When Napoleon's forces kidnapped the Pope in an attempt to destroy the power of the Church

By 1790, the French National Assembly had passed the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, which required priests and bishops to swear loyalty to the nation.

As a result, the Catholic Church lost its independent authority in France, and thousands of clergy who refused the oath faced imprisonment or exile.

The government also dissolved religious orders and confiscated vast Church properties largely to improve public finances. 

Soon after, Pope Pius VI issued several public protests, insisting that no civil government could interfere in religious matters.

His rejection of the Revolution's religious policies effectively made him a direct opponent of the new regime and a spiritual leader for royalist resistance.

At the same time, Napoleon Bonaparte led French forces into northern and central Italy, where he defeated Austrian armies and forced the Papal States to accept harsh terms.

In February 1797, the Treaty of Tolentino compelled the pope to surrender Bologna, pay large sums, and hand over valuable works of art and manuscripts.

Treasures taken under the treaty included Raphael’s ‘Transfiguration’ and ancient statues from the Vatican collections, which were later displayed in the streets of Paris.

Even so, the pope refused to yield any religious authority or endorse revolutionary principles.

Pius VI reportedly wept when informed of the treaty’s terms, viewing the surrender of sacred objects as a spiritual humiliation rather than a political concession.

Following these events, radical groups within Rome felt encouraged by the French occupation of northern Italy and plotted to overthrow papal rule.

On 28 December 1797, during a confrontation caused by growing anti-French feeling in Rome, a French general named Mathurin-Léonard Duphot was killed while escorting a Roman noblewoman and her fiancé.

While the full circumstances remained unclear, the Directory used the incident as a reason to send Berthier's army into Rome and destroy what remained of papal political power.

Pope Pius VI was born Giovanni Angelo Braschi and had ruled since 1775.

Although his reign had already faced growing pressure from Enlightenment rulers and internal Church reformers, the French Revolution presented a direct threat to his spiritual and political position.

Despite his declining health, he refused to compromise with any regime that denied the supremacy of the Catholic Church.

During his confinement, Pius VI composed letters to the faithful in which he condemned the violence of the French Revolution and urged Catholics to remain loyal to the Church in his absence. 

Napoleon Bonaparte, though not present during the event, directed the invasion as part of his overall plan to secure French control of the Italian Peninsula.

He believed that removing the pope would weaken the alliances between Catholic monarchies and their resistance to French republicanism.

Despite his role in dismantling the Papal States, Napoleon later told aides that "a society without religion is like a ship without a compass," a sentiment he reportedly expressed on several occasions, though the precise wording may have varied.

General Louis-Alexandre Berthier was Napoleon’s chief of staff, and had demonstrated skill organising troops and supplies during the Italian campaigns, which he used to dismantle the papal government in a matter of days.

Berthier received direct orders from the French Directory, particularly from Foreign Minister Charles-François Delacroix, to end papal political power and establish a puppet republic. 

Finally, within the Vatican, Cardinal Giuseppe Doria Pamphilj attempted to preserve the pope’s dignity and negotiate with the French.

However, Berthier had no authority to offer terms, and the French Directory had no intention of allowing the papacy to survive in any form that resembled political independence. 

On 10 February 1798, Berthier’s army marched into Rome without meeting resistance.

By then, most papal defences had been removed, and the city remained under French pressure following previous defeats.

Berthier commanded approximately 15,000 French soldiers during the occupation of Rome, which included several regiments that had previously been stationed in northern Italy.

The French quickly took control of key sites, including the Quirinal Palace, which was the main papal residence.

The palace was originally constructed as a summer retreat and had become a central administrative hub for papal authority by the late eighteenth century.

Immediately after his arrival, Berthier effectively declared the Roman Republic and ordered the end of remaining clerical authority, but papal officials refused to accept the decree.

In response, French troops surrounded the palace and entered the pope’s chambers, where they read aloud the order that declared him removed from power as a political ruler.

