Death by Deciet

Cardinal (Catholicism)
A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually a bishop, of the Catholic Church.
They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope.
The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and making themselves available individually or collectively to the pope if he requests their counsel.
Most cardinals have additional duties, such as leading a diocese or archdiocese or running a department of the Roman Curia.
A cardinal's other main function is electing the pope whenever, by death or resignation, the seat becomes vacant.
In 1059, the right of electing the pope was reserved to the principal clergy of Rome and the bishops of the seven suburbicarian sees.
During the sede vacante, the period between a pope's death and the election of his successor, the day-to-day governance of the Church as a whole is in the hands of the College of Cardinals.
The right to enter the conclave of cardinals who elect the pope is now limited to those who are not over 80 years old on the day of the pope's death or resignation.
The term
"cardinal"
at one time applied to any priest permanently assigned or incardinated to a church, or specifically to the senior priest of an important church,
based on the Latin cardo (hinge),
meaning
"principal" or "chief".
The term was applied in this sense as early as the ninth century to the priests of the tituli (parishes) of the diocese of Rome.
In the twelfth century the practice of appointing ecclesiastics from outside Rome as cardinals began, with each of them being assigned a church in Rome as his titular church, or being linked with one of the suburbicarian dioceses, while still being incardinated in a diocese other than that of Rome.
Chiaramonti was born at Cesena, the son of count Scipione Chiaramonti;
his mother, Giovanna Chiaramonti, was the daughter of the marquese Ghini and was related to the Braschi family.
He joined the Benedictine order in 1756 at the Abbey of S.Maria del Monte of Cesena and changed his first name to Gregorio.
He then became a teacher at Benedictine colleges in Parma and Rome.
His career became a series of promotions following the election of a family friend, Giovanni Angelo Braschi, as Pope Pius VI (1775–99).
In 1776 Pius VI appointed the 34-year old Barnaba, who had been teaching at the monastery of S.
Anselmo in Rome, honorary abbot in commendam of his monastery, to complaints from the brothers.
After making him bishop of Tivoli, near Rome, Pius VI made him a Cardinal-Priest of San Callisto and Bishop of Imola in February 1785.
From the time French forces invaded Italy in 1797, Cardinal Chiaramonti cautioned temperance and submission to the Cisalpine Republic.
In his Christmas homily that year in 1797 he asserted that there was no opposition between a democratic form of government and being a good Catholic:
"Christian virtue makes men good democrats.... Equality is not an idea of philosophers but of Christ...and do not believe that the Catholic religion is against democracy,"
said the bishop.
From the beginning of his papacy to the fall of Napoleon I of France in 1815, Pius VII was completely involved with France.

He and Napoleon were continually in conflict, often involving the French military leader's wishes for concessions to his demands.
Pius wanted the return of the Papal States, and, later on, the release of the
13 Black Cardinals
along with several exiled or imprisoned clergymen, monks, nuns, priests, other various supporters including his secretaries of state, and his own release from exile.

Music Playlist at MixPod.com