Des résistances religieuses à Napoléon (1799-1813) (review)

The Abbé Bernard Plongeron, emeritus professor at the Institut catholique in Paris, is already well known for his studies of the French Revolutionary clergy and of various theological and ecclesialogical issues in France at the end of the eighteenth century. His newest book presents a selection of articles and papers, most of them published previously in journals and conference proceedings from 1982 through 2004. Despite the suggestion of the title, the essays included go well beyond the Napoleonic era, covering a pot-pourri of topics in French ecclesiastical history and Franco-Papal relations from the Old Regime through the Restoration.

Various chapters present rapid overviews on Pope Pius VI and the French Revolution; on the origins and nature of the Constitutional Church during the Revolution; on proposals for Christian union under the Old Regime and the Empire; and on Bonaparte's promotion of a cult of Saint Napoleon, an apparently apocryphal Roman martyr whose feast day was set to correspond with the Feast of the Assumption. Among those essays which actually broach the topic announced in the title, four are of particular interest. One (chapter V) presents a careful and erudite study of those pro-Revolutionary "Constitu-tional" bishops who were reassigned to dioceses by Napoleon following the Concordat of 1801. Although all had willingly resigned their Revolutionary posts for the sake of Catholic unity and in deference to Bonaparte, many would steadfastly refuse to retract their Revolutionary oaths as demanded by Rome. Another article (chapter VII) examines the attitudes toward war of the Napoleonic episcopacy based on the analysis of their various public pronouncements. Particular emphasis is placed here on the bishops' recurrent descriptions of the emperor as a "New Cyrus," pursuing "just wars" to the benefit of the Catholic Church—just as the victories of Cyrus the Great had enabled the Jews to return to the Promised Land and rebuild the temple. A third essay (chapter IX) provides new insights into the abortive French National Council of 1811 through a careful examination of two diplomatic missions sent by Napoleon to negotiate with Pope Pius VII (under house arrest in Savona) before and after the meetings of the Council. Plongeron concludes that from the start there was little hope of successfully reinvigorating the faltering Concordat, given Napoleon's arrogance toward Rome—exemplified by his "Organic Articles" imposed unilaterally on the French Church and by his military invasion of the Papal States. The book's final article (chapter X) provides a more detailed examination of the personality and positions of Pius VII in the last years of the Empire and of the Pope's courageous refusal to co-operate with Napoleon, despite the efforts of the French episcopacy and his own physical suffering during travels imposed by the French army and during his long detention in Savona and Fontainebleau.

For the most part, this is well-known territory, extensively treated in the past by several historians, most notably André Latreille. Nor does Plongeron make much effort to incorporate the work of more recent scholars: of Michael Broers or Nigel Aston, for example—whom he never mentions—or of Jacques-Olivier Boudon, whose work he alludes to but does little to integrate. Yet certain of the essays do provide new details on the subject that may well be of interest to specialists in the field.