On 20 February 1798, French soldiers formally arrested Pope Pius VI in the Quirinal Palace and placed him under military custody.

Although Pope Pius VI protested and rejected the legitimacy of the decree, he lacked any means of resistance.

Soldiers had escorted him under guard from the city and had begun a long journey through French-controlled Italian cities, and at each stop the pope had received little medical care and his health had gradually worsened.

His guards largely kept him away from his main advisers and prevented the Church from mounting any meaningful protest. 

Over the following months, the French had moved him from Siena to Florence, then northward to Parma and Turin, before finally reaching Briançon and later Valence.

These movements had been conducted during bitter winter conditions and had gradually broken his strength and had left him increasingly weakened.

Within days of the arrest, Austria called the invasion a crime against international order, while Spain and Portugal issued formal protests to the French Directory.

In Tsarist Russia, Paul I publicly mourned the pope’s captivity and called for prayers in Orthodox churches. 

Public outrage in many Catholic regions grew rapidly. In southern Germany, Italy, and parts of France, laypeople held secret prayer meetings and wrote letters demanding the pope’s release.

Catholic publications in Vienna, Madrid, and Naples soon described Pius VI as a martyr for the faith, comparing his exile to the suffering of early Christian saints.

Many believed the kidnapping represented a dangerous example that placed all religious figures at risk under secular governments. 

Importantly, the reaction also showed the limits of French diplomatic influence.

While revolutionary leaders hoped the Roman Republic would win local support, many Italians viewed the French occupation as an attack on their personal religion.

In areas where clergy still held moral authority, resistance to French rule hardened. 

Inside France, criticism of the event came not only from monarchists, but also from republicans who had supported religious tolerance.

By 1798, many citizens no longer supported anti-clerical extremism, and the Directory’s decision to exile the pope reminded people of the Revolution’s most violent years. 

After several months in transit, the pope arrived in Valence in April 1799. French officials placed him under heavy guard in a former bishop’s palace that had been used as a prison.

The building had lacked proper medical care and had helped make his condition worse.

He had remained confined to a single floor and had received only basic medical attention. 

The Directory refused requests for a public trial and also refused to allow a papal delegation to visit.

Priests who travelled to Valence could not gain access unless they declared loyalty to the Republic, a demand most refused.

By mid-1799, the pope had become seriously ill, and his attendants reported symptoms of swollen joints, frequent fever, and difficulty breathing.

On 29 August, he died at the age of 81. French authorities buried him in an unmarked grave in a nearby cemetery, with no ceremony and no acknowledgment of his spiritual role. 

Later, after Napoleon seized power as First Consul, he allowed the return of the pope’s remains to Rome.

In 1802, the body of Pius VI was reburied in St Peter’s Basilica. By then, a new concordat between Napoleon and Pope Pius VII had restored a degree of religious recognition to the Catholic Church in France, but only under strict state supervision.

The kidnapping of Pope Pius VI was a turning point for the Catholic Church. No longer could the papacy rely on territorial control or diplomatic immunity to protect its independence.

The event made clear that military power, not spiritual authority, now determined political outcomes in Europe. 

Under Napoleon’s influence, the papacy became subject to agreements crafted to support state policy.

Although the 1801 Concordat allowed the Church to operate again in France, it did so under terms set by the government.

Bishops were nominated by the state, and papal bulls required French approval before publication.

Following the pope’s exile and death, the Church began to change its role as future popes placed greater emphasis on spiritual matters and avoided direct involvement in political disputes.

Even after the restoration of the Papal States in 1815, the precedent had already been set. 

Eventually, during the unification of Italy in the 1860s, the Church lost its territories for the last time.

By the end of the nineteenth century, the papacy had become a primarily religious institution, no longer able to wield political power across Europe.

Without the arrest of Pius VI, this transformation may have taken longer. By forcing the Church to face its limits, the event sped up a shift toward a modern idea of church leadership, which could no longer depend on military force or on territorial claims enforced by state agreements to secure obedience.