Pope Pius VI
Clement XIV | |
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Personal details | |
Born | Giovanni Angelo Braschi 25 December 1717 |
Died | 29 August 1799 Valence, French Republic | (aged 81)
Previous post(s) |
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Motto | Floret in Domo Domini (It blossoms in the house of God)[1] |
Signature | |
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
Biography
Early years
Giovanni Angelo Braschi was born in
After completing his studies in the
The priest
Braschi became the private secretary of
His skill in the conduct of a mission to the
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 | |
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His Holiness | |
Spoken style | Your Holiness |
Religious style | Holy Father |
Posthumous style | None |
Pope Clement XIV died in 1774 and in the ensuing conclave to choose a successor,
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 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
Gallican and Febronian protests
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
Other activities
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
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
French Revolution
At the outbreak of the
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
Arrest and death under Napoleon
In 1796,
General
Upon his refusal, Pius was taken prisoner,
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.
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
- ^ "The Wind was too Strong". Rome Art Lover. Retrieved 12 February 2014.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Eamon Duffy, Saints & Sinners: A History of the Popes, (Yale University Press, 2001), 254.
- ^ a b Miranda, Salvador. "Braschi, Giovanni Angelo (1717–1799)". Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
- ^ a b c d e One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Ott, Michael (1911). "Pope Pius VI". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Pius". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ a b Eamon Duffy, Saints & Sinners: A History of the Popes, 251.
- ISBN 978-0060653033.
- ^ "Braschi, Giovanni Angelo (1717–1799)". Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
- ^ a b c "Pope Pius VI". Berkley Center, Georgetown University. Archived from the original on 27 January 2019. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
- ^ "'Envoy Named for Centenary of Lithuania Apparitions', Zenit". 22 August 2008. Archived from the original on 1 June 2018. Retrieved 29 May 2018.
- ^ "'Pope Pius VI'. New Catholic Dictionary. CatholicSaints.Info. 2 June 2017".
- ^ "Pius VI: Quare Lacrymae". 29 January 2015. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
- ^ Pius VI, Pourquoi Notre Voix
- ^ Coulombe, Charles A. (2003). A History of the Popes: Vicars of Christ. MJF Books. p. 392.
- ISBN 9780802199027.
Further reading
- Browne-Olf, Lillian. Their Name Is Pius (1941) pp 3–58 online
- Collins, Jeffrey. Papacy and politics in eighteenth-century Rome: Pius VI and the arts (Cambridge University Press, 2004).
- Hales, E.E.Y. Revolution and Papacy, 1769–1846 (Hanover House, 1960).
- Pastor, Ludwig von, 1952. The History of the Popes from the close of the Middle Ages, (St. Louis : Herder) vols. XXXIX and XL.
- Sampson, Donat. "Pius VI and the French Revolution,” The American Catholic Quarterly Review 31, January – October 1906; Part II, Ibid., p. 413; Part III, p. 601; Part IV and Ibid., Vol. 32, N°. 125, p. 94, January 1907; Part V, Ibid., p. 313.
- Souvay, Charles L. "The French Papal States during the Revolution." Catholic Historical Review 8.4 (1923): 485–496. online
External links
- Media related to Pius VI at Wikimedia Commons
- Works by or about Pius VI at Wikisource
- Quotations related to Pope Pius VI at Wikiquote
- Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church: Giovanni Angelo Cardinal Braschi
- Pope Pius VI on Damian-hungs.de (in German)