Pope Pius VI

                         (GIOVANNI ANGELICO BRASCHI).

                         Born at Cesena, 27 December, 1717; elected 15 February, 1775; died at
                         Valence, France, 29 Aug., 1799. He was of a noble but impoverished family, and
                         was educated at the Jesuit College of Cesena and studied law at Ferrara. After a
                         diplomatic mission to Naples, he was appointed papal secretary and canon of St.
                         Peter's in 1755. Clement XIII appointed him treasurer of the Roman Church in
                         1766, and Clement XIV made him a cardinal in 1775. He then retired to the
                         Abbey of Subiaco, of which he was commendatory abbot, until his election as
                         Pius VI.

                         Spain, Portugal, and France had at first combined to prevent his election,
                         because he was believed to be a friend of the Jesuits; he was well disposed
                         towards the order, but he dared not revoke the Bull of their suppression. Still he
                         ordered the liberation of their general, Ricci, a prisoner in the Castle of Sant’
                         Angelo in Rome, but the general died before the decree of liberation arrived. Upon
                         the request of Frederick II of Prussia he permitted the Jesuits to retain their
                         schools in Prussia; while in Russia, he permitted an uninterrupted continuation of
                         the order. Soon after his accession he took steps to root out the Gallican idea of
                         papal supremacy which had been spread in Germany by Hontheim (see
                         FEBRONIANISM. Joseph II forbade the Austrian bishops to apply to Rome for
                         faculties of any kind, and suppressed innumerable monasteries. Pius VI resolved
                         to go to Vienna; he left Rome on 27 Feb., 1782, and arrived in Vienna on 22
                         March. The emperor received him respectfully, though the minister, Kaunitz,
                         neglected even the ordinary rules of etiquette. The pope remained at Vienna until
                         22 April, 1782. All that he obtained from the emperor was the promise that his
                         ecclesiastical reforms would not contain any violation of Catholic dogmas, or
                         compromise the dignity of the pope. The emperor accompanied the pope on his
                         return as far as the Monastery of Mariabrunn, and suppressed this monastery a
                         few hours after the pope had left it. Scarcely had the pope reached Rome when
                         he again saw himself compelled to protest against the emperor's unjustifiable
                         confiscation of ecclesiastical property. But when Joseph II filled the vacant See of
                         Milan of his own authority, Pius solemnly protested, and it was probably at this
                         occasion that he threatened the emperor with excommunication. On 23 Dec.,
                         1783, the emperor unexpectedly came to Rome to return the papal visit. He was
                         determined to continue his ecclesiastical reforms, and made known to the
                         Spanish diplomat, Azara, his project of separating the German Church entirely
                         from Rome. The latter, however, dissuaded him from taking this fatal step. To
                         avoid worse things, the pope granted him the right of nominating the bishops in
                         the Duchies of Milan and Mantua, in a concordat dated 20 Jan., 1784 (see Nussi,
                         "Conventiones de rebus ecclesiasticis et civilibus inter S. Sedem et civilem
                         potestatem", Mainz, 1870, 138-9).

                         Joseph's example was followed in Tuscany by his brother, the Grand Duke
                         Leopold II and Bishop Scipio Ricci of Pistoia. Here the antipapal reforms
                         culminated in the Synod of Pistoia in 1786, where the doctrines of Jansenius and
                         Quesnel were sanctioned, and the papal supremacy was eliminated. In his Bull
                         "Auctorem fidei" of 28 Aug., 1794, the pope condemned the acts, and in
                         particular eighty-five propositions of this synod. In Germany the three
                         ecclesiastical Electors of Mainz, Trier, and Cologne, and the Archbishop of
                         Salzburg attempted to curtail the papal authority by convening a congress at
                         Ems (q.v.). With Portugal the papal relations became very friendly after the
                         accession of Maria I in 1777, and a satisfactory concordat was concluded in
                         1778 (Nussi, loc. cit., 138-39). In Spain, Sardinia, and Venice the Governments
                         to a great extent followed in the footsteps of Joseph II. But the most sweeping
                         anti-ecclesiastical reforms were carried out in the Two Sicilies. Ferdinand IV
                         refused the exequatur to all papal briefs that were obtained without the royal
                         permission, and claimed the right to nominate all ecclesiastical beneficiaries.
                         Pius VI refused to accept the bishops that were nominated by the king and, as a
                         result, there were in 1784 thirty vacant sees in the Kingdom of Naples alone,
                         which number had increased to sixty in 1798. The king, moreover, refused to
                         acknowledge the papal suzerainty which had existed for eight hundred years.
                         The pope repeatedly made overtures, but the king persisted in nominating to all
                         the vacant sees. In April, 1791, when more than half the sees in the Kingdom of
                         Naples were vacant, a temporary compromise was reached and in that year
                         sixty-two vacant sees were filled (Rinieri, loc. cit., infra).

                         In response to the application of the clergy of the United States, the Bull of April,
                         1788, erected the See of Baltimore.

