Treaty of Tolentino

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The Treaty of Tolentino , which was concluded on February 19, 1797 between the Roman Curia and the (first) French Republic , temporarily put an end to the armed conflict between the troops of the Papal States and the French Italian army during General Napoleon Bonaparte's Italian campaign .

history

There had been fighting between revolutionary France and the Papal States when the French Republic tried in the summer of 1796 to attack northern and central Italy. Both in France and in Rome they were accompanied by hostile demonstrations by political activists ( giacobini , Italian revolutionaries, or zelanti , traditionalists loyal to the Pope). In general, the relationship between the Curia and France had gradually deteriorated since the revolution , which is due, among other things, to French church policy (see article on de-Christianization after 1789). Both states were represented in the other only by envoys and no longer officially diplomatically. The annexation of the papal enclave of the county of Venaissin with the city of Avignon in southern France in 1791 must be regarded as the beginning of the violent action against the papal state as such .

According to the provisions of the treaty (which was only dubbed peace by the French side ), the Papal States (1.) ceded the legations of Bologna , Ferrara and Ravenna to France and the Cispadan Republic respectively and also made (2.) payments in the amount of 31 million livres (Articles 10 and 12). The latter provision was doubled in weight because the state treasury was empty and the payments had to be made in the form of art treasures. Furthermore, disarmament clauses were imposed on the Curia (3rd), "which resulted in numerous dismissals of proven officers and men and almost completely exposed the papal government of police protection for the suppression of the ever more threatening desire for insurrection."

As a result of the oppressive provisions of the treaty, the Papal State had been robbed of both its internal and external resistance, which made it easy prey for the French troops and local revolutionary collaborators. On February 10, 1798 , the French Italian army under General Berthier occupied the city of Rome at central points and a handful of patrioti proclaimed the Repubblica Romana , the first Roman republic of modern times , on February 15, 1798 in the presence of the general .

literature

  • Richard Wichterich: His fate was Napoleon. Life and time of Cardinal Secretary of State Ercole Consalvi 1757-1824 . Kerle, Heidelberg 1951.
  • Veit Elm: The revolution in the papal state. A literature review of recent research on the prehistory and history of the Repubblica Romana (1798-1799) . Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 2002, ISBN 3-631-38827-6 , ( contributions to church and cultural history 13).