Giovanni Battista Caprara - Archbishop of Milan

Archbishop of Milan

In November 1801 the Archbishop of Milan Filippo Maria Visconti was invited by Tayllerand in Lyon to participate to the founding of the Napoleonic Italian Republic but on 30 December 1801 Visconti died there while sitting to a formal banquet. Napoleon arrived in Lyon on 11 January 1802 and designed Caprara as new Archbishop. Pope Pius VII concurred, so on 24 May 1802 Caprara was appointed Archbishop of Milan.

Caprara however retained his position as papal legate in France until his death and went on living in Paris. He visited Milan only from 2 April 1805 to 26 July 1805, to bless, on 26 May 1805, the Iron Crown which Napoleon placed on his own head in the Cathedral of Milan in his new dignity of King of Italy. During the absence of Caprara from Milan, the diocese was ruled by the Vicar general Carlo Bianchi who had to deal with the anticlerical commands of the Kingdom of Italy, such as the oath to the state Secretary of Cult by the teachers of the seminaries and the forced abolition of most confraternities.