Editing Pope Pius VI (section)

===Arrest and death under Napoleon===
{{Main|Napoleon and the Catholic Church}}
In 1796, [[First French Republic|French Republican]] troops under the command of [[Napoleon Bonaparte]] invaded Italy and defeated the Papal troops. The French occupied [[Ancona]] and [[Loreto, Marche|Loreto]]. Pius VI sued for peace which was granted at [[Tolentino]] on 19 February 1797; but on 28 December 1797, in a riot blamed by papal forces on some Italian and French revolutionists, the popular brigadier-general Mathurin-[[Léonard Duphot]], who had gone to Rome with [[Joseph Bonaparte]] as part of the French embassy, was killed and a new pretext was furnished for invasion.<ref name=EB1911/>

General [[Louis-Alexandre Berthier]] marched to Rome, entered it unopposed on 10 February 1798, and, proclaiming a [[Roman Republic (18th century)|Roman Republic]], demanded of the pope the renunciation of his temporal authority.<ref name=EB1911/>

Upon his refusal, Pius was taken prisoner,<ref name=Berkley/> and on 20 February was escorted from the Vatican to [[Siena]], and thence to the [[Certosa del Galluzzo|Certosa]] near [[Florence]]. The French declaration of war against [[Grand Duchy of Tuscany|Tuscany]] led to his removal (he was escorted by the Spaniard [[Pedro Gómez Labrador, Marquis of Labrador]]) by way of [[Parma]], [[Piacenza]], [[Turin]] and [[Grenoble]] to the citadel of [[Valence, Drôme|Valence]], the chief town of [[Drôme]] where he died six weeks after his arrival, on 29 August 1799,<ref name=EB1911>{{EB1911|wstitle=Pius|inline=1}}</ref> having then [[List of 10 longest-reigning Popes|reigned longer than any pope since Saint Peter]].

Pius VI's body was embalmed, but was not buried until 30 January 1800 after [[Napoleon]] saw political advantage to burying the deceased Pope in efforts to bring the Catholic Church back into France. His entourage insisted for some time that his last wishes were to be buried in Rome, then behind the Austrian lines. They also prevented a [[Civil Constitution of the Clergy|Constitutional]] bishop from presiding at the burial, as the laws of France then required, so no burial service was held. This return of the [[investiture]] conflict was settled by the [[Concordat of 1801]].

Pius VI's body was removed from Valence on 24 December 1801 and buried at Rome 19 February 1802, when Pius VI was given a Catholic funeral, attended by [[Pope Pius VII]], his successor.
[[File:Tomb of Pius VI.jpg|thumb|175px|right|Tomb of Pope Pius VI]]