Editing Napoleon (section)

==Religion==
{{Further|Napoleon and the Catholic Church}}
[[File:France dioceses 1801.svg|thumb|right|Reorganisation of the religious geography: France is divided into 59 [[diocese]]s and 10 [[ecclesiastical provinces]].]]

=== Religious beliefs ===
Napoleon was baptized in [[Ajaccio]] on 21 July 1771 and raised a Roman Catholic. He began to question his faith at age 13 while at Brienne.{{sfnp|Ellis|1997a|pp=239-41}} Biographers have variously described him from that time as a [[Deism|deist]], a follower of [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau|Rousseau's]] "natural religion" or a believer in destiny. He consistently expressed his belief in a God or creator.{{sfnp|Ellis|1997a|p=236}}

He understood the power of organized religion in social and political affairs and later sought to use it to support his regime.<ref>{{cite web |title=L'Empire et le Saint-Siège |url=http://www.napoleon.org/fr/salle_lecture/articles/files/Empire_Saint-Siege_Napoleon_religion.asp   |publisher=Napoleon.org |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110919124850/http://www.napoleon.org/fr/salle_lecture/articles/files/Empire_Saint-Siege_Napoleon_religion.asp |archive-date=19 September 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfnp|Ellis|1997a|pp=236-37}} His attitude to religion is often described as utilitarian.{{sfnp|Ellis|1997a|p=235}}{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|p=84}} In 1800 he stated, "it was by making myself a Catholic that I won the war in the Vendée, by making myself a Moslem that I established myself in Egypt, by making myself an [[Ultramontanism|ultramontane]] that I turned men's hearts towards me in Italy. If I were to govern a nation of Jews I would rebuild the [[Temple in Jerusalem|Temple of Solomon]]."{{sfnp|Ellis|1997a|p=235}}

Napoleon had a [[civil marriage]] with Joséphine in 1796 and, at the pope's insistence, a private religious ceremony with her the day before his coronation as emperor in 1804. This marriage was annulled by tribunals under Napoleon's control in January 1810.<ref>{{cite web |title=Napoleon's "divorce" |url=https://www.napoleon.org/en/history-of-the-two-empires/timelines/napoleons-divorce/ | website=Napoleon.org |archive-date=21 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180121071220/https://www.napoleon.org/en/history-of-the-two-empires/timelines/napoleons-divorce/ |url-status=live}}</ref> In April 1810, Napoleon married Austrian princess Marie Louise in a Catholic ceremony. Napoleon was [[excommunicated]] by the pope through the bull ''[[Quum memoranda]]'' in 1809.{{sfnp|Ellis|1997a|p=248}} His will in 1821 stated, "I die in the Apostolical Roman religion, in the bosom of which I was born, more than fifty years since."{{sfnp|Conner|2004|p=197}} Napoleon read the [[Koran]] in translation and had an interest in [[Islam]] and the [[Orient]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Youssef |first=Ahmed |title=Napoléon et l'islam, l'anti-croisade |url=https://www.napoleon.org/histoire-des-2-empires/articles/napoleon-et-lislam-lanti-croisade/  |website=Napoleon.org |date=January 2023 |language=fr |archive-date=2 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231202073213/https://www.napoleon.org/histoire-des-2-empires/articles/napoleon-et-lislam-lanti-croisade/ |url-status=live}}</ref> He also defended [[Muhammad]] ("a great man") against [[Voltaire|Voltaire's]] ''[[Mahomet (play)|Mahomet]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cases |first=Emmanuel-Auguste-Dieudonné comte de Las Cases |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5XUuAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA94 |title=Memoirs of the Life, Exile, and Conversations of the Emperor Napoleon |date=1855 |publisher=Redfield |page=94 |volume=2}}</ref>

