who had conspired for the purpose of declaring his offspring illegitimate. Consalvi in particular was the object of his spleen. He had him sent to Rheims and hoped that with die help of the more submissive Cardinals he could gradually put through his plan of a Byzantine government of the Church and a French Papacy. When the Pope resisted the dictatorial ecclesiastical policy of France, he was placed under strict arrest in Savona. He refused to install canonically the bishops appointed by Napoleon, and declared that if they carried out their offices without his confirmation they were usurpers. Pen, ink and seal ring were taken from him. Meanwhile Consalvi, living in proud poverty at Rhcims, was writing his memoirs, which also sang the praises of the imprisoned Pontiff.

Bonaparte now tried the last way out, which was to convene a Council that would carry out his wishes. So many dioceses were without bishops and so many prisons were filled with recusant clergy that he was spurred to great effort. An organization committee wrestled with the exceedingly difficult problems created by the fact


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