This Day in History

March 21, 1800:

Power Politics and a Papal Coronation

 

This text comes from our book, Light to the Nations II: The Making of the Modern World. For ordering information on this text and our other books, please click here. 

It was no easy task to gather the cardinals for the conclave to elect a new pope. Scattered over Italy after the exile of Pope Pius VI and unable to meet in Rome, the cardinals finally 

decided to gather in Venice, a city under the control of the Holy Roman emperor. Emper-or Franz II had offered to pay most of the expenses of the conclave -- a welcome offer, since the curia and individual cardinals had very little money. So it was that on the First Sunday of Advent, November 30, 1799, in the monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, 34 cardinals out of an expected 46 gathered to begin their deliberations over who should be the next pope.

Cardinal Consalvi

The man chosen to oversee this assembly was the able cardinal-deacon, Ercole Consalvi. As the secretary of the conclave, Consalvi had to use all of his diplomatic skills -- for the cardinals were a cantankerous bunch of men, princes of the Church though they were. The cardinals were as divided among themselves, as were the political leaders of the time.

Cardinal Hrzan had come from Austria to represent the emperor, who wanted a pope who would favor the interests of the Habsburgs. Opposed to Hrzan and other pro-Austrian cardinals was another group of cardinals that stood for Fernando IV, the king of Naples, who wanted a pope who would favor his family, the Bourbons. A few cardinals, including Cardinal Jean-Siffrein Maury, wanted a pope who would be friendly to France. Cardinal Maury represented Louis XVIII, who claimed to be the rightful king of France. Yet, though he wrote frequent letters to Louis XVIII describing the events of the conclave, Maury wanted a pope who would not be hostile to the new French government of the First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte.

Cardinal Jean-Siffrein Maury

Split by these factions, the cardinals could not agree on a papal candidate. Weeks and months dragged on, but no one man could obtain the required number of votes to be elected pope. Cardinal Hrzan used the emperor's veto to block the election of a cardinal who had received enough votes to be elected. (According to the canon law of the time, the emperor could veto the election of any candidate, even if a majority of the conclave voted for him.)

The winter of 1799-1800 passed, spring approached, and still no pope had been chosen. It was Cardinal Maury who finally found a candidate that could please all the factions. He was Cardinal Barnaba Luigi Chiaramonti, the bishop of the northern Italian city of Imola. With another cardinal, Maury began working for the election of Chiaramonti and was able to win over a number of important cardinals to his cause. On March 14, 1800 (nearly four months after the opening of the conclave), the cardinals elected Chiaramonti, who -- after some hesitation -- accepted the choice of his brother cardinals.

The Bishop of Imola 

Chiaramonti once told how his mother, the Countess Chiaramonti, had foretold that he would be elected pope and, as pope, undergo bitter sufferings. Young Barnaba doubtless did not wish for such an honor; at age 16, he had joined the Benedictine monks of Santa Maria del Monte, near his hometown of Cesena in the Papal States. By becoming a monk, Chiaramonti cast aside hopes of worldly glory for a life of contemplation. 

Cathedral of Imola

Such a life, however, was not to be his, for the Chiaramonti family had a special friend -- Pope Pius VI. In 1782, Pius made Barnaba Chiaramonti the bishop of Tivoli. Three years later, the pope sent Chiaramonti to Imola and named him a cardinal. The quiet, contemplative Chiaramonti proved to be a very devout and able bishop. He was gentle, firm, and kindly. He welcomed exiled French priests to Imola and spent nearly half of his income on the poor. So much did Cardinal Chiaramonti lavish on the poor that, to attend the conclave in 1799, he had to borrow money for travel expenses from another cardinal.

Northern Italy in 1799.
The Cisalpine Republic appears in green.

Though many bishops had abandoned their sees when Napoleon invaded northern Italy in 1797, Chiaramonti remained with his flock. Seeking to spare his people from violence, he preached a sermon on Christmas 1797 and exhorted them to obey the new Cisalpine Republic. Democracy, Chiara-monti said, is not opposed to the Gospel of Christ. If the people of Imola "respect other people's rights" and "fulfill their own duties," said Chiaramonti, there will be true equality -- the "equality that teaches man what he owes to God, to himself, and to his equals."

"When you are wholly Christians," said Chiaramonti, "you will be excellent democrats."

Imola's neighboring city, Lugo, did not follow Chiaramonti's advice. It resisted the French; and when Lugo was conquered, the French General Augereau ordered it sacked. For three hours the pillage continued, until Chiaramonti appeared before Augereau and, on his knees, begged him to spare the city.

General Augereau

Yet the bishop did not love the French republic. When the Austrians later entered Imola, Chiaramonti exhorted his people to receive them as liberators. The French again took the city, but even then Chiaramonti did not flee. Appearing before his French conquerors, he justified his support of Austria. Because of his courage, the French did not carry out their threat to exile him from Imola.

It was because of Chiaramonti's willingness to make peace with the republic that Cardinal Maury thought him the right man to be pope. He knew, too, that Chiaramonti was willing to abide by the Peace of Tolentino, even if it meant that the Papal States would never recover their lost territories. Bishop Chiaramonti thought preserving the pope's spiritual authority was far more important than salvaging his temporal power as lord of the Papal States.

Peter Returns to His People 

Pope Pius VII

The coronation of the new pope on March 21, 1800, did not occur in Venice's beautiful San Marco cathedral but in the humble chapel of the monastery of San Giorgio. There, in that church, so unlike St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, the man who had taken the name of Pius VII underwent ancient ceremonies that proclaimed the glory of his office and the smallness of his humanity. He watched and listened as, thrice, they burnt a tuft of cotton and thrice repeated the words, "Holy Father, so vanishes the glory of the world." He rose as a deacon removed the episcopal miter; then another deacon, approaching with the triple crown, placed it on his head. He heard the words of wonder and fear, spoken in papal coronations century after century, and trembled when he realized they were now addressed to him: "Receive the tiara with the three crowns, and know that thou art the father of princes and the leader of kings, yea, the vicar of our Savior Jesus Christ on earth!"

Following his coronation, Pope Pius VII prepared for his journey to Rome. It had been over two years since Pius VI had been forced to leave the city and, during that period, Rome had suffered much under what had been called the Roman Republic -- a tool of French power in Italy. But in the summer of 1799, the Austrians and Russians had taken Rome and overthrown the republic. The pope could now return and take up both his spiritual and temporal power.

 

...And 26 years later, the premier of a "Horror"

On March 21, 1826, Ludwig Van Beethoven's Quartet 13 in B Flat Major (Opus 130) premiered to what was probably a rather puzzled audience. Quartet 13 is one of Beethoven's "Late Quartets," which the contemporary composer, Louis Spohr, called "indecipherable, uncorrected horrors." Very different was the judgment of the 20th century composer, Igor Stravinsky, who said the Grosse Fuge (the last movement of the quartet) is "an absolutely contemporary piece of music that will remain contemporary forever." Let your own ear be the judge of whether this piece is indeed a horror or a rather great musical work.

Beethoven String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat Major, 

Op. 130 (Grosse Fuge) - American String Quartet