Summary

Medal Rome Seconde Capitale 'Rome the Second Capital', Issued by Napoleon Bonaparte (Emperor Napoleon I), France, 1809
Artists: Bertrand Andrieu and Alexis J Depaulis
Minted by Paris Mint

Obverse Description

Laureate head facing right; around, NAPOLEON EMP. ET ROI.; on neck truncation, ANDRIEU F.

Reverse Description

Conjoined, draped and helmeted busts of Rome and Paris facing left; the helmet of Rome bears a wolf and one twin, that of Paris a sailing ship with two lateen sails; at left, ROME; at right, PARIS; below in small lettering, DENON. D. MDCCCIX; on bust truncation of Paris, DEPAULIS F

Edge Description

Plain

Significance

"By a decree of the senate which adopted a Senatus Consultum at Paris. Rome was united to the French Empire ... : the following is an abstract of the heads of it, which amount to a deposition of the Pope as a temporal Prince.

Title I. - Of the Union of Rome to the Empire. 1. The state of Rome is united to the French Empire, and forms an integral part thereof. - 2. It shall be divided into two departments, Rome and Trasimene. - 3. The Department of Rome shall send seven deputies to the legislative body; Trasimene four. - 4. The Department of Rome shall be classed in he first series; Trasimene in the second. - 5. A senatory shall be established in the Departments of Rome and Trasimene. - 6. The city of Rome shall be the second in the Empire. The Mayor of Rome shall be present when the Emperor takes the oaths on his accession; and is to rank, as are also all deputations from the city on all occasions, immediately after the Mayors or deputations of the city of Paris. - 7. The Prince imperial is to assume the title, and receive the honours of king of Rome. - 8. A Prince of the blood, or a grand dignitary of the Empire, shall reside at Rome, who shall hold the Emperor's court. -
9. The property which composes the endowments of the imperial crown, shall be regulated by a special Senatus Consultum. - 10. After having: been crowned in the church of Notre Dame at Paris, the Emperor shall, previous to the tenth year of his reign, be crowned in the church of St. Peter. - 11. The city of Rome shall enjoy particular privileges and immunities to be determined by the Emperor Napoleon.

Title II. - Of the Independence of the Imperial Throne of all authority on earth. - 12. Every foreign sovereign is incompatible with the exercise of any spiritual authority within the territory of the Empire. - 13. The Popes shall at their elevation take an oath never to act contrary to the four propositions of the Gallician church, adopted in an assembly of the clergy in 1682. - 14. The four propositions of the Catholic church are declared common to all the Catholic churches of the Empire.

Title III.- Of the Temporal Existence of the Popes.
15. - Palaces shall be prepared for the Pope in the different parts of the Empire in which he may wish to reside. He shall necessarily have one at Paris, and another at Rome. - 16. Two millions in rural property, free of all imposition, and lying-in different parts of the Empire, shall be assigned to the Pope. - 17. The expenses of the sacred colleges, and of the Propaganda, shall be declared imperial. - 18. The present organic Senatus Consultum, shall be transmitted by a message to His Majesty, the Emperor and King.

At the time of publishing the above Senatus Consultum, his Holiness the Pope was confined in the castle of Savona, the second town in the territory of Genoa. His holiness had been offered a considerable stipend for his subsistence from the French court, but he constantly refused to accept of it, and chose rather to subsist on the prison allowance, than to subject himself to the acceptance of any pecuniary aid from one whom he deemed as his bitterest enemy, and who was about to despoil him of his states, rank, and titles." Laskey, p.172-174

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