7 interesting facts about Napoleon Bonaparte

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Kidnapped the pope

Pope Pius VII (1742-1823), head of the Roman Catholic Church, was imprisoned by Napoleon Bonaparte for several years. | Public Domain

While ruling France, Napoleon had a complicated relationship with the Vatican, having initially helped the Catholic Church regain some ground in the country following the secular violence of the French Revolution.

However, by 1809, tensions between Napoleon and the papacy got to such an extent that he had French troops abduct Pope Pius VII and hold him prisoner until Napoleon was forced to abdicate in 1814.

"Through his defiance of Napoleon, Pius had saved the church from becoming a vassal state of France. Yet, his captivity had deeply marked him and not for the better," wrote historian Ambrogio A. Caiani of the University of Kent.

"The kidnapping, imprisonment, and near death of the Pope in 1812 cast a long shadow over the nineteenth century and perhaps beyond. Catholicism would fight a losing battle to retain control over the Papal States for the next fifty years."