Abstract
The concile national of 1811 was one of the greatest flashpoints in the struggle that pitted the Napoleonic Empire against the papacy. This episode, which deserves to be situated within more recent historiographical trends, reveals much about the nature of Napoleonic imperialism and the Church's distrust for the power of the state. This article puts forward the view that the failure of the concile national was not strategic but tactical. Several bishops were frustrated with the pope's recalcitrance over episcopal investiture and fearful of schism. But their initial openness to neo-conciliarism turned to hostility when confronted with the state's intolerance.
Highlights
Gallicanism, or the notion that the Church in France was autonomous and that its bishops in council shared spiritual authority with the pope, was a powerful legacy, which, increasingly beleaguered, strongly influenced clerical thinking throughout the nineteenth century
AN = Archives nationales, Paris; ASMi = Archivio di Stato di Milano
Empire and Religion did not operate in harmony and conflicts over ultimate control of the Church were the norm. This was especially the case in the Napoleonic Empire and its struggle with the papacy over episcopal appointments within those territories that fell under its control
Summary
Gallicanism, or the notion that the Church in France was autonomous and that its bishops in council shared spiritual authority with the pope, was a powerful legacy, which, increasingly beleaguered, strongly influenced clerical thinking throughout the nineteenth century. The pope’s power as supreme head of the Church was used to force the resignation of the surviving bishops of the ancien régime Gallican establishment. The imperial government had expected that the threat of a concile national meeting in Paris would induce the pope to make concessions.
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