CHAPTER XI
ULTRAMONTANISM IN FRANCE
1. A powerful if unintentional contribution to Ultramontanism was Napoleon's reconstruction of the French Episcopate.
The nineteenth century found the Church of France in a desperate condition. Overthrown by the Revolution, and deprived of its possessions and its sanctuaries, many of its Royalist Bishops were refugees in England from a form of government which they abhorred; and the Pope himself (Pius VI.) died, a captive of the Revolution, in French territory (1799).[1] But with the new century Napoleon rose to power. He saw that, in spite of the dominant Atheism, France was Catholic at heart; and resolved upon a restoration of the Catholic Church. Accordingly he sided with the Papacy. But since the exiled prelates were notoriously hostile to the Revolution, being zealous adherents of the old Monarchy, he was convinced that their readmission would provoke social disorder and irreconcilable strife. On this ground he required Pope Pius VII. to make a clean sweep of the entire French Episcopate, either by their resignation or their deprivation.[2] This was to be followed by a complete reconstruction of the dioceses, and reappointment to the newly-constituted Sees. Fifty
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