fwo_551093 - ITALY - PAPAL STATES - PIUS VI (Giovanni Angelo Braschi) 2 1/2 Baiocchi (Sampietrino) 1797 Rome

ITALY - PAPAL STATES - PIUS VI (Giovanni Angelo Braschi)

(15/02/1775-29/08/1799)

The pontificate of Pius VI began with a jubilee year after five months of conclave, when he was only fifty-eight years old. He opposed Josephism in Austria and in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany from 1782 and condemned it definitively in 1785. He had to face the French Revolution, could not prevent the seizure of the Comtat in 1791 and opposed to the civil constitution of the clergy of France. The end of the pontificate was very eventful. After the assassination of General Duphot on August 18, 1797, General Berthier arrested the Pope and the Roman Republic was proclaimed. The pope was driven into exile and died on August 29, 1799 in Valencia..