Pope Pius VII, who had been held a prisoner at Savona near Genoa by the Emperor Napoleon I since 1809, was cruelly dragged over the Alps, in precarious health, to Fontainebleau in France. Napoleon and the pope—what really happened in 1798? But it wasn’t the first time such a thing had happened: in 1796, during the French Revolutionary Wars, Napoleon's troops had invaded Rome and taken the previous pontiff, Pope Pius VI… In 1798, did Napoleon Bonaparte invade Rome, arrest Pope Pius VI and imprison him in France where he died a year later? The marble likeness echoes the Pope’s brief visit to Louis XIV’s château, on 3 January 1805 (see here an account of the Pope’s visit to Versailles). Cedric Ward analyzes Napoleon… One of Napoleon’s first acts as consul was to bring religion back to France after the atheistic years of the Revolution. On this day the captured Pope Pius VI was taken from Rome, where a Roman Republic was proclaimed. Renowned for his intelligence and goodness, he earned the favor of the future Pope Pius VI. Pope Pius VII (14 August 1742 – 20 August 1823), born Barnaba Niccolò Maria Luigi Chiaramonti, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 14 March 1800 to his death in 1823. After Napoleon’s troops occupied northern Italy, the French general Louis-Alexandre Berthier entered Rome practically unopposed and declared a Roman Republic. He negotiated a concordat with Pope Pius VII. It was not until the conclave of Cardinals had gathered to elect a new Pope that Napoleon decided to bury Pope Pius VI who had died several weeks earlier. Monarchs had been pushing for greater control over local churches and for greater access to their lands and moneys. He was called to serve as the head of a church that was witnessing its worldly authority being chiseled away. The French Revolution that began in 1789 brought much violence against the Catholic church and involved confiscation of huge amounts of its property. Pius VI Pope Pius VI was elected to the papacy in 1775 after the death of Clement XIV. A short biography (with portrait) of Pius VI, born Count Giovanni Angelo Braschi (1717-1799), Pope from 1775 to 1799. Napoleon realized the importance of religion as a means to increase obedience and his control over the French. The exile of Pope Pius VI in 1798 has been seen by Adventists as an event with prophetic significance. He was named an abbot, then Bishop of Tivoli in 1782, then Bishop of Imola three years later, and then a cardinal in February 1785. Pius VII, Italian pope from 1800 to 1823, whose dramatic conflicts with Napoleon led to a restoration of the church after the armies of the French Revolution had devastated the papacy under Pius VI. Since Catholicism was the principal religion of France, Napoleon, when he came to power, saw it as good strategy to engage Catholics on his side. Pius VII, the somewhat progressive pope, saw the concordat of July 1801 as the presage of the great return. He became a Benedictine at Cesena in 1758 and was made cardinal and bishop of Imola, Papal States, Chiaramonti was also a monk of the Order of Saint Benedict in addition to being a well-known theologian and bishop throughout his life. Pius VII had been invited to Paris by Napoleon … It should have been a marriage made in heaven. This bust of the Pope who consecrated Napoleon I, made by Antonio Canova, is held at the Château de Versailles.