1-150-248 - The Cartoon Collector/Heritage-Images

'A Hint to Louis Napoleon', 1859. 'The Pope has threatened to Excommunicate the Emperor Napoleon - French Paper'. Napoleon's reponse to the threat of excommunication as he jams the pope's crown down over his face. This cartoon relates to the rumours in France that Pope Pius IX had threatened to excommunicate Louis Napoleon. This threat may have been in response to Napoleon's agreement earlier in the year with Francis Joseph of Austria under the terms of which the pope would become the titular head of a confederation of Italian states. In addition, the papacy would lose large areas of the Papal States which would instead be added to a new state of central Italy. Neither of these proposals found favour with Pius IX. Napoleon had continually to try and reconcile the two conflicting traditions of the Catholic monarchy of Louis XIV, and that of the Revolution. From Punch, or the London Charivari, October 15, 1859.