Giovanni Battista Caprara Montecuccoli (1733 – 1810) was an Italian statesman and cardinal and archbishop of Milan from 1802 to 1810. As a papal diplomat, he served in the embassies in Cologne, Lausanne, and Vienna. As Legate of Pius VII in France, he implemented the Concordat of 1801, and negotiated with the Emperor Napoleon over the matter of appointments to the restored hierarchy in France. He crowned Napoleon as King of Italy in Milan in 1805.
Early life Caprara was born at Bologna on 29 May 1733 to Count Francesco Raimondo Montecuccoli and Countess Maria Vittoria Caprara. He took his maternal surname since she was the last of her line of the Capraras.Rinieri, p. 355. He was the brother of Count Alberto Caprara, a general and diplomat in the service of Austria.
He studied at the Collegio Nazareno in Rome, and earned a doctorate in utroque iure at the Sapienza University of Rome on 23 September 1755.
With his doctorate in law, Caprara was appointed in 1755 referendary of the Tribunals of the Apostolic Signature; from 1758 to 1761, he served as vice-legate of the papal state of the Romandiola, with its capital at Ravenna. Caprara was ordained a priest on 22 December 1765. Appointed titular archbishop of Iconium on 1 December 1766, he was consecrated bishop in the Quirinal Palace on 8 December 1766 by Pope Clement XIII.Ritzler-Sefrin, p. 242.
Nuncio Following his appointment as titular bishop, Caprara was named Apostolic Nuncio to Cologne on 18 December 1766. He served until 1775.The papal government maintained three permanent legations in German territory, Cologne, Lucerne and Vienna. Caprara held all three in order of their importance. In Cologne, he made an effort to deal with the difficulties raised by Febronianism. In 1772, he visited the Netherlands and was sent by Pope Clement XIV as his personal agent to the United Kingdom, where he was presented to King George III by the Austrian ambassador. His mission was to explore the possibilities of Catholic Emancipation in the United Kingdom, particularly in Ireland. In one of his meetings with the King, he was requested to procure a certain medicine, which, in due course, Pope Clement forwarded to George III. When Caprara's mission became a matter of public knowledge, Pope Clement was denounced in various cities as a heretic, and anti-Catholic sentiment in England was aroused to the point that the British government severed its contacts with the Papacy. It was not until six years later that the matter of emancipation could be brought up again, Ethelred Taunton, "Clement XIV and England," . Taunton prints a translation of the full text of Caprara's report to Clement XIV, drawn up on 12 July 1772, in which he notes inter alia the restiveness of the American colonies and the danger of their revolt. with the Papists Act 1778. Back in Cologne, when the Jesuits were suppressed in 1773, it fell to Caprara to attempt, over the considerable objections of the three ecclesiastical Electors of the Holy Roman Empire, to carry out the provisions of Pope Clement XIV's bull of suppression of 21 July 1773, Dominus ac Redemptor.Theiner, II, pp. 394-400.
Due to health problems (the official reason, but actually at the request of the Empress Maria Theresa), on 6 September 1775, Caprara was appointed nuncio at Lucerne. In 1785, he was transferred to Vienna,Grand Duke Leopold of Tuscany knew of the transfer of Caprara to Vienna on 20 December 1784, and assured his brother Joseph II that he would be contented with the appointment. where he remained until 1793. The papal Secretary of State (prime minister), Cardinal Francesco Saverio de Zelada (1789–1796), was dissatisfied with his conduct in Vienna. Caprara, with his compliant and passive nature, did not oppose the religious reforms undertaken by Joseph II, who was attempting to make the Catholic Church in his empire the tool of the state, and independent of the papacy.Haussonville, I, pp. 143-148. Cf.
In order to end his tenure of the nunciature in Vienna in an honourable way, on 18 June 1792, Caprara was promoted Cardinal Priest by Pope Pius VI, with the titular church of Sant'Onofrio in Rome.Ritzler-Sefrin, VI, p. 32, no. 62. In Rome he was appointed a member of the Congregations of Bishops and Regulars, Propaganda, Good Government (economic affairs of the Papal States), and the Consulta (the main council of state of the Papal states and appellate tribunal), in the Roman Curia. He was also Protector of the Order of Carmelites.Notizie per l'anno 1797 (Roma: Cracas 1797), p. 16. From 21 February 1794 to 1 June 1795 Caprara served as Chamberlain of the College of Cardinals. When Napoleon in 1796 conquered North Italy during the War of the First Coalition, Caprara, perhaps to protect his own estates in Bologna, took a stand in favor of the newly created Transpadane Republic even though the Napoleonic republic had in its agenda strong anticlerical measures. In this period, he got the reputation of being a "Jacobin Cardinal".He was considered a Jacobin cardinal in the Conclave of 1799–1800, along with Cardinals Zelada, the two Dorias, Roverella, Vincenti, Dugnani, and Rinuccini; at least according to Cardinal Maury. Maury, I, p. 247 He supported the Treaty of Tolentino in 1797 which imposed terms of surrender on the Papal States.Pignatelli (1976), "Caprara Montecuccoli, Giovanni Battista" He fell into complete disgrace in the eyes of Pope Pius VI.Cardinal Jean Siffrein Maury wrote to King Louis XVIII on 20 August 1801, "Le nouveau légat était tombé, depuis sa promotion au cardinalat, dans la disgrâce la plus complète du feu pape."
