: As local state-controlled churches crumbled, Catholics across Europe began to look "over the mountains" (ultra-montes) to Rome for leadership.
Paradoxically, the revolution's destruction of "Catholic kings" actually freed the Church. By stripping the Pope of his old political dependencies, the revolution paved the way for a more centralized, spiritually focused Roman authority. The Popes and European Revolution (Oxford Histo...
: Two successive pontiffs, Pius VI and Pius VII, were taken hostage by French revolutionary and Napoleonic governments. Pius VI actually died in captivity in 1799, a moment many thought signaled the end of the papacy. A Spiritual Rebirth : As local state-controlled churches crumbled