The History of the Church through 100 Masterpieces

From Upheavals to Concordats

The History of the Church 208 From Upheavals to Concordats Periods of turbulence are generally not conducive to artistic expression of the faith; so much more, then, did the French Revolution quell the religious inspiration of artists. At the height of the confusion, nonjuring priests were being persecuted because of their refusal to subscribe to the civil constitution imposed on the clergy, all the goods of the church were being confiscated, and monasteries were being emptied by force; at the same time, Hébert and his enragés partisans were guillotined for being atheists! It took an agreement between Pius VII and the Consul Napoleon Bonaparte, the Concordat of 1801, to bring a minimum of serenity back to the country. In it, Catholicism was recognized as the religion of the majority of the French “and that of the consuls.” Nonetheless, Bonaparte waited until 1804 and the eve of his consecration as emperor—a privilege that he had extorted from the pope—to marry Josephine in a religious ceremony. He divorced his wife in 1809 to marry the Archduchess MarieLouise of Austria. The wedding was celebrated by Cardinal Fesch, an uncle of Napoleon, at a time when the emperor was under excommunication for having annexed the papal states. Nevertheless, the concordat signed with France would serve as a model for 30 other agreements that the Catholic Church entered into between 1815 and 1830, most notably with Bavaria, Switzerland, the kingdom of Naples, Germany, and Russia. Jacques-Louis David (1748–1825) The Consecration of Napoleon Musée du Louvre, Paris ...