Pope Pius VI

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Clement XIV
Personal details
Born
Giovanni Angelo Braschi

(1717-12-25)25 December 1717
Died29 August 1799(1799-08-29) (aged 81)
Valence, French Republic
Previous post(s)
MottoFloret in Domo Domini (It blossoms in the house of God)[1]
SignaturePius VI's signature
Coat of armsPius VI's coat of arms
Other popes named Pius

Pope Pius VI (Italian: Pio VI; born Count Giovanni Angelo Braschi, 25 December 1717 – 29 August 1799) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 15 February 1775 to his death in August 1799.[2][3]

Pius VI condemned the

fifth-longest
in papal history.

Biography

Cardinal Braschi c. 1773

Early years

Giovanni Angelo Braschi was born in

Cornelia Zangheri Bandi. He was baptized in Cesena two days later on 27 December and was given the baptismal name of Angelo Onofrio Melchiorre Natale Giovanni Antonio.[4]

After completing his studies in the

Jesuit college of Cesena and receiving his doctorate of both canon and civil law in 1734, Braschi continued his studies at the University of Ferrara.[5]

The priest

Braschi became the private secretary of

Bishop of Ostia and Velletri. Cardinal Ruffo took him as his conclavist at the 1740 papal conclave and when the latter became the Dean of the College of Cardinals in 1740, Braschi was appointed as his auditor, a post he held until 1753.[6]

His skill in the conduct of a mission to the

canon
of St Peter's Basilica.

In 1758, putting an end to an engagement to be married, Braschi was ordained to the priesthood. He was also appointed in 1758

The cardinal

Braschi was a conscientious administrator, which was not good news for some. The latter managed to convince Pope Clement XIV to curb his zeal by promoting him to the cardinalate and accordingly on 26 April 1773 he was made Cardinal-Priest of Sant'Onofrio.[8] For a brief period of time this rendered him innocuous to the less scrupulous. Left without any specific task, he retired to the Abbey of Saint Scholastica, Subiaco, of which he was commendatory abbot.[5]

Papacy

Papal election

Papal styles of
Pope Pius VI
His Holiness
Spoken styleYour Holiness
Religious styleHoly Father
Posthumous styleNone

Pope Clement XIV died in 1774 and in the ensuing conclave to choose a successor,

Jesuit stance of the late pope.[6]

Braschi received support from those who disliked the Jesuits but believed he would continue the policy of Clement XIV and maintain the provisions of Clement's brief Dominus ac Redemptor (1773) which had dissolved the order. On the other hand, the pro-Jesuit Zelanti faction believed him to be secretly sympathetic towards the order and expected him to remedy the wrongs the Jesuits suffered in the previous pontificate. These various expectations would face Braschi after his election with the virtual impossibility of satisfying either side.[6]

Cardinal Braschi was elected pope on 15 February 1775 and took the name "Pius VI". He was consecrated bishop on 22 February 1775 by Cardinal Gian Francesco Albani and was crowned that same day by the Cardinal Protodeacon Alessandro Albani.

First actions

Pius VI elevated Romualdo Braschi-Onesti as the penultimate cardinal-nephew.

Pius VI first opened a jubilee his predecessor had already convoked, the 1775 Jubilee Year.[citation needed]

The early acts of Pius VI gave fair promise of reformist rule and tackled the problem of corruption in the Papal States. He reprimanded Prince Potenziani, the governor of Rome, for failing to adequately deal with corruption in the city, appointed a council of cardinals to remedy the state of the finances and relieve the pressure of imposts, called to account Nicolò Bischi for the spending of funds intended for the purchase of grain, reduced the annual disbursements by denying pensions to many prominent people, and adopted a reward system to encourage agriculture.[citation needed]

Society of Jesus

Upon his election, Pius VI ordered the release of Lorenzo Ricci, Superior General of the Society of Jesus, who was held prisoner in the Castel Sant'Angelo, but Ricci died before the decree of liberation arrived.[5] It is perhaps due to Pius VI that the Jesuits managed to escape dissolution in White Ruthenia and Silesia. In 1792, the pope considered the universal re-establishment of the

Society of Jesus as a bulwark against the ideas of the French Revolution, but did not carry this through.[9]

Gallican and Febronian protests

Pius VI

Besides facing dissatisfaction with this temporising policy, Pius VI also faced elements of Enlightenment thinking which sought to limit papal authority. Johann Nikolaus von Hontheim, since 1749 bishop of Myriophiri in partibus and auxiliary bishop and vicar-general to the archbishop-elector of Mainz, wrote under the pseudonym of "Febronius", expounding Gallican ideas of national Catholic Churches. Although Hontheim was himself induced (not without public controversy) publicly to retract his positions, they were nevertheless adopted in Austria. There the social and ecclesiastical reforms which had been undertaken by Emperor Joseph II and his minister Kaunitz, as a way of influencing appointments within the Catholic hierarchy, were seen as such a threat touched to papal authority that Pius VI adopted the exceptional course of travelling in person to Vienna.[10][6]

The Pope set out from Rome on 27 February 1782 and,[5] though magnificently received by the Emperor, his mission proved a failure. Nevertheless, not many years later he did succeed in curbing the attempts of several German archbishops at the Congress of Ems in 1786 to win greater independence.[6]

