Napoleon, Emperor of the French, King of Italy, Protector of the Confederation of
the Rhine, etc., in consideration of the fact that when Charlemagne, Emperor of the
French and our august predecessor, granted several counties to the Bishops of Rome
he ceded these only as fiefs and for the good of his realm and Rome did not by
reason of this cession cease to form a part of his empire; farther that since this
association of spiritual and temporal authority has been and still is a source of
dissensions and has but too often led the pontiffs to employ the influence of the
former to maintain the pretentions of the latter and thus the spiritual concerns and
heavenly interests which are unchanging have been confused with terrestrial affairs
which by their nature alter according to circumstances and the policy of the time;
and since all our proposals for reconciling the security of our armies, the tranquillity
and the welfare of our people and the dignity and integrity of our Empire, with the
temporal pretentions of the popes have failed, we have decreed and do decree what
follows:
| 1. | The Papal States are reunited to the French Empire. |
| 2. | The city of Rome, so famous by reason of the great memories which cluster about it and as the first seat of Christianity, is proclaimed a free imperial city. The organization of the government and administration of the said city shall be provided by a special statute. |
| 3. | The remains of the structures erected by the Romans shall be maintained and preserved at the expense of our treasury. |
| 4. | 4. The public debt shall become an imperial debt. |
| 5. | 5. The lands and domains of the pope shall be increased to a point where they shall produce an annual net revenue of two millions. |
| 6. | 6. The lands and domains of the pope as well as his palaces shall be exempt from all taxes, jurisdiction or visitation and shall enjoy special immunities. |
| 7. | 7. On the first of June of the present year a special consultus shall take possession of the Papal States in our name and shall make the necessary provisions in order that a constitutional system shall be organized and may be put in force on January first 1810. |
Source: J. H. Robinson, Napoleon and Europe, vol. II of Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of European History ( Philadelphia, 1897), II, No. 2, 30-31. French text in Correspondance de Napoléon I ( Paris, 1865), XIX, 18-19.
SUGGESTIONS'GGESTIONS FOR BACKGROUND AND REFERENCE
Cambridge Modern History ( New York, 1903- 1912), IX, 180-207.
A. Fugier, Napoléon et l'Italie ( Paris, 1947), pp. 195-206.
E. E. Y. Hales, The Emperor and the Pope ( London, 1962).
F. Nielsen, The History of the Papacy in the Nineteenth Century ( London, 1906), 1, 283- 300.
M. O'Dwyer, The Papacy in the Age of Napoleon and the Restoration: Pius VII, 1800- 1823 ( Lanham, Md. 1985), pp. 83-124.
J. M. Robinson, Cardinal Consalvi, 1757- 1824 ( New York, 1987).
-116-
