[The Life of Napoleon I (Volume 2 of 2) by John Holland Rose]@TWC D-Link bookThe Life of Napoleon I (Volume 2 of 2) CHAPTER XXXI 31/35
and Napoleon.
Though now kept in captivity by Napoleon, the Pope refused to ratify these and other ukases of his captor; and the credit which Napoleon had won by his wordly-wise Concordat was now lost by his infraction of many of its clauses and by his harsh treatment of a defenceless old man.
It is true that Pius had excommunicated Napoleon; but that was for the crime of annexing the Papal States, and public opinion revolted at the spectacle of an all-powerful Emperor now consigning to captivity the man who in former years had done so much to consolidate his authority.
After the disasters of the Russian campaign, he sought to come to terms with the pontiff; but even then the bargain struck at Fontainebleau was so hard that his prisoner, though unnerved by ill-health, retracted the unholy compromise.
Whereupon Napoleon ordered that the cardinals who advised this step should be seized and carried away from Fontainebleau.
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