Liberal opposition

In the

bishop of Pistoia and Prato, upon the questions of proposed liberal reforms to the Church in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. The papal bull Auctorem fidei, issued on 28 August 1794, is a condemnation of the Gallican and Jansenist propositions and tendencies of the Synod of Pistoia (1786).[6]

Other activities

Pope Pius VI, c. 1775–76

On 17 August 1775, Pope Pius VI promulgated with a Papal Decree the authenticity of Our Lady of Šiluva.[11]

Pius VI saw the development of the Catholic Church in the

United States of America. He released the American clergy from the jurisdiction of the Vicar Apostolic in England,[12] and erected the first American episcopal see, the Diocese of Baltimore
in November 1789.

Pius VI elevated 73 cardinals in 23 consistories. He canonized no saints during his pontificate but beatified a total of 39 individuals that included Lawrence of Brindisi and Amato Ronconi.

The pope also set the Papal States' finances on much steadier ground. Pius is best remembered in connection with the expansion of the

Saint Peter's Basilica.[5]

French Revolution

The death of Pope Pius VI

At the outbreak of the

Caritas
(1791) – to condemn the ecclesiastical reforms that were proposed.

1791 marked the end of diplomatic relations with France and the papal nuncio, Antonio Dugnani, was recalled to Rome as a result.[4] One of the reasons for the breach was the seizure by the revolutionaries of the Comtat Venaissin, ending 516 years of Papal rule in Avignon.

King

Congregation of Rites put an end to the possible sainthood since it was impossible to prove the king died for religious reasons rather than political ones. Pius VI argued that the main thrust of the revolution was against the Catholic religion and Louis XVI himself.[13] He also wrote that the French revolutionaries abolished "the monarchy, the best of all governments".[14][15]

Arrest and death under Napoleon

In 1796,

Léonard Duphot, who had gone to Rome with Joseph Bonaparte as part of the French embassy, was killed and a new pretext was furnished for invasion.[6]

General

Roman Republic, demanded of the pope the renunciation of his temporal authority.[6]

Upon his refusal, Pius was taken prisoner,

reigned longer than any pope since Saint Peter
.

Pius VI's body was embalmed, but was not buried until 30 January 1800 after Napoleon saw political advantage to burying the deceased Pope in efforts to bring the Catholic Church back into France. His entourage insisted for some time that his last wishes were to be buried in Rome, then behind the Austrian lines. They also prevented a Constitutional bishop from presiding at the burial, as the laws of France then required, so no burial service was held. This return of the investiture conflict was settled by the Concordat of 1801.

Pius VI's body was removed from Valence on 24 December 1801 and buried at Rome 19 February 1802, when Pius VI was given a Catholic funeral, attended by Pope Pius VII, his successor.

Tomb of Pope Pius VI

Reburial

By decree of Pope Pius XII in 1949, the remains of Pius VI were moved to the Chapel of the Madonna below St. Peter's in the Vatican Grottoes. His remains were placed in an ancient marble sarcophagus. The inscription on the wall above the container reads:

"The mortal remains of Pius VI, consumed in unjust exile, by order of Pius XII were placed fittingly here and decorated by a marble ornament most excellent for its art and history in 1949".

Representation in literature

A long audience with Pius VI is one of the most extensive scenes in the Marquis de Sade's narrative Juliette, published in 1798. Juliette shows off her learning to the Pope (whom she most often addresses as "Braschi") with a verbal catalogue of alleged immoralities committed by his predecessors.[16]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "The Wind was too Strong". Rome Art Lover. Retrieved 12 February 2014.
  2. ^ Many sources indicate that he was born on 27 December 1717 but this is actually the date of his baptism, cf. Pastor, XXXIX, p. 22.
  3. ^ Eamon Duffy, Saints & Sinners: A History of the Popes, (Yale University Press, 2001), 254.
  4. ^ a b Miranda, Salvador. "Braschi, Giovanni Angelo (1717–1799)". Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
  5. ^ a b c d e  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainOtt, Michael (1911). "Pope Pius VI". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainChisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Pius". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  7. ^ a b Eamon Duffy, Saints & Sinners: A History of the Popes, 251.
  8. .
  9. ^ "Braschi, Giovanni Angelo (1717–1799)". Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
  10. ^ a b c "Pope Pius VI". Berkley Center, Georgetown University. Archived from the original on 27 January 2019. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  11. ^ "'Envoy Named for Centenary of Lithuania Apparitions', Zenit". 22 August 2008. Archived from the original on 1 June 2018. Retrieved 29 May 2018.
  12. ^ "'Pope Pius VI'. New Catholic Dictionary. CatholicSaints.Info. 2 June 2017".
  13. ^ "Pius VI: Quare Lacrymae". 29 January 2015. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
  14. ^ Pius VI, Pourquoi Notre Voix
  15. ^ Coulombe, Charles A. (2003). A History of the Popes: Vicars of Christ. MJF Books. p. 392.
  16. .

Further reading

External links

Catholic Church titles
Preceded by Pope
15 February 1775 – 29 August 1799
Succeeded by