CAPRARA, GIOVANNI BATTISTA

CAPRARA, GIOVANNI BATTISTA. — Cardinal, born in Bologna into a noble family on 29 May 1733; died in Paris on 21 June 1810. He completed his studies in his native city, where he was also ordained a priest. Benedict XIV, his fellow citizen, sent him as vice-legate to Ravenna; Clement XIII appointed him nuncio to Cologne (1767), and Pius VI to Lucerne (1775), then to Vienna in 1785, where he remained until 1792 and where he showed himself too accommodating toward the ecclesiastical policy of Joseph II and Kaunitz; in any case, he succeeded in preventing an open rupture with the Holy See. Appointed cardinal of the title of S. Onofrio on 18 June 1792, he received from Pius VII the bishopric of Iesi on 11 Aug. 1800. After the Concordat with France had been signed on 15 June 1801, already on 27 July C. was designated, as Talleyrand reported, as cardinal legate for the execution of the Concordat itself; he was in fact appointed in the Consistory of 24 Aug. and left for Paris on 5 September. Napoleon had wanted him because his nephew had been part of the revolutionary government of Bologna, and the cardinal himself had not encountered difficulties from the French in the preceding years, so much so that in Italy he was called the Jacobin cardinal. He certainly did not have the character of a fighter, whereas the task he was undertaking was formidable, since he was invested with special powers for France, Belgium, and the Cisalpine Republic to regulate the marriages of ecclesiastics, the resignations of legitimate bishops, the appointment of new bishops for the dioceses, all by then newly established, and the reconciliation of the constitutional bishops. His mission had to be carried out amid Napoleon’s impetuous haste, the more or less concealed distrust or the sullen hostility of a large part of the public authorities; C. sustained it with dignity, extending the spirit of conciliation to the furthest possible limit, as was, moreover, the Pope’s wish. He refused to take the oath to the Republic that was being imposed on him, giving instead a more general pledge; he was unable, however, to prevent the approval of the famous 77 Organic Articles, which were published as regulations appended to the Concordat but which the Holy See never approved. After the Concordat was also approved by the government organs on 8 Apr. 1802, the following day the legate was officially received, and on Easter Day he solemnly celebrated Mass at Notre-Dame, restored to Catholic worship, which was officially re-established throughout France. On 24 May 1802, C., at Napoleon’s proposal, was transferred to the archiepiscopal see of Milan, and on 26 May crowned Napoleon King of Italy, receiving from him the office of senator and the title of count of the new kingdom. He retained the authority of legate, but in his final years his physical strength prevented him from engaging in effective activity. He was buried at S. Genoveffa.