Page:On papal conclaves (IA a549801700cartuoft).djvu/160

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144
ON THE CONSTITUTION

France. The assumption of the Imperial Crown by Napoleon made a conversion of this, up to that moment, fanatical royalist. Having gone to Paris in 1806, he courted the new sun with so much effect, that in 1810 the Emperor conferred on him an uncanonical nomination to the See of Paris, which the Cardinal accepted, distinguishing himself as a fiery advocate of the Imperial Government in all its discussions with the Holy See. His conduct on this occasion was certainly that of a priest who defied his ecclesiastical superior. On the Restoration, Cardinal Maury was ejected from the Paris See he had usurped. He went then back to Italy, hut Pius VII. deprived him likewise of his old See of Montefiascone, and forbade him coming into his presence, or appearing at any Consistory or Congregation of which he had before been member. Maury took all these sentences very quietly, and coolly dwelt on in Rome, until, in March 1815, the Pope left the city in consequence of Napoleon's return from Elba. Then Cardinal Maury likewise abandoned the reserve he had hitherto observed, and manifested political feelings, which induced the Junta left behind by Pius VI. to seek the Pope's