Execution of Louis XVI
In his allocution to the Secret Consistory on June 17, 1793, concerning the execution of King Louis XVI of France, Pius VI stated: “After having abolished the monarchical form of government, which is the best, it [the Convention] transferred all public power to the people.”
Pii VI Pont. Max. Acta (Rome: Typis S. Congreg. De Propaganda Fide, 1871), Vol. 2, p. 17 in Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites in the Allocutions of Pius XII: A Theme Illuminating American Social History (York, Penn.: The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property, 1993), Appendix IV, p. 391.
