There had long been subjects of dissension between the Papal and the
Imperial Governments. At last, in 1806, these dissensions came to an
open rupture. On the 1st of June in that year, Count Aldini wrote a
despatch, by order of the Emperor, to complain of the avowed hostility
displayed by the Papal Court against the system of legislation introduced
into the Kingdom of Italy, and of the private intrigues carried on by
Cardinal Antonelli. In this despatch occur these words, which at the
present day read strangely appropriate:--
"His Majesty cannot behold without indignation, how that authority,
which was appointed by God to maintain order and obedience on earth,
employs the most perilous weapons to spread disorder and discord."
This appeal to the conscience of the Vatican remained of course without
effect, and things only grew worse. At the end of the same year Napoleon
published at Berlin his famous decrees for the blockade of England, and
the exclusion of all English merchandise. Whether justly or unjustly,
the Court of Rome was suspected by Buonaparte of not keeping up the
blockade (the most unpardonable of all political offences in his eyes).
At last, by a decree of the 2nd of April 1808, he removed the Marches
from the Papal Government, and annexed them to the Kingdom of Italy. The
legations, by the way, had formed part of that kingdom since the treaty
of Tolentino.
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