This week in Christian history: First Crusade battle, ‘Parliament of the Saints,’ pope kidnapped

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, June 30, 2024

Napoleon kidnaps pope – July 5, 1809

Pope Pius VII (1742-1823), head of the Roman Catholic Church who was imprisoned by Napoleon Bonaparte for several years. | Public Domain

This week marks the anniversary of when French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte had soldiers kidnap Pope Pius VII, holding him prisoner until Napoleon was forced to abdicate in April 1814.

Napoleon had a complicated relationship with the Catholic Church, having allowed them to regain some authority in France after the militantly secular violence of the French Revolution.

However, tensions grew over issues that included Napoleon wanting the pope to renounce his political authority in Italy, and the question of who could appoint bishops.

Eventually, Napoleon ordered French soldiers to abduct Pius VII from his private apartment at the Quirinal Palace in Rome, being held prisoner in multiple places over the next five years.

"Through his defiance of Napoleon, Pius had saved the church from becoming a vassal state of France. Yet, his captivity had deeply marked him and not for the better," wrote historian Ambrogio A. Caiani of the University of Kent.

"The kidnapping, imprisonment, and near death of the Pope in 1812 cast a long shadow over the nineteenth century and perhaps beyond. Catholicism would fight a losing battle to retain control over the Papal States for the next fifty years."