PRADT, DOMINIQUE DUPOUR de. – French prelate, born on 23 April 1759 at Allanches, died on 18 March 1837 in Paris. Deputy of the clergy to the States-General in 1789, he voted against the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and left France in 1792.
He anonymously published two pamphlets against French policy (Antidote au Congrès de Rastadt, of 1798, and La Prusse et sa neutralité, of 1800). Subsequently attaching himself to Napoleon, he became bishop of Poitiers in 1805 and the following year accompanied the Emperor to Milan, where he crowned him king of Italy. In 1808 he negotiated at Bayonne with the Spanish ministers and contributed to the dethronement of the Bourbons. Appointed archbishop of Malines by Napoleon in 1809, he was not formally recognized by the Holy See, because the papal bull of appointment, drawn up motu proprio, was withheld by the Emperor; nevertheless, he administered the archbishopric of Malines until 1813, with the exception of the second half of 1812, which he spent in Warsaw as ambassador. In 1812 he was among the promoters of the National Council of Paris and was a member of the commission that went to Savona to obtain Pius VII’s approval of the Council’s decrees. After Napoleon’s fall, he was initially aligned with the Bourbons, but subsequently joined the liberal opposition. When his attempts to regain the archbishopric of Malines proved fruitless, he retired to an estate of his near Allanches and began an intense publishing activity. The following works by him are on the Index: Les quatre concordats, suivis de considérations sur le gouvernement de l'Eglise en général et sur l'Eglise de France en particulier depuis 1515 (decree of 27 November 1820); Concordat de l'Amérique avec Rome (decree of 11 June 1827); and Congrès de Panama (decree of 18 August 1828).