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. His fellow citizen, Benedict XIV, sent him as vice-legate to Ravenna; Clement XIII appointed him nuncio to Cologne in 1767, and Pius VI sent him to Lucerne in 1775, then to Vienna in 1785, where he remained until 1792. In Vienna, he proved too accommodating to the ecclesiastical policy of Joseph II and Kaunitz; however, he managed to prevent an open rupture with the Holy See. Named cardinal with the title of Sant’Onofrio on 18 June 1792, he was given the see of Jesi by Pius VII on 1 August 1800.
After the signing of the Concordat with France on 15 June 1801, Caprara was, as Talleyrand informed, designated on 27 July as cardinal legate for its execution. Indeed, he was appointed in the Consistory of 24 August and left for Paris on 5 September. Napoleon had chosen him because his nephew had been part of the revolutionary government of Bologna, and the cardinal himself had encountered no difficulties from the French in previous years, so much so that in Italy he was called the "Jacobin cardinal." He was certainly not a man of combative spirit, yet the task he assumed was formidable, as he was invested with special powers for France, Belgium, and the Cisalpine Republic to regulate the marriages of clergy, the resignations of legitimate bishops, the appointment of new bishops for dioceses now newly established, and the reconciliation of constitutional bishops. His mission had to be carried out amid Napoleon’s brusque impatience, the more or less veiled distrust or outright hostility of much of the public authorities; Caprara sustained it with dignity, extending the spirit of conciliation to the furthest possible limit, as was indeed the Pope’s wish. He succeeded in offering the Republic the oath it demanded by substituting a more general promise; he did not, however, succeed in preventing the approval of the infamous 77 Organic Articles, which were published as an additional regulation to the Concordat but were never approved by the Holy See.
Once the Concordat was also ratified by the governmental bodies on 8 April 1802, the legate was officially received the following day, and on Easter Sunday he solemnly celebrated Mass at Notre-Dame, which had been restored to Catholic worship and officially reestablished throughout France. On 24 May 1802, at Napoleon’s proposal, Caprara was transferred to the archiepiscopal see of Milan, and on 26 May he crowned Napoleon King of Italy, receiving from him the office of senator and the title of count of the new kingdom. He retained his authority as legate, but in his final years his physical strength prevented him from carrying out his duties effectively. He was buried in Sant’Genovese.
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