                         Pius VI put the papal finances on a firmer basis; drained the marshy lands near
                         Città della Pieve, Perugia, Spoleto, and Trevi; deepened the harbours of Porto
                         d'Anzio and Terracina; added a new sacristy to the Basilica of St. Peter;
                         completed the Musee Pio-Clementino, and enriched it with many costly pieces of
                         art; restored the Via Appia; and drained the greater part of the Pontine Marshes.

                         After the French Revolution, Pius rejected the "Constitution civile du clergé" on
                         13 March, 1791, suspended the priests that accepted it, provided as well as he
                         could for the banished clergy and protested against the execution of Louis XVI.
                         France retaliated by annexing the small papal territories of Avignon and
                         Venaissin. The pope's co-operation with the Allies against the French Republic,
                         and the murder of the French attaché, Basseville, at Rome, brought on by his
                         own fault, led to Napoleon's attack on the Papal States. At the Truce of Bologna
                         (25 June, 1796) Napoleon dictated the terms: twenty-one million francs, the
                         release of all political criminals, free access of French ships into the papal
                         harbours, the occupation of the Romagna by French troops etc. At the Peace of
                         Tolentino (19 Feb., 1797) Pius VI was compelled to surrender Avignon,
                         Venaissin, Ferrara, Bologna, and the Romagna; and to pay fifteen million francs
                         and give up numerous costly works of art and manuscripts. In an attempt to
                         revolutionize Rome the French General Duphot was shot and killed, whereupon
                         the French took Rome on 10 Feb., 1798, and proclaimed the Roman Republic on
                         15 Feb. Because the pope refused to submit, he was forcibly taken from Rome
                         on the night of 20 Feb., and brought first to Siena and then to Florence. At the
                         end of March, 1799, though seriously ill, he was hurried to Parma, Piacenza,
                         Turin, then over the Alps to Briançon and Grenoble, and finally to Valence, where
                         he succumbed to his sufferings before he could be brought further. He was first
                         buried at Valence, but the remains were transferred to St. Peter's in Rome on 17
                         Feb., 1802 (see NAPOLEON I). His statue in a kneeling position by Canova was
                         placed in the Basilica of St. Peter before the crypt of the Prince of the Apostles.

                         Bibliography. Bullarii Romani Continuatio, ed. BARBERI (Rome, 1842 sq.), V-X; Collectio Brevium
                         atque Instructionem Pii Papæ VI quæ ad præsentes Gallicanarum ecclesiarum calamitates pertinent
                         (2 vols., Augsburg, 1796); Acta Pii VI quibus ecclesia catholica calamitatibus in Gallia consultum
                         est (2 vols., Rome, 1871); BOURGOING, Mémoires historiques et philosophiques sur Pie VI et son
                         pontificat (2 vols., Paris, 1900); GENDRY, Pie VI. Sa vie, son pontificat 1777-99, d'après des
                         archives vaticanes et de nombreux documents inédits (2 vols., Paris, 1907); WOLF, Gesch. der Kath.
                         Kirche unter der Regierung Pius VI (Zürich, 1793- 1802), 7 vols. (Josephinistic); BECCATINI, Storia
                         di Pio VI (4 vols., Venice, 1801-02); FERRARI, Vita Pii VI (Padua, 1802); BERTRAND, Le Pontificat
                         de Pie VI et l'Athéisme Révolutionnaire (2 vols., Bar­le­Duc, 1879); SAMPSON, Pius VI and the
                         French Revolution in Amer. Cath. Quarterly Review (New York, 1907), 220-40, 413-40, 601-31; Pius
                         VI in Catholic World, XIX (New York, 1874), 755-64; TIEPOLI, Relazioni sul conclave per la elezioni
                         di papa Pio VI (Venice, 1896); KÖNIG, Pius VI und die Säkularisation, Program (Kalksburg, 1900);
                         SCHLITTER, Pius VI und Joseph II von der Rückkehr des Papstes nach Rom bis zum Abschluss des
                         Konkordats, ibid. II (Vienna, 1894); CORDARA, De profectu Pii VI ad aulam Viennensem ejusque
                         causis et exitu commentarii, ed. BOËRO (Rome, 1855); RINIERI, Della rovina di una Monarchia,
                         Relazioni storiche tra inediti dell' Archivo Vaticano (Turin, 1910); BALDASSARI, Histoire de
                         l'enlèvement et de la captivité de Pie VI (Paris, 1839), Ger. tr. STECK (Tübingen, 1844); MADELIN,
                         Pie VI et la première coalition in Revue des quest. hist., LXXXI (Paris, 1903), 1-32.

                         MICHAEL OTT
                         Transcribed by WGKofron
                         With thanks to St. Mary's Church, Akron, Ohio

                                           The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XII
                                        Copyright © 1911 by Robert Appleton Company
                                        Online Edition Copyright © 1999 by Kevin Knight
                                      Nihil Obstat, June 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor
                                     Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York