Historedia
Episode 1 of 6

Chiaramonti's Conduct in Imola

When
1797
Where
Diocese of Imola
Part of
Papal Conclave of 1799–1800

Chiaramonti had stayed in Imola after Bonaparte's army assumed his diocese in 1797, declaring that good Christians could make good democrats.

When the French Revolutionary Army invaded Italy in 1797, Cardinal Chiaramonti counseled temperance and submission to the newly created Cisalpine Republic. He stayed in place after Bonaparte's army assumed his diocese and famously stated that good Christians could make good democrats—a speech Bonaparte himself described as "Jacobin."

Sources

  1. Pope Pius VII Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-20
  2. 1799–1800 conclave Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-19

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.