NAPOLEON AND THE POPE. [From the " Brittannia."]

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 553, 2 August 1851, Page 3

NAPOLEON AND THE POPE. [From the " Brittannia."]

We copy the following from the Newiy Telegraph. It is an extract from a letter of Napoleon to his step-son Eugene, It is curious to notice the perspicacity with which he reviewed the position and pretensions of the Roman Pontiff, and the fearless energy with which he turned aside his threats :—: — " TO THE TICEROY EUGENE, "My Son, — I have seen in the letter which his Holiness has addressed to you, but which, undoubtedly, he did not write — I have seen that he threatens me. Can he believe, then, that the rights of the throne are less sacred in the oyes of Gr>d than those of the tiara ? There were Kings before there were Popes. They will publish, they say, all the injuries I have done to religion. The madmen ! They do not !:now there is not a corner of the world in Germany, in Italy, in Polland, where I have not done more good for religion than the Pope has done mischief — not through evil intentions, but through the angry counsels of certain shallow men who are arouud him. They will denounce me to Christendom ! This ridiculous thought can only proceed from a profound ignorance of the age in which we live : there is a mistake of a thousand years in the date. The Pope who would proceed to such a step would cease to be Pope in my eyes. I would consider him but as Antichrist, sent to upturn the world, and do evil to men, and T would give thanks to God for his impotence. If this were so, J would separate my people from all communion with Roma, and establish such a police ttiat we should see no more of these mysterious pieces circulated nor these subterranean meetings which have afflicted some pcrts of Italy, and which had been imagined only to alarm timorous spirits. What would Pius VII. effect by denouncing me to Chiistendom? Place my throne under interdict? Excommunicate me? Does he think that then the arms would foil fiom the hand of my soldiers? Doea he imagine that he would put a dagger into the hands of my people to murder me I There would but one step more — to make me cut off my hair, and shut myself up in a monabtery ? (t The Pope has taken the troublo to come to my coronation nt Paris, and in this proceeding I have recognised a holy prelate. But he wished me to give up the Legations to him. I declined it. The Pope has too much power. Priests are made to govern. " Why will cot the Pope render to Cesar the things which are Cassar's? Is he more than Jesus Christ upon earth ? Perhaps, if he continue to trouble the affairs of my states, the time is not far distant when I shall recognise him only as Bishop of Rome, as equal and of the same rank as the bishops cf my own states, I have no foar of being able to unite the Gallican. Italian, German, and Polish Churches in a council to transact my business without the Pope. "In fact, what can save in one country can save in another. The rights of the tiaraare, at bottom, but duties, humiliation, and prayer. I hold my crown from God and from my people, and lam responsible only to God nnd to my people. I will always be Charlemange to the Court of Rome, but never Louis le Debonnaire. u Jesus Christ has not instituted a pilgrimage to Rome as Mahomet to Mecca. u Such are my sentiments, ray son. I have thought it of importance that you should know them. I authorise only a single letter from you to his Holiness, to apprise him that I cannot consent that the Italian bishops should go to seek their instruction at Rome. "Napoleon." " Dresden, July 28."