The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-01-11
HISTORICAL
DEPARTMENT.
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POPE AND EMPEROR.
The Estrangement Between Napoleon
Ronaparte and Plus VII.


the Pope.
The hidden purposes in political
movements it is difficult or imposslole
II discern. Napoleon was for the mo
ment the chief political ruler Inc
| Pope. by his office, was the chlet &c
clesiastical ruler. Ambition IN the
Pope could only take the form OIL d
| faithful guardianship of the Apostolic
trust imposed upon him. Napoleon
ambition was unlimited, ana ne nldue
repeated entertainments on the Pope
to secure his authority at home. he
might have allied himself with Protes-
| tantism. and why he refrained is I'M
/ certain. unless he perceived that lhe
same motives which gave rise TO FRO
testantism would nullify his imperial
| power. Napoleon may nave lntehueu
| from the first to hold the Pope prls-
| oner when he invited him to confer the
| imperiaI crown upon him in lSO4. But
il is probable that he would not nave
done so but for two reasons: FIRST ne
observed that the Pope's popularity
was far greater and more genuine lhali
his own. and. second, the Pope required
! hin, IN he married according to the
rites of the Church before he would
perform the coronation ceremony. Inc
| first aroused his jealousy, the second
| his hatred. The Pope was the one OBJ
stacle to his supreme ambition, and TN
| Pope could not be turned from his
dut, even to favor an emperor.
NAPOLEON injured the Pope in 1901 by
trying to deceive his ambassador int
signing a false Concordat. Shortly att
erward he added what are called the
| "Organic Articles to the Concordat
| approved by Cardinal Consalvi, the am
bassador, and infringed on the essles-
! iastical rights. Withdrawal of these
| articles was a sine qua non of the
coronation; but Napoleon never full
! filled his promise. He even held the
! Pope prisoner at Paris, and only re-
| leased him when he found that he had
provided for his resignation, and the
| election of a successor in case he
| failed to return. Having little force
of arms, the Holy See seemed an easy
prey, and Napoleon followed early
! German precedent in trying to establish
a protectorate over the Papal States,
contrary to the Pope's wishes. He de-
manded the closing of Papal ports to
English ships, and the surrender of
Victor Emmanuel 1, King of Sardinia
| both of which the Pope refused. Ma
| roleou was further angered by the
! Pope's refusal to sanction the divorc,
| OF the enperor's brother Jerome, from
| his American wife, and the correspon-
! derce between the Pope and the en-
peror on this subject is so interesting
and instructive that we give it in full.
NAPOLEON'S LETTER.
l have often spoken to your holt
ness concerning a brother of mine, then
a lad of 10, whom 1 sent, to America.
on frigate, and who, after a sojourn
OF month in those parts, and in spite
OF his being minor, married in Balti-
more Protestant daughter of a mer-
chant. He has just returned, and he
realizes the entire extent of his delin-
quency. have sent Miss Patterson. his
so-called wife, back to America Ac-
cording to our laws the marriage is in
valid. A Spanish priest was so far for
getful of his duty as to give the nup-
| tial benediction. Bishop Carroll, an
American, blessed the marriage.) I
send your holiness several memoran-
duTns. one by Cardinal Caselli, which
will greatly enlighten your holiness. It
would be easy for me to have the mar
riage annulled. as the Galican church
recognizes (declares) the non-validity
of such marriages. But it would be bet
ter effected at Rome, were it only to
serve as an example to members of
reigning houses who contract mar
riageS with ProtestantS. l would urge
great secrecy in this proceeding on
your holiness. Only when l learn that
you consent to this step shall I cause
! the marriage to be ciVilly annulled. 1t
is important, even in France, that no
! Protestant girl should be so nearly re-
lated to me. 1t is dangerous that a
minor of 10 years of age, of distin-
guished position should be exposed to
so great a temptation, contrary to civil
laws. and to every sort of propriety
! Meanwhile I pray that God may pre-
/ serve you many years, most holy
| father to the government of our
mother, holy Church. Your devoted
son, NAPOLEON.
REPLY OF Plus VII.
Among all the reasons which have
been advanced by your majesty. Or
which we can imagine, there is not one
! that would justify US in pronouncing
J the nullity of the said marriage. Each
! of the three memorials transmitted by
! your majesty is based on principles
which are contradicted by the princi-
! pies of the others; therefore these me-
MORALS destroy each other. The first
| laying aside the other diriment impede
ments, contends that only two apply
! TO the present case; the difference of
religion of the contracting parties and
! the absence of the pastor from the
celebration of the marriage. The sec
ond rejects these impediments; but al
| leges two Others in the absence of the
| consent of the mother and relations
! of the groom who is a minor and in
| the allegation of a rape (raptus) which
! is indicated by the word seduction"
! The third does not agree with the Sec
ond. and adduces as the sole reason
of nullity the absence of consent of
/ the pastor of the groom, a consent
! which is declared to have been neces-
sary, since the groom had not
! changed his domiciIe, and since the
Council of Trent prescribed the con-
! sent of the parish priest as absolutely
/ necessary in marriages. An analysis of
these contrary opinions shows that four
! impediments are alleged; but having
examined these separately, we could
/ not find one which. in accordance with
! the principles of the Church, would au-
/ thoriZe us to pronounce this consum-
mated marriage null.
J In the first place. the difference of
! religion. which the Church regards as
( a diriment Gnvalidating) impeachment,
| is not verified when both of the con-
! tracing parties are baptized, even
though one of them may not be in the
Catholic communion. This impeachment
| exists only in union contracted be-
! tween Christian ana an lnnuel Tor an
iiunbaptized PROTESTANT. The Church
abhors marriage between Catholics and
baptized Protestants; but she recog-
nizes them as valid. In the second
place. it is not correct TO say that the
| laws of France pronounce null. so far
as the Sacrament of Matrimony is con-
I cerned, those marriages which minors
contract without the consent of their
| parents or guardians. In 1929 the
Franch lay legislative body itself. in
reply to the representations Of the gen
eral assembly of the clergy, declared
that In their notification of those mar