Consalvi paradox
The Consalvi Paradox is a paradox in church history formulated in 1801 by Cardinal Secretary of State Ercole Consalvi during the negotiations for the 1801 Concordat between Consalvi and the French First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte .
Historical environment
In the Concordat of July 15, 1801, signed by Napoleon as representative of the First Republic and Cardinal Consalvi as representative of the Papal States, Pope Pius VII recognized the French Republic, the civil status of the Catholic Church and the dismissal of all bishops ordered by Napoleon .
From 1775 to 1799 under the pontificate of Pius VI. the church had to oppose strong government intervention. With the policy of Josephinism, Emperor Joseph II introduced a state church oriented towards enlightened absolutism in Austria . In 1796 the Papal States was occupied by French troops. Napoleon Bonaparte concluded the Peace of Tolentino on February 19, 1797 , which involved ceding territories from the Papal States to France. The Papal States undertook to pay a fine of 30 million lire to France. When he then allied with Austria and Naples, the French attacked again and proclaimed the republic in Rome on February 15, 1798 . The Pope was declared deposed and exiled first to Siena , then to Florence . Already seriously ill, he was finally deported to France, where he died on August 29, 1799 in Valence.
After the kidnapping and death of Pius VI, also called the last during his lifetime , the Catholic Church seemed to be at an end. It was not until the following winter that the cardinals, under Austrian protection, were able to meet in the Republic of Venice for a conclave , from which Pius VII emerged in March 1800.
Paradox
The tenacity with which Consalvi, as Cardinal Secretary of State, conducted the negotiations brought Napoleon to the brink of despair. One day he lost patience and asked Consalvi the following question:
Do you realize, Your Eminence, that I can destroy your Church at any time?
Consalvi's response was:
Do you realize, Your Majesty, that not even we priests could do this in eighteen centuries?
This answer went down in church history as the Consalvi paradox. Church history can be described as an epic of saints and a heroic story , but also as a story of sins and crime . A una, sancta, catholica et apostolica ecclesia , which often fails according to the measure of one's own ideal , has existed in peculiar strength with changing spiritual and secular personnel for two millennia.
literature
- Roland Hagenbüchle, Paul Geyer (Ed.): The Paradox. A challenge to western thought . Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2002, ISBN 3-8260-2345-5 .
Web links
- Catholic Academy in Bavaria - for debate
- Andrea Cantini: Paradoxes and Contemporary Logic. In: Edward N. Zalta (Ed.): Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wolfgang Beinert : Theological impulses in the debate 2/2010 p. 44
- ↑ ditto Wolfgang Beinert p. 44