CONSALVI, ERCOLE (1757-1824), Italian cardinal and statesman, was born at Rome on June 8, 7. In 17 7 6 he entered the Academia Ecclesiastica at Rome, in which Pope Pius VI. took a strong personal interest. This led to his being appointed in 1783 camariere segreto to the pope, then a domestic prelate, a member of the Congregation del boon governo, and, on the first vacancy, auditor of the Rota for Rome.
In 1798, when the French occupied Rome (dethroning the pope and dispersing the cardinals), Consalvi was imprisoned in the castle of St. Angelo, but on being deported to Naples he man aged with difficulty to reach Pius VI., who had sought refuge in the Certosa of the Val d' Ema, and was present at his death-bed.
As secretary to the conclave of November 1799, Consalvi helped secure Cardinal Chiaramonti's election as Pius VII. (March 1800). On Aug. 11, Consalvi was appointed cardinal-deacon and secretary of state, or prime minister, an appointment for which he was admirably fitted. He recognized the urgent need for reform in the system of papal government. He permitted laymen to hold certain public offices, under surveillance of prelates, organized a guard from the Roman nobility, decreed a plan for redeeming the base coinage, permitted the communes a certain municipal liberty, and promised the liquidation of the public debt. In the long debates between Rome and France about the Concordat, Con salvi took the leading part, and it was largely owing to his firmness and tact that the Concordat as ultimately signed was free from the objectionable clauses on which the first consul had at first insisted. Owing to continuous friction with Napoleon, Consalvi resigned in June 1807, and when in i8o8 Gen. Miollis entered Rome, and the temporal power of the pope was formally abolished, he broke off all relations with the French. In 1809 he was at Paris, where he received from Napoleon an apology for the treatment he had received. With unbending dignity, however, he retained his antagonism ; and shortly afterwards he was one of the 13 cardinals who refused to attend the emperor's marriage with Marie Louise. For this he was banished to Reims, and not released till some three years later, when Napoleon had extorted terms from the captive pope at Fontainebleau. Consalvi was soon after allowed to resume his functions under the restored pontificate.
In 1814 Consalvi was sent as papal plenipotentiary to the congress of Vienna. Here he obtained for the pope the restitu tion of the marches (Ancona, Treviso and Fermo) and legations (Bologna, Ferrara and Ravenna), but he failed to prevent Austria from annexing the possessions on the left bank of the Po and ob taining the right to garrison Ferrara and Comacchio. This led to his presenting at the close of the congress a formal protestatio, in which he denounced the failure of the Powers to do justice to the Church, and their refusal to re-establish that "centre of political unity," the Holy Roman empire.
Consalvi was now practically governor of Rome, and his rule, in times of singular difficulty and unrest, was characterized by wisdom and moderation. His foreign policy was guided by the traditional antagonism of the papacy to German domination in Italy, and by a desire to free the Holy See from the political entanglements of the age. Thus he resisted all Metternich's efforts to draw him into his "system," and stoutly maintained the doctrine of non-intervention against the majority of the Powers of the Continental alliance.
On the death of Pius VII. (Aug. 21, 1823), Consalvi retired to his villa of Porto d' Anzio; and, though he accepted from the new pope the honorary office of prefect of the college De propa ganda fide, his political career was closed. He died on Jan. 24, 1824. He was a notable patron of the arts and sciences, music being his main passion. For the city of Rome he did much; ancient buildings were excavated and preserved by his direction; chairs of natural science and archaeology were founded in the university ; and extensive purchases were made for the Vatican museum, which was augmented by the beautiful Braccio Nuovo.
See C. von Duerm, Correspondance du Cardinal Consalvi avec le Prince C. de Metternich, 1815-23 (1899) ; I. Rinieri, Correspondenza inedita dei Cardinali Consalvi e Pacca, 1814—r5 (Turin, 19°3) ; J. Cretineau-Joly, Memoires du Cardinal Consalvi, 2 vols. (1864) ; J. L. Bartholdy, Ziige aus dem Leben des Cardinal Consalvi (Stuttgart, 1824) ; Cardinal Wiseman, The Last Four Popes (1858); Ernest Daudet, Le Cardinal Consalvi (Paris, 1866) ; E. L. Fischer, Cardinal Consalvi (Mainz, 1899) ; F. Nielsen, Hist. of the Papacy in the igth Century (2 vols., Eng. trans. by A. J. Mason, 19°6).