Napoleon and Pope Pius VII
Pius VII. announced his accession to the Bishops of the Church, just when Napoleon was scaling the Alps. The First Consul fell like an avalanche into the plains of Lombardy; and whilst the world was still thrilling with the story of Marengo, he had a Te Deum sung in the great Cathedral of Milan. Was it here, in the midst of this magnificent ceremony, as the vaults of the great temple threw back the echoed voices of the thousands who had come at his bidding to pour forth the hymn of thanksgiving, was it here that he conceived the idea—entered on the day-dream—which we shall now trace through the fourteen years during which he kept all Europe at the point of his sword—the idea of ruling not the mere bodies but the consciences of men? “They keep the soul for themselves,” said he, later, of the priests, “and they throw me the carcass.”
— William Poland, The Dream of Bonaparte: A Napoleonic Study
