Pius VI

Pope Pius VI (25 December 1717 – 29 August 1799), born Giovanni Angelo Braschi, was Pope from 1775 to his death.

Pius was against the French Revolution, viewing it as an attack on the Roman Catholic Church. He condemned both the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. The latter declared that clergymen would answer to France and the revolutionary government rather than the Pope. Pius condemned it the day after it was instituted.