Conclave of 1799–1800
Caprara participated in the Papal conclave in Venice from November 1799 to March 1800. He was one of the cardinals absolutely excluded from consideration as pope, as far as the Austrian government was concerned.The Austrians also excluded Cardinals Antonelli, the two Dorias (Giuseppe and Antonio), Gerdil, and Maury. He himself was a supporter of Cardinal Carlo Bellisomi, and an opponent of Cardinal Alessandro Mattei, who had signed the Treaty of Tolentino with Napoleon. Caprara was particularly interested in that treaty, since it had surrendered the Three Legations of the Papal States, including Caprara's native Bologna, to the French. During the Conclave, in early January, he approached the Austrian representative, Cardinal František Hrzán z Harras, with the observation that the choice of a person who was not recommended by the Austrian Court (as was Mattei) would make a better impression during negotiations for the return of the Legations. Hrzan replied that the Legations had been detached from the Papal States by a solemn treaty which had been signed by the Pope, and that they had been conquered by Austrian troops from the Cisalpine Republic. Conquest was a more solid claim.Duerm, p. 84. Three months after the conclusion of the Conclave, Napoleon won the Battle of Marengo (14 June 1800), and took from Austria by conquest not only the Three Legations but Lombardy as well. According to Cardinal Hrzan's report to the Austrian Emperor, when Cardinal Gregorio Barnaba Chiaramonti began to be talked about seriously on 11 March, his candidacy was resisted by Cardinals Borgia, Doria, Maury, Pignatelli, and Caprara, even up to the final vote. Hrzan speculated that the new pope would place little confidence in them.Duerm, p. 239. After the Conclave, Caprara requested that Hrzan use his influence with the Austrian government to see to it that his income from his benefice at S. Maria della Grazie in Bologna was paid.Duerm, pp. 84-85, 176.
The Emperor Francis wanted the new Pope, Pius VII, to come to Vienna, though the Pope himself was eager to get to Rome, and intended to take the land route through Bologna, Caprara's home.Duerm, pp. 325-330. This was unacceptable to Austria, which was in possession of Bologna and wanted no unrest. Pius was therefore sent by sea to Ancona. The Austrians were agitated, moreover, by the fact that Caprara was intriguing to be made Archbishop of Bologna. Pius himself, however, assured the Austrian diplomat Filippo Ghislieri that he had never thought seriously about naming Caprara to the vacant See of Bologna.Duerm, p. 373, 376, 402–403, 412-413.
Caprara had good relations with Pius VII, with whom he travelled back to Rome. During the voyage from Venice to Ancona, Caprara expected to be named Administrator of the diocese of Ancona and subsequently Bishop of the diocese.Duerm, p. 463, in a report from Ghislieri to Vienna. At the end of June 1800, however, Cardinal Bussi de Pretis, Bishop of Jesi, died, and it immediately became the gossip of the Papal Court en route that Caprara was being considered as his successor. The Pope appeared to be somewhat disposed to favour the prospect, which was certain enough by 24 July for Caprara to travel to Jesi to take possession of the diocese.Duerm, p. 573, 619. Caprara's appointment as Bishop of Jesi came on 11 August 1800, when the Pope was in the March of Ancona.
Legate in France When the Concordat of 1801 between Pope Pius VII and the French First Republic was concluded, Napoleon Bonaparte, then First Consul, asked for the appointment of a papal legate with residence in Paris. Napoleon's choice fell upon Cardinal Caprara; he may have expected, in this way, little or no opposition to his plans.Rinieri, p. 356, quoting from the Memoirs of Cardinal Ercole Consalvi. Napoleon's second choice was Cardinal Giuseppe Doria, who had been Legate in Paris and became Pius VI's Secretary of State in December 1798. Doria was completely ineffectual in the occupation of Rome by the French and the deportation of Pius VI to Siena, then Florence, and finally France. The suggestion may have been inspired by Count Azara.Cardinal Maury wrote to Louis XVIII: "le chevalier Azara a insinué à Bonaparte de demander au pape pour cette mission extraordinaire le cardinal Caprara, évêque de Iesi, son ami, l'ami des Français par la protection desquels il se flattait de devenir pape, l'ami du feu prince de Kaunitz, homme souple, faible, dépourvu de toute connaissance théologique et canonique. Maury, II, p. 160. Caprara was appointed legate a latere for France in the Secret Consistory of 24 August 1801, and in the Public Consistory of 27 August.Rinieri, p. 359, with note 1. His powers as legate are detailed in Boulay de la Meurthe, Tome IV, pp. 19-27. He departed Rome on 5 September, with a tiny suite of ten persons, for his destination, and arrived in Paris on 4 October.Rinieri, p. 360.