Pius VI

Who he was

Of a noble but poor family of Cesena, he was taught by the Jesuits, studied law at Ferrara, and rose in Rome to become treasurer of the Church and, in 1775, a cardinal. He was elected the same year. His reign of more than twenty-four years was spent defending the rights of the Holy See, first against the Church policies of the Emperor Joseph II and then against revolutionary France.

What he is remembered for

He travelled to Vienna in 1782 to plead with Joseph II, condemned the Synod of Pistoia, rejected the Civil Constitution of the Clergy in France, and, at the request of the American clergy, set up the See of Baltimore for the United States. He completed the Pio-Clementine Museum and drained much of the Pontine Marshes. When the French took Rome in 1798 he was carried off a prisoner, and he died in exile at Valence in France.

Sources

• Catholic Encyclopedia (1911): Pope Pius VI
• Avvenire: I duecento anni di Pio VII, il papa che affrontò i 'tempi nuovi'
• Catholic-Hierarchy (David M. Cheney): Popes, with dates