When France invaded Rome over Pope Pius VII's refusal to support Napoleon Bonaparte's military ambitions, the pope issued a decree of excommunication against the invaders. Bonaparte expressed his indifference by taking Pius VII prisoner.
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What happens when the target of an excommunication is the greatest military genius of the modern era? And above all, what happens if that man, in response, decides to send his army to take the Pope hostage? Rome, 1809. Europe is under the heel of a single master, Napoleon Bonaparte.
Napoleon is not just a formidable commander. He is a man who demands absolute control over everything, including religion. To crush England, he orders all European sovereigns to close their ports to British ships. But Pope Pius VII refuses. The papal states, the pope replies, must remain neutral. He is the shepherd of everyone. He cannot take sides in a war.
The Emperor of the French will not take no for an answer. His troops invade Rome, lower the papal flag over Castel Sant'Angelo, and annex the papal states to the French Empire. The temporal power of the popes seems to be over for good.
Pius VII finds himself a prisoner in the Quirinal Palace, surrounded by French cannons. But he still has one weapon left. On June 10, 1809, he issues a papal bull titled Quam Memoranda. He officially excommunicates all the thieves of the patrimony of St. Peter. With great diplomatic cunning, the Pope does not explicitly name Napoleon in the document, thus leaving the famous ajar door open for repentance. But everyone in Europe knows exactly who the target is.
Napoleon flies into a rage. He writes that the Pope is a madman who must be locked up. Roughly a month later, in the dead of night, French soldiers scale the walls of the Quirinal, smash the doors open with axes, and arrest Pius VII. The Pope is loaded into a carriage and hauled away from Rome. A captivity begins that lasts for years and spans half of Europe.
First in Savona for nearly three years, and then, starting in 1812, in the castle of Fontainebleau in France. It is an epic clash between the brute force of the modern world and the disarmed authority of the church. History, as we know, has a great sense of humor.
Empires fall. A few years later, Napoleon loses everything. He is defeated, exiled, and confined to the island of St. Helena. And that is where the final plot twist arrives. The man who had humiliated the papacy and mocked the church, on his deathbed, asks for the assistance of a Catholic priest. He receives the sacraments and reconciles with Rome before closing his eyes for good.
