Da “nuovo David” a “despota”: il mito di Napoleone tra Regno d’Italia e Restaurazione

[Autom. eng. transl.] In the aftermath of the fall of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy (1814), the retractions sent to Pope Pius VII by the bishops and high prelates who, in the recent French past, had accepted the episcopal appointment by the French sovereign in contravention of the provisions of the Holy See , were characterized by the unanimous condemnation of Bonaparte and his religious policy. In the documents, the Emperor was portrayed as a "despot", "ruler", "usurper" of the temporal and spiritual rights of the Apostolic See and of the Church of Rome, aspects that contributed to fueling the nascent black legend, in the climate of the incipient Restoration . Stern and harsh tones, which contrasted with the laudatory and flattering expressions that, in previous years, had permeated the homilies of the parish priests and the circulars of the diocesan ordinary of the Kingdom of Italy, in which Bonaparte, the "Envoy of Providence" , the "Anointed of the Lord", was celebrated and presented to the faithful as a worthy heir of the most famous figures of the Old Testament Scripture: Cyrus, David and Moses. Through the analysis of the contents of the episcopal circulars and of the homilies pronounced on the occasion of the political feasts of August 15 and the anniversary of the coronation, the intervention aims to highlight the cultural and religious elements that accompanied and fueled the sacralization of the Napoleon's power in the Kingdom of Italy.