===Concordat===
[[File:FrenchChurchOathConcordat.jpg|thumb|Leaders of the Catholic Church taking the civil oath required by the [[Concordat of 1801]]]]
Seeking national reconciliation between revolutionaries and Catholics, Napoleon and [[Pope Pius VII]] agreed to the [[Concordat of 1801]]. The agreement recognized the Catholic Church as the majority church of France and in return the Church recognized Napoleon's regime, undercutting much of the ground from royalists. The Concordat confirmed the seizure of Church lands and endowments during the revolution, but reintroduced state salaries for the clergy. The government also controlled the nomination of bishops for investiture by the pope. Bishops and other clergy were required to swear an oath of loyalty to the regime.{{sfnp|Ellis|1997a|pp=244-45}}<ref>William Roberts (1999), "Napoleon, the Concordat of 1801, and Its Consequences". in by Frank J. Coppa, ed., ''Controversial Concordats: The Vatican's Relations with Napoleon, Mussolini, and Hitler'', pp. 34–80.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Aston |first=Nigel |url=http://archive.org/details/religionrevoluti0000asto_b5c4 |title=Religion and revolution in France, 1780-1804 |date=2000 |publisher=[[Catholic University of America Press]] |isbn=978-0-8132-0976-0 |pages=279–315}}</ref>

When the Concordat was published on 8 April 1802, Napoleon presented another set of laws called the [[Organic Articles]] which further increased state control over the French Church.{{sfnp|Ellis|1997a|pp=244-45}} Similar arrangements were made with the Church in territories controlled by Napoleon, especially in Italy and Germany.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Aston |first=Nigel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r7yVDUMVITkC |title=Christianity and Revolutionary Europe, 1750-1830 |date=2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-46592-2 |pages=261–262 |access-date=2 December 2023 |archive-date=2 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231202040240/https://books.google.com/books?id=r7yVDUMVITkC |url-status=live}}</ref>

===Arrest of Pope Pius VII===
Napoleon progressively occupied and annexed the Papal States from 1805. When he annexed Rome in May 1809, the pope excommunicated him the following month. In July, French officials arrested the pope in the Vatican and exiled him to [[Savona]]. In 1812 the pontiff was transferred to the [[Palace of Fontainebleau]] in France.<ref>{{cite web |title=Napoleon and the Pope: From the Concordat to the Excommunication |url=https://www.napoleon.org/en/history-of-the-two-empires/articles/napoleon-and-the-pope-from-the-concordat-to-the-excommunication/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180124005648/https://www.napoleon.org/en/history-of-the-two-empires/articles/napoleon-and-the-pope-from-the-concordat-to-the-excommunication/ |archive-date=24 January 2018 |access-date=23 January 2018}}</ref> In January 1813, Napoleon pressured the pope to sign a new "Concordat of Fontainebleau" which was soon repudiated by the pontiff. The pope was not released until 1814.{{sfnp|Ellis|1997a|p=248}}

===Religious emancipation===
{{further|Napoleon and the Jews|Napoleon and Protestants}}
In February 1795, the National Convention proclaimed religious equality for France's [[Protestantism|Protestant]] churches and other religions. In April 1802, Napoleon published laws increasing state control of [[Reformed Christianity|Calvinist]] congregations and [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] directories, with their pastors to be paid by the state.{{sfnp|Ellis|1997a|pp=242, 245}} With Napoleon's military victories, formal religious equality and civil rights for religious minorities spread to the conquered territories and [[satellite state]]s, although their implementation varied with the local authorities.<ref name="McLynn-1997a">{{harvp|McLynn|1997|pages=435–36}}</ref>

[[Jews]] in France had been granted full civil rights in September 1791 and religious equality in 1795. The revolutionary and Napoleonic regimes abolished Jewish ghettoes in the territories they conquered.{{sfnp|Palmer|1984|pp=160-61}} Napoleon wished to assimilate Jews into French society and convened an assembly of Jewish notables in 1806 to that end. In 1807, he summoned a [[Sanhedrin]] to adapt the [[law of Moses]] to those of the empire. An imperial decree of March 1808 organized Jewish worship into consistories, limited usury and encouraged Jews to adopt a family name, intermarriage, and civil marriage and divorce.{{sfnp|Conner|2004|pp=38-40}}{{sfnp|Palmer|1984|pp=160-61}} Jews, however, were still subject to discrimination in many parts of the empire and satellite states.<ref name="McLynn-